Less than a year after joining her hometown TV station in South Texas, this Ivy League graduate is saying goodbye to television news as she pursues a new path.
Brownsville native Lauren Sierra announced that her last day at ValleyCentral, the Nexstar Media Group-owned duopoly that operates NBC and CBS affiliates in the Rio Grande Valley, was Friday, August 7.
In a similar post on Instagram, Sierra reflected on the last five years, which have seen her work at two television stations in Texas and on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
“5 years in, around, out, back to, and now out of journalism. Younger me would be so happy to know I accomplished a dream. Future me is so proud that I accepted that dreams change,” the Instagram post reads.
Sierra began working at the twin TV stations as a field reporter in late December 2025, announcing then that she was excited to return to the Valley to work for her “hometown’s news team.” Prior to her time at ValleyCentral, Sierra worked as a reporter, producer, and weekend anchor at KTXS News, an ABC affiliate in Abilene owned and operated by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, according to a biography on the ValleyCentral website.
Sierra graduated from Homer Hanna High School in Brownsville, then earned a degree in sociology with a minor in global health and health policy from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After graduation, she joined CBS News’ corporate offices in New York, where she worked in the legal department, then returned to school to obtain a master’s degree in journalism from New York University.
Sierra spent a year reporting in the Texas Panhandle before leaving television news to accept a position in the nation’s capital as press secretary for U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, in May 2023. Now, Sierra is saying goodbye to TV once again. She told MySA she plans on attending law school.
Her departure from the Harlingen-based TV stations is the latest in a series of changes at ValleyCentral.
On July 24, longtime news anchor Rudy Mireles announced he was leaving ValleyCentral after helping the company launch an interactive newscast that broadcasts simultaneously over-the-air and online via the ValleyCentral+ app. Nexstar pioneered the new broadcast format at ValleyCentral. Mireles later clarified that he will still continue to host Nexstar’s twice-weekly show, Border Report.
In mid-July, primetime anchor Derick Garcia — who served as ValleyCentral’s lead investigative reporter, and also as frontrunner of the station’s popular food safety segment, Food 4 Thought — announced his departure after more than a decade on the air. Garcia told viewers he planned to spend more time with his family in Brownsville.