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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A new study conducted by Dartmouth College found test scores could have helped less advantaged students gain access to the school.
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The CIA says the war in Ukraine has created a once-in-a-generation opportunity to recruit spies in Russia. NPR's Elissa Nadworny talks to former CIA officer Douglas London about recruitment.
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El Salvador's president is predicted to easily win re-election, consolidating his power. His crackdown on gangs has seen the murder rate plummet, but at a cost to civil liberties.
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NPR's Elissa Nadworny speaks to Abbas Milani, director of Iranian studies at Stanford University, about the conflict between the U.S. and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria.
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Iryna Sahan, a kindergarten teacher in Kharkiv, heads back to the classroom for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine.
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Noah Kahan went from writing a pandemic album on his parents' farm in rural Vermont to selling out an arena tour and being nominated for best new artist at the Grammys.
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A ski resort in Kyiv offers a respite during a war that has lasted nearly two years. "We are looking forward to victory but we cannot put our lives on stop," says a parent who brought her family here.
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In between missile attacks and air raid sirens Ukrainians say, so some residents of Kyiv are heading to the ski slopes for respite.
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A trucker protest is still blocking traffic at several other crossings between Ukraine and Poland, holding up thousands of Ukrainian trucks waiting to cross.
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In a gesture of wartime support, the European Union has exempted Ukrainian truckers from EU limits on how many drivers can enter Europe. Polish truckers say that's destroying their businesses.