Akayla Gardner is a White House correspondent for MS NOW based in Washington D.C.

She has followed the president and vice president around the country and the globe with a focus on telling stories about politics, policy, and the economy.

Previously, she covered two presidential administrations for Bloomberg News, where she was the first author of a weekly newsletter, "Washington Edition: Inside the White House."

Gardner chronicled the historic 2024 election for the international wire service, traveling to every battleground state and reporting on campaign strategies, voter demographics and President Biden's unprecedented withdrawal from the race. 

She co-authored a magazine cover story for Bloomberg Busniessweek on Vice President Harris' 107-day candidacy. In 2024, she was also a National Press Foundation Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow.

Covering the White House has taken her to India to cover the G-20 summit, to Vietnam for its formal upgrade of its relationship with the US, and to the UK for Queen Elizabeth II's funeral. Recently, she joined Vice President JD Vance in Italy and India, where she reported on the death of Pope Francis and trade negotiations with New Delhi. 

She also traveled with Harris to Switzerland for the Ukraine peace summit, along with the UAE for COP28 and Africa for a ten-day tour of the continent. During the 2022 midterms, she covered the record number of Black and Latino Republicans running for Congress.

Her work has been syndicated in the Washington Post, TIME, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Miami Herald and more. She has also shared her reporting on NBC News, CNN, NPR, and BBC.

A graduate of The Ohio State University, she produced an investigative documentary on allegations of unlicensed therapy and disordered eating under the former head coach of the rowing team that won an award from the regional National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences chapter. She was also president of NABJ at OSU.