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Lilia Luciano (born October 12, 1984) is a journalist, filmmaker, podcaster and public speaker. She is currently a national correspondent at
CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the '' CBS Evening News'', '' CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 4 ...
based in New York and host of the
iHeart Radio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in August 2008. , iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbrella brand for iHe ...
podcast, El Flow. Before moving to Los Angeles, she worked as the investigative reporter at ABC 10 in Sacramento and was the chief investigative correspondent on
Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Chan ...
's Border Live. In 2019, she was awarded a
Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism The Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism is an annual award presented by Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The recipient is deemed to represent a leading figure in the journalism ...
as a special commendation for enterprise for her four-part documentary series, Puerto Rico Rises, which she directed and produced for ABC Sacramento, a
TEGNA Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into t ...
station. She has also won five Regional Emmy Awards.https://emmysf.tv/files/2020/06/Emmy20-Recipient-Press-Release.pdf In 2018 her coverage of the Northern California Wildfires of 2018 received a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Continuous Coverage. Luciano has won four Regional
Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
. In 2019, she won the Emmy for her special TEGNA series "Crisis at the Border," and for her team's coverage of the Northern California Wildfires.https://emmysf.tv/files/2019/06/Emmy-2019-Recipient-Press-Release.pdf In 2018, she won for California Wildfires coverage and for her documentary Puerto Rico Rises. In 2013, Luciano was also awarded GLAAD's ''Outstanding Digital Journalism Article'' media award for her coverage of homophobia in U.S. Hispanic media. Before CBS News Luciano worked as investigative reporter at ABC 10 in Sacramento, California. She is the director and producer of ''Wars of Others'', an HBO Latino documentary film about the consequences of the U.S. War on Drugs on Colombian farmers and the founder of CoInspire, an interview series about entrepreneurship in partnership with Rokk3r Labs. She has worked as a host and contributor at various ''Vice'' platforms in English and Spanish. Previously, she worked as a national news correspondent for
NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's v ...
's ''
The Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It ...
'', '' Nightly News with
Brian Williams Brian Douglas Williams (born May 5, 1959) is an American retired journalist and television news anchor. He was a reporter for '' NBC Nightly News'' starting in 1993, before his promotion to anchor and managing editor of the broadcast in 2004. ...
'' and
MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...
. She is a TEDx speaker and contributing columnist for
Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
writing both in English and Spanish about issues concerning the Hispanic community, the War on Drugs and Human Rights. She servers the advisory council of United Nations Foundation's Girl Up initiative. She has served as a moderator at the Oslo Freedom Forum Human Rights conferences since 2016.


Journalism

As a Los Angeles based correspondent at
CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the '' CBS Evening News'', '' CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 4 ...
, Luciano has led the network's coverage of California and Oregon wildfires, BLM protests in Portland, immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, the deadly crowd surge at Travis Scott's Astroworld festival, she covered the historic 2021 tornadoes in Kentucky, the oil spill in Southern California, among other national breaking news stories. Some of her feature stories include interviews with EGOT winner Rita Moreno, basketball legend Magic Johnson, and Oscar-winning director Jimmy Chin for CBS Mornings and CBS Sunday Morning. Luciano also produced and hosted Fighting for Paradise: The Future of Puerto Rico, a CBS News documentary streaming on Paramount Plus and CBSN. As an investigative reporter at ABC 10, Luciano has uncovered patterns of corruption in family court through an ongoing multipart series. She has run investigations on sex trafficking, low teacher diversity, campaign financing, police shootings, including daily coverage of the shooting of Stephon Clark in 2018. Her HBO documentary film, released in 2016 uncovers the social, environmental and health impacts of aerial spraying in Colombia. As a VICE News host, she investigated the oil and gas industry's impact on Louisiana's loss of coastal land. At VICELAND's Black Market Dispatches, Luciano embedded with a caravan of gasoline smugglers, hiding in a racing car filled with 400 gallons of contraband gasoline.


