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.
-
The Alexandria Eviction Prevention Partnership in Northern Virginia is one of the divergent programs meant to help fight off evictions. -
Many of them work in service industries —as cooks, Uber drivers, nursing aides— jobs that have been especially affected this past year. "I don't have money to pay rent," resident Mahlet Kassa says. -
Congress approved $25 billion in emergency rental assistance to keep people housed during the pandemic, but states are facing glitches on the federal moratorium for renters and landlords. -
With many more people voting by mail this fall, election officials feared that millions of ballots would be rejected in the general election. Instead, rejection rates went down across the country. -
Voting took place amid a pandemic and unprecedented polarization. Despite baseless claims by the president and his allies that the outcome was rigged, states say the results are accurate. -
President Trump's campaign is insisting that Trump has a path to reelection victory despite Joe Biden's decisive win. Lawyers say they will pursue legal challenges to results in swing states. -
Led by one of President Trump's nominees, the agency has been actively trying to correct misinformation spread by all sorts of actors, including Trump, about the election. -
Dirty tricks and disinformation have been used to intimidate and mislead voters in the past. But they have been especially pervasive this year amid a chaotic and contentious election. -
Hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots could be rejected because of small mistakes. Many groups are rushing to help voters "cure" their ballots so they can be counted. -
His appeals have unnerved voting rights advocates and election officials, especially in light of incidents around the country that have pitted armed groups from the left and right against each other.
