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.
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Their workload has doubled. They don't go home when their shifts end lest they infect family members. But they say it's worth the sacrifices to lend a hand in the fight against COVID-19. -
The tourism industry in the Philippines lost some $8 billion in 2020 because of the pandemic. Filipinos are being encouraged to travel domestically to try to restart a crucial sector of the economy.
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As the pandemic continues to ravage the Philippines, a medical emergency response team in the Metro Manila area is working to keep as many non-coronavirus patients out of the hospitals as possible.
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The Philippine National Police have announced that many officers will now wear body cameras. This comes years into a war on drugs in which police have killed thousands during anti-drug operations.
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The Pacific island nation elected its first female prime minister, but the previous leader refuses to step down. The general election was in April, but no new government has been formed.
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The Philippines is going "brand agnostic" after a vaccination site was swarmed this week when people found out Pfizer doses were to be given out.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Elizabeth City, N.C. Mayor Bettie Parker, who declared a state of emergency in her city ahead of the release of bodycam video to the family of Andrew Brown Jr.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with attorney Chantel Cherry-Lassiter about seeing the bodycam footage of Andrew Brown Jr. being shot, as well as the independent autopsy.
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NPR's Mary Louse Kelly talks with African Americans and the Culture of Pain author Debra Walker King about how Black pain can be a double-edged sword, used to both benefit and hurt Black Americans.
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NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra how the Biden administration is housing and handling the unaccompanied migrant children crossing the border.