Recognition

In 2018, Luciano was awarded a National Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism for her Documentary Puerto Rico Rises., as well as a Regional Edward R Murrow Award for Continuous Coverage of the Northern California Wildfires. Luciano has earned 5 Northern California Emmys. The stories nominated include coverage of immigration, asylum seekers, the California homeless crisis, California Wildfires and her documentary about colonialism and
Hurricane Maria Hurricane Maria was a deadly Category 5 hurricane that devastated the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly Dominica, Saint Croix, and Puerto Rico. It is regarded as the worst natural disaster in recorded history to affect ...
in Puerto Rico.


Education

Born in
San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the ...
, Luciano attended
Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
in
Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
to study
pre-medicine Pre-medical (often referred to as pre-med) is an educational track that undergraduate students in the United States pursue prior to becoming medical students. It involves activities that prepare a student for medical school, such as pre-med course ...
. In 2003, she transferred to the
University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...
; she graduated in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in economics and
broadcast journalism Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are broadcast by electronic methods instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. It works on radio (via air, cable, and Internet), television (via air, cable, ...
.


Early years

While at the
University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...
, Luciano interned with
Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by Comcast. It provides content nationally with pr ...
, where she produced and anchored a finance and economics segment for
Telemundo Internacional Telemundo Internacional is a Latin American pay television network owned by NBCUniversal. Telemundo Internacional carries a variety of programs, consisting mainly of select programs from the Telemundo national schedule. History Origins as Telen ...
. After graduating from The University of Miami, Luciano was hired by
Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and include ...
Networks as correspondent and co-anchor for evening newscast En Vivo y Directo.


Television

She was a chief investigative correspondent for
Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Chan ...
's Border Live show, embedding in communities, and with border enforcement agencies along the U.S.-Mexico border. She was also TEGNA-owned ABC 10's investigative reporter, a position that earned her regional and national awards in journalism. She investigated politics, crime, family court, immigration, housing, education, homelessness, police shootings, drug policy, wildfires, and other climate disasters, including an award-winning documentary about Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Luciano directed Guerras Ajenas, an HBO Latin America Documentary about the consequences of U.S. drug policy in Colombia. She also worked as a host for multiple Vice platforms, including Viceland's World of Sports, Black Market Dispatches and Vice News. Luciano joined
NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's v ...
in December 2010 from
Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and include ...
network where she served as co-host of a live daily program and as a correspondent for the top-rated show ''Aquí y Ahora''. Previously, she was a co-host from 2006 to 2010 at ''Escandalo TV'' (Scandal TV), a spicy Spanish gossip show at TeleFutura Network. In August 2011, Lilia Luciano covered Hurricane Irene from
Nassau, Bahamas Nassau ( ) is the capital and largest city of the Bahamas. With a population of 274,400 as of 2016, or just over 70% of the entire population of the Bahamas, Nassau is commonly defined as a primate city, dwarfing all other towns in the country. ...
for
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
's Nightly News with
Brian Williams Brian Douglas Williams (born May 5, 1959) is an American retired journalist and television news anchor. He was a reporter for '' NBC Nightly News'' starting in 1993, before his promotion to anchor and managing editor of the broadcast in 2004. ...
,
Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It w ...
,
MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...
,
The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather foreca ...
,
CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk s ...
and
Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by Comcast. It provides content nationally with pr ...
. She went on to cover the storm's trail of devastation in
North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...
. During the summer of 2011 Luciano covered the
Casey Anthony Casey may refer to: Places Antarctica *Casey Station * Casey Range Australia * Casey, Australian Capital Territory * City of Casey, Melbourne * Division of Casey, electoral district for the House of Representatives Canada * Casey, Ontario * ...
first degree murder trial in Orlando, Florida for
MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...
and the ''
Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It w ...
''. Luciano reported live from the Orange County courthouse throughout the six-week trial. At midnight on July 17, she gave a special breaking news report on MSNBC to announce Anthony's release from prison. In January 2012, Luciano was the only national correspondent from the major networks covering the murder trial of Joran Van der Sloot in
Lima, Peru Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of ...
for both
Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It w ...
, and
Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by Comcast. It provides content nationally with pr ...
, obtaining exclusive interviews with the victim's family and government authorities in
Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of ...
. On February 22, 2012, Luciano reported for ''Today'', MSNBC and
Comcast Sports NBC Sports Regional Networks is the collective name for a group of regional sports networks in the United States that are primarily owned and operated by the NBCUniversal division of the cable television company Comcast. The networks were orig ...
on the first degree murder trial of
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
Lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...
captain George Huguely, convicted in the death of his girlfriend Yeardly Love.


