Quil Lawrence
Quil Lawrence is a New York-based correspondent for NPR News, covering veterans' issues nationwide. He won a Robert F. Kennedy Award for his coverage of American veterans and a Gracie Award for coverage of female combat veterans. In 2019 Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America honored Quil with its IAVA Salutes Award for Leadership in Journalism.
Lawrence started his career in radio by interviewing con men in Tangier, Morocco. He then moved to Bogota, Colombia, and covered Latin America for NPR, the BBC, and The LA Times.
In the Spring of 2000, a Pew Fellowship sponsored his first trips to Iraq — that reporting experience eventually built the foundation for his first book, Invisible Nation: How the Kurds' Quest for Statehood is Shaping Iraq and the Middle East (Bloomsbury, 2009).
Lawrence has reported from throughout the Arab world and from Sudan, Cuba, Pakistan, Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank. He covered Iraq and Afghanistan for twelve years, serving as NPR's Bureau Chief in Baghdad and Kabul. He covered the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the second battle of Fallujah in 2004, as well as politics, culture, and war in both countries.
In 2012, Lawrence returned to the U.S. to cover the millions of men and women who have served at war, both recently and in past generations. NPR is possibly unique among major news organizations in dedicating a full-time correspondent to veterans and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
A native of Maine, Lawrence studied history at Brandeis University, with concentrations in the Middle East and Latin America. He is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Arabic.
-
It took decades for the VA to begin updating it's electronic health records system. After breakdowns, the VA stopped all work on the $16 billion update with the Oracle-Cerner electronic health record.
-
Some military veterans, known as Task Force Butler, are tracking and infiltrating domestic extremist groups, hoping to trigger prosecutions before the groups can cause more violence toward minorities.
-
The Navy has renamed the USS Chancellorsville, a name honoring a Confederate victory, to the USS Robert Smalls, after an enslaved man who escaped the South by stealing a Confederate steamship. -
The navy is renaming the USS Chancellorsville, a name honoring a Confederate victory. It will now be the USS Robert Smalls, after an enslaved man who escaped the South by stealing a Confederate ship.
-
A group of veterans who served at Karshi-Khanabad Air Base in Uzbekistan during the Afghan War say they can't get the Pentagon to declassify information about the toxins they may have been exposed to.
-
Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to a 34-count felony indictment today in a Manhattan courthouse, which was barricaded and surrounded by law enforcement and onlookers.
-
A whistleblower said the Department of Veterans Affairs has known of and tracked racial disparities in benefits decisions for years. Here's an update an ongoing discrimination lawsuit against the VA.
-
The U.S. invasion of Iraq 20 years ago gripped the entire nation. Today it is far from the minds of most Americans, though not for the veterans who served there. -
The invasion of Iraq 20 years ago gripped the attention of the entire country. Today it is far from the minds of most Americans in part because relatively few have a family member who served there.
-
Pete Reed, a former U.S. Marine turned frontline humanitarian medic was killed by a Russian missile this month while treating wounded Ukrainian civilians in Bakhmut. We hear from those who knew him.
