Ashley Messenger is Senior Associate General Counsel at NPR, specializing in First Amendment and media law. She has previously worked for U.S. News & World Report, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and NuCity Publications, Inc. She has taught First Amendment law at the University of Michigan Law School and media law courses for the journalism schools at American University, the George Washington University, and George Mason University. Early in her career, she was a commercial radio talk show host and writer and was awarded a Silver Gavel Award by the State Bar of New Mexico.