Doualy Xaykaothao
Newscaster
Doualy Xaykaothao is a newscaster for NPR, based in Culver City. She returned to NPR for this role in 2018, in which she is responsible for writing, producing, and delivering national newscasts.
Before she came to NPR, Xaykaothao was a correspondent at Minnesota Public Radio, where she covered race, culture, and immigration. She also served as a senior reporter at KERA, NPR's Member station in Dallas.
Xaykaothao first joined NPR in 1999 as a production assistant for Morning Edition, and since worked as an NPR producer, editor, director, and reporter for NPR's award-winning programs. For many years, Xaykaothao was also based in Seoul and Bangkok, chasing breaking news in North and Southeast Asia. In Thailand, she covered the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. In South Korea, she reported on rising tensions between the two Koreas, including Pyongyang's attack on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong. And in 2011, she was the first NPR reporter to reach northern Japan to cover the Tōhoku earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdowns.
Xaykaothao is a multi-platform journalist whose work has won Edward R. Murrow and Peabody Awards. She is a member of the ethnic Hmong hill tribe, born in Laos, but raised in France and the United States. She attended college in upstate New York, where she specialized in television, radio, political science, and ethnic studies.
