Award-winning journalist and author Maria Hinojosa is anchor for Latino USA and CNN correspondent. She is the first CNN correspondent assigned exclusively to report on urban affairs.

Before joining Latino USA and CNN, Hinojosa spent six years at National Public Radio (NPR) as a New York-based general assignment correspondent. During this time, she also hosted Visiones, a public radio affairs talk show. Hinojosa continues her affiliation with NPR with Latino USA, a weekly program reporting on news and culture in the Latino community.

In 1991, Hinojosa worked for WNYC-TV as the host of New York Hotline, a live, primetime call-in public affairs show, and in 1990 worked for WNYC Radio as a general assignment correspondent. From 1988 to 1989, Hinojosa served as a producer and researcher for CBS This Morning, and in 1987 worked for CBS Radio as a producer. Among the CBS shows she produced were Where We Stand with Walter Cronkite, The Osgood File and Newsbreak.

Throughout her career, Hinojosa has garnered several awards and honors. In 1995, Hispanic Business Magazine named her one of the 100 most influential Latinos in the United States. Also, in 1995, Hinojosa received the Robert F. Kennedy award for "Manhood Behind Bars," a story for NPR which documented how jail has become a right of passage for men of all races. In 1993, she received both the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Radio Award and the New York Society of Professional Journalists Deadline Award for her NPR report "Kids and Guns." In 1991, she won a Unity Award and the Top Story of the Year Award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists for her NPR story on gang members entitled "Crews." Also in 1991, Hinojosa won an Associated Press award for her coverage of Mandela for WNYC Radio.

In addition, Hinojosa authored the book "Crews-Gang Members Talk with María Hinojosa" (1995), which was based on her award-winning NPR report. Her new book, a motherhood memoir about raising a Latino child in a multicultural society, will be published by Broadway Books in 1999.

Born in Mexico City, Hinojosa is a magna cum laude graduate of Barnard College, where she majored in Latin American studies, political economy and women's studies. Hinojosa resides in New York City with her husband and their son and daughter.

Here awards include Hispanic Business Magazine "100 Most Influential Latinos" (2000), Ruben Salazar Communications Award, National Council of La Raza (1999), Hispanic Business Magazine "100 Most Influential Latinos" (1995), Robert F. Kennedy Award for "Manhood Behind Bars" (1995), National Association of Hispanic Journalists Radio Award "Kids and Guns" (1993), The New York Society of Professional Journalist Deadline Award "Kids and Guns." (1993).