Ashley Westerman
Ashley Westerman is a producer who occasionally directs the show. Since joining the staff in June 2015, she has produced a variety of stories including a coal mine closing near her hometown, the 2016 Republican National Convention, and the Rohingya refugee crisis in southern Bangladesh. She is also an occasional reporter for Morning Edition, and NPR.org, where she has contributed reports on both domestic and international news.
Ashley was a summer intern in 2011 with Morning Edition and pitched a story on her very first day. She went on to work as a reporter and host for member station 89.3 WRKF in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she earned awards covering everything from healthcare to jambalaya.
Ashley is an East-West Center 2018 Jefferson Fellow and a two-time reporting fellow with the International Center for Journalists. Through ICFJ, she has covered labor issues in her home country of the Philippines for NPR and health care in Appalachia for Voice of America.
-
Do People Need To Know Which COVID-19 Vaccine They're Getting? One Country Says NoThe Philippines is going "brand agnostic" after a vaccination site was swarmed this week when people found out Pfizer doses were to be given out.
-
Families and friends met in airports for the first time in over a year after Australia and New Zealand opened a "bubble" of quarantine-free travel between their countries.
-
Palau has seen no COVID-19 cases and Taiwan has kept the virus in check. Taiwan's first tourist flight to Palau during the pandemic era landed Thursday. Travelers do not need to quarantine on arrival.
-
The 168 school desks make up an exhibit called "Pandemic Classroom." Each of the seats represents 1 million children living in countries where schools have been closed for almost a year.
-
For many people this year, navigating grief from personal losses, like breakups and miscarriages, amid the drama of the pandemic has felt ... awkward. Here, stories of coping amid collective grief. -
Greek organizations rely heavily on member dues. If chapters can't provide a meaningful experience online, one expert says, they may not survive the pandemic. -
Webster County High School officials couldn't hold the big annual graduation event in the gym this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic — so the idea for a drive-through graduation was born.
-
Starting Monday, the Southeast Asian country will open some schools and more businesses. It will also allow its citizens to travel domestically.
-
The group, mostly women and children, had been stranded at sea for weeks. Human rights groups have long decried the government's plan to send refugees to flood- and cyclone-prone Bhasan Char island.
-
Health experts say low rates of testing and refusal to enact strict lockdowns have allowed the virus to infiltrate all 34 provinces of the archipelago nation.
