Emmy Award-winning CBS correspondent Mireya Villarreal presents the 2021 Hosokawa Journalism Lecture. She joins the Whitman community for a virtual conversation about her experience covering breaking news stories such as the COVID-19 pandemic, immigration and family separation at the border, natural disasters and the death of U.S. Army soldier Vanessa Guillén. She will also share insights on mental health and self-care.

Villarreal joined CBS News in July 2015, and has covered a wide range of breaking news stories including COVID-19, family separation at the U.S.-Mexico border, the school shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon and the Environmental Protection Agency’s contaminated water leak into the Colorado River in Durango, Colo. She has also reported on the devastating wildfires in California that burned 36,000 acres in June 2016, as well as the methane gas leak in Porter Ranch, Calif., that caused thousands to evacuate their homes.

In 2019, Villarreal moved back to Texas, her home state, to help cover the Southern Region for CBS News; a total of 16 states from Florida to New Mexico.

In the last two years she’s covered a wide range of stories including immigration issues and sexual assault in the military.  She was the first national correspondent to shed light on the disappearance of Vanessa Guillen and the subsequent changes made by the Army.  Her continued coverage of the recent migrant surge along the southern border has also given people all over the world a unique understanding of why these people are coming to the US, who is bearing the brunt of the surge, and how the administration is responding.

A veteran investigative reporter, she is the recipient of two Texas Associated Press Awards for stories on immigration and child safety.

Previously, Villarreal reported for KTVT-TV, the CBS owned and operated station in Dallas. Earlier, she worked at WOAI in San Antonio from 2008 to 2012 and KRGV-TV in Rio Grande Valley, Texas from 2005 to 2008. She began her journalism career at KGNS-TV in Laredo, Texas, as a weekend sports anchor and reporter.

Villarreal is a native of the Texas Rio Grande Valley and graduated from the University of Texas Pan-American in 2001.