Patricia Lefevere

Patricia Lefevere has reported for National Catholic Reporter from six continents since 1975. More specifically she has filed stories from 22 nations and has had bylines datelined in 24 states during her four decades of writing for NCR.

A business and finance reporter in Hong Kong, Brussels and Antwerpen, Belgium, she switched to religion after reporting on the work of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland in 1976 as it and other religious organizations sought to deal with the huge resettlement issues of a quarter million Indo-Chinese refugees rendered homeless by the Vietnam War. Lefevere returned to the United States in 1983 following 16 years of living, studying and writing in Britain, Hong Kong, Belgium and Australia.

Among her NCR articles to win first place in news reporting by the Catholic Press Association was her interview with death row prisoner Thomas Andy Barefoot in Huntsville, Texas on the eve of his execution in 1984. She also won an award for her cover story on the attack and destruction of the World Trade Center in New York on 9/11 and honorable mention citations for her online work in recent years.

Lefevere reported from the Vatican in 1995, 1996 and 1997 during brief periods in Rome. She has frequently covered top United Nations conferences for NCR including the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 1992, the Social Development Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1995 and the International Women's Summit in Beijing, China in 1995. She has reported from the UN in Geneva on refugees, human rights and global security issues and was a correspondent at the European Community in Brussels for several years.

Lefevere, who has taught creative writing at colleges and universities, holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and a master's in drama from the University of Essex in Colchester, England. Since 1996, she has made her home and writing headquarters on the Left Bank of the Hudson in Englewood, New Jersey.