Chips Quinn Reporter Spotlight: Alyssa Ramos
Posting: Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Alyssa Ramos, a digital producer at WLRN News, South Florida's public media station in Miami, brings a storyteller's instinct and a reporter's curiosity to the communities she covers. Rooted in the offbeat and the human, her work reflects a deep belief that the stories people overlook are often the ones most worth telling.
A Florida native through and through, Ramos grew up where suburbia gives way to horse country, the kind of place where people say ‘y'all’ and the beach is an hour's drive away. Storytelling found her early, through yearbook writing, fanfiction and a steady diet of magazines and TV news. There was no single turning point, but a quiet accumulation of moments that made journalism feel inevitable. "Storytelling is ingrained in me," Ramos said. "And I was fortunate enough to feel empowered by the people around me that I could spend the rest of my life telling stories."
Alyssa Ramos
Chips Quinn Reporter
Her path into public media took shape through a VOICES fellowship with the Asian American Journalists Association, where she reported her first radio story, an exploration of how members of the Asian American diaspora connect to cultural identity through agriculture. For three months, she researched the history of Florida's Yamato Colony and interviewed its descendants, learning for the first time how to gather audio and build a narrative through sound. The experience confirmed what she had suspected: public media was where she belonged.
Today, Ramos covers arts, culture and community for WLRN, gravitating toward stories that reveal unexpected corners of South Florida life. Her reporting has taken her to the comeback of a storied Miami punk venue, to a women's ice hockey club built from scratch in the Florida sun, and to the dinner table, because food, she believes, is one of the most revealing lenses through which to understand how people live. Among her most significant pieces is a feature on Florida's first professional bull riding team, with a particular focus on its ties to Latin America. More than half of the 12-member roster are Brazilian, and Ramos used audio, multiple voices and narrative depth to capture how young athletes from across the Americas are building new lives one eight-second ride at a time. The story earned national airtime on NPR, her first feature to do so.
Why Join the Chips Quinn Fellowship?
Ramos applied to the Chips Quinn Reporter Fellowship with a clear-eyed sense of purpose. She intends to stay in journalism for the long haul and wants to build the foundation that makes that possible. Watching peers leave the industry due to financial pressures and structural uncertainty has been difficult, and the fellowship represents a chance to chart a more sustainable path forward.
Having worked across television, radio and print, Ramos has reached a point where breadth is giving way to intention. She hopes the fellowship will help her sharpen her focus, advance her radio reporting and strengthen her writing as she works toward a more specialized career.
Advice for Aspiring Journalists
Ramos encourages emerging reporters to seek out the opportunities that unsettle them. Her own growth, she said, has come most reliably from stepping outside her comfort zone — and she treats that as a lifelong commitment rather than a phase. "Seek the opportunities that scare you, that are new to you and that challenge you," she said.
Away from the newsroom, Ramos makes a point of building a life beyond journalism. She catches local punk shows, rock climbs and experiments in the kitchen. She's also, she'll tell you, always on the hunt for good ice cream.
Message from her mentor:
“Alyssa has been a delight to work with! With her tenacity, inquisitive nature, and love of storytelling, Alyssa continues to show tremendous growth as a journalist. I have been impressed by her work and by the goals she has set for herself to grow both inside and outside the newsroom. I am fully confident that she will continue to thrive in her career, and I can not wait to see where it takes her."
Jonathan Franklin
Started by Freedom Forum, the original Chips Quinn program helped put college interns into newsrooms across the country. Since its beginnings in 1991, the program has reached more than 1,400 people, many of whom are now in leadership positions for local and national newsrooms. Today, the program aims to offer support to early-career journalists already in their respective newsrooms through a 1:1 mentorship by leading members in the journalism field as well as alumni from the program. Thanks to continued support for the program from Freedom Forum, each Chips Quinn Reporter receives a $10,000 stipend..
About Freedom Forum: Established on July 4, 1991, by USA TODAY founder Al Neuharth, the Freedom Forum is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) foundation dedicated to fostering First Amendment freedoms for all. As the nation’s foremost advocate for First Amendment freedoms, the Freedom Forum engages thousands of Americans each year in classes, conversations and celebrations of these essential rights, including through the Power Shift Project, the annual Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference, the Chips Quinn Scholars Program for Diversity in Journalism, the Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in the Media, the Free Expression Awards, the annual “Where America Stands” survey, the Journalists Memorial and Today’s Front Pages.
About JFP: The mission of Journalism Funding Partners is to strengthen the depth, diversity and sustainability of local news by building and shepherding relationships between funders and local news organizations. JFP is a recognized nonprofit that acts as fiscal sponsor, allowing foundations and individual funders to contribute directly to local news, regardless of the news organization’s business model. JFP manages the funds feeding numerous news initiatives, including more than a dozen Climate reporters in the Southeast, an Equity Desk at The Sacramento Bee, an Education and Economic Mobility Desk in California’s Central Valley, the Investigative Fund of The Miami Herald and for Inclusivity and Investigative funds at the Associated Press.
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Media Contact: Rusty Coats, Executive Director | rusty@jfp-local.org | (813) 277-8959
