Lydia L. Ramos has been appointed Boston Public Schools Supt. Tommy Chang’s new senior advisor. She blends her experience as a journalist and educator to support the work and vision of BPS.
“So many of our students live between their reality and their aspirations,” she says. “We are here to help prepare them to live out their dreams.”
Ramos started her journalism career as a reporter covering education and the Latino community for the Los Angeles Times as a senior at the University of Southern California. A year later, she chose to cover untold stories of Los Angeles by working as a reporter and community editor for The Wave, a black-owned weekly newspaper in South Los Angeles. Ramos was at the flashpoint of Florence and Normandie Avenues and was later accosted at gunpoint by two teenagers. She lived to tell that story and many more.
In 1994, Ramos moved on to broadcast journalism where OJ Simpson’s white bronco chase occurred on her first day at NBC News. She went on to cover other major news stories for Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, the TODAY Show and MSNBC, including Pope John Paul II’s trip to Cuba, foreign affairs crises, the impeachment trial of President Clinton and two United States presidential elections during her producing career in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York. She also produced “Nueva America,” an hour-long documentary on the rise of Latino influence in politics, pop culture and economic buying power.
In 2001, she returned to her alma mater in Los Angeles to teach high school English and journalism at Phineas Banning High School. She then served the 3,400 students as Title I Coordinator, helping it become the first high school in California to exit Program Improvement Year 5 under No Child Left Behind. In 2008, she helped explain the Great Recession’s impact on classrooms as a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Three years later, Ramos led the launch of Internal Communications to better communicate to staff and parents, producing the KLCS-TV show, “Families Matter.” She then served as the special assistant and later Director of Communications and Media Relations under then-LAUSD Supt. John Deasy, garnering 12 Telly Awards for videos showcasing LAUSD teachers and students.
Ramos graduated with her bachelor’s degree in Print Journalism and her master’s degree in Education from USC. She enjoys reading non-fiction, traveling, camping, discovering new restaurants, and watching sports of any kind, especially football.
