Lisa Ling joins ABC's Nightline

If you're a regular watcher of The Oprah Winfrey Show, you -- like me -- will recall the powerful reports created by Lisa Ling. The journalist attacks interesting stories and is intrepid and dogged in her reporting. She's found a new place to do her work. Lisa Ling is joining Nightline.

"I have wanted to work with Lisa for a long time," said James Goldston, ABC News and Nightlines' executive producer. "She is a terrific journalist with a very distinctive style that fits really well with the Nightline sensibility."

Lisa will continue with her Oprah appearances. She will also host National Geographic Ultimate Explorer.

Lisa's initial report for Nightline debuts tonight. It's a look at the growth of luxury retirement communities. If you're thinking Del Boca Vista, the Seinfeld show condominium where Jerry's parents lived, so did I.

However, I'm sure Lisa's story is more serious, because there are some very upscale retirement homes in Florida and Arizona and California and only the very rich are living the senior life in such splendor.

Also on deck for Lisa are stories about heroin in the heartland; efforts to bring rain to the barren parts of the American Southwest; and radical surgery for war veterans in need. Lisa Ling's addition to Nightline could be a stepping stone to primetime. She'd fit in well on 20/20 or doing reports for ABC World News Tonight.