Leyla Santiago joins UNC Hussman as the inaugural Daniels Executive-in-Residence

By Claire Cusick

CNN Correspondent Leyla Santiago joined UNC Hussman as the school’s inaugural Frank A. Daniels Jr. Executive-in-Residence.

In becoming the next Daniels Executive-in-Residence at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, CNN Correspondent Leyla Santiago is following in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother, both teachers. “It’s something that I feel was in my blood, because some very strong women in my life have tackled the education world and worked with students,” she said. “I have always loved working with interns and helping to play a role in their experience with newsies. All of that plus my own passions and experience are combining in this moment for me.”

The Daniels Executive-in-Residence program was established in 2020 to honor Frank A. Daniels Jr. ’53, the legendary president and publisher of The News & Observer. Daniels served at the helm of the Raleigh-based newspaper for 26 years, creating an extraordinary legacy of leadership and public service.

The program provides students and faculty at UNC Hussman with the opportunity to work with and learn from renowned thought leaders from the field of journalism, media and related professions.

“We are honored to welcome Leyla Santiago back to the Triangle as our inaugural Daniels Executive-in-Residence,” said UNC Hussman Dean Raul Reis. “She knows our local community well, and she brings the experiences and lessons from her extraordinary career to the school’s classrooms and production studio. Our students can learn so much from Leyla’s perspective as a multilingual and multicultural journalist.”

Just a few weeks into her semester as Daniels Executive-in-Residence, Santiago said UNC students had already impressed her with their thoughtful, smart questions about her career. “I’m loving it because this young generation has such solid questions,” she said. “That allows me to be very real about what my journey has been like, understanding that theirs may not be the same.”

Santiago’s journey as a self-described Army brat born in Puerto Rico and growing up in Panama and South Carolina eventually took her to the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications where she majored in public relations but found her career path at the local ABC affiliate station. She started as an intern, became an employee and kept going – to other local stations in Virginia, Alaska and California before taking a job as a reporter and anchor at WRAL-TV in Raleigh. There she won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia award for a documentary for The Journey Alone, a 2014 documentary about unaccompanied children crossing the border into the U.S. from Mexico.

In 2016, she became an international correspondent at CNN, covering Latin America from Mexico City. She earned more accolades for her coverage of immigration and the devastation in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017. Her most recent role has been as a national correspondent based in Miami and in Washington, D.C.

At UNC Hussman Santiago is teaching MEJO 490: “Covering and Engaging Latinx Communities.” Santiago said the first third of the course will be reading and discussing the history and diversity of the Latin diaspora. Then students will work on advertising and public relations campaigns, or write stories, aimed at Latinx communities. “I don’t want this to be a history class, but understanding the history and the nuance is step one,” she said. “We have to have that as a foundation before we can go out and cover and engage these communities successfully and responsibly.”

The longtime television news correspondent will also work with students on the production of Carolina Week, the school’s student-produced newscast, that is devoting part of its airtime to Carolina Ahora, the Spanish-language counterpart of the student-led social media show Carolina Now. This will help train students in preparing for possible roles on Spanish-speaking networks such as Telemundo or Univision, Santiago said. “Given the demand for [news delivered in Spanish], it will be a great opportunity for students to deliver on that along with their UNC-Chapel Hill education,” she said. “Our Tar Heels will be able to represent us in that market. The Spanish-speaking community is growing and has such diversity within it. Developing Carolina Ahora addresses what we’re seeing in the real world.”

Santiago said she is enjoying interacting with the students, listening to what they bring to class and sharing her own story. “Hearing what I have learned, my successes and my failures, can perhaps help them achieve what they’re trying to do, even if it’s not exactly the same thing,” she said. “The idea that I get to combine my passion for journalism, my desire to responsibly help this next generation move forward and my love of teaching is inspiring to me. I am so excited to see where this semester goes.”