Michael J Kavanagh

Michael J. Kavanagh is an American journalist who has reported on Central African politics and economics since 2004. He was the Bloomberg News correspondent in DR Congo between 2009 and 2015, and contributed regularly to The Economist, BBC Business Daily, and The World from BBC/PRI. 

His work from Congo has received a number of awards, including a Robert F. Kennedy Award for International Reporting, an Edward R. Murrow Award for writing, an Emmy nomination, and a second-place prize from the UK Foreign Press Association Award for Financial & Economic story of the year. 

He’s contributed to the New York Times, Slate, the Boston Globe, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and multiple National Public Radio and public television shows. He's received several grants from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and a fellowship from the Pew Foundation/International Reporting Project. Before moving to Congo full time, he worked for nearly ten years as a reporter and producer for public radio and television, and was a teacher and mentor for WNYC’s youth reporting project, Radio Rookies.  

He regularly gives talks to diplomats, academics, and students on corruption and political economy in Congo and Central Africa and on journalism, writing, and radio reporting. He has also reported from Afghanistan, Rwanda, Brazil, Burundi, Chad, Sudan, South Korea, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Senegal, Uganda, South Africa, Congo Brazzaville, Tanzania, and Central African Republic. 

He has a B.A. in Literature and an M.A. in International Relations with a focus on African studies and a certificate in development economics, both from Yale University.