Susanne Reber
Deputy Managing Editor, Investigations Unit
Susanne Reber is the Deputy Managing Editor, leading NPR's Investigations Unit.
In addition to managing a core investigative team, Reber works with beat and field reporters across the newsroom and partners with other non-profit news organizations to produce radio, online and video stories.
Leading NPR's joint investigations, Reber has facilitated reporting partnerships with Pro Publica, PBS Frontline, PBS Newshour, Center for Public Integrity, Center for Investigative Reporting and the Investigative Reporting Program at Berkeley.
These highly collaborative investigations have examined the lack of treatment for soldiers who suffered brain injuries during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, the failures of death investigation in America, an epidemic of sexual assault on campus, as well as mine safety in wake of the explosion at Upper Big Branch Mine and the origins of the controversial Arizona immigration bill.
During Reber's time in this position, the NPR Investigations Unit has been recognized with a Peabody Award, Robert F. Kennedy Awards, Dart Awards from Columbia University, a Gracie Award, White House Press Photographers Association and Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards for meritorious public service in journalism.
Prior to joining NPR in 2010, Reber built an investigative program at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), where she led its news investigative unit from 2003 to 2009. Under her leadership the CBC News investigative unit had a prolific run, reporting about the excessive use of Tasers by police, safety concerns with prescription drugs for children and the elderly and the dangerous conditions in Canada's workplaces overlooked by inspections. Her work contributed to the investigative unit's 2008 Michener Award, two annual prizes for the top Investigative Story from the Canadian Association of Journalists, as well as awards from the Online News Association, Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Radio Television News Directors Association.
Reber had a distinguished career at the CBC, starting as an editor and reporter in 1986. She held positions as a deputy managing editor, national radio news executive producer. She had field assignments from Czechoslovakia to Johannesburg to Saskatchewan.
A frequent speaker on investigative reporting issues, Reber taught investigative technique at Ryerson University in Toronto. She is currently on the faculty of Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C. Reber is the co-author of Starlight Tour: The Last Lonely Night of Neil Stonechild (Random House, 2005), which was short listed for the 2006 Governor General's Award in Non-Fiction.
Reber earned her bachelor's degree in German and French language and literature from the University of London, and is fully multi-lingual in English, French and German. She graduated from the City University in London with a post-graduate diploma in broadcast journalism.
