O’Brian joined CNN after more than a decade as editor at large at Columbia University’s Office of Communications, editing the university’s news pages. She was also an adjunct professor at Columbia Journalism School.

She previously worked at The Wall Street Journal, where she was stationed in CNBC’s newsroom as a broadcast news editor responsible for coordinating content-sharing between the two media outlets. She also spent more than a dozen years as a reporter at the paper covering Wall Street, mutual funds as well as the travel and airline industries. O’Brian started her career as a reporter for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.

A New York native and second-generation journalist, O’Brian holds a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College and a master’s degree from Columbia Journalism School.