Walk us through your journey to becoming the lead anchor on CBS News 46 Atlanta.
I think it started with my first technical job working at a television station in Iowa. Being from the West, I didn’t know anything about Iowa. And, you know, I, I love my mother and God rest her soul, she supported me to go to this job in Iowa. That transition from graduating from college to getting the first job is hard. I had about a six month gap year and was sending out resumes and demo tapes and wasn’t getting anything back. Then finally, this job offer came from the station in Iowa. I was walking through soybean crops and hog farms and speaking to farmers going door to door. I was the only little Black girl they had seen in probably about 10 years.
I did a number of breaking news stories on the weekends. After working in Atlanta, I moved to San Diego and worked there for about three years. After San Diego, there just weren’t opportunities for me to advance and climb the ladder. That’s when an opportunity here in Atlanta came up in 2007 to be a morning anchor, and I took that and I’ve been here for the last 15 years.
What are the three most important factors of being successful, especially in this field?
Grow where you are planted. You have to be able to, despite the situation that you may or may not like at the time, thrive in that situation. And I think that’s a part of being flexible. Whoever your boss is, they may view you a certain way, that may not be how you view yourself, maybe they know better, maybe you know, better who knows? But whatever role they put you in, thrive, be successful. Take the bull by the horns and make the most of whatever that is.
