Brenda Salinas Baker is an audio journalist and writer of fiction. She holds a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from St. Joseph’s University in Brooklyn, where she teaches undergraduate English. Her fiction has appeared in The Coachella Review, Big Muddy and Solstice Literary Magazine. She was a finalist for the 2022 Masters Review Summer Short Story Prize, the 2022 Pinch Literary Awards, The Breakwater Review’s 2021 Fiction Contest and a runner-up in Landing Zone Magazine’s 2022 Fiction Contest. She has also been longlisted for the Disquiet Prize, a finalist for Ploughshares 2023 Emerging Writer’s Contest and a finalist for Arts & Letters’ annual prize. She is a trilingual Mexican immigrant.

Brenda was awarded the Kroc Fellowship at NPR and has reported and produced hundreds of sound-rich pieces for NPR, ABC, Marketplace, PRI’s The World, Latino USA, local public radio stations and popular podcasts including Life of the Law and the Slack Variety Pack. She was a founding producer of the personalized radio start-up 60dB where she reported original stories and helped print publishers like Axios, The Washington Post, Vox and The Atlantic bring their print pieces to audio life. When the company was acquired by Google in 2017, she executed content strategy on Google’s emerging audio platforms from London and managed the Google Podcasts creator program in partnership with PRX. Brenda is a Senior Producer for Podcasts at ABC News, the home of Start Here, The Dropout, Life Out Loud, Reclaimed, The Book Case and other award-winning journalism and lifestyle podcasts. Brenda edits and produces beautiful audio pieces and helps her team grow.

Brenda believes stories are power. She is committed to building a media landscape where every woman of color has the power to tell her own story. She is an NPR Next Generation mentor, a former board president of the Association of Independents in Radio and a coach to young women breaking into the world of radio and podcasting.

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