I¹ve
been a writer since a homework assignment in first grade turned into a detailed
and lengthy six-page story that the teacher didn¹t believe I wrote by myself
(but I did). Because writing was such a passion while I was growing up, I decided
to major in journalism at the University of Denver. During my first internship
at a TV station in Denver, I was bitten by the broadcast journalism bug. After
I graduated with a degree in Mass Communications and a degree in Computer Science,
my first career job opportunity was at a local weekly newspaper in Denver, and
I grabbed it..
For the next few years I worked as a print journalist for several newspapers,
including the Los Angeles Daily News, and freelanced for many national magazines,
ranging from Disney Adventures to Us magazine. But I still had a strong desire
to use my reporting skills in the broadcasting medium, and I got my first full-time
job offer at a station in Rockford, Ill., finally leaving the West Coast and
coming home to Illinois, not far from the Chicago suburbs where I was born and
raised.
At WREX-TV, I focused on developing my skills as a TV reporter, anchor and producer.
But my husband missed his family and friends in California, so I took a job
as a reporter at a station in beautiful San Luis Obispo on the central coast
of California, where I was a general assignment reporter.
I eventually returned to Los Angeles and covered the entertainment industry
for a division of CNN called Turner Entertainment Report. I interviewed hundreds
of celebrities, from Dustin Hoffman and Talia Shire to Will Smith and Olivia
Newton John.
I left the entertainment world to join a group of disparate reporters pulled
together for an innovative new independent station called WAMI-TV, which launched
a special news show focusing on investigative stories for the Miami market.
I learned a lot about the ups and downs of a start-up venture, but I longed
to be back in the Midwest. I found an opportunity to do that at CBS 58 in Milwaukee,
where I have been working as a general assignment reporter since 1999.