Erika Maldonado will lead Spanish-language outreach to taxpayers for the Office of Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas. Maldonado has strong connections throughout the Chicago-area Latino community. She is a journalist with 30 years of experience who has co-anchored evening newscasts for Univision WGBO-TV for the past 10 years. “Erika brings valuable communications and public affairs experience to this role,” Pappas said. “Her knowledge and relationships with community organizations will greatly help our efforts to inform and educate Spanish-speaking taxpayers about the property tax system.” Maldonado joined Univision Chicago as a reporter in 2004. In addition to co-anchoring 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts since 2014, she has hosted a 30-minute weekly political and community affairs program that airs on Saturdays. She has emceed events, spoken to groups of children in schools, appeared in parades and worked with many community organizations. Her work covering politics, education and community events have earned her six Emmy Awards, 26 nominations for Emmy Awards, a Studs Terkel Award and nominations for two Peter Lisagor Awards. She began her career in her native Venezuela studying social communication at the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello. She worked as a radio announcer and transitioned into television news. She emigrated to the United States in 1998 to continue her journalism studies. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Florida International University and gained journalism experience in Miami before she moved to Chicago in 2004.