Vaughn Hillyard

Vaughn Hillyard is an American journalist working as a White House correspondent at NBC News and MSNBC. He has been with the network since 2013 and has held different positions covering political journalism.^[1]

Vaughn Hillyard
Born	(1991-03-04) March 4, 1991 (age 34) Phoenix, Arizona
Nationality	American
Education	Arizona State University
Occupation	Journalist
Employer(s)	NBC News, MSNBC
Spouse	Devan Cayea

Early life and education

Hillyard graduated from Thunderbird High School in Phoenix in 2009. While at Thunderbird, he was the editor of the student newspaper, The Challenge; when the school district refused to print a story criticizing school officials, Hillyard challenged the decision, and the story was printed 10 months later.^[2] He attended the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, during which time he interned for outlets including The Arizona Republic.^[3] Hillyard graduated from ASU with bachelor's and master's degrees in 2013.^[4]

Career

Hillyard began his career joining NBC News in 2013, and held many different positions, starting as a Tim Russert Fellow, researcher for Andrea Mitchell (which kicked off his career in political reporting he'd been doing since then), covering elections in 2015 and 2016, and was an associate producer.^{[citation needed]}

In 2017, he then gained national attention when NBC promoted him to political reporter and he was known for covering important political events and investigative stories about social injustices on the networks of NBC News and MSNBC and he was known for covering the 2020 United States presidential election among other political stories.^[5][6] In 2021, he was promoted to a correspondent covering the same stories.^[7]

In 2025, he was named a White House correspondent based in Washington, D.C., a position he continues to hold.^[8] He was named a senior White House correspondent for MSNBC in advance of its spinoff from Comcast and sister network NBC News.^[9]

Awards

While at Thunderbird High School, he won the 2011 Sunshine Award for his work on Freedom of Speech. Hillyard was inducted into the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, which recognized his commitment to journalism and significant contributions serving the public with accurate information.^[10]

Personal life

Hillyard married his husband, Devan Cayea in 2023.^{[citation needed]}