The University of Arkansas Center for Media Ethics and Literacypresent an Evening with Cecilia Vega
Cecilia Vega’s more than 25-year-long reporting career has taken her to war zones, border towns, the White House, on a trek to the top of the world, Mount Everest, and to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean in a one-man submarine.
She has covered every presidential and midterm election, presidential debate and party convention since 2012 and conducted hundreds of high-profile interviews with politicians, world leaders and celebrities. Her reporting on Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster took her inside the radioactive power plant – twice. She has reported from the neck-high floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina and St. Peter’s Square for the papal conclave that elected Pope Francis.
Until this past May, Vega was a correspondent for CBS’ 60 Minutes. Her reports brought her to Ukraine, where she investigated the fate of more than 20,000 Ukrainian children taken by Russia and on a 10 day hike to Mount Everest’s basecamp. She was on a Philippine Navy ship deep in the South China Sea when it was struck and surrounded by the Chinese Navy. She also swam with whales, thankfully not on the same assignment.
Vega was the first Latina correspondent on 60 Minutes and the first Latina chief White House Correspondent for an English language news network. She is the recipient of the NAHJ Presidential Award of Impact, the National Latina Journalist of the Year and the California Chicano News Media Association Career Achievement Award.
