Doualy Xaykaothao

Doualy Xaykaothao is a newscaster and reporter for NPR, based in Culver City. She returned to NPR for this role in 2018, and is responsible for writing, producing, and delivering national newscasts. She also reports on breaking news stories for NPR.

Before she came to NPR, Xaykaothao was a correspondent at Minnesota Public Radio, where she covered race, culture, and immigration. She also served as a senior reporter at KERA, NPR's Member station in Dallas and was an Annenberg Fellow at Member station KPCC in Pasadena.

Xaykaothao first joined NPR in 1999 as a production assistant for Morning Edition, and has since worked as a producer, editor, director, and reporter for NPR's award-winning newsmagazines. For many years, Xaykaothao was also based in Seoul and Bangkok, chasing breaking news in North and Southeast Asia for NPR. In Thailand, she covered the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. In South Korea, she reported on rising tensions between the two Koreas, including Pyongyang's attack on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong. In Nepal, as a 2006 International Reporting Project Fellow, she reported on the effects of war on children and women. In 2011, she was the first NPR reporter to reach northern Japan to cover the Tōhoku earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdowns.

Xaykaothao is a multi-platform journalist whose work has won Edward R. Murrow and Peabody Awards. She is a member of the ethnic Hmong hill tribe, born in Laos, but raised in France and the United States. She attended college in upstate New York, where she specialized in ethnic studies, television, radio, and political science.