John McChesney

John spent nearly 30 years at NPR as an award-winning editor, correspondent and news executive. He established two of the news department’s fundamental operating elements, both the National and Foreign Desks, which have repeatedly won the highest professional honors in journalism. As an NPR correspondent John has covered environmental issues in Asia, technology in Silicon Valley, food and agriculture in the rural West, and national security, including multiple assignments to the war in Iraq.

He has worked in or directed coverage on every continent, with experience leading dozens of reporters working in scores of countries under a wide variety of conditions, including hostilities. Now he is returning to the region closest to his heart, the American West. His best hope is that while covering the hostilities afflicting the rural West, weapons stay in the holster.