Nick Valencia is a CNN correspondent based in the network’s global headquarters in Atlanta.

Valencia started with CNN as a teleprompter operator, and since then, he has reported from throughout the United States and Latin America, contributing to award-winning coverage of diverse news events. In his nine years as a CNN correspondent, he has comprehensively covered race-related issues in America, including police shootings and protests across the country in Atlanta, Baltimore, Baton Rouge, Ferguson, and Charlotte. He has reported from the Colombia-Venezuela border to spotlight deteriorating conditions after a failed coup-attempt, as well as the Mexican drug wars as the first American reporter inside the tunnel used by drug kingpin El Chapo to escape a Mexican prison. And he has extensively reported from the U.S.-Mexico border on migrant family separation, touring border patrol facilities and the deplorable conditions of migrant tent camps, with an exclusive interview with a border patrol agent whistleblower.

Throughout 2021, Valencia was on the ground for some of the biggest breaking news stories of the year, including the Surfside condo collapse in Florida, and the deadly tornadoes in Kentucky, thought to be some of the most severe in U.S. history.

Valencia was an instrumental part of CNN’s coronavirus coverage. He reported in-depth on the then rift between the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Trump White House, breaking the news that the White House pressured the CDC to change its testing guidelines.

Valencia has earned several awards for his reporting. In 2021, he was part of the CNN team that won a News and Documentary Emmy for their breaking news coverage of the death of George Floyd. In 2020, the Atlanta Press Club named him “TV Reporter of the Year,” and in 2019, the APC also recognized him for his coverage of family separation along the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2013, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) awarded Valencia its inaugural “Si Se Puede” Excellence in Leadership award. The Huffington Post acknowledged him as one of the most influential Latino journalists in America. He was named one of the “Top 50 Latinos” to follow on Twitter.

A graduate of USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism, he is the former documentary filmmaker for the National Champion USC football team. Originally from Northeast Los Angeles, he currently lives in Atlanta. He is formerly the National Vice President of Broadcast for NAHJ.

You can follow his stories on Twitter and Instagram @CNNValencia