In a note to newsroom staff, Eva Rodriguez, Vice President and Executive Editor at NPR, made the following announcement:
I am delighted to announce that Catherine Laidlaw will be the next Chief Editor of the National Desk.
In her nearly 17 years at NPR, Catherine has assumed many roles and in each has proven herself to be a smart, creative, resilient and respected leader. She is unfailingly collegial and instinctively collaborative – traits that will be essential as we evolve and deepen our relationships with Member station colleagues to serve every nook and cranny of this country. She is also a top contender to be the James Brown of the newsroom -- one of the hardest-working colleagues in our midst.
Catherine has been the acting Chief Editor on National since April and had been Deputy National Editor for the three years prior, shepherding coverage across the range of topics on National's plate, including housing, immigration and reproductive rights. Just this year, Catherine was a key leader and coordinator of our coverage of the L.A. fires, the deadly mid-air collision at Reagan National Airport, and, most recently, the tornadoes that devastated parts of the South.
Catherine has taken up some interesting pastimes to unwind from the stresses of unrelenting news. She's refinished every strip of wood in her Washington, D.C., rowhouse and literally taken a pickaxe to the rocks in the backyard. And she takes an annual pilgrimage to Richmond to participate in an insanely long bike tour.
Before joining the National desk, Catherine served as a Supervising Editor at Morning Edition and as acting Director of NPR.org, where she oversaw NPR's digital coverage of the coronavirus pandemic and the repercussions of racial injustice after George Floyd's murder. Prior to that, she was an editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune, the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle as well as a managing editor at The Industry Standard.
Catherine graduated from the University of Missouri's School of Journalism. She formally assumes the reins of the National desk immediately.
Please join me in congratulating Catherine and wishing her well.
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