From her base in Cairo, Challiss McDonough covers 18 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, stretching from Morocco to Iran.  She took up the Cairo post in mid-2005, after five years as VOA's Southern Africa Correspondent, based in Johannesburg.  Prior to arriving in Cairo, she had already spent a considerable amount of time in the Middle East, mainly in Iraq and Jordan.

In southern Africa, Challiss traveled extensively and enjoyed reporting off the beaten path.  Her work focuses on telling the human side of stories.  She has covered mass protest movements, elections, civil wars, sports scandals, political scandals, a volcanic eruption, a boxing match and a beauty contest.

Challiss joined VOA in 1998 as the first Charles Kuralt Fellow in International Broadcasting. Since then, she has reported from four continents, as well as working as a writer, producer and newscaster for VOA in Washington, where she won several awards for her work.  Before becoming a VOA correspondent, she worked in public radio, Internet journalism and theater.

Challiss holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from Virginia Commonwealth University and studied journalism in the graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  She remains an avid fan of Tar Heel basketball, and during her time in South Africa, she learned to love the sport of cricket.  In her spare time, she enjoys photography, hiking and scuba diving.