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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In 1964, President Johnson traveled to Martin County, Ky., to try to sell his "war on poverty" to the American public. What residents say they need now is steady work. -
For months, NPR's Pam Fessler got calls from around the world offering her short-term loans. She had fallen into the world of online lead generation. -
A college student getting help from his parents may be below the poverty line. The mother who earns $23,000 a year is not.
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As the number of people seeking emergency food aid continues to grow, food banks have started thinking about what more they can do to help their clients become more self-sufficient. Some, like the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, are teaching people to grow food at community farms and helping them set up home gardens. -
Warren Buffett's son, Howard, is using his foundation, stocked with $2 billion of his father's money, to address hunger in the U.S., as well as globally. He's trying to use his farming experience to help farmers be more productive and to get more food into the hands of those who need it most. -
As residents of Moore work toward recovery after Monday's deadly tornado, supplies are pouring in from across the country. Volunteers and relief organizations are sifting through everything from diapers to food and teddy bears. But the groups say what's really needed is the flexibility of money. -
The number of poor people living in America's suburbs now surpasses those in cities or rural areas. Long focused on the urban poor, social service agencies are now trying to respond to the basic needs of a much more far-flung population. -
Housing authorities across the country have all but stopped issuing rent vouchers as they try to deal with across-the-board spending cuts. Many newly issued vouchers have been rescinded, leaving some people homeless or doubled up with family and friends. -
Advocates for the people living on the city's streets were very skeptical two years ago that much could be done. But some substantial progress has been made since then. Now, as new people turn to the streets, can the county still help? -
President Obama commented on the long lines for some voters during his re-election acceptance speech last November. And at his State of the Union address, he promised to seek solutions. The new commission will make recommendations to states, but it will not have the power to enforce any changes.
