Lila Diane Sawyer is a journalist for the ABC Network’s news division. She is also the co-host of ABC’s morning news program, Good Morning America. In 2001, The Ladies Home Journal included her in the ranking for the 30 most powerful women in America. Forbes ranked her 62nd in “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” list in 2007. She will become the anchor of ABC News after Charles Gibson steps down from broadcast in January 2010.

Diane Sawyer was born on December 22, 1945 in Glasgow, Kentucky. It was from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts where she received her degree in English. She went to the University of Louisville to study law, but shifted to journalism after one semester.

Before joining CBS, Diane Sawyer worked as a weather girl and local TV news reporter for WLKY-TV in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1978, she became a political correspondent for 60 Minutes and a co-anchor with Bill Curtis of the CBS Morning News. After five years, she moved to ABC to co-host with Sam Donaldson in Primetime Live. From 1998-2000, she became a co-anchor for ABC’s 20/20, working with Donaldson on Wednesdays and with Barbara Walters on Sundays.

As a television journalist, she has interviewed many significant government figures such as US President Barack Obama, former US Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and former First Lady Hillary Clinton. She was granted the privilege of being the first American journalist to interview the former President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein.

In addition to this, Diane Sawyer has also interviewed many famous personalities from the entertainment world including Lisa Marie Presley, Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston, and the late Michael Jackson. She likewise interviewed comedienne Ellen DeGeneres (after her coming out), actor Michael J. Fox (who is suffering from Parkinson’s Disease), Madonna, the Dixie Chicks, Britney Spears, Mel Gibson, and Clay Aiken (twice). Diane Sawyer also interviewed drug kingpin Rayful Edmond III of Washington D.C. once in 1989 and once in 1997 on 60 Minutes.