Elissa Nadworny
Elissa Nadworny reports on all things college for NPR, following big stories like unprecedented enrollment declines, college affordability, the student debt crisis and workforce training. During the 2020-2021 academic year, she traveled to dozens of campuses to document what it was like to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic. Her work has won several awards including a 2020 Gracie Award for a story about student parents in college, a 2018 James Beard Award for a story about the Chinese-American population in the Mississippi Delta and a 2017 Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in innovation.
Nadworny uses multiplatform storytelling – incorporating radio, print, comics, photojournalism, and video — to put students at the center of her coverage. Some favorite story adventures include crawling in the sewers below campus to test wastewater for the coronavirus, yearly deep-dives into the most popular high school plays and musicals and an epic search for the history behind her classroom skeleton.
Before joining NPR in 2014, Nadworny worked at Bloomberg News, reporting from the White House. A recipient of the McCormick National Security Journalism Scholarship, she spent four months reporting on U.S. international food aid for USA Today, traveling to Jordan to talk with Syrian refugees about food programs there.
Originally from Erie, Pa., Nadworny has a bachelor's degree in documentary film from Skidmore College and a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
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Protests break out in Cuba over power shortages as the U.S. offers millions of dollars in exchange for political reform.
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With the peace process stalled, there are signs of growing public fatigue in Russia with the Kremlin's war as Ukraine uses robotic warfare to stay in the fight.
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Countries like Iran and Haiti have made the World Cup but are on a U.S. travel ban list. What does that mean for those countries and the fans of those countries?
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NPR's Elissa Nadworny and sportswriter Howard Bryant discuss Carolina's storming through the NHL playoffs and remember a pioneer.
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NPR's Elissa Nadworny speaks with ESPN sport's reporter Mina Kimes about her new role as host of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
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Magnus the Walrus has ended his tour of Scotland and has moved on to Norway.
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NPR's Elissa Nadworny speaks with Brown University economist Mark Blyth about the challenges facing Kevin Warsh, the new chair of the Federal Reserve.
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We look at the tangible takeaways from President Trump's visit to Beijing, as well as what to expect in the next crop of primaries, and the status of the war on Iran.
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NPR's Elissa Nadworny speaks with Leo Woodall about his role as a piano tuner with hyperacusis in the new movie "Tuner."
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A lady's maid and a gentleman's valet fall in love and hatch a plan to get their employers together in the new novel "A Perfect Hand." NPR's Elissa Nadworny talks with author Ayelet Waldman about it.