Jason DeRose

Jason DeRose covers religion for NPR News, reporting on the ways belief shapes American public life and the ways American life shapes religious expression.

Previously, he was NPR's Western Bureau Chief, editing news coverage from Member station reporters and freelancers in California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Alaska and Hawaii. He also edited coverage of religion and LGBTQ+ rights for the National Desk. Earlier, he was an editor on NPR's Business Desk and on the former NPR mid-day news magazine Day to Day.

Before coming to NPR in 2008, DeRose had been a reporter and editor at Member stations in Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis and Tampa. His work has won numerous awards, including from the Religion News Association, the Religion Communicators Council, the Native American Journalists Association and NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists.

Outside of public radio, DeRose worked as an oral history interviewer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, as a trainer at the International Center for Journalists and as a nursing home chaplain. He taught journalism ethics, radio reporting, multimedia storytelling and religion reporting at DePaul University in Chicago and at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

DeRose graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, with majors in religion and English. He holds a master's degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School and studied religion reporting at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.