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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Hundreds of thousands of Velella velella, more commonly known as by-the-wind-sailors, are drifting onto the coastline. Beachcombers say they look like "blue diamonds strewn across the beach." -
For days, police say, Samuel Patrick Groft cruised through the streets of Los Angeles on his bicycle, single-handedly chopping down about a dozen city trees with an electric chainsaw in three different neighborhoods. -
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. -
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. -
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." -
Social media was recently taken aback watching as alligators in freezing weather appeared to go into a deep sleep to stay alive. They're not alone. Iguanas and hummingbirds do it too. -
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. -
The CDC estimates that up to 86% of new COVID-19 cases stem from the latest mutation. The virus continues to evolve so rapidly that "our immune systems have not been able to keep up," an expert says. -
As the U.S. celebrates the civil rights icon on MLK Day, here are a few things to know about the holiday honoring the slain activist and his fight against inequality and racial injustice. -
If New Year's resolutions include improving vocabulary, then the 2024 Banished Words List slaps.
