Reporters
Kate Kelly
Kate Kelly is a featured reporter on CBS 5. Every week she brings viewers inspiring profiles of Bay Area Jefferson Award winners, recognizing people who do outstanding public service in the community.
For 23 years Kelly has worked at CBS 5 as an anchor and reporter. She began as a reporter with KPIX in 1984. A few months later Kelly and co-anchor Doug Murphy assumed anchor responsibilities on the weekends. In 1987 Kelly began co-anchoring Eyewitness News weeknights at 11pm with veteran newscaster Dave McElhatton. Her duties expanded to include the 5pm weeknight news after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. Ten years later Kate moved to mornings for two years, co-anchoring the early morning newscasts with Ken Bastida. Between 2000 and 2004, Kate returned to weeknights, co-anchoring the 5pm and 4:30 newscasts.
In January of 2005, Kelly debuted the first of the Bay Area Jefferson Awards. A weekly tribute to volunteers doing outstanding public service in the community. Working together with the National Institute for Public Service in Washington D.C., and a local committee of non-profit representatives, CBS 5 takes nominations and selects local award winners. Kelly's profiles then air weekly on Eyewitness News at 6pm and on KCBS radio. In 2006 the Bay Area Jefferson Awards received the Northern California Area EMMY® Award for Community Service. Last year CBS 5 was recognized by the Northern California American Women in Radio and Television with its Good News Award for this outstanding series.
Kelly began her broadcast career as a reporter/photographer/anchor for KRCR-TV in Redding California, after graduating from Stanford University in 1979. Kelly shot, edited and produced stories for the newscasts. In 1980 Kelly went to work as a reporter and anchor at KVUE-TV in Austin TX. , where she stayed three years. During that time the station won the UPI and AP Best Newscast Award in Texas for three years in a row.
Kelly has covered a wide variety of stories since joining CBS, including the Presidential elections, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and Pope John Paul II's U.S. tour. Kelly even flew with the Blue Angels during a Fleet Week appearance.
In 1984, Kelly was named the outstanding young journalist by the Association of Professional Journalists, her more recent recognitions include the 2002 Radio and Television News Directors Assoc. award for "The Alaskan Refuge; America's Treasure, America's Oil", the 2004 California Teacher's Association's John Swett Award for Media Excellence for "Schools in Crisis", the 2005 Good News Award from the NorCal Chapter of American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) for the Jefferson Awards.
In October of 2005, Kelly was inducted into the Silver Circle of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) NorCal Chapter, for having made a significant contribution to Northern California Television over 25 years.
Kelly, a Bay Area native, was born and raised in Marin County. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and two children.
E-mail Kate
To schedule an appearance for CBS 5 on-air reporters/anchors, please contact Akilah Monifa, Director of Communications. Please provide the date, time, location of the event, number of attendees expected, and name of sponsoring organization.
