Vanessa Romo
Vanessa Romo is a reporter for NPR's News Desk. She covers breaking news on a wide range of topics, weighing in daily on everything from immigration and the treatment of migrant children, to a war-crimes trial where a witness claimed he was the actual killer, to an alleged sex cult. She has also covered the occasional cat-clinging-to-the-hood-of-a-car story.
Before her stint on the News Desk, Romo spent the early months of the Trump Administration on the Washington Desk covering stories about culture and politics – the voting habits of the post-millennial generation, the rise of Maxine Waters as a septuagenarian pop culture icon and DACA quinceañeras as Trump protests.
In 2016, she was at the core of the team that launched and produced The New York Times' first political podcast, The Run-Up with Michael Barbaro. Prior to that, Romo was a Spencer Education Fellow at Columbia University's School of Journalism where she began working on a radio documentary about a pilot program in Los Angeles teaching black and Latino students to code switch.
Romo has also traveled extensively through the Member station world in California and Washington. As the education reporter at Southern California Public Radio, she covered the region's K-12 school districts and higher education institutions and won the Education Writers Association first place award as well as a Regional Edward R. Murrow for Hard News Reporting.
Before that, she covered business and labor for Member station KNKX, keeping an eye on global companies including Amazon, Boeing, Starbucks and Microsoft.
A Los Angeles native, she is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University, where she received a degree in history. She also earned a master's degree in Journalism from NYU. She loves all things camaron-based.
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At its peak, 24 million basketball fans tuned in to watch the women's championship between Iowa and South Carolina, making it the most-watched basketball game since 2019. -
Rain, thunderstorms and gray skies over large swaths of the path of totality are threatening to block views. Here's how to make the most of the rare event. -
The seaman had a storied career in the Navy. Over 27 years he served, he survived the surprise attack by Japan, was shot down over the Pacific and was uninjured in the Korean War. -
Debate is hot about the impact of a higher minimum wage. Half a million Californians work in fast-food, where wages had stagnated for decades. Restaurant owners warn of higher prices and fewer hours. -
A day after Homeland Security Investigations officials descended on Sean Combs' Miami and Los Angeles residences, his lawyers are calling it an "unprecedented ambush." -
Homeland Security officials said the raids are part of an ongoing investigation with law enforcement in New York, Miami and Los Angeles. -
The city's chief of police told reporters Thursday that the shooting, which left one person dead and 22 others injured, "appeared to be a dispute between several people that ended in gun violence." -
Parts of "The Big Apple" could see at least 6 inches of snow, while somewhere between 8 inches to a foot could fall in Boston. Public schools in both cities will be closed Tuesday. -
The State Department is discouraging tourists from traveling to the Caribbean islands. But government officials from both nations hope that won't keep tourists from coming. -
California is in the grips of an atmospheric river that's causing flooding all over the state. Climate change might be intensifying storms like it — but scientists are still working out the details.
