Kris Vera-Phillips is a media scholar and journalist. She works as a faculty associate at the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where she teaches news producing and multimedia skills classes. She is also a Ph.D. candidate. Her research agenda explores race, identity, and representation in media. Her research has covered issues in journalism and popular culture. She looked at the erasure of Filipino nurses from Grey’s Anatomy, questioned the precarious nature of equity and right to life for android officers in Star Trek, and investigated the use of journalistic objectivity in news media when it leaves behind communities of color and marginalized voices.
Before academia, Kris worked as an Emmy Award-winning journalist with more than 14 years of experience producing news shows and special projects. Most recently, she worked as a multimedia producer for Capital Public Radio and senior news producer for KPBS San Diego. She serves as the Vice President of Journalism Programs for the Asian American Journalists Association. She mentors student journalists with AAJA Voices and PBS NewsHour’s Student Reporting Labs.