2015 Outstanding Alumni

Terry Leonard joined Stars and Stripes, a print and online newspaper serving the U.S. military community since World War II, in 2007 as the editor after spending 28 years with The Associated Press, the last 20 of those as a foreign correspondent and international bureau chief.

At Stars and Stripes he is responsible for all editions of the daily newspaper and for all of its digital platforms. He determines the content philosophy, manages the news operations, and supervises the editorial leadership in Washington, D.C., and the European, Mideast and Pacific news bureaus. He also serves as a member of the publisher's advisory staff.

As a foreign correspondent for the AP, Leonard traveled to more than 60 countries and covered stories that ranged from wars and revolutions to superpower summits, elections on three continents, terrorism, the Vatican, the United Nations, and even sports stories such as The Olympics and World Cup Soccer.

He was among the first group of journalists that got into Baghdad before the first Gulf War started. Other major stories included the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, including the revolution in Romania, and the wars in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, reporting mostly from Sarajevo during the first two years of the siege. He covered the famine and subsequent allied military efforts in Somalia, genocide in Rwanda, civil war in Afghanistan, the transition to democracy in post-apartheid South Africa, and as an editor helped direct the AP coverage of the war in Kosovo.

His last posting for the AP was as the agency's chief of bureau for Southern Africa, directing the coverage in 11 countries. Prior to his posting overseas, Leonard had been a supervising editor on the agency's international desk in New York and before that a supervisory editor in Dallas.

Leonard has a BBA in marketing and a BA in journalism from Texas Tech University. He was also a U.S. Army Special Forces medic, assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group until his discharge in 1970.

Terry Leonard