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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NPR's Elissa Nadworny speaks to Nikita Mhatre, co-president of a student chapter of the advocacy group If/When/How, about students mobilizing for abortion rights.
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NPR's Elissa Nadworny talks with Kim Hammond, a resident of Uvalde, Texas, about how the community there is coping one month after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.
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NPR's Elissa Nadworny speaks with Mary Ziegler of the UC Davis School of Law about uncertainties and likely legal battles in post-Roe America.
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Tool lending programs let people borrow expensive equipment for gardening and home repairs. The city of Milwaukee has been operating one for over 20 years, helping residents save money.
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NASA is trying to prevent an auction house from selling an unusual mixture of space memorabilia.
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NPR's Elissa Nadworny speaks with recent college graduates McKenna Hensley, Justice Benjamin and Johnny Dang about their hopes for the future and attending college during a pandemic.
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Daniel Duron got a rare opportunity to work on his bachelor's degree while in prison. Early release means he'll have to finish his final semester as a college student on the outside.
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Kenny Butler and Daniel Duron worked toward their degrees while in prison. Their journey could become more common with Pell grants becoming available to incarcerated people. -
Daniel Duron changed his life by earning his bachelor's degree behind bars. His path will be more available next year, when people in federal and state prisons will once again qualify for Pell grants.
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NPR's Elissa Nadworny talks to Iman Vellani, the Pakistani-Canadian actress who plays Kamala Khan on "Ms. Marvel," about what the show means for representation on television.
