TODD BENSMAN, a two-time National Press Club award winner, has worked domestically and abroad as a newspaper, television and magazine journalist for more than 20 years. He currently serves as an investigative projects reporter for Hearst Corporation’s The San Antonio Express-News. He is the recipient of regional, national and international awards for a spectrum of local and foreign work. His stories have spawned government corruption indictments and convictions, and brought attention to overlooked issues of national security, illegal immigration, and Mexico’s ongoing civil drug war. He has reported from more than 20 countries.

He invites story ideas, credible tips and feedback on behalf of the Express-News. You can contact him confidentially at 210-250-3221 or here: todd.bensman@gmail.com, or tbensman@express-news.net

Bensman holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism - Columbia, and a bachelors degree in mass communications from Northern Arizona University - Flagstaff.

From 2003 to 2006 he served as a staff investigative producer for the CBS-owned Dallas, Texas station, KTVT-11.

For ten years, from 1993 to 2003, Bensman worked as a staff reporter for The Dallas Morning News,  covering federal law enforcement agencies with an emphasis on Islamic extremism and counterterrorism after 9-11. Often dispatched to breaking national stories, he covered the Columbine school shootings, the Jonesboro school massacre and the Space Shuttle Colombia crash. Awarded one of the first International Reporting Project fellowships, he reported from Angola, Namibia and South Africa.

During the early 1990s, Bensman worked abroad as a freelance correspondent in the Middle East and in Eastern Europe. For nearly a year, in 1992 and 1993, Bensman covered combat in Croatia and Bosnia with an emphasis on the siege of Sarajevo from inside the embattled city. He contributed war coverage to USA Today, The Canadian Press, The St. Petersburg Times, The Houston Chronicle and other publications. He also produced rare reportage from the short vicious war in the former Soviet republic of Moldova, and on the peaceful breakup of Czechoslovakia, Hungarian nationalism and economic transition in Ukraine.

In 1991, he covered the Gulf War, starting in Israel, where he reported for United Press International. He covered scud missile attacks on Tel Aviv, violent anti-U.S. demonstrations in Jordan and refugees in Egypt.

In 1989, he worked for The Anchorage Times in Alaska, covering the city government, volcanic eruptions, avalanches and the occasional grizzly bear attack.

He began his journalism career in Arizona in 1987 at The Mesa Tribune.

Bensman lives with his wife and two children in San Antonio, Texas.

TO CONTACT TODD WITH A STORY IDEA FOR THE EXPRESS-NEWS OR AN INVITATION TO DISCUSS HIS WORK, email: todd.bensman@gmail.com, or tbensman@express-news.net