News and Travel Editor

Ramona joined the Portland Monthly team in late 2014 to contribute arts and culture coverage, generate annual research packages (Schools, Real Estate, Top Doctors), and head the magazine’s fact checking department. In 2016, she took on the magazine’s online and print travel coverage; in early 2019, she transitioned to the role of News and Travel Editor—responsible for the magazine’s front-of-book and travel departments.

Ramona was first recognized for her writing chops in 1990, when she won a seventh-grade essay contest. Asked to pick the nation’s most pressing issue, Ramona wisely chose inflation (rates promptly fell). She now mostly steers clear of economic forecasting, writing instead about politics, public lands, and travel adventures both luxe and low-brow.  

Prior to Portland Monthly, Ramona wrote for a range of nonprofits, planned international events, and directed a venture capital association. She was raised in the Bay Area, Oklahoma, and Kansas, but has called Portland home since 2001. In 2017, Ramona received her MFA in Creative Writing-Nonfiction from Portland State University. Her graduate thesis subject? Fact-checking, of course.