ML Flynn

Mary Laurence Flynn grew up wanting to see history unfolding first-hand and in her forty-year plus career at NBC News, she did.

Flynn, who is nicknamed “ML”, spent most of her career on “NBC Nightly News.” She was the senior foreign producer on the broadcast for nearly twenty years, managing coverage of events ranging from wars in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan to Mideast intifadas, to coups in Russia and Haiti.  Also on her watch, Flynn produced on- site coverage of such memorable events as Nelson Mandela’s presidential election, the Rwandan genocide, funerals for princess Diana and Pope John Paul two, and interviews with world leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.  

Concurrent with her foreign Nightly News role, Flynn was the senior Olympic producer for the broadcast, and developed and managed on-site coverage for eight Olympic games from Atlanta 1996 through London 2012.  

A former political science major, Flynn’s interest in how America elects its presidents led her to be an NBC campaign producer on the 1984 Gary Hart and the 1988 George H.W. Bush primary campaigns. Over the course of her career, she produced Nightly News’ editorial coverage of primaries, conventions and election nights. During the 2020 campaign season Flynn produced presidential candidate town halls on gun control and education for MSNBC, and was on the  MSNBC democratic presidential candidate debates editorial team.

Flynn was promoted to senior producer of editorial strategy in 2010, and in this role she developed and managed NBC News’ reporting for high profile projects, including such topics as America’s opioid epidemic, criminal justice reform, the country’s mental health crisis, a British royal wedding, and on-site coverage in North Korea of the 60th anniversary of the Korean war armistice. 

Over the course of her career, Flynn has been honored with nearly every major journalism award including a Peabody Award, Dupont Awards, Edward R. Murrow Awards, Emmy Awards, and a Gracie Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Flynn graduated from Hollins College and attended the Institute d’etudes politiques de Paris. In 2024, she completed a year-long Tower Fellowship at The University of Texas.

She serves on the Boards of the Wendell Gilley Museum and the Mount Desert Island Community Sailing Program in Southwest Harbor, Maine.