Featured Profile

Av has been working in public radio for 10 years, and joined WNPR in January of 2004, just as an impeachment inquiry began that would lead to the resignation of former Connecticut Governor John Rowland. Av came to WNPR from Providence, Rhode Island, where he served as a reporter for WRNI public radio and Metro Networks. He arrived in Providence months before the city's notorious mayor, Vincent "Buddy" Cianci, was to be indicted, tried and convicted on federal corruption charges. Before Providence, Av worked as a reporter and news anchor for New Hampshire Public Radio in Concord, NH and left there shortly after the conclusion of an historic impeachment trial of the state's Supreme Court Chief Justice Davod Brock. If you detect a pattern here, you might be onto something. Aside from corruption, Av Harris covers legislative and political issues out of the Capitol in Hartford for a public radio consortium including WAMC in Albany, NY and WFCR in Amherst, MA. These topics can range from the debate over gay marriage to stem cell research, death penalty, crime, drug enforcement policy and incarceration, taxes, education funding, identity theft, health care, immigration, business regulation and more. Av also has a soft spot for musicians and has featured reports profiling artists such as jazz great Clark Terry, looking back on Bob Dylan's infamous 1965 performance at the Newport Folk festival, and an up and coming French Canadian trio busting onto the World music scene. Since 2005, Av has worked with producers at Public Radio International's The World on a local/global reporting initiative that highlights international stories and issues with local connections. In the past he has covered the 2000 New Hampshire presidential primary, the tragic station nightclub fire in West Warwick, RI and travelled to the West Bank in 2001 to produce a documentary on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict for WBUR public radio in Boston. Av has won 9 broadcast journalism awards, most recently from the Connecticut Associated Press in 2005 in the category of Enterprise reporting for his coverage of gun violence in the North end of Hartford. His work has appeared on various national NPR news magazines, PRI's The World, Marketplace, as well as Public radio stations WNYC in New York, WBGO in Newark, WBUR in Boston, and KUER in Salt Lake City, Utah. Av has also filed radio reports for the CBC in Canada and Kol Yisrael radio in Hebrew. He has also served as a political analyst on radio and television programs for NPR, BBC Radio, MSNBC, WTIC FOX 61 in Hartford, CPTV, NH Public Television, and SKY-News TV in Great Britain and Europe. He lives with his wife and two children on the Connecticut River in Hadley, MA and enjoys soccer, singing, cooking and hiking.