In 2013, Vega persuaded Jill Abramson, then the executive editor of the "New York Times", to hire her as a national reporter on the newly created race and ethnicity beat. She covered the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri following the shooting death of Michael Brown, produced a series of video interviews of minority comedians, and covered microaggressions on college campuses. In 2015, her job title was eliminated, and she was reassigned to the metro desk to cover the courthouses in the Bronx. She soon left the newspaper, going to work for CNN, again covering issues related to social inequality, racial justice and the criminal justice system.