Sally B. Donnelly is a correspondent in the Washington Bureau of TIME, primarily covering aviation and airlines. Before moving to Washington in August, 1996, Donnelly was part of TIME's team coverage of the Atlanta Olympics. From 1993 until 1996, Donnelly was posted to the Moscow Bureau, where she reported on issues including the Russian economy, Central Asian politics, the war in Chechnya, and regional developments. From 1991 until 1993, Donnelly was a general assignment correspondent in the Los Angeles bureau. She joined TIME as reporter-researcher in the World section in 1985, after completing a master's degree in Russian politics at the London School of Economics.

Born in Washington, D.C., on July 1, 1960, Donnelly graduated from Sidwell Friends School in 1978 and attended Washington Redskins games on a regular basis. At Hollins College, an all-women's college in Virginia, Donnelly majored in History, captained the basketball team, and helped establish the Black Student Alliance. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1982. Donnelly also received a certificate in Russian from the State Pedagogical Institute in Leningrad.

While attending the London School of Economics, she played semi-professional basketball with the London Jets from 1982-1984. In London, while the pubs were closed, Donnelly also worked in the press office of Amnesty International, and was deputy editor of the L.S.E. journal Millennium.

At TIME, Donnelly was the head researcher of the 1988 book, Mikhail S. Gorbachev: An Intimate Biography, and also worked on the 1989 book, Massacre in Beijing. As a freelance writer, Donnelly has contributed articles to Ms. Magazine, Irish America, New Jersey Monthly, Literary Gazette (Moscow) and SPORTS ILLUSTRATED.