Laura Tsutsui

Reporter and Producer at Valley Public Radio 

Laura interned in the Capitol office of Senate Pro Tempore Kevin de León in the summer of 2016. She also interned in Congressman Sam Farr’s Washington, D.C. office in the fall of 2016, as a Panetta Scholar.

Laura majored in Mass Communication and Journalism, with an emphasis in multimedia, as a Smittcamp Family Honors Scholar at California State University, Fresno.

“Interning at the state and federal level gave me five-thousand-foot views of how ideas become policies. I appreciated the opportunity to live and work in new places, and watch ‘how the sausage gets made.’ It’s not always pretty, but I learned so much. As a reporter, I now know how to work with legislative staff and elected officials to convey their efforts and inform the public.”

A Fresno native, Laura is a reporter and producer at Valley Public Radio, the NPR affiliate station for the San Joaquin Valley. She writes about politics and policies in Fresno’s local government and throughout the Central Valley. Her internships solidified her fascination with politics and California’s role in the nation.