Dawna Friesen

Dawna Friesen
Status Global National anchor
(2010-present)
Residence Vancouver
Education Red River College
Occupation News anchor
Notable credit(s) CTV NewsNet anchor
(1997–1999)
NBC News foreign correspondent
(1999–2010)
Global National anchor
(2010-present)
Title News anchor of Global National
Spouse(s) Tom Kennedy

Dawna Friesen (born in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a Canadian television journalist, currently the chief anchor and executive editor of Global National.[1] She was previously a foreign correspondent for NBC News.

Career

She started reading news at a hybrid TV/radio station in Brandon, Manitoba in 1985,[1][2] and from there went on to report for other stations in, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary, Vancouver. and Toronto.[1]

By the late 1990s she was recruited by national networks in Canada and the US, and joined NBC News.[2] While at NBC, Friesen covered stories out of London, as well as the Middle East, including the Israeli Palestinian conflict and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi.[3] She won an Emmy for her part in NBC's coverage of Barack Obama election as US President.[2]

In 2010 Friesen joined Global News as their Global National anchor, succeeding Kevin Newman.[1] Friesen was the first full-time female news anchor to lead a nightly newscast in Canada.[4] In 2011 she won the Gemini Award for best news anchor.[5]

Personal life

Friesen was raised on a farm west of Winnepeg; her parents were nonobservant Mennonites. Her father had her work on the farm and she learned how to drive a tractor when she was six. Her mother was active in local politics. She graduated from Red River College and worked as a waitress when she was young.[1]

Friesen and her partner, CTV journalist Tom Kennedy, have one son who was born around 2005 when Friesen was 40.[1] Both of her parents developed dementia and in 2014, Friesen was featured in a 16×9 program about dementia and how families cope with it.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 L. Scrivener, Dawna Friesen: From shy prairie girl to Global News anchor. Toronto Star, September 20, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 "Dawna Friesen named new Global National anchor". GlobalNational.com. July 13, 2010.
  3. ↑ Dawna Friesen: NBC News Correspondent. NBC News. Retrieved 12 December 2014
  4. ↑ Halfnight, Drew (13 July 2010). "Dawna Friesen to replace Global National’s Kevin Newman: ‘My gender is just a non-issue for me’". National Post. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  5. ↑ "26th Annual Gemini Awards Culminate with Star-Studded Broadcast Gala" (PDF). Press release. Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. 7 September 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 17, 2012.
  6. ↑ Spicer, Roxana (13 August 2014). "16X9: Inside the world of dementia, as a painful reality sets in". Global News. Retrieved 1 April 2016.

External links

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