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 statue honoring the aviation pioneer is now part of the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall. Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. -
The iconic singer-songwriter wasn't able to walk or talk after a brain aneurysm in 2015. Dr. Anthony Wang, a neurosurgeon, explains the challenges she faced as a musician and her remarkable comeback. -
Vandals defaced the perimeter of the construction site over the weekend, spraying hate-filled messages and death threats on banners and posters. They included threats saying, "We will burn this." -
Ernest Robison's son, Matthew, never walked or jumped. But after the boy's death, Robison said, "I got the idea that he would just be able to rise physically from his wheelchair and go up to heaven." -
Officials are calling the 22-year-old a person of interest. Police Chief Lou Jogmen says the man gave himself up after a brief pursuit in his car. -
For abortion-rights defenders, the fall of Roe v. Wade was a disaster in slow motion. That made the blow no less painful. Thirteen people with personal connections to the issue share their stories. -
Hinckley, who was confined to a mental hospital for decades, has been inching his way toward freedom for years. On Wednesday, an order lifting some remaining restrictions went into effect. -
Eulalio Diaz, Jr. was the coroner on duty in Uvalde, Texas, when a gunman massacred 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School just over a week ago. He says he'll never be the same.
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Because Uvalde is so small, a local Justice of the Peace had the horrible task of identifying slain kids after the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School. He says the images will stick with him. -
Nine-year-old Aubriella Melchor said she narrowly escaped the slaughter because she'd been in the bathroom. At a gas station, Christian bikers joined the girl and her mother to pray.
