Award-Winning Journalist Maria Hinojosa to Give Bryn Mawr College's 2017 Commencement Address
As the anchor and executive producer of the Peabody Award-winning NPR show Latino USA and anchor and executive producer of the PBS show America by The Numbers with Maria Hinojosa, she has informed millions about the changing cultural and political landscape in America and abroad.
In April 2010, Hinojosa launched The Futuro Media Group with the mission to produce multi-platform, community-based journalism that gives critical voice to the voiceless by harnessing the power of independent media to tell stories that are overlooked or under reported by traditional media.
In nearly 30 years as a journalist, she has worked for CNN, PBS, CBS, WNBC, and WGBH. Her previous projects include PBS’ Need to Know series and the WGBH/La Plaza talk show Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One. Hinojosa was the first Latina to anchor a FRONTLINE report: aired in October 2011, Lost in Detention explored abuse at immigrant detention facilities, garnering attention from Capitol Hill to both the mainstream and Spanish-language media.
“This year Bryn Mawr has hosted a series of events exploring the many aspects of ‘voice’ so it’s only fitting that we have as our commencement speaker someone who has eloquently and powerfully given a voice to so many who have been traditionally marginalized and silenced,” says Bryn Mawr President Kim Cassidy.
Hinojosa has received numerous awards for her work including four Emmys, the 2012 John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism, Robert F. Kennedy Award for Reporting on the Disadvantaged, the Studs Terkel Community Media Award, and the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Overseas Press Club for best documentary for her groundbreaking Child Brides: Stolen Lives. In addition to her broadcast work, Hinojosa has been a weekly syndicated columnist for King Features/Hearst and is the author of two books: Raising Raul: Adventures Raising Myself and My Son, a motherhood memoir; and Crews: Gang Members Talk with Maria Hinojosa, an in-depth collection of interviews with gang members in New York City.
Hinojosa was born in Mexico City and raised in Chicago, IL. She received her bachelor’s degree from Barnard College. She is currently the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Chair of Latin American and Latino Studies at DePaul University in Chicago and a Global Post ‘Voces’ columnist.