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Bergen Community College alumnus Ricardo Montero, ’14, is a Colombian multi-Emmy Award-winning journalist who works as a field producer for ABC News in New York. Over the past decade, Montero has held various roles at several news networks, including ABC News, NBC News, and CNN. Montero credited Bergen with helping him get his start and igniting the passion for journalism in his current career.
“Bergen Community College is the perfect place to plant your future,” said Montero. “You will have the resources to choose a timeline, commit, water it and watch it bloom.”
After graduating from New Milford High School, Montero, who came from a single-parent immigrant household, did not have the financial means to attend a four-year institution. Since his mother worked as a nanny, the plan was for Montero to attend Bergen, earn course credits, and save money.
“Bergen is where I found my passion and profession,” he said. “It was the best decision my mom and I ever made.”
Montero’s early journalism career started at Bergen with the student newspaper, The Torch. He recalled how The Torch was what he enjoyed the most about attending Bergen.
“It’s where I learned and fell in love with journalism,” said Montero. He first started as a cartoonist and staff writer, but then worked himself to editor-in-chief of The Torch. He credited Professor Lew Wheaton who advised and trained him in journalism.
After he graduated from Bergen, Montero attended Hunter College and served as an anchor, producer, and reporter for Hunter News Now. He served as co-founder, editor-in-chief, web manager, publicist, and social media editor at The Daily Ramen. Montero also was the news anchor for News at Noon, host of Everything Sucks at WHCS Hunter Radio, and host of the Club Scene, a student-produced talk-show. In 2016, he interned at CNN. In 2019, he earned his bachelor’s degree in media studies with a concentration in journalism from Hunter College.
During his journalism career, Montero was the associate producer at Top Story with Tom Llamas on NBC News NOW, an associate producer and research at Weekend Nightly News, a news associate at Weekend TODAY, and a production associate at Good Morning America.
In 2024, he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Live News Program for his work during Hurricane Milton on World News Tonight with David Muir. In 2022, he won an Emmy for Outstanding Live Breaking News Coverage as an editor and tape producer for the special report during the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Montero was also nominated twice by the 2024-2025 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Recorded News Special with ABC News Live as a producer and cameraman for an immigration special and for Outstanding Breaking News Coverage as a field producer during Hurricane Milton.
During the past year, Montero covered many news stories, including but not limited to the Los Angeles fires, Sean Combs trial, the hearings in the Luigi Mangione case, ICE raids, New Jersey wildfires, and the United Nations General Assembly.
Based in Paramus, Bergen Community College (www.bergen.edu), a public two-year coeducational college, enrolls more than 24,000 students at locations in Paramus, the Philip Ciarco Jr. Learning Center in Hackensack and Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands in Lyndhurst. The College offers associate degree, certificate and continuing education programs in a variety of fields. More students graduate from Bergen than any other community college in the state.
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