Jen Lada is a multiple Sports Emmy-winning (including three individual Sports Emmys) and two-time Murrow Award-winning reporter and host for ESPN, appearing primarily on College GameDay Built by The Home Depot and College Football Live. She also contributes features across ESPN’s marquee storytelling brands, including SC Featured and E:60 and is a co-host of ESPN Milwaukee’s morning radio show.
Lada serves as a features reporter for College GameDay Built by The Home Depot and a host for College Football Live, bringing in-depth storytelling and on-location reporting to both programs. She regularly contributes long- and short-form features to SC Featured and E:60, producing some of sports media’s most acclaimed human-interest journalism. Lada’s work spans college football, professional sports and the Special Olympics, reflecting the full breadth of ESPN’s storytelling mission across television, radio and digital platforms.
Lada joined College GameDay as a features reporter and College Football Live as a host in 2016. Since joining ESPN in July 2015, Lada has made guest host appearances on First Take and SportsCenter and has contributed to ESPN Radio programming, ESPN digital platforms and ESPN’s Department of Highlights. She also previously hosted the SC Featured audio podcast and contributed regularly to Sunday NFL Countdown, Mike and Mike and Outside the Lines.
Prior to her current role, Lada spent two and a half years as an anchor and reporter for Comcast SportsNet Chicago, where she covered the Chicago Bears and Chicago White Sox beats, anchored SportsNet Central and hosted White Sox pre- and postgame programming as well as the trivia show Beer Money and High School Lights. Before her time in Chicago, she worked as a reporter and anchor for WITI-TV in Milwaukee and WREX-TV in Rockford, Ill. At WITI, she earned first place for Best Sportscast in 2011 from the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association. Her feature on a Milwaukee woman who ran across the United States to raise awareness for multiple sclerosis was honored with first place for Best Feature by the Milwaukee Press Club.
Lada is one of the most decorated journalists in ESPN’s storytelling division. She is a three-time individual Sports Emmy Award winner: her first, in the Outstanding Short Sports Documentary category in 2020, recognized “Hilinski’s Hope,” an E:60-produced feature about South Carolina quarterback Ryan Hilinski and the lasting impact of his brother Tyler’s death on his life and mental health advocacy. She won a second individual Sports Emmy in 2023 for “Jump Around” in the Outstanding Short Feature category and a third in 2024 for “The 6-Year Plan” in the Outstanding Long Feature category. She has also earned team Sports Emmy recognition as a member of the E:60 team for its documentary on Armando Galarraga and five Sports Emmy awards as a cast member of College GameDay Built by The Home Depot in 2026.
Lada has received two National Edward R. Murrow Awards, winning in 2025 for “Florida-Georgia Lifeline” — which chronicles how Florida Gators fan Richard Bremer came to root for Georgia after receiving a life-saving organ donation from a Bulldogs supporter — and in 2026 for “Johnny Buckets.” She has received two Gracie Awards, honoring excellence in programming by, for and about women, winning in 2021 for “Play Like A Girl” and in 2025 for “The 6-Year Plan.” That same piece also earned Lada a National Headliner Award in 2025 and a Hashtag Sports Award for Best Documentary: Short Form in 2024.
Lada has earned five SVG College Sports Media Awards for Outstanding Special Feature, recognizing “Heart of a Tiger” and “Texas Fight” in 2017, “Dive to Survive” in 2019, “Finding Purpose in the Pain” in 2024 and “The Guardian” in 2026. Her New York Festivals TV & Film Awards honors include a silver in the Human Interest category in 2018 for “No Excuses,” produced for Sunday NFL Countdown, and a gold in the Social Issues category in 2022 for “Not Alone,” produced for SC Featured. Lada’s reporting on mental health in college football — including stories about Ohio State head coach Ryan Day and Utah State head coach Blake Anderson and their personal experiences navigating tragedy — has been widely recognized for its impact beyond sports.
Lada has covered multiple Special Olympics World Games for ESPN, including events in Schladming, Austria (2017), Abu Dhabi (2019), Berlin (2023), Turin (2025) and Minneapolis (2026).
Lada graduated from Marquette University’s College of Communications with a degree in broadcast electronics.
A native of Spring Grove, Ill., Lada is an endurance athlete who has completed the Chicago Marathon four times and the New York City Marathon twice — including the 2020 virtual edition during the COVID-19 pandemic — along with dozens of triathlons. She is married to Dario Melendez, sports director of WISN-12 in Milwaukee, and has three children: Chase, Layla and Keira.