Trayvon Martin case

Luciano was one of the national television reporters on the scene in
Sanford, Florida Sanford is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Seminole County. As of the 2020 census, its population was 61,051. Known as the "Historic Waterfront Gateway City", Sanford sits on the southern shore ...
covering the
Trayvon Martin Trayvon Benjamin Martin (February 5, 1995 – February 26, 2012) was a 17-year-old African-American from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was fatally shot in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic American. Martin had accompa ...
story. On May 2, 2012, it was announced that Luciano was no longer at NBC News, after it was found that the audio portion of George Zimmerman's
9-1-1 , usually written 911, is an emergency telephone number for the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Palau, Argentina, Philippines, Jordan, as well as the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), one of eight N11 codes. Like other emergency n ...
call, reporting a potential burglary, was edited in a manner that made Zimmerman sound racist by making an unprompted statement that Martin was black instead of answering the 911 dispatcher's questions. NBC dismissed the producer responsible for editing the piece and also dismissed Luciano for the oversight. All of Luciano's reports on the Trayvon Martin story which contained the misleading edit were removed from the ''Today'' website. NBC News president Steve Capus told Reuters that the edit, made by a Miami-based producer, was "a mistake and not a deliberate act to misrepresent the phone call." The network claimed that it was done in order to meet a maximum time requirement for the piece, a common pressure in morning television. The producer was subsequently fired and NBC News apologized for the error, though not on the air, stating it was an "editing error in the production process." On December 6, 2012, Luciano was named as a defendant in a defamation lawsuit filed against NBC by George Zimmerman regarding their erroneous edit and airing of his 911 call to advance a false narrative. Zimmerman's criminal trial concluded with a "not guilty"
jury A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartial verdict (a finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Juries developed in England d ...
verdict In law, a verdict is the formal finding of fact made by a jury on matters or questions submitted to the jury by a judge. In a bench trial, the judge's decision near the end of the trial is simply referred to as a finding. In England and Wales ...
and
acquittal In common law jurisdictions, an acquittal certifies that the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as criminal law is concerned. The finality of an acquittal is dependent on the jurisdiction. In some countries, such as the ...
on July 13, 2013, allowing his lawsuit to proceed. Zimmerman's lawsuit against NBC and his subsequent appeal were both dismissed in Florida courts.


Non-profit work

Since 2013, Luciano has served on the Advisory Board of the United Nations Foundation Girl Up Campaign. She is a Today I am Brave Speaker series. In 2010, she served as spokesperson to the
Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and include ...
and
Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...
Foundation's Education Campaign, "Es El Momento", as well as a supporter and collaborator with
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is a pediatric treatment and research facility located in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1962, it is a 501(c)(3) designated nonprofit medical corporation which focuses on children's catastrophic diseases, par ...
, and Walk Now for Autism.


Feature Documentaries

Luciano is the director and producer of Guerras Ajenas, the first documentary film by HBO Latinoamérica.


Personal life

She previously married Luis Alayo, a
Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the no ...
n banker, on 28 December 2007. However, the couple divorced 18 months later citing irreconcilable differences.


Other facts

In 2009, ''
People en Español ''People en Español'' is a Spanish-language American magazine published by Dotdash Meredith that debuted in 1996, originally as the Spanish-language edition of its publication ''People''. As of 2009, it is the Spanish-language magazine with the l ...
'' selected Luciano in their 50 Most Beautiful people issue. In 2010, ''
Cosmopolitan Magazine ''Cosmopolitan'' is an American monthly fashion and entertainment magazine for women, first published based in New York City in March 1886 as a family magazine; it was later transformed into a literary magazine and, since 1965, has become a wome ...
'' featured Luciano on their November 2010 cover.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Luciano, Lilia American television reporters and correspondents American television talk show hosts Puerto Rican television journalists Puerto Rican television personalities Literacy advocates University of Miami School of Communication alumni Tufts University alumni People from San Juan, Puerto Rico People from Santurce, Puerto Rico 1984 births Living people