Maureen Orth is an American journalist, author, and a Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine. She is the founder of Marina Orth Foundation, which has established a model education program in Colombia emphasizing technology, English, and leadership She is the widow of TV journalist Tim Russert. Orth’s research was the basis of multi-episode documentaries and television films about Woody Allen, Michael Jackson and Andrew Cunanan. Early life and education Maureen Orth grew up in the Bay Area of California, the daughter of Helen (Pierotti) Orth and Karl Orth. She has two siblings, Christina Orth and the late Dan Orth. Orth attended Alameda High School. She studied at the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated in 1964 with a degree in political science. At Berkeley, Orth was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. Following her graduation from college, she served in the Peace Corps in Medellín, Colombia, from 1964 to 1966. Orth later earned a master's degree in Journalism and Documentary Film from UCLA in 1969. Career Before launching her career in journalism, Orth worked in Washington, DC and helped organize the hearings for the House Select Subcommittee Environmental Education Act in conjunction with the first Earth Day. Orth began her journalism career in San Francisco in 1970 chronicling issues of the counter culture for the San Francisco Examiner. She was mentored by author Alex Haley. In 1971, she became the West Coast correspondent of The Village Voice and also freelanced for the Los Angeles Times and Rolling Stone. In 1972, Orth joined TVTV, a pioneering video group that had obtained a PBS grant to cover both the Republican and Democratic Conventions in Miami, Florida. The resulting films used the first ever footage shot on the convention floor using ½ inch Sony portapack videotape. Orth moved to New York in 1973. She wrote the Ms. Magazine cover story titled “Suffer the Little Children…The American Child-Care Disgrace.” Newsweek Orth was hired as one of the first female writers for Newsweek, covering music, books and movies. She was a plaintiff in a successful 1970 lawsuit claiming that the newsroom discriminated against women. At Newsweek, Orth wrote eight cover stories in five years on subjects including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, and The Godfather Part II film. She was the only journalist to report from the notoriously chaotic set of Apocalypse Now in the Philippines. In 1975, Orth took a