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 (475)

Tech layoffs show why managing growth can be so tricky for companies

Nov 9, 2022
From Meta to Twitter to Twilio, companies are realizing they might have grown too quickly.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Skilled trade programs are having a moment

Nov 8, 2022
College enrollment dropped significantly during the pandemic. One exception: skilled trade programs, which saw growth this year.
Jonathan Ellis says he chose a diesel and heavy equipment certificate "because when COVID happened, there weren't as many cars on the road, but the number of trucks on the road stayed the same.” Above, he replaces the brakes on a truck.
Stephanie Hughes/Marketplace

Conservative groups are spending big on school board races

Nov 7, 2022
Traditionally, school board candidates spend $1,000 or less. But one political action committee is spending about 20 times that per race.
Above, a volunteer of Moms for Liberty attends a school board campaign event in Florida. The conservative group spent $50,000 on races in the state, according to the group's co-founder.
Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images

Outlook cools for global shipping demand

Nov 2, 2022
Softening demand and high inventories are to blame.
Shipping company Maersk expects demand for shipping containers to dip between 2% and 4% this year.
John Thys/AFP via Getty Images

Could getting more tech employees in classrooms help college students stick with STEM?

Oct 28, 2022
It's not common for companies to be involved with teaching freshmen-level courses. A new program in Chicago is trying it out.
Alejandro Martinez, left, and Nate Beasley listen to an M1 employee through Zoom in a class at Illinois Tech.
Stephanie Hughes/Marketplace

Chip manufacturing jobs are coming. Are Americans ready for them?

Oct 27, 2022
Semiconductor production positions pay about $100,000 on average, and schools are rushing to offer training so people can qualify.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Can pandemic relief money help schools bring kids up to speed academically?

Oct 26, 2022
National reading and math scores are way down. But school leaders say it can be hard to put all that money toward instruction.
School districts have until September 2024 to spend the last of the $190 billion allocated to them in COVID relief funds.
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

Church? Apartments? As youth population drops, developers reimagine schools

Oct 18, 2022
Following the 2008 recession, people had fewer kids. Now, districts need fewer schools and are selling them to people with big dreams.
A potential buyer looks out the window of the empty library in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary/Middle School in northwest Baltimore, which has been closed since 2020.
Stephanie Hughes/Marketplace

There's a lot at stake with the student loan forgiveness application

Oct 17, 2022
With over 40 million people eligible for debt relief, this is the largest operation of its kind in the department’s history.
President Joe Biden speaks about his student debt relief plan with Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona on Oct. 17.
Alex Wong/Getty Images

With Roe v. Wade overturned, colleges prep to provide abortion medication

Oct 10, 2022
Distributing abortion medication requires resources that some schools may not have.
Barnard College announced last week that it'll start providing medication abortions next fall, joining a number of higher-education institutions.
Jeenah Moon/Getty Images