Elissa Nadworny
Elissa Nadworny reports on all things college for NPR, following big stories like unprecedented enrollment declines, college affordability, the student debt crisis and workforce training. During the 2020-2021 academic year, she traveled to dozens of campuses to document what it was like to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic. Her work has won several awards including a 2020 Gracie Award for a story about student parents in college, a 2018 James Beard Award for a story about the Chinese-American population in the Mississippi Delta and a 2017 Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in innovation.
Nadworny uses multiplatform storytelling – incorporating radio, print, comics, photojournalism, and video — to put students at the center of her coverage. Some favorite story adventures include crawling in the sewers below campus to test wastewater for the coronavirus, yearly deep-dives into the most popular high school plays and musicals and an epic search for the history behind her classroom skeleton.
Before joining NPR in 2014, Nadworny worked at Bloomberg News, reporting from the White House. A recipient of the McCormick National Security Journalism Scholarship, she spent four months reporting on U.S. international food aid for USA Today, traveling to Jordan to talk with Syrian refugees about food programs there.
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.
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On Saturday and Sunday, Ukrainian forces reclaimed a wide swath of territory in the northeast in a swift-moving counteroffensive that appeared to catch the Russians by surprise.
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To stop Russian forces from advancing to Kyiv, the Ukrainian military blew up a dam, flooding a nearby village. Seven months later, residents are still pumping water out of yards and houses. -
It's the first day of school in Ukraine, where about 2,300 educational institutions have been damaged and nearly 300 destroyed. Teachers are supporting children who have been severely traumatized.
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A mission to understand what's happening at the largest nuclear power plant in Europe is underway amid renewed shelling and mounting fears of a potential nuclear accident.
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It's been six months since Russia launched its full scale invasion on Ukraine. Now it's a war of attrition that has led to a global food crisis, inflation across the world and devastation in Ukraine.
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Requirements to test and mask and be vaccinated are becoming less common as colleges shift away from treating COVID-19 as an emergency.
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Daniel Duron got a rare opportunity to work on his bachelor's degree while in prison. Early release means he'll have to finish his final semester as a college student on the outside.
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Daniel Duron changed his life by earning his bachelor's degree behind bars. His path will be more available next year, when people in federal and state prisons will once again qualify for Pell grants.
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Many residents of the Ukrainian capital couldn't leave — even during the worst days of Russia's bombardment. Meet some of the 80-somethings who stayed behind.
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Young military medics in Ukraine talk about their experience and life under the Russian siege.
