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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Women are posting videos hashtagged #IAmJaneDoe to support the woman suing Cornell. Students across the country say her case raises concerns about safety on campus.
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Universities have responsibilities when students report sexual assault, even if prosecutors don't bring charges. Attorney Baine Kerr explains how those protections work.
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Twenty-three years after President George W. Bush's campaign of "shock and awe," the U.S. military has completed its withdrawal from Iraq.
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A reporting trip to a sauna conference in Oslo found NPR's Will Stone in a sauna with his clothes and recording gear. In this reporter's notebook, he explains how he investigates the science behind wellness claims.
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Nick Carpenter, who makes music as Medium Build, talks about his new album "King of Having Fun" and finding moments that make him feel like a kid again.
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A $3 billion gift to Carnegie Mellon University is the largest single donation in the history of U.S. higher education, and it's part of a larger trend.
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The lawsuit by a former Cornell University student, alleging she was raped in 2024 by seven male students, has renewed long-standing concerns about how colleges deal with sexual assault. -
NPR's Elissa Nadworny speaks with Kristin Duncanson, a farmer in Minnesota, about how record high fuel prices are affecting her business.
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Former U.S. deputy national security advisor Anne Neuberger is watching for signs of competition and cooperation on artificial intelligence at President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping's summit this week.
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There's a long history of killer AI in cinema. Today, those works of fiction feel more real than ever.
