Lisa Ling will join ABC News’ “Nightline” as a contributor. Her first report, on aging and the growth of luxury retirement living communities, will air Thursday.

Future reports will chronicle the heroin epidemic in America’s heartland, efforts to make it rain in the American Southwest and an experimental surgery for wounded war veterans.

Ms. Ling is a special correspondent for “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and the National Geographic Channel, where she hosts “National Geographic Ultimate Explorer.”

“I have wanted to work with Lisa for a long time. She is a terrific journalist with a very distinctive style that fits really well with the ‘Nightline’ sensibility,” James Goldston, executive producer of “Nightline,” said in a statement.