Tamara Keith Named NPR White House Correspondent

RADIO ONLINE | Monday, October 7, 2013 | 10:39am CT

NPR News correspondent Tamara Keith will become the organization's new White House correspondent, after more than two years covering Congress. She joins Scott Horsley and Mara Liasson on the White House beat, and begins reporting on the executive branch in early 2014 when Ari Shapiro becomes NPR's London correspondent.

"Tamara Keith represents the best of public radio. Her energy is unsurpassed and her ability to connect with real people has distinguished her reporting at NPR," says Madhulika Sikka, executive editor, NPR News. "Whether chronicling the travails of the long-term jobless or reporting on the hidden world of girls who hunt, Tamara is a first-rate storyteller. After two very busy years keeping up with Congress, I am delighted that she will be bringing her broad palette of skills to the White House beat."

In her new role, Keith will provide in-depth reports on the White House and national politics for all NPR programs and NPR.org, traveling widely with the President and covering the fluid political climate across the country. She will also be part of the NPR team reporting from the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. Keith joined NPR in 2009 as a business reporter, covering everything from the debt downgrade, to the latest in policy debates, legal issues and technology trends. She later was on the ground in Haiti covering the aftermath of the country's disastrous earthquake, and soon after reported on the oil spill in the Gulf. In 2011, Keith conceived and reported the year-long NPR series "The Road Back To Work," featuring audio diaries of six people in St. Louis who began the year unemployed and searching for work.