Kathy Lohr
Whether covering the manhunt and eventual capture of Eric Robert Rudolph in the mountains of North Carolina, the remnants of the Oklahoma City federal building with its twisted metal frame and shattered glass, flood-ravaged Midwestern communities, or the terrorist bombings across the country, including the blast that exploded in Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta, correspondent Kathy Lohr has been at the heart of stories all across the nation.
Lohr was NPR's first reporter based in the Midwest. She opened NPR's St. Louis office in 1990 and the Atlanta bureau in 1996. Lohr covers the abortion issue on an ongoing basis for NPR, including political and legal aspects. She has often been sent into disasters as they are happening, to provide listeners with the intimate details about how these incidents affect people and their lives.
Lohr filed her first report for NPR while working for member station KCUR in Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and began her journalism career in commercial television and radio as a reporter/anchor. Lohr also became involved in video production for national corporations and taught courses in television reporting and radio production at universities in Kansas and Missouri. She has filed reports for the NPR documentary program Horizons, the BBC, the CBC, Marketplace, and she was published in the Saturday Evening Post.
Lohr won the prestigious Missouri Medal of Honor for Excellence in Journalism in 2002. She received a fellowship from Vanderbilt University for work on the issue of domestic violence. Lohr has filed reports from 27 states and the District of Columbia. She has received other national awards for her coverage of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Midwestern floods of 1993, and for her reporting on ice storms in the Mississippi Delta. She has also received numerous awards for radio pieces on the local level prior to joining NPR's national team. Lohr was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. She now lives in her adopted hometown of Atlanta, covering stories across the southeastern part of the country.
-
Conservative Christians are rallying on behalf of fast-food chain Chick-fil-A after comments by the restaurant's president in support of "traditional" marriage sparked a public outcry. The mayors of Boston, Chicago and San Francisco warned the chain not to come to their cities. But former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and other conservatives have organized a pro-Chick-fil-A day.
-
Growing up near Atlanta, Karin Slaughter learned that tragic crimes can happen to anyone — even children. She says she sets her crime fiction in Atlanta as a way to honor the city's people and turning points, from the election of its first black mayor to the 1996 Olympics. -
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference opens its annual convention Thursday in Sanford, Fla. The civil rights organization was co-founded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. After the civil rights era, some groups didn't stay current, and faded away.
-
One question left unanswered by President Obama's immigration action was what the policy change will mean for students. In Georgia, where illegal immigrants are banned from attending five public colleges, one professor says she worries students could identify themselves and end up at risk. -
The idea that anyone can make it in the U.S. is personified by immigrant success stories. But what if you came to America for a better life, worked hard and made it — but now face an increasingly anti-immigrant environment? One South Carolina family continues to have faith that the next generation will have it better. -
The Senate version of the bill aims to do away with direct payments to farmers by expanding crop insurance programs. Some Georgia farmers say that will favor Midwestern farmers and leave those in the South without a safety net. -
New documents released in the hazing death of Florida A&M drum major Robert Champion detail the ordeal and aftermath.
-
The $1.4 billion project includes 12 new gates and eight security checkpoints. It's designed to allow international travelers to bypass Atlanta's main terminal. Officials hope it will attract more international businesses to Georgia.
-
Several states are debating "wrongful birth" laws that would prevent parents from suing a doctor who fails to warn them about fetal problems. Critics say the laws give doctors the right to withhold information so women don't have abortions. -
The culture of hazing is back in the national spotlight after charges were filed against 13 people in connection with the hazing death of a Florida A&M University student. Florida has one of the toughest anti-hazing laws in the country, but legal experts say prosecuting the crime is tricky. -
Newt Gingrich has experienced a long slide since March 6, when he won Georgia's Republican primary. It was his second and final victory of the campaign season, but Gingrich fought to stay in the race through a Southern strategy that never caught on. -
After weeks of intense national attention on the shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, NPR's Kathy Lohr takes the temperature of the town where the story continues to play out.
