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Join the NPR Illinois team!

Community Voices is seeking a co-host/editor to join Jeff Williams and Randy Eccles in getting to know our neighbors and more. Apply by May 25, 5 p.m.

The news department is seeking part-time fill-in anchor/reporters who are available either weekdays from 5:30 to 9 a.m. and/or 3:30 to 6 p.m. Apply by June 5, 5 p.m.

Lauren Chooljian

Lauren is NHPR’s Politics and Policy reporter for the State of Democracy project.

Before joining NHPR in 2017, Lauren spent nearly six years as a reporter, producer and fill-in host for WBEZ in Chicago. Most recently, she covered City Hall and Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration.

Her reporting has earned her awards from the Associated Press and a regional Murrow Award. In 2014, her voice was featured on a best-of list in the Chicago Tribune culture section for its “unpretentious, Peppermint Patty scratchiness,” which her family especially appreciated.

Lauren graduated with a BA in History from Saint Anselm College and has a Master of Science in Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she was also an adjunct lecturer. Her work as been featured on NPR, Marketplace, Here and Now, and in The Washington Post, among others.

Lauren is a proud New Hampshire native, born and raised in Hampstead.