Before joining the Reporter, Zamudio spent three years in California working for daily newspapers. She is a computer-assisted and bilingual reporter with experience producing videos. In 2007, she traveled to China to produce an in-depth radio story about the impact of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student movement had in current Chinese politics for an NPR affiliate station. She has won fellowships from the Investigative Reporters and Editors, Knight Digital Media Center, Education Writers Association and the Institute for Justice and Journalism. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in journalism.