Juanita Hurtado Huérfano is a bilingual journalist who specializes in stories about education, language rights and integration, immigration and arts and culture. Her stories have been broadcasted at radio stations like Colorado Public Radio, KVCU 1190, KGNU Community Radio and Aspen Public Radio.
Her articles have been published in outlets like Denverite, The Associated Press and Bucket List Community Cafe.
Hurtado Huerfano has a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Colorado - Boulder with minors in Creative Writing and Linguistics.
Most of her radio experience comes as News Director of the college radio station KVCU 1190. During her time there, Hurtado Huerfano hosted the morning news show, led a team of sixty volunteer reporters, created the awards program that collected over 25 awards for the station -at least 15 of those won in the 2024-2025 school year-, and produced a fourteen episode radio drama looking at Latin American mythology. She was the first woman to hold the job after advocating for the Assistant News Director position a year before.
She also currently works as KGNU's Friday morning host for the news show.
Hurtado Huerfano is also a two-time national winner of the SPJ's Mark of Excellence Awards. Both awarded in 2024, one for Collaborative Journalism during the project Fractured with the Carnegie-knight News 21 program, and Best All-Around Radio Newscast with KVCU 1190.
During her free time she DJs at KVCU. Her music show, Not So Pink Confessions, which features Latin/Hispanic music and original poetry was also internationally recognized by the Broadcast Education Association's Festival of Media Arts in 2024.
She hopes to continue her journalism career uplifting underrepresented voices and holding organizations accountable. Hurtado Huerfano is a proud member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association for Hispanic Journalists.