Dalia Colón
After one too many Ohio winters, Cleveland native Dalia Colón [dah-LEE-ah co-LOAN] moved to the Sunshine State for what was supposed to be a yearlong adventure. That was in 2005.
In the decades that followed, Dalia has embarked on a new Florida adventure nearly every day through her work as a journalist. As associate producer and co-host of WEDU Arts Plus on Tampa Bay’s PBS station, she has shined a spotlight on local creatives for many years.
In 2018, Dalia’s career path took a delicious turn when she became producer—and eventually executive producer and host—of The Zest, an NPR Network podcast that celebrates Florida cuisine. This work led her to several other food-related opportunities, including judging the James Beard Awards, writing the Heritage Kitchen column for Florida Humanities’ FORUM magazine, hosting conversations for the Tampa Bay Collard Green Festival and serving as lead scholar for the Smithsonian Institution’s FOOD Exhibition Starter Kit, which helped seven Florida communities create museum exhibitions showcasing their local foodways. You may have caught her gabbing about food on The Splendid Table, 1A and in many other media outlets. Her first book, The Florida Vegetarian Cookbook, won gold in the 2024 Florida Book Awards.
Dalia is also a prolific freelance writer, teaches workshops at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg and volunteers her time in the community. Dalia’s work has been honored by the Suncoast Regional Emmys, National Educational Telecommunications Association, Florida Magazine Association, Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists’ Griot Drum Awards and the Florida Association of Broadcast Journalists, to name a few.
A self-proclaimed bookworm, Dalia credits her love of reading and writing to her parents—two educators who never turned down her requests for a trip to the library. She earned a bachelor’s degree in magazine journalism from Ohio University and a master of arts in teaching Spanish from Kent State University.
Dalia lives in Riverview, Florida, where she never leaves home without a snack.
Dalia Colón 