Deborah Becker is a senior correspondent and host at WBUR. Her reporting focuses on mental health, criminal justice and education.
Deb is also a substitute host on several WBUR programs and helps produce and report for various WBUR special projects. Deb also worked on the launch of WRNI, Rhode Island's NPR News Station, where she served as Morning Edition host and host of the weekly show "Focus Rhode Island."
Before coming to WBUR, Deb worked at Monitor Radio, the broadcast arm of The Christian Science Monitor newspaper. She also worked at several Boston area radio stations. Deb has received numerous awards for her hosting, newscasts, reporting and investigative reporting from the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTNDA), Public Radio News Directors Incorporated, National Education Writers Association, Associated Press, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Alliance on Mental Illness, Parent/Professional Advocacy League and United Press International. She has also completed several fellowships on addiction, mental health, juvenile justice and journalism and the law.
Deb studied journalism at St. Bonaventure University. She lives with her family in central Massachusetts.
Recently published
Massachusetts touts widespread use of prison computer tablet program
Because most of the roughly 6,000 people incarcerated in the state will be released, Massachusetts Department of Correction Commissioner Shawn Jenkins said the tablets allow prisoners to gain some technology...
With warmer weather, Boston expands policing and other efforts at 'Mass. and Cass'
Boston and state officials are expanding efforts to crack down on outdoor substance use. The efforts are focused on the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, a hub...
How to make AI work for us
AI has become unavoidable. It prompts us when we write emails, handles our customer service issues, answers our internet queries. How AI is changing our lives and what we can...
Iran's complex revolutionary history
Many in the West see Iran as a nation defined by a revolution. It’s also one of the world's oldest continuous civilizations that’s withstood centuries of struggle. How Iran’s history...
The view of the Iran war from abroad
U.S. allies say they won't commit military aid to the war in Iran, and some foreign analysts say the U.S. lacks strategy. The view of the war from the international...
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'The Boston Garden' dispensary chain faces lawsuit from the owners of the TD Garden
Intellectual property law experts Bhamati Viswanathan, a senior visitor at University of Cambridge Law School, and Peter Karol, a Suffolk Law professor, join WBUR's Morning Edition to discuss the case.
Larry called me to complain about one of my stories. Then we became friends
WBUR senior correspondent and host Deb Becker remembers her unlikely friend Larry Clifford, who died in February at the age of 89. "We didn’t always agree," writes Becker, "but kindness...
His group helped prevent a nuclear arms race in the '80s. Now he wants the public's help to prevent another one
Muller co-founded International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the Nobel Prize-winning group that sought to build connections between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Massachusetts launches new dashboard to track opioid settlement spending
State health officials have launched a system aimed at allowing the public track how local governments spend the almost $1 billion in opioid settlement funds they expect to receive by...
With memories of 2004, Boston hopes to land the next DNC
The Democratic Party named Boston one of five finalists to host the next Democratic National Convention in 2028.