She won several awards for her reporting and documentaries. Among her roles was war correspondent, including assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan. At 18, she joined Channel One News as one of their youngest reporters and anchors. Ling started in television when she was chosen as one of the four hosts of Scratch, a nationally syndicated teen magazine show based in Sacramento. I'm convinced that you are better, smarter, more marketable as a job candidate if you travel.' She is fluent in Spanish. If there's one takeaway here tonight, it's to travel. Ling chose to leave USC before graduating, starting work as a reporter for Channel One News, and electing to 'find her education by visiting different countries instead.' Speaking to USC students in 2016, Ling explained, 'I think traveling is the best education. She studied at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Ling was educated at Del Campo High School in Fair Oaks, California, graduating in 1991. Ling admired reporter Connie Chung and aspired to become a journalist.

Following the divorce, she and her sister Laura were raised by their father in Carmichael, near Sacramento. Ling's parents divorced when she was seven years old. He moved to California where he eventually opened the first Chinese restaurant in Folsom.

He struggled to find a job in the United States. He earned a degree from New York University and an M.B.A degree from University of Colorado. Her paternal grandfather, who was from Guangzhou, Guangdong, was one of the first Chinese students allowed to study in the United States in the 1930s. Her paternal grandmother was born on Labuan, now in modern-day Malaysia. Ling's father, Chung Teh 'Douglas' Ling, is a Chinese immigrant, born in Hong Kong in 1937. Her mother, Mary Mei-yan (née Wang), is a Taiwanese immigrant from Tainan, Taiwan, who served as the head of the Los Angeles office of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs.

Ling later hosted Our America with Lisa Ling on the Oprah Winfrey Network from 2011 to 2014.

Previously, she was a reporter on Channel One News, a co-host on the ABC daytime talk show The View (1999–2002), the host of National Geographic Explorer (2003–2010), and a special correspondent for The Oprah Winfrey Show. She is currently the host of This Is Life with Lisa Ling on CNN. Ling (born August 30, 1973) is an American journalist, television personality, and author.

Ling & Ting by Grace Lin