Allison Herrera

Allison Herrera covered Indigenous Affairs for KOSU from April 2020 to November 2023.

Herrera is a radio and print journalist who has worked for PRX's The World, Colorado Public Radio as the climate and environment editor and as a freelance reporter for High Country News’ Indigenous Affairs desk.

While at The World, she covered gender and equity for a reporting project called “Across Women’s Lives,” which focused on women’s rights around the globe. This project took her to Ukraine, where Herrera showcased the country’s global surrogacy industry, and reported on families who were desperate to escape the ongoing civil war that they moved to abandoned towns near the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site. In 2019, she received a fellowship from the International Women in Media Fund to report on the issue of reproductive rights in Argentina, a country scarred by the effects of the Dirty War and a legacy of sexual and physical abuse directed towards women.

In 2015 and 2016, Herrera co-created and produced the Localore project “Invisible Nations” with KOSU. The project included video, radio and live events centered on telling better stories about Native American life in Oklahoma. Invisible Nations received several awards from the Associated Press and the Society of Professional Journalists.

In 2017, she and her colleague Ziva Branstetter received an Emmy Award nomination for their Reveal story “Does the Time Fit the Crime,” which centered on criminal justice in Oklahoma.

In 2019, Herrera’s story for High Country News and Center for Public Integrity titled When Disaster Strikes, Indigenous Communities Receive Unequal Disaster Aid received a Scripps Howard nomination for best environmental reporting along with the One Disaster Away series.

Herrera’s Native ties are from her Xolon Salinan tribal heritage; her family’s traditional village was in the Toro Creek area of the Central California coast.