Cheryl Corley
Reporter, National Desk, Chicago
Based in NPR's Chicago Bureau, Cheryl Corley travels throughout the Midwest covering issues and events from Ohio to South Dakota. She has a specific interest in housing and has reported on the early 2000s housing boom, about efforts to revamp public housing, and about a new approach to homebuilding — miniaturization. Her story about those who design and live in extraordinarily tiny homes on wheels became one of NPR's top emailed stories.
Corley is among the group of NPR reporters who covered New Orleans during and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita tore through the Gulf Coast. She reported on the hopes and despair of residents, on the city's mayoral elections, and on the state and city's efforts to create a viable housing plan. In her role as a general assignment reporter, she covers a variety of issues such as politics and trials. Corley also serves as a fill-in host for Morning Edition and Weekend All Things Considered.
Prior to joining NPR in late 1995, Corley was the news director at Chicago's public radio station, WBEZ, where she supervised an award-winning team of reporters. She also has been a frequent panelist on television news-affairs programs in Chicago.
Corley has received awards for her work from a number of organizations including the National Association of Black Journalists, the Associated Press, the Public Radio News Directors Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists. She also has received the Community Media Workshop's Studs Terkel Award for excellence in reporting on Chicago's diverse communities and a Herman Kogan Award for reporting on immigration issues.
A Chicago native, Corley graduated cum laude from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, with a Bachelor's of Arts degree and is now a Bradley University trustee. While in Peoria, Corley worked as a reporter and news director for public radio station WCBU and as a television director for the NBC affiliate, WEEK-TV. She also serves on the board of the Association for Women Journalists in Chicago.
