Catherine Laidlaw

Catherine Laidlaw is the chief of NPR's National Desk. Based in Washington, D.C., she oversees the desk's daily and long-term news-gathering operations for audio and digital platforms, working with journalists in bureaus across the U.S. The desk also works closely with hundreds of journalists across NPR's nationwide network of Member stations.

Laidlaw has been the lead editor on topics including abortion, housing, criminal justice and immigration. Her work has been recognized with a Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award, a Peabody Award, an Edward R. Murrow Award, a National Headliner Award, a Gracie Award and as a finalist by the Dart Awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma.

Before joining the National Desk, Laidlaw served as a supervising editor at Morning Edition and as acting director of NPR.org, where she oversaw NPR's digital coverage of the coronavirus pandemic and the repercussions of racial injustice.

Prior to NPR, she was an editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune, the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle as well as a managing editor at The Industry Standard.

She graduated from the University of Missouri's School of Journalism.