Elissa Nadworny
Elissa Nadworny is an NPR Correspondent covering higher education. She previously covered reproductive rights and abortion.
She regularly reports on international conflict, with a special focus on children and families. She has spent several months in Ukraine covering the war with Russia and in Israel, covering the war with Hamas and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
She guest hosts NPR radio shows such as All Things Considered, Weekend Edition and special election coverage.
In 2023, she tracked down a classroom of kindergarteners from eastern Ukraine, displaced by the war. The project took eight months, spanned multiple countries and continents, and told the story of children and families dealing with the trauma, loss, and fear that conflict brings.
Her work has won awards including a James Beard Award, an Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in innovation and several Gracie Awards.
She's a Livingston Award finalist for a story about college students getting their degrees from inside a state prison.
Other stories that have resonated with her include crawling in the sewers below a college campus to test wastewater for the coronavirus, sitting with the elderly living along the front lines in Ukraine's east, and the story of a pregnant woman in Gaza who gave birth amid abysmal and fast deteriorating hospital conditions.
In 2018, she went on an epic search for the history behind her own high school's classroom skeleton.
Before joining NPR in 2014, Nadworny worked at Bloomberg News, reporting from the White House.
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.
She can be reached via encrypted message at ElissaN.01 on Signal.
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A coalition of labor unions and higher-education groups sued the Trump administration to stop a new rule limiting the time foreign students, exchange visitors and journalists can stay in the U.S.
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International students could once stay as long as they needed to complete their college degrees, but that's changing, and the restrictions could cut into college budgets. -
July 1 marks the official opening of a program that allows federal dollars to go toward short-term workforce training programs. But so far, just 12 states have created road maps for colleges to apply.
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July 1 marks the official opening of a program that allows federal dollars to go toward short-term workforce training programs. So far just 12 states have created road maps for colleges to apply. -
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says the U.S. killed the leader of Tren de Aragua in coordination with Venezuela.
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A $111 billion merger of Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery got the green light from the Trump administration, though several states are raising anti-trust concerns.
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SpaceX had an enormous IPO on Friday, but is it really worth the price?
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NPR's Elissa Nadworny speaks with former Senate parliamentarian Alan Frumin about the president's calls to remove his successor, Elizabeth MacDonough.
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NPR's Elissa Nadworny and sportswriter Howard Bryant discuss the NBA Finals and the World Cup.
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Several states are loosening alcohol restrictions during the World Cup. NPR's Elissa Nadworny speaks with Corean Reynolds, Boston's Director of Nightlife Economy, about how her city is handling this.
