Liz Baker

Liz Baker is often on the road, reporting and producing within communities affected by natural and man-made disasters.

She produces extensive on-the-ground coverage of communities coming together to survive, recover, and rise from some of their most difficult moments, from a condo collapse in Surfside, Fla., to immigration enforcement sweeps in Minneapolis and L.A., to the aftermaths of Hurricanes Maria, Ian, and Helene. In 2025, Baker was the first NPR journalist on the scene of the urban firestorms that broke out in Los Angeles, and has continued to report on survivors' rebuilding challenges.

Immediately after joining NPR's National Desk full-time in 2019, Baker traveled to Australia during the catastrophic "Black Summer" bushfires, returning to the U.S. just in time to pivot to coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and summer of protest and unrest following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

She has covered mass shootings across the country, including those in Buffalo, NY, Uvalde, TX, and Monterey Park, CA, and reported on high-profile court cases, including the hate crime and murder trial against Ahmaud Arbery's killers in Brunswick, GA, and Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault trial in Los Angeles. Baker also spent time in the Middle East as part of NPR's award-winning team covering the Oct. 7 attacks and escalation of war in Gaza.

Baker first joined NPR as an Arts Desk intern in 2010, then spent time working as a producer/director on each of the network's news magazine shows, most extensively on Weekend All Things Considered, where she worked closely with host Michel Martin to revitalize the program after its move from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C.

In addition to producing the National Desk's stellar team of journalists, Baker often reports her own stories on-air and online.

She can be reached via encrypted message at liznbaker.88 on Signal.