Lucy Nalpathanchil
Vice President, Community EngagementLucy leads Connecticut Public's strategies to deeply connect and build collaborations with community-focused organizations across the state.
Before becoming a member of the company's senior leadership team, Lucy was the Executive Producer and Host of Connecticut Public's morning talk show and podcast, Where We Live, for nearly seven years. Under her leadership, WWL went beyond news headlines and interviews with policymakers to feature more conversations about Connecticut and the stories of its residents.
In 2021, Lucy and the Where We Live team received a first-place award among large stations from Public Media Journalists Association or PMJA for this interview with a Norwich woman. In 2020, Lucy received a national Gracies Award from the Alliance for Women in Media in 2020 for her conversation with a Connecticut mother and her trans-son.
Where We Live received two national awards in 2018 from Public Media Journalists Association, formerly known as Public Radio News Directors, Inc., or PRNDI. Lucy and the Where We Live team was awarded second place in the categories of "Call In Program" and "Interview."
Lucy has been a public radio journalist for more than 20 years covering everything from education to immigration, juvenile justice, and child welfare issues to veterans' affairs and the military. Her reporting has taken her to all sorts of places, including a ride aboard a Coast Guard boat in Florida and to Tambacounda, Senegal, to talk with women journalists and farmers.
She moved to Connecticut in 2006 to become WNPR's Assignment Editor.
She's also been local host for mid-day programming and for All Things Considered.
She’s contributed to National Public Radio and her stories have aired on several national NPR shows including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Weekend All Things Considered, Here and Now, and Latino USA.
During her time in Connecticut, Lucy has focused on immigration, including New Haven's ID card program, efforts for an in-state tuition law for undocumented students, and the Becoming American series: stories of immigrants and the citizenship process. In 2011, Lucy launched the Coming Home Project to tell the stories of returning Afghanistan and Iraq War veterans in transition. To learn more about the military, Lucy was chosen to take part in a week-long training for journalists hosted by the U.S Army at Fort Leavenworth, KS and Fort Leonard Woods, MO. Getting up at 3:30 am to participate in boot camp was most memorable!
She also was selected to join military reporters around the country for a conference hosted by the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative in Washington D.C.
Lucy has worked in several states as a public radio reporter after beginning her career at WDUQ (now WESA) in Pittsburgh. She's received awards from Pennsylvania's Golden Quill, the New York State Associated Press, the Mayor's Asian American Advisory Board in Jacksonville, Florida, the Connecticut Associated Press and the state's Society for Professional Journalists chapter.
Lucy enjoys traveling, hiking, and planning her next garden. She and her husband, Jason, live in Suffield with their two children and a small zoo.
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This hour on Where We Live, we hear from two survivors of genocide on why mainstream psychiatric care may not be solely effective in immigrant communities; and which models work best. -
Bill Keller, Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Marshall Project, joins us to discuss his new book What’s Prison For? Punishment and Rehabilitation in the Age of Mass Incarceration. -
What are some issues with homestay services like AirBnB? And what’s being done to address them? This hour on Where We Live, we hear from travelers about their experiences with short-term rentals. -
This hour on Where We Live, dog expert Alexandra Horowitz recounts her first year with a new puppy in her latest book. -
In his new book, 'The Storm is Here: An American Crucible,' author Luke Mogelson outlines what happened during the January 6th Capitol Riots. Host Lucy Nalpathanchi talks to him about what he saw at the Capitol that day and what led to this violent attack. -
This hour on Where We Live, author Randall Horton joins us to talk about his new memoir Dead Weight. Horton is an associate professor of English at the University of New Haven, and his new memoir details his time incarcerated as well as his early years working in academia. -
For acclaimed author Tochi Onyebuchi, Connecticut is a microcosm of the country. This hour, he joins host Lucy Nalpathanchil to discuss his new science fiction novel set in New Haven, and its pressing real-world implications. -
Childhood obesity has risen starkly in the pandemic as well, but for different reasons than you may think. Today on Where We Live, we explore how pandemic stress is impacting childhood obesity. -
This hour on Where We Live, we take a deep dive into new research, treatment gaps, disparities, and myths about menopause. -
How can young people better spot "fake science"? Connecticut College professor and author Marc Zimmer's new book offers younger readers guidance. This hour, hear from Zimmer, along with the Connecticut Science Teachers Association.
