Pam Fessler
Pam Fessler is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk, where she covers poverty, philanthropy, and voting issues.
In her reporting at NPR, Fessler does stories on homelessness, hunger, affordable housing, and income inequality. She reports on what non-profit groups, the government, and others are doing to reduce poverty and how those efforts are working. Her poverty reporting was recognized with a 2011 First Place National Headliner Award.
Fessler also covers elections and voting, including efforts to make voting more accessible, accurate, and secure. She has done countless stories on everything from the debate over state voter identification laws to Russian hacking attempts and long lines at the polls.
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Fessler became NPR's first Homeland Security correspondent. For seven years, she reported on efforts to tighten security at ports, airports, and borders, and the debate over the impact on privacy and civil rights. She also reported on the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, The 9/11 Commission Report, Social Security, and the Census. Fessler was one of NPR's White House reporters during the Clinton and Bush administrations.
Before becoming a correspondent, Fessler was the acting senior editor on the Washington Desk and NPR's chief election editor. She coordinated all network coverage of the presidential, congressional, and state elections in 1996 and 1998. In her more than 25 years at NPR, Fessler has also been deputy Washington Desk editor and Midwest National Desk editor.
Earlier in her career, she was a senior writer at Congressional Quarterly magazine. Fessler worked there for 13 years as both a reporter and editor, covering tax, budget, and other news. She also worked as a budget specialist at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and was a reporter at The Record newspaper in Hackensack, New Jersey.
Fessler has a master's of public administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and a bachelor's degree from Douglass College in New Jersey.
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Thirty-seven percent of New Yorkers faced severe material hardship last year, but the city's official poverty rate is only 21 percent. Researchers are trying to find a better way to measure poverty.
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Congress planned to shave $8.6 billion from the food stamps program by closing a loophole, cutting benefits to 850,000 households. But it left states an out to avoid the cuts, and many are taking it. -
In Ukraine, a dangerous "information war" is being waged by volunteers who are trying to win support in Crimea, where there is a near-total information blackout of pro-Ukrainian opinions.
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Organizations are trying to find ways to get people with lower incomes to save more. One program urges families to set aside a part of their tax refunds so they have money for emergencies. -
Improving the lives of the poor can take many forms. One group of senior citizens in New York City meets regularly to stretch their legs and in the process reinvigorate their community. -
The election administration commission appointed by President Obama found no evidence that partisan plots were behind long Election Day lines, as some have suggested. Rather, some election officials simply misjudged how much equipment and personnel they needed at certain precincts. -
A coalition of nonprofits hopes to attack the problem using a well-known tool in the private sector 鈥� a real estate investment trust that allows investors to pool their funds to buy property. -
President Obama last year appointed a commission to recommend ways that local election officials can shorten lines at the polls. On Wednesday, that commission is releasing its final report, offering suggestions on how to make improvements in the voting experience.
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NPR's Pam Fessler was told that Eastern Kentuckians would be reluctant to talk because they were tired of being depicted as the poster children of the War on Poverty. Instead, she got an earful.
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Residents of Martin County, Ky., where President Johnson traveled to promote his War on Poverty in 1964, say they need jobs more than government aid.
