Nancy L. Snyderman was born in 1952 and grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She received a B.A. in microbiology from Indiana University in 1974 and received a M.D. from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in 1977. She initially planned a career in pediatrics, but switched to otolaryngology in her second year of residency at the University of Pittsburgh. It was during her residency that she began to work in broadcasting, which she continued after becoming a staff surgeon in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1983. She is the chief medical editor for NBC News and reports for Nightly News with Brian Williams, Today, and MSNBC. Prior to joining NBC News, she served as a medical correspondent for ABC… News. She has received numerous broadcasting awards and grants from the American Cancer Society and the Kellogg Foundation. She has received numerous awards for her medical broadcast reporting, including an Associated Press award for best documentary for her work on sex education in Arkansas in 1987, the Distinguished Service Award from the American Academy of Otolaryngology's Head and Neck Surgery Foundation in 1998, and the Trailblazer Award from the American Women in Radio and Television for furthering the knowledge of women's health on a national level in 2001.