Ina Jaffe

Ina Jaffe, a journalist and radio personality who, for 36 years as an investigative correspondent, had been one of NPR's most recognizable and reliable voices, died August 1, 2024. She died of breast cancer in Los Angeles at the age of 75.

Chicago-born Ina Jaffe was best known as one of NPR’s most recognizable voices, but she did not get her start on the air, or even on the screen. She began on the stage, performing as an actor. In the 1980s, the idea of working for NPR caught her interest. Her ability to narrate and to bring a scene to life, first honed on the stage, proved invaluable in her work.

NPR was not her first stop on the road into journalism, however. Jaffe earned degrees in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin and DePaul University and did reporting on city politics for The Chicago Reader before moving to radio.

Jaffe worked as a correspondent for the radio network, covering social issues, politics, government, and life in the United States. In her later years, she had a strong focus on age and aging. Her work often made genuine changes in the world, such as when she reported on land run by the Department of Veterans Affairs in Los Angeles being leased to private businesses instead of for its intended use: housing homeless veterans. She was also known for her award-winning coverage of California’s “three strikes” laws.

Over the years, Jaffe’s work won her a number of awards, including a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media, recognition from the Society of Professional Journalists, a Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association, an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, and more.

After privately living with breast cancer for two years, Jaffe publicly disclosed her diagnosis in 2021.

By Eric San Juan

(Photo: David Livingston/Getty Images)