Laura Trujillo

Laura Trujillo is a Senior National Columnist for USA TODAY Health and Wellness. She writes about policy and culture around menopause and mental health, among other topics.

She is the author of Stepping Back from the Ledge, published by Random House and named one of the New Yorker’s best books of 2022. The memoir examines her mother’s death by suicide and her own understanding and healing. Part of the book also delves into the history of how the new media have covered suicide and how that has shaped our culture’s understanding of it.

She is a member of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Ethical Reporting Advisory Committee. And she was a speaker at the 2019 Aspen Ideas Festival on suicide.

 Laura joined USA TODAY in 2021 as the managing editor for Life & Entertainment, and has worked at The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Arizona Republic and The Portland Oregonian.

A 2024 graduate of the CUNY Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership, Laura was a 2025 Pulitzer Prize judge for memoirs. She was part of the team that was a Pulitzer finalist at The Arizona Republic for breaking news coverage of the Gabby Giffords shooting, and in 2019 she won a national Headliner Award alongside two other USA TODAY reporters for a series on suicide.

She holds a bachelors degree in Spanish and Communications from Santa Clara University.