Leyla Santiago is heading south of the border…

CNN has hired the Latina broadcast journalist as a correspondent based in Mexico City.

Prior to joining CNN, Santiago was an anchor and reporter for WRAL in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she and her team won the Alfred I. DuPont award for the documentary The Journey Alone, about the surge in illegal immigration of unaccompanied minors from Mexico.

Santiago also has served as a morning anchor for KBAK/KBFX in Bakersfield, California; and as a reporter for KTUU in Anchorage, Alaska, and for NBC29 in Charlottesville, Virginia.