The Cleveland news market has always been a top destination for rising talent looking to showcase their skills by educating the consumer and providing the day’s top stories. That talent is beginning to be dominated by women of color. Each local network, WYCY Channel 3, WJW Fox 8, Channel 19 News, and WEWS Channel 5 all have true professionals represented.
NEEHA CURTIS
Neeha Curtis, from Channel 19 News, is the morning anchor for the news station. Every morning Curtis wakes Cleveland up beginning with the 4 am broadcast. Curtis, who moved to America from New Zealand, started her career by accident when she won an opportunity to intern for Dateline NBC. That spark turned into a career when Curtis sent audition tapes all over the country.
“I can remember when I was first starting out and needed a break. I found a little TV station in a small city,” Curtis said.
Curtis got her undergrad at the College of New Jersey and went to graduate school at Syracuse. Her first job was in production as a producer. Curtis moved to Greenville, Mississippi for her first position as a reporter.
That little break has turned into a wonderful career for Curtis that has allowed her to move from market to market growing her skillset and finding fans at every turn. Originally born in India, Curtis loves living in Cleveland and plans on continuing to donate her time to worthy causes when not working.
Curtis starts every day at midnight with a workout and then prepares for her broadcast at 2am so she can be on TV by 4am. Those hours take a huge commitment and a lot of patience from her family. Curtis loves having a connection to her viewers and she will continue to be the first person on TV in the am.
DANIELLE WIGGINS
“Working in Cleveland is a dream come true! I was born, raised, and educated here in Northeast Ohio (go Bedford Bearcats and Kent State Golden Flashes!), so I consider it a blessing to be able to do what I love in the region that raised me,” said Wiggins.
Her start in journalism came when she was sixteen years old and was accepted into the Urban Journalism Workshop (UJW) being held at John Carroll University. During her junior and senior year of high school, she would spend Saturday mornings at the university learning from journalists and media professionals of color who lived and worked in Northeast Ohio. The stories they told captivated her. She applied the lessons she learned to the video projects they produced each year for the closing program. UJW gave her a great introduction to her future career.
Professionally, she plans to continue to develop and hone her skills as a storyteller and anchor, which will allow her to connect with the audience in a deeper manner.
Wiggins explained, “Being a journalist during a global pandemic and a time of social unrest has shown me that our jobs of recording history and people’s responses to the events going on around us is a sacred duty that must not be taken lightly. We have a responsibility to do our jobs well and in 2021 I want to make sure that I’m managing that responsibility to the best of my ability.”
DANITA HARRIS
Danita has been a major fixture in Cleveland news market since 1998. Her rise in Cleveland has come from hard work and patience. This dedication has made her a household name and has allowed her to enjoy the city she loves so much.
Some of her most memorable stories she reported on are HIV/AIDS and its impact on African American Women in Northeast Ohio and reporting live from New York City on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
In 2004, Danita received an Emmy for Good Morning Cleveland.
Danita received national recognition for her work in the community when she was honored by the organization Black Women in Sisterhood for Action at the “Salute to Distinguished Black Women 2006” gala in Washington D.C.
In 2010, Danita was honored to receive the prestigious “Woman of Vision” award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women for her commitment to community service. She was also recognized as one of the Outstanding Women in Ministry in Cuyahoga County by the National Council of Negro Women.
Danita was recognized for her work by being inducted into the Ohio Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2010.
JENNIFER JORDAN
Two-time, Emmy-award winning journalist Jennifer Jordan joined WJW-TV News in January of 2012 as the noon anchor and reporter for the evening newscasts. Over the last nine years in Cleveland, Jennifer has won three national awards.
The first two, an NABJ award and RTDNA Unity Award for “Race: Our Stories,” a series detailing diversity issues with African American journalists, stemming from the police killing of Tamir Rice.
The third national award was the second-place National Headliner Award for Best Newscast for the “Brelo Verdict,” the Cleveland officer charged in the East Cleveland car chase. He was found not guilty. The award was for the second-best newscast in the nation, for which Jennifer anchored with then co-anchor Bill Shiel. Prior to joining FOX 8, Jennifer worked at New York City’s WPIX-TV/CW11 as a freelance general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor.
In just a few months there, Jennifer reported on some of the biggest stories in the NYC metropolitan area. Continuous breaking news coverage included the mid-air plane/tourist chopper collision over the Hudson River that made national headlines. Jennifer was also the lead reporter on the deadly shooting of a Jersey City police officer and the attempted car bombing in Times Square.
Jennifer traveled to New Orleans for the unveiling of the USS New York naval ship built with steel from the World Trade Center. In an exclusive report, Jennifer also exposed security flaws at some of New York City’s most prominent tourist attractions, including the Empire State building.
Jennifer was also lead reporter on the NYPD police shooting of an unarmed man, Sean Bell, killed by cops on what would have been his wedding day.
Before Fox & My 9, Jennifer was a Westchester correspondent and general assignment reporter for WCBS-TV, also in New York. As part of the award-winning team, Jennifer was nominated for two Emmy awards for the mass transit strike. Previously, Jennifer anchored the 10 pm newscasts at News 12 Westchester. While there, she earned two Emmy Awards, one for on-camera achievement. The second Emmy was for a multi-part, hard-hitting investigation titled, “Predator Next Door.”
Prior to Fox & My 9, Jordan anchored the weekend newscasts at WFIE-TV in Evansville, Indiana. And before that, she was a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor for WBKO-TV in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Jennifer is a graduate of Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina where she received her BS in Broadcast Journalism. She is also a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She was inducted into Peekskill High School’s Alumni Hall of Fame in 2003. Jennifer has also received numerous community awards for her dedication to covering stories in her neighborhood and volunteering for several local charities. ●
