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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From tiny homes to big ones built in hours, the Innovative Housing Showcase highlights ways to make housing more affordable and plentiful — at a time when many Americans struggle to buy a home. -
The COVID-19 pandemic shuffled so many aspects of our lives -- including how and where we live. Many downtowns are still adjusting to the changes. We go to Philadelphia to see how things are doing.
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Lots of older Americans say they'd love to downsize, but it doesn't make financial sense. The housing roadblock has left some would-be buyers stuck. We asked experts what policies could change that. -
One week after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, we look at the economic impact in the city and the ripple effects on industries that relied on the port.
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The Port of Baltimore, normally one of the country's busiest, is in limbo due to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. For those who work on the water, business is far from usual. -
Workers at the Port of Baltimore are losing their jobs because of the bridge collapse. With no ships coming in and out, it is unclear when workers will be able be returning to their jobs.
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The Key Bridge collapse is upending life for countless people in the Chesapeake region. Residents say it's not just infrastructure — it's their identity as people who live close to the water. -
The rules that dictate what can be built and where were often meant to be exclusionary, experts say. With homes too few and rents too high, many cities are loosening rules to encourage more housing.
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As Americans struggle to find affordable housing, cities are realizing their own rules have made it too hard and expensive to build the homes they need. Now, some cities are trying to change that. -
Washington, D.C.'s mayor has urged the Biden administration to require federal employees to return to the office most days. She's ordered her own city's workers back to the office four days a week.
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Around the country, cities are throwing out their own parking requirements, hoping to end up with less parking – and more affordable housing, better transit, and walkable neighborhoods. -
Massive crowds descended on downtown Washington, D.C., on Saturday. Protesters' messaging at the event centered on calls to end U.S. aid to Israel and for a cease-fire.
