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Stephanie Hughes

Senior Reporter

SHORT BIO

Stephanie Hughes is a senior reporter at Marketplace. She’s focused on education and the economy, and lives in Brooklyn.

She's reported on topics including the effectiveness of technology used by schools to prevent violence, startups that translate global climate data for homebuyers, and why theater majors are getting jobs writing for chatbots.

Previously, she worked as a producer for Bloomberg, where she covered finance, technology, and economics. Before that, she worked as the senior producer for “Maryland Morning,” broadcast on WYPR, the NPR affiliate in Baltimore. She’s also reported for other media outlets, including NPR’s “Morning Edition,” “All Things Considered,” “The Takeaway,” and Salon.

At WYPR, she helped produce the year-long, multi-platform series “The Lines Between Us,” which won a 2014 duPont-Columbia Award. She’s also interested in using crowdsourcing to create online projects, such as this interactive map of flags around Maryland, made from listener contributions.

A native of southern Delaware, Stephanie graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in communications, studying at the Annenberg School. Before she found her way to radio, she worked in the children’s division of the publishing house Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Latest Stories (483)

Millions of high schoolers don't fill out financial aid forms — and leave billions on the table

Jan 31, 2023
You can't get federal grants unless you fill out the FAFSA.
Billions of dollars in Pell Grant money went unused last year. At least seven states have made filling out the FAFSA a requirement for high school graduation.
Getty Images
After a flurry of toy purchases fueled by the pandemic, toy company Hasbro recently reported layoffs and cratering sales.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Defense Department awards Howard University first-of-its-kind research contract

Jan 24, 2023
HBCUs like Howard often lost out on research grants due to systematic underfunding. Now there’s a push to fund more research at HBCUs.
The Pentagon's $90 million contract with Howard University comes during a larger push to fund more research at HBCUs.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Banks want in on digital wallets — and the consumer data that comes with them

Jan 23, 2023
Seven banks, including Wells Fargo and Capital One, are launching a competitor to services like Apple Pay and PayPal later this year.
Banks are slated to unveil a new digital wallet later this year, aimed at competing with services like Apple Pay.
Duane Prokop/Getty Images for MasterCard

With the Sundance Festival finally back in person, filmmakers have high hopes for distribution deals

Jan 20, 2023
The majority of films debuting at Sundance are still in need of wide distribution. Some believe having the festival in person for the first time since 2020 will help.
Filmmaker Ebs Burnough and Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente speak onstage at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
Vivien Killilea/Getty Images

Harvard Medical School is the latest institution to opt out of U.S. News rankings

Jan 19, 2023
Harvard Med joins a number of prestigious schools boycotting the rankings, saying education is too complex to be ranked numerically.
Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Biden student loan plan would let borrowers pay less, get forgiveness faster

Jan 10, 2023
People who borrowed less than $12,000 for undergrad schooling could have debt forgiven after making regular payments for a decade.
Under the regulations, people who borrowed less than $12,000 for their undergraduate education could receive debt forgiveness after making regular payments for a decade.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

John Deere says it will make it easier for farmers to repair their own equipment

Jan 9, 2023
The tractor maker will allow farmers access to manuals and tools they need to fix increasingly high-tech agricultural machinery.
John Deere has more than 40% of the market share for tractors and other agricultural machinery in the U.S.
David Becker/Getty Images

More than half a million health care workers were hired last year. We still need more.

Jan 9, 2023
The recent jobs report shows a marked rise in the number of healthcare jobs added to the economy.
The latest jobs report shows that the number of workers in the health care sector has climbed back to around pre-pandemic levels.
Mario Tama/Getty Images

The costs of banning women from education in Afghanistan are felt everywhere

Jan 6, 2023
The World Bank estimates the costs of not educating girls through high school is between $15 and $30 trillion dollars in lost lifetime productivity and earnings. But the costs go beyond the financial.
Afghan women and girls take part in a protest in front of the Ministry of Education in Kabul on March 26, 2022, demanding that high schools be reopened for girls.
Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP via Getty Images