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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A powerful earthquake rocked southeastern Turkey and northern Syria early Monday, killing more than 3,400 people and injuring thousands more. Hundreds of families are still trapped. -
Bobbi Wilson went on a mission to save New Jersey's trees, capturing spotted lanternflies. That frightened her neighbor, who called the cops. Now, her bug collection is part of a Yale museum. -
After a three-day search, officials have taken a 26-year-old into custody, saying he "maliciously" attempted to destroy Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield. The state is no stranger to antisemitic threats. -
The families of the 11 people who died in the attack at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio are sharing memories of their loved ones. -
The shootings in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay, two towns just hundreds of miles apart in California, share devastating similarities. -
Rich Osthoff told NPR that Santos — who went by Anthony Devolder — set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the veteran's dog in 2016. Santos never delivered the cash. The dog died months later. -
Critics of the Bangor Daily News said the redacted version promotes a whitewashed and sanitized version of Martin Luther King Jr. that does not convey his radical views and work as an activist. -
The crew and passengers aboard the whale watching boats have described it as a once in a lifetime moment. Lucky for you, it was caught on video! -
Changes by the FDA mean patients won't have to schedule in-person exams to get a prescription. That opens the door for more pharmacies to provide the medication. But not everyone will have access. -
The German shepherd mix went missing in October 2021. Now, the friendly pooch is on a cross-country road trip from Kansas to California, back to the family who adopted him as an abandoned puppy.
