Eric Westervelt
Senior editor-correspondent Eric Westervelt has covered defining conflicts and major stories across the world and America for NPR News. He's served as a correspondent and Bureau Chief in Jerusalem, Baghdad and Berlin, covering the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, as well as conflicts across the Middle East including Israel-Palestine, Israel-Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and the North African revolutions that swept Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. In Europe he covered everything from the economic crisis and migration to Bach's Christmas Oratorio.
Stateside Westervelt has reported on big breaking news stories such as mass shootings and natural disasters including catastrophic wildfires from California to West Maui and the deadliest mass killing in modern U.S. history. He's reported news features on everything from the homeless crisis and opioid addiction to a nonprofit that supports indigent blues musicians.
As an editor for NPR's National Desk Westervelt has worked with reporters across the Western U.S. and Texas. He also serves as an occasional guest host for NPR news shows, interviewing greats from Jimmy Carter to poet Claudia Rankine.
Additionally, Westervelt helped launch NPR's innovative, award-winning education platform NPR Ed and helped build a collaborative team that covers America's criminal justice system including state and local courts, prisons, juvenile justice and policing.
Westervelt was also a contributing producer for Pictures on the Radio, a photo and essay book honoring NPR journalist David Gilkey's award-winning photography and career. Gilkey was killed in a Taliban ambush while covering Afghanistan in 2016.
After nearly a decade with NPR's International Desk, Westervelt was awarded a prestigious Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University in 2013.
His work has been honored with broadcast journalism's highest honors including the 2002 George Foster Peabody Award for coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the aftermath; the 2003 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award for the war in Afghanistan and for also for 2001 terrorist attacks; 2004 and 2007 duPont-Columbia Awards for NPR's in-depth coverage of the war in Iraq and its effect on Iraqi society. Westervelt's 2009 multimedia series on Israel's massive 439-mile West Bank wall with NPR's David Gilkey won an Overseas Press Club award. He also shared an Edward R. Murrow RTNDA award with NPR Ed for his coverage of education, teaching and learning.
Prior to his work overseas, Westervelt covered military affairs and the Pentagon out of Washington, D.C. reporting on a wide range of defense, national security as well as foreign policy issues. Before that he covered some of the biggest domestic stories as a reporter on NPR's National Desk covering everything from the mass killing at Columbine High School to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
A guitar player in his other life, he occasionally does music features including profiles and remembrances of musicians including rocker David Crosby, blues and rock greats Freddie King and Otis Rush, Eric Clapton and J. J. Cale, and Roy Orbison, and the enduring allure of the Fender Stratocaster. His feature on the making of John Coltrane's classic A Love Supreme was part of the NPR series on the most influential American musical works of the 20th century, which was recognized with a George Foster Peabody Award.
Before joining NPR, Westervelt freelanced in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest and worked as news director, host and reporter in New Hampshire for NHPR and as a contributing reporter for Monitor Radio, the broadcast edition of the Christian Science Monitor.
He is a graduate of the Putney School and Reed College in Portland, Oregon.
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A reopened private prison outside of Kansas City is already ramping up as an immigration detention facility. But resistance in both Democratic and Republican cities points to broader unease with the direction of immigration enforcement. -
Voters in Missouri, Arkansas, North Dakota, South Dakota and Maryland will vote on legalizing recreational marijuana. Nineteen states and D.C. have approved adult cannabis possession and consumption. -
In California, former inmates released early to help reduce coronavirus risks behind bars lack support when they get out, say advocates, who want better, organized help to address the crisis. -
President Trump says the government's procurement and distribution system is "a fine-tuned machine," but many hospitals and state governors say they're struggling to get what they need. -
The shortage of masks and other protective gear has left medical staff pleading for help. Several pop-up volunteer groups are matching individual donors with local hospitals most in need. -
As communities across the country radically restrict public gatherings, small business owners and their workers are scrambling to stay afloat. For example: Alicia Villanueva, the tamale lady.
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Twenty-one people aboard the Grand Princess tested positive for coronavirus. Americans will be transported to several military bases for quarantine and testing. Crew will be quarantined on board.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom says the growing homeless crisis is his No. 1 priority. But many city and county leaders, as well as activists, want more details, better coordination and dedicated funding. -
Overcrowding, understaffing and poor treatment for inmates with mental health issues held in Los Angeles jails underscore growing failures in America's mental health and justice systems. -
The wrangling over what to do about a sprawling homeless camp in Santa Rosa, Calif., highlights how hard it is to find answers for a growing crisis across California and much of the West.
