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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Authorities said that the shooting suspect mailed letters to University of Nevada, Las Vegas employees across the country and that at least one letter contained a harmless unidentified white powder. -
Arlington officials identified James Yoo as the suspect involved in the massive Monday night explosion. Police say he is presumed dead as they investigate what caused the home to go up in flames. -
Twenty-four executions have been carried out in 2023 — five more than last year, the Death Penalty Information Center says. Meanwhile, 50% of Americans say the death penalty is applied unfairly. -
The De Winton's golden mole was last spotted in 1936. But with the help of a mole-sniffing dog and new environmental DNA analysis, researchers are taking it off the most wanted lost species list. -
A person shared video of "the mother of all tumbleweeds" on social media this week. That got us thinking about where tumbleweeds come from and their propensity for taking over roads and neighborhoods. -
In the decision, a Palm Beach County judge noted Tesla's glowing marketing strategy and Musk's public statements about the self-driving software. The decision means a trial against Tesla can proceed. -
Dr. Hammam Alloh, a 36-year-old nephrologist who practiced at Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital, was killed by an Israeli airstrike in November.
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More than 200 medical personnel have been killed since the war started. Their colleagues say there's been no time to mourn. In that spirit, doctors shared details about the lives that were lost. -
The program means those who lost family members or were injured in the Lahaina fire could receive payments of more than $1 million by the spring. But by participating they'd waive the right to sue. -
Eighteen people were killed in this week's mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. Authorities have identified all of the victims. -
The suspect remains at large more than 24 hours after the deadliest mass shooting of 2023. A statewide manhunt led officers to Robert Card's home in Bowdoin, Maine, but there's still no sign of him. -
President Biden has said he wants "unprecedented" aid for Israel and enough funding for Ukraine to continue its fight against Russia. But he faces hurdles in the Republican-controlled House.
