Tom Llamas got his start as a production assistant and worked his way up to become an investigative reporter. He then served as the co-anchor of the 5 p.m. newscast for NBC 4 in New York and also as a contributing correspondent for NBC News before going to ABC News in September 2014. While based in New York for five years, Llamas gained experience covering a wide range of major news stories including hurricanes, the Boston Marathon Bombings, wildfires and the earthquake in Haiti. During his career he has also covered 9/11, the war in Afghanistan, and numerous presidential campaigns. At ABC, he and Cecilia Vega along with fellow NAHJ member Jim Avila were also an important part of ABC News Presidential Election team. Llamas who was born and raised in Miami after his parents fled from Cuba during the 1960s, has been recognized with several awards and honors throughout his career, including Emmy awards for "Best Anchor" and "Best Hard News Story" in 2013. His first Emmy was awarded in 2008 for his reporting as the first TV journalist to work on a human smuggling interdiction at sea with the U.S. Coast Guard. In 2012, he won two Edward R. Murrow awards for feature and hard news reporting and was also part of the WNBC team that won the Murrow for breaking news coverage of Hurricane Sandy in 2014. Llamas was also honored with the prestigious "El" award by El Diario in 2012, the country's oldest and largest Spanish-language newspaper. Last year Llamas talked to a group of journalism students at North Philadelphia's Esperanza College about how the industry can benefit from bilingualism and diversity. He offered his advice in both English and Spanish. "Diverse newsrooms are the best newsrooms because that way communities are fully covered. You have every angle covered, every community covered and when you [have] that your product just becomes better. Also, the way you look at stories and the way you attack stories changes because you hear from everyone at the table." The talk was staged in conjunction with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. S A L U D O S H I S P A N O S
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