Houston Public Media is pleased to welcome Laurie Johnson-Ramirez as its News Director.
In her new role, Ramirez will oversee strategic news planning and lead daily and enterprise reporting efforts across all media platforms.
“Laurie is a skilled and dedicated journalist who is passionate about serving and informing audiences in our community, our state and the nation,” said Kyle Claude, station Executive Director of Content Operations. “Laurie is the ideal person to lead this talented team of news professionals as she fosters a culture of journalism throughout our entire organization.”
Ramirez was named Interim News Director in June 2021 after serving as Executive Producer for Houston Public Media for the past four years.
As EP, Ramirez led daily and breaking news coverage and helped reporters craft and sharpen their stories on tight deadlines. She also played a key strategic role in launching The Texas Newsroom, a collaboration between Houston Public Media, NPR and public media stations in Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio.
One of her first moves as News Director has been to launch a dedicated Newscast Unit to provide more robust coverage of breaking and developing news in the Greater Houston region.
“Houston is the greatest city in the world to cover breaking news!” Ramirez said. “There’s always something happening in Houston or a strong Houston connection on major national and global stories. We want to be the city’s trusted source to cover those stories through the immediacy of live radio and social media platforms.”
“Laurie Johnson has the strategic vision, leadership style and demonstrated ethics to lead us to the next level of strong journalism. At a time when news matters more than ever, Laurie Ramirez puts Houston Public Media in a position to continue leading locally, regionally, and nationally with our news team,” said Josh Adams, Station Manager.
A native of Houston and a graduate of the University of Houston, Ramirez has covered a wide array of topics in her 19 years at Houston Public Media, including the crash of the Space Shuttle Columbia, Hurricanes Katrina, Ike and Harvey and numerous elections. Ramirez is a frequent contributor to NPR and has been heard on CNN, the BBC, MSNBC and international news outlets.
(This post taken from a release sent to me by Houston Public Media)
