Laurel Wamsley
Laurel Wamsley is a reporter for NPR's News Desk. She reports breaking news for NPR's digital coverage, newscasts, and news magazines, as well as occasional features. She was also the lead reporter for NPR's coverage of the 2019 Women's World Cup in France.
Wamsley got her start at NPR as an intern for Weekend Edition Saturday in January 2007 and stayed on as a production assistant for NPR's flagship news programs, before joining the Washington Desk for the 2008 election.
She then left NPR, doing freelance writing and editing in Austin, Texas, and then working in various marketing roles for technology companies in Austin and Chicago.
In November 2015, Wamsley returned to NPR as an associate producer for the National Desk, where she covered stories including Hurricane Matthew in coastal Georgia. She became a Newsdesk reporter in March 2017, and has since covered subjects including climate change, possibilities for social networks beyond Facebook, the sex lives of Neanderthals, and joke theft.
In 2010, Wamsley was a Journalism and Women Symposium Fellow and participated in the German-American Fulbright Commission's Berlin Capital Program, and was a 2016 Voqal Foundation Fellow. She will spend two months reporting from Germany as a 2019 Arthur F. Burns Fellow, a program of the International Center for Journalists.
Wamsley earned a B.A. with highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a Morehead-Cain Scholar. Wamsley holds a master's degree from Ohio University, where she was a Public Media Fellow and worked at NPR Member station WOUB. A native of Athens, Ohio, she now lives and bikes in Washington, DC.
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The massacre in Uvalde, Texas, was yet another grim reminder that in the U.S., children are more likely to die from gun violence than in any other wealthy nation. And it's getting worse. -
Lucio is scheduled to be executed for the death of her 2-year-old daughter. Her supporters say she was forced into a false "confession" and that new evidence exists that proves her innocence.
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As the idea spread, more than 61,000 nights were booked, grossing nearly $2 million. One host in Kyiv says the donations have helped pay staffers who have fled and buy food for elderly neighbors.
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It is not yet clear what type of masks will be distributed. Standard masks do not always fit small faces well.
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A new poll finds more than 55% of Black and Latino households have faced serious financial problems in recent months. And more than a quarter have depleted their savings.
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Los Angeles joins California, New York City and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced new, more stringent policies, and possible penalties, to push vaccination among their employees.
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The Amazon founder became the second billionaire this month to reach the edge of space — following Richard Branson, who rocketed there aboard a vessel made by his company Virgin Galactic.
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Life might feel like it's getting back to normal. But we're not out of the woods yet. Here's what the end of the pandemic might look like.
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The delta variant is the fast-moving strain of the coronavirus now found in 96 countries. It's expected to be the dominant variant in the U.S. within weeks.
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The forecast calls for 3 to 5 major hurricanes. The agency also said it's revising upwards what counts as the "normal" number of storms in a season.
