Lisa Desjardins

Lisa Desjardins (née Goddard; born January 29, 1972) is an American political journalist. She is a correspondent at PBS NewsHour and has previously worked for the Associated Press and CNN Radio. As of 2018, she has reported on five U.S. presidential elections. Early life and education Desjardins was born in Hawaii but grew up in Annandale, Virginia. Her father was a naval officer who retired at the rank of captain and later worked as a college instructor. She has three siblings and seven half-siblings on her father's side. She became interested in politics during her childhood. Desjardins studied at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, from 1990 to 1994, earning a bachelor's degree in economics. Subsequently, she spent two years doing Russian studies at Herzen University in Saint Petersburg, where she learned to speak Russian. Starting in 1996, she attended Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. She received a Master of Science degree in journalism from that university the following year. Career Desjardins' first job in journalism was at the local television station WBTW in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, between 1998 and 1999, when she was fired. Next, she worked as a freelance reporter for The Sun News, a Myrtle Beach newspaper, and, at the same time, as a freelance reporter for the news agency Reuters. After a few months, in October 1999, she left The Sun News and joined the Columbia NBC-affiliate WIS as a political reporter, while she remained a reporter for Reuters. At WIS, she covered the South Carolina Legislature, the debate on the display of the Confederate Flag at the South Carolina State House, and the 2000 Republican presidential primaries. In 2003, Desjardins became a reporter in the Washington, D.C. bureau of the Associated Press, where she reported on, among other things, the 2004 presidential election; Medicaid; hurricanes; and the Iraq War.