Lauren Chooljian

Lauren Chooljian Baer (born December 29, 1987) is an American radio journalist. She is a senior reporter and producer for New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR). She previously worked for WBEZ in Chicago.

Early life and education

Chooljian was born and raised in Hampstead, New Hampshire. Her mother, Carrie, is a social worker; her father, Barry, is the former longtime coach of Timberlane Regional High School's decorated wrestling program and is of Armenian descent; and she has a younger sister, Cara. Chooljian worked as a camp counselor in Hampstead for at least seven summers. She represented New Hampshire at Girls Nation, a national youth civic forum in Washington, D.C., in July 2005. She went to high school at Pinkerton Academy, where she served as president of the chorus and co-president of the school council, graduating in 2006. She grew more interested in journalism after she watched a 2008 presidential primary debate at Saint Anselm and got to interview Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton. In 2009, she interned for CBS News in New York City. Members of the New Hampshire media variously praised and criticized Stranglehold for examining the outsize electoral power of "one small state". Beginning in late April 2022, Chooljian's home and several homes connected to her were repeatedly vandalized with thrown bricks and red spray paint. In one incident, the words "Just the beginning!" were graffitied onto the side of her house in Melrose, Massachusetts, and her window smashed with a brick. Law enforcement investigating the incidents said they were possibly in retaliation for her reporting on Spofford (who denied involvement in the attacks). However, later in the month the judge requested that Chooljian provide the court with anonymized transcripts of her interviews.

Personal life

Chooljian met her husband, Matt Baer, in Chicago in August 2013. They got married at the Rocks Estate in New Hampshire on September 2, 2017, shortly before Baer began going to the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.