Nicole File 1995

Every word you read on CNN’s screen, every headline, every chart has to go through Nicole File before appearing on your television. As the editorial supervisor in the news network’s control room, Nicole, Class of 1995, edits scripts, creates graphic elements and chyrons, sometimes making changes seconds before airing. Amid major breaking news events, she creates graphic elements in real time.

In her nearly three decades at CNN, Nicole has been part of teams winning the prestigious Peabody Award for coverage ranging from the Arab Spring uprising to the 2008 presidential primary campaign, including such national disasters as the South Asia tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

Her work started with a degree in creative writing and English at Sweet Briar. “That creative writing degree helps me every day,” she says. “Obviously good writing is an enormous part of what I do: clear, logical thought, translating all sorts of techno-babble into English.”

Her studies focused on poetry, which was good training for an industry that relies on the economical use of words. “You have to be able to take a thought and condense it down into a very small space. And that’s what poetry is; it’s shaving off all the fat, muscle, skin and everything else and leaving only the nerves and the bone.”

Beyond her academic background, a chance encounter with Sweet Briar alumnae helped launch her career. During her senior year, Nicole was in Atlanta for a job interview at a law firm and became lost. When she stopped at an office building to find a phone, she stumbled into the office of a headhunting firm run by two sisters, both graduates of Sweet Briar. They talked to her about her career goals and promised to help her find a job at CNN. Months later, they came through with a temporary posting which led to her permanent position at the network.

Moving up through a range of jobs before becoming the control room editor, Nicole now trains newsroom staff members on writing and on computer codes needed to create graphics, in addition to her editing duties. She created the newsroom’s guide for how to write engaging chyrons or banner headlines that appear on the visual images. Even when not on duty, Nicole watches presidential debates and boils the responses down into haiku form, to the delight of her friends.

“My grandmother gave me this advice,” she recalls, “Do something you are good at and enjoyed doing, because you are going to be doing a lot of it.”