Isabel Rosales is a correspondent for CNN based in Atlanta. She reports across CNN platforms including CNN, CNN International and CNN en Español. She has anchored on a fill in basis for CNN and CNNi. Rosales joined CNN in 2021 as a correspondent for CNN Newsource in Washington, D.C.

Rosales has covered some of the biggest breaking news stories in the United States and abroad. Her reporting from the disaster zone following Hurricane Milton in Florida was a key contribution to CNN’s National Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Breaking News Coverage. In 2025, she was part of CNN’s Emmy-nominated coverage of the catastrophic flooding in Texas Hill Country that killed more than 130 people, including 25 campers at Camp Mystic.

Her on-the-ground reporting has taken her to Puerto Rico for Bad Bunny’s historic concert residency, Surfside, Florida during the deadly collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium, London following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and Winder, Georgia for the Apalachee High School shooting, the deadliest school shooting in state history.

In 2026, Rosales published the CNN special report Mayday Over the Florida Straits, an investigation into one of the most controversial incidents in U.S.-Cuba history: the 1996 shootdown of the Brothers to the Rescue planes by Cuban MiGs. Thirty years after the attack, she obtained never-before-seen VHS recordings from a former pilot and the original cockpit audio capturing the mission’s harrowing final moments.

Before joining CNN, Rosales was an anchor and crime reporter at ABC Action News in Tampa, Florida. She built a reputation for enterprise reporting, uncovering exclusive stories through public records requests and court documents. Her reporting focused on law enforcement accountability, including exposing the theft of coronavirus vaccines by a first responder during the initial vaccine rollout. During the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, a source tip led Rosales’ team to confirm Florida’s first coronavirus case, allowing her to break the news while pressing state officials on their response.

Rosales has extensive experience covering hurricanes and other natural disasters, including Hurricanes Irma, Michael, Helene and Milton. She is also a graduate of the FBI Tampa Citizens Academy.

Born in Cuba, Rosales immigrated to Louisville, Kentucky with her parents when she was six years old. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Kentucky with double majors in journalism and Spanish, along with a certificate in global studies.

Rosales is fluent in Spanish and is an FAA-certified drone pilot.
She is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and Investigative Reporters & Editors. Outside of work, she practices Brazilian jiu-jitsu.