Sarah Chayes has reported around the world for NPR. She launched a cooperative in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar to discourage opium production by helping farmers earn a living from licit crops, as well as to encourage collective decision-making. Chayes served as Field Director for Afghans for Civil Society, a non-profit group, which rebuilt a village destroyed during the anti-Taliban conflict. She also launched a successful income-generation project for Kandahar women.

Chayes, who completed her undergraduate and master’s degrees at Harvard University, earned the 1999 Foreign Press Club and Sigma Delta Chi award.

She has published articles in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. She has appeared on “NOW with Bill Moyers,” the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” “ABC News,” as well as a variety of programs on CNN and NPR. Chayes has also lectured widely and participated in the training of U.S. and NATO military officers on their way to Afghanistan.

Her book on post-Taliban Afghanistan is THE PUNISHMENT OF VIRTUE: Inside Afghanistan after the Taliban.