Leslie Ovalle Atkinson
Sundial Lead ProducerLeslie Ovalle Atkinson is the lead producer behind WLRN's daily magazine program, Sundial. She previously produced Morning Edition newscasts at WLRN and anchored the midday news. As a multimedia producer, she also works on visual and digital storytelling.
Before joining the team, she was a production assistant for NPR’s “All Things Considered” program, where she worked on the weekly “All Tech Considered” segments and produced daily stories.
Leslie also led the “Argentina Project” podcast at the Wilson Center, a non-partisan policy think tank in Washington D.C.
Her journalism career began when she was in college working at Florida International University’s student paper. From there she went on to freelance at the Miami Herald and intern at the South Florida Sun Sentinel and WLRN.
She was awarded a Sunshine State Award for Best News Photo in the student category for her work covering the aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting in 2018.
Leslie was raised in Miami and was born in Bogota, Colombia.
Contact the Sundial team at sundial@wlrnnews.org
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Jason Seife's first solo show, “Coming to Fruition," is at the Perez Art Museum Miami. His style honors his Cuban and Syrian parents. -
Laura McDermott Matheric, Coconut Creek’s first poet laureate, talks about being inspired by her community of 'Creekers' and how several learning disorders changed her life's trajectory from business to the arts.
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Yvonne Lee Odom has had a 45-year teaching career in Delray Beach, she desegregated Palm Beach County schools as a 15-year-old high school sophomore and is tennis star Coco Gauff’s grandmother.
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Harry and Michelle Coleman went from journalists to the kitchen. Their new smokehouse doesn't make your usual barbecue, they've created Miami barbecue. They tell us about their brisket rubbed with ground espresso, ribs glazed with guava-chili sauce and the smoked flan.
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Comedian Gadiel del Orbe got his start making viral videos for Buzzfeed. He focused on the Latino community, specifically making comedy para sus domincanos. He tells us how he went from being the funny guy on a Navy aircraft carrier to being that funny guy on YouTube.
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South Florida native Kenneth A. Jessell is the president of Florida International University. He tells us how he went from being the first in his family to go to college to leading FIU.
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The search for his mother brought Jessie Wooden to the Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery in Brownsville. It’s an all-Black cemetery built at a time when South Florida was segregated in life and death.
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Siham Inshassi is a recipient of this year’s Emerging Writer Fellowship from the Miami Book Fair. She's writing her first novel and she joins us to talk about how she’s honing her voice in Miami.
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Comedian and actor Dale Elliott Jr. has a big following on social media for his comedy sketches and stories that depict Caribbean families and culture.
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The Miami Herald's new executive editor, Alex Mena, started working at the paper when he was 19 years old. He's now the first immigrant in his position.
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Winsome Bingham's new book The Walk tells the story of a woman taking her granddaughter to knock on doors in their neighborhood to get out the vote. Her children's books teach kids important lessons about family, community and civic action.
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Xavier Cortada, Miami-Dade County’s first artist in residence, wants to tackle the big issues that affect his home in South Florida with his art.
