Elissa Nadworny moves to National Desk

VPM | By Ammad Omar, Catherine Laidlaw and Russell Lewis

Published April 26, 2024 at 7:02 PM EDT

In a note to newsroom staff, Ammad Omar, Chief National Editor, Catherine Laidlaw, Deputy National Desk Editor and Russell Lewis, National Desk Supervising Editor, made the following announcement:

We’re thrilled to announce that Elissa Nadworny will be moving to the National Desk to cover reproductive rights and the surrounding debate for the rest of the year.

Elissa has long been a correspondent on the Education Desk, covering higher education, but you have probably heard her covering a wide range of other stories as well. She recently traveled to Ukraine and Israel to cover the conflicts there. She’s also a regular guest host on All Things Considered, Life Kit and Weekend Edition.

Her reporting has often centered on the most vulnerable, including stories highlighting the challenges new moms and pregnant women are facing in Gaza and an 8-month long reporting project tracking down children from a kindergarten class in eastern Ukraine.She’s won numerous awards for her work, including a James Beard award, an Edward R. Murrow award, and several Gracie awards.

Before joining NPR in 2014, Elissa worked for Bloomberg News, covering the White House

Elissa will start her new beat in the coming weeks – we hope you join us in congratulating her on this new role!

-Ammad, Catherine and Russell, and the rest of the National Desk team!

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Ammad Omar

Ammad Omar is the Chief National Editor for NPR News. He oversees a desk of nearly 50 journalists, based in bureaus across the country. National Desk correspondents cover breaking news and a broad range of topics, including criminal justice, immigration, national security, housing, state government and sports, among many others. The desk also works closely with hundreds of journalists across NPR's Member station network nationwide.

Omar also leads coverage of the reproductive rights debate in the U.S. Previously, he was the lead editor of the housing and immigration beats.

Before assuming his current position, Omar oversaw coverage of the western United States for NPR and served as the editorial lead at NPR West in Culver City, California, for nearly three years. He has also been editor for NPR's Morning Edition and Tell Me More, and served as an acting supervising editor for NPR's All Things Considered on the weekends.

Prior to joining NPR in 2011, Omar worked at WBEZ Chicago Public Radio for more than six years. His last role there was as the News Desk Editor, managing a team of reporters, producers and interns who covered breaking news. He also spent time as a host, and a news producer.

Omar got his start in journalism in 2002 when he anchored the news for a satellite television station, Indus Vision, in Pakistan, which was broadcast to more than sixty countries worldwide.

He graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

See stories by Ammad Omar