Leah Donnella
Leah Donnella is an editor on NPR's Code Switch team, where she helps produce and edit for the Code Switch podcast, blog, and newsletter. She created the "Ask Code Switch" series, where members of the team respond to listener questions about how race, identity, and culture come up in everyday life.
Donnella originally came to NPR in September 2015 as an intern for Code Switch. Prior to that, she was a summer intern at WHYY's Public Media Commons, where she helped teach high school students the ins and outs of journalism and film-making. She spent a lot of time out in the hot Philly sun tracking down unsuspecting tourists for on-the-street interviews. She also worked at the University of Pennsylvania in the department of College Houses and Academic Resources.
Donnella graduated from Pomona College with a Bachelor of Arts in Africana Studies.
-
Scared, fine. Frightened, sure. But spooked? This week, we dive into the racial history behind one of Halloween's most fraught descriptors. -
Halloween is nigh. Does your costume pass the racial sensitivity test? That's our topic this week on Ask Code Switch. -
Its a familiar American trope: The most segregated time for Christians is 11 a.m. on Sunday. This week, on Ask Code Switch, where does an interracial family find a pew? -
Indian Country Today Media Network announced it would "cease active operations." That leaves a big hole in news coverage by, and about, Native Americans. -
It's one thing when outsiders don't recognize my faith. It's a different kind of sadness when I'm made to feel like a stranger in the synagogue. -
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talked to Mélisande Short-Colomb, whose family was once enslaved by Georgetown University. Now, at 63, Short-Colomb has enrolled as a freshman there. -
Last week, Ask Code Switch heard from a woman who was considering trading her white-sounding last name for her boyfriend's Latino one. Here's a roundup of the best advice we got from our readers. -
What happens when a "Miller" becomes a "Martinez"? This week, we offer advice for a woman whose boyfriend is worried about unconscious bias affecting their marriage. -
What does it look like when one Latino is racist towards another? And what can one tiny interaction say about the way communities relate? How one viral video reveals fissures in the Latino community.
-
This week, we answer a question from a multiracial reader who looks black but feels Filipino. Let's get into it.
