In 2025, Alma received three major honors for her immigration reporting: the Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism from the Nonprofit News Awards for her Silent Battles collaboration with palabra and her MindSite News series; the Dorothy Storck Award (Second Place) from the Chicago Journalists Association; and the Sarah Brown Boyden Award (First Place, Immigration Coverage) from the same organization.

She also previously earned the Sarah Brown Boyden Public Service Award (2022), has been recognized twice as a Peter Lisagor Award finalist, and was a City Bureau Civic Reporting Fellow in 2019.