Odette Yousef
GRANTEE
Odette Yousef is a national security correspondent at NPR, focusing on extremism. Yousef aims to explore how extremist ideas break into the mainstream, how individuals are radicalized, and the efforts to counter that.
Before joining NPR in August 2021, Yousef spent 12 years reporting for member station WBEZ in Chicago, where she was most recently part of the Race, Class and Identity team. While there, she was a reporter and host for season three of WBEZ's investigative podcast, Motive. The podcast, which won a 2021 national Edward R. Murrow Award, explores the emergence and spread of the neo-Nazi skinhead movement in the U.S. and its connections to far-right extremism.
Prior to joining WBEZ, Yousef reported at NPR member station WABE in Atlanta.
Yousef was part of a team that won a 2016 Murrow award for Best Continuing Coverage, and she received a 2018 Studs Terkel Community Media Award.
Born and raised in the Boston area, Yousef received a bachelor's degree in economics and East Asian studies from Harvard University. She is based in Chicago.
