Ailsa Chang
Ailsa Chang is an award-winning journalist who hosts All Things Considered along with Ari Shapiro, Audie Cornish, and Mary Louise Kelly. She landed in public radio after practicing law for a few years.
Chang is a former Planet Money correspondent, where she got to geek out on the law while covering the underground asylum industry in the largest Chinatown in America, privacy rights in the cell phone age, the government's doomed fight to stop racist trademarks, and the money laundering case federal agents built against one of President Trump's top campaign advisers.
Previously, she was a congressional correspondent with NPR's Washington Desk. She covered battles over healthcare, immigration, gun control, executive branch appointments, and the federal budget.
Chang started out as a radio reporter in 2009, and has since earned a string of national awards for her work. In 2012, she was honored with the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for her investigation into the New York City Police Department's "stop-and-frisk" policy and allegations of unlawful marijuana arrests by officers. The series also earned honors from Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists.
She was also the recipient of the Daniel Schorr Journalism Award, a National Headliner Award, and an honor from Investigative Reporters and Editors for her investigation on how Detroit's broken public defender system leaves lawyers with insufficient resources to effectively represent their clients.
In 2011, the New York State Associated Press Broadcasters Association named Chang as the winner of the Art Athens Award for General Excellence in Individual Reporting for radio. In 2015, she won a National Journalism Award from the Asian American Journalists Association for her coverage of Capitol Hill.
Prior to coming to NPR, Chang was an investigative reporter at NPR Member station WNYC from 2009 to 2012 in New York City, focusing on criminal justice and legal affairs. She was a Kroc fellow at NPR from 2008 to 2009, as well as a reporter and producer for NPR Member station KQED in San Francisco.
The former lawyer served as a law clerk to Judge John T. Noonan Jr. on the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco.
Chang graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University where she received her bachelor's degree.
She earned her law degree with distinction from Stanford Law School, where she won the Irving Hellman Jr. Special Award for the best piece written by a student in the Stanford Law Review in 2001.
Chang was also a Fulbright Scholar at Oxford University, where she received a master's degree in media law. She also has a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.
She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she never got to have a dog. But now she's the proud mama of Mickey Chang, a shih tzu who enjoys slapping high-fives and mingling with senators.
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A late-night "vote-a-rama" set in motion the process for gutting key provisions of the Affordable Care Act in a way that evades Democrats' threat of a filibuster.
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Protesters interrupted the hearing where Jeff Sessions was being considered as Donald Trump's pick for attorney general. Groups oppose the nomination over Sessions' record on civil and voting rights.
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Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions backed Donald Trump early on. The two have at least one thing in common: both have been accused as being insensitive on issues of race.
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What happens to sexual relationships after service members return from combat? Former Marine Chuck Rotenberry and his wife, Liz, open up about their struggles with sex and his PTSD.
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President Obama heads to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to talk to Democrats about how to protect the Affordable Care Act from being dismantled by Republicans.
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Tim Watters made a career for himself impersonating Bill Clinton. That impersonation has become less relevant, but lucky for him, the 2016 election presented him with some new material: Donald Trump.
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The current Republican Party leadership have all been re-elected by unanimous voice vote for the 115th Congress. Speaker Paul Ryan was also re-nominated to lead the GOP in the new Congress.
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Also Monday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest refused to defend or criticize FBI Director James Comey for announcing fresh scrutiny of possible Clinton emails just days before the November election.
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After weeks at a standstill, Congress wrapped up all the work it was supposed to do in September in just one day, from a veto override, to reaching a deal to keep government open through December 9th.
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The Senate voted Wednesday to override President Obama's veto of a bill that allows the victims of Sept. 11 to sue Saudi Arabia for any role it may have played in the terror attacks. This is the first time Congress has successfully acted to overrule the president's veto.