BEA2026

Teresa Puente has spent her career reporting on immigration and Latino issues in the U.S. and has also reported extensively from Mexico. Previously, she was a staff reporter at the Chicago Tribune and was on the editorial board at the Chicago Sun-Times. Early in her career, she worked as a reporter for the Press-Telegram in Long Beach and The Orange County Register. Her recent journalistic work has been published in TIME, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, The Hill, The Miami Herald, Fox News Latino, Latino magazine, and In These Times.

Puente received the Studs Terkel Award from Public Narrative for her coverage of Chicago’s diverse communities. She has served on the board of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the California Chicano News Media Association and JAWS – Journalism & Women Symposium. She is a past president of the Chicago Association of Hispanic Journalists. Puente, an assistant professor at CSULB, teaches News Reporting and Ethics, Social Media Communication and Bilingual Magazine Reporting & Production, which publishes the Spanish-language magazine Dig En Español. She also is faculty adviser to the CSULB student chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and faculty adviser to 22 West Media.