Hi there! Welcome, and thank you for stopping by my site.

My name is Lissandra Villa, and I am a national politics reporter with BuzzFeed News. I am a proud alumna of Iowa State University.

I am from Mexico, but I grew up calling Iowa home. It should come as no surprise that the state known for the first-in-the-nation caucuses is where I caught the politics bug. I loved the idea of telling people what was happening in the world around them and knew I wanted to be a journalist by the eighth grade. My main interest as a teenager was working on our high school’s broadcast program.

In college, I continued pursuing journalism. I spent a summer at the Cedar Rapids Gazette and my senior year working at The Des Moines Register.  I have many fond memories of driving hours across the state (and sometimes skipping class) to catch presidential campaign events.

After graduating in 2016, I moved to Washington to intern at TIME magazine. Following a brief stint as an intern on NPR’s election desk, I found myself working for BuzzFeed News, where I mostly covered Capitol Hill. Eventually I returned to TIME magazine where I was a staff writer, and then back to BuzzFeed News, where I now cover politics and often go on reporting adventures across the country.

My interests include horseback riding, hiking and eating dessert. I also enjoy watercolor painting, a hobby I picked up for the love of mixing the colors together. If not wherever news is happening, I can be found reading whatever happens to be in front of me or putting together a fabulous outfit. Had I not grown up to become a journalist, I like to think I would have either been a racehorse jockey or an astronaut.

If you have any questions or would like to share pictures of cute baby animals, please do not hesitate to get a hold of me.