CNN Press Release: Brianna Keilar is joining CNN’s White House team, it was announced today by David Bohrman, senior vice president of programming and Washington bureau chief. Keilar begins her new assignment with the White House unit later this month.

“Brianna is an outstanding addition to the White House team,” said Bohrman. “She has distinguished herself with exceptional coverage of the 111th Congress and her new beat will better position the network for the 2012 election season.”

Previously, Keilar served as a congressional correspondent, responsible for covering the activities of both the U.S. House and Senate. In that role, she earned the National Press Foundation’s Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress for her fall 2008 coverage of the $700 billion bank bailout. Prior to covering Congress, Keilar served as a general assignment correspondent for the network, reporting on a wide-range of stories, including the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, where she was the first CNN correspondent on the ground.

Keilar first joined the network as a correspondent for CNN Newsource, where she provided breaking news coverage and reported from the nation’s capital for approximately 800 CNN Newsource partner stations. She joined Newsource from CBS News where she served as an anchor, reporter and producer for a CBS newscast that aired on mtvU, MTV's college network. She was also a fill-in anchor on CBS News’ overnight newscast, Up to the Minute, and a freelance reporter for CBS Evening News Weekend Edition.

Prior to working for CBS, Keilar was a general assignment reporter in Yakima, Wash., for the CNN and CBS affiliate, KIMA-TV. During that same time, she also worked in radio as a morning show personality and weekend news reader. Keilar began her journalism career as a production assistant and intern at KTVU-TV, a CNN and FOX affiliate in San Francisco.

Keilar graduated Phi Beta Kappa with bachelor’s degrees in mass communications and psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.