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 groundwork for the attack on the U.S. Capitol was laid five years ago, say experts on extremism and social media — but one was surprised when this time, the rhetoric turned into real violence. -
A majority of hospital nurses said they had never been tested for the coronavirus, according to a recent survey. Hospitals say they are simply following the CDC's guidance.
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Many hospitals seldom test their staff for the coronavirus. The lack of testing means asymptomatic health care workers could be putting their colleagues and patients at risk.
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As we spend more of our lives in the digital world, our personal information can be compromised. NPR's Life Kit spoke to experts on how to protect your digital privacy.
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The Bobcat Fire came within 500 feet of the observatory on Tuesday. The same dry, isolated conditions that make Mount Wilson susceptible to fire also made it perfect for stargazing.
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Rafaela Vasquez was watching the television show The Voicewhen the car struck a pedestrian walking her bike across a Tempe street at night.
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Scientists have linked an increasing prevalence and intensity of wildfires to climate change, and residents of Western states are grappling with the dread that severe fire seasons are the new normal.
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In addition to dangerous smoke and fog, there is now concern that two of the biggest fires threatening cities and towns near Portland, Ore., might combine.
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"You should absolutely cancel me, and I absolutely cancel myself," says a blog post signed Jessica A. Krug. That's also the name of a historian of the African Diaspora at George Washington University.
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The International Criminal Court has been looking into allegations of torture by the U.S. in Afghanistan. The U.S. is not a member of the court though its allies the UK and France are.
