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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Support for automatic voter registration — now being considered in about two dozen states — has pretty much broken down along party lines. -
There's no dancing or passing the hat at these new rent parties. There is music — and online fundraising. Recently, a classical violinist played a concert in an Annapolis apartment to help the tenant. -
John and Katrina Vowell used their small savings to start Major Chords for Minors in Saginaw, Mich., because they were worried about the city's youth. Now they have 130 students and a long wait list. -
Over 560,000 people lived on the street or in homeless shelters this year — a 2 percent drop, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Still, many say the numbers are unreliable. -
Some local laws make it illegal to sleep or eat outside. Advocates have fought these laws in court. Now, the federal government is taking a stance, pushing ways to help, not criminalize, the homeless. -
Pope Francis spent time with homeless, immigrant and other low-income clients of Catholic Charities on his last day in Washington, D.C., Thursday.
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The Census Bureau released its annual report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage for 2014 on Wednesday. Poverty in the U.S. was unchanged last year, despite more jobs.
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Baltimore clothing shop Flawless Damsels is one of the more than 400 businesses damaged in last spring's riots. The shop recently reopened and was bustling, though that's not the case everywhere.
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Many families forced out of public housing by Hurricane Katrina now use government vouchers to subsidize rent elsewhere. Meant to deconcentrate poverty in the city, the shift hasn't worked as planned.
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Nearly 400 businesses were damaged during riots after Freddie Gray's death. But weeks later, the repairs are limping along, despite promises of aid from nonprofits and both city and state officials.
