Pat Harvey, iconic local news anchor and nationally-renowned broadcast news reporter, has been selected as this year’s Los Angeles Area Governors Award recipient. The announcement was made recently on the CBS2 News at 5pm by Television Academy Chairman and CEO Bruce Rosenblum. Winner of numerous Emmy® Awards, Harvey will be presented with this most recent honor at the Los Angeles Area Emmys on Saturday evening, July 25 at The Skirball Cultural Center’s Guerin Pavilion in Herscher Hall.
The Los Angeles Area Governors Award is the most esteemed honor given by the Los Angeles Area Governors Award Committee and the Board of Governors of the Television Academy for outstanding achievement in the arts, sciences, or management of television over a period of years, or in recognition of an outstanding singular achievement or contribution.
“Pat is an iconic figure in Los Angeles who has made invaluable contributions through her work at CBS2 and KCAL9, and philanthropically in the community,” said Rosenblum. “She has been at the forefront reporting on the critical news stories facing our city, and her professionalism and integrity as a journalist makes her a deserving recipient of this year’s Governor’s Award.”
Harvey began her career in Saginaw, Michigan, at WNEM-TV, moving on to help launch CNN Headline News and then co-anchor CNN’s Daybreak program, before heading back to Chicago to report and anchor for WGN-TV. In 1989, she moved to KCAL9 in Los Angeles to co-anchor the nation’s first nightly three-hour newscast, and 20 years later, joined sister station CBS2. In addition to her current co-anchoring duties for CBS2’s 5pm and 11pm broadcasts, Harvey appears nationally as a guest co-host on the CBS Television Network daytime show The Talk.
Harvey has covered the biggest local news stories, women’s health issues, national political conventions and presidential inaugurations, and has traveled internationally to report on significant world matters. This work has earned Pat multiple Emmy Awards, including three shared with the station for best newscast. In 2008, Harvey received the Genii Award for Excellence in TV Broadcasting from Southern California’s chapter of American Women in Radio and Television, and on October 20, 2009, the Los Angeles City Council and L.A. County Board of Supervisors proclaimed it “Pat Harvey Day.” Harvey is the recipient of the L.A. Press Club’s Joseph M. Quinn Award in 2004 and the 2010 Golden Mike for Lifetime Achievement Award from the Radio & Television News Association. She has been honored by the Society of Professional Journalists, the Hollywood Women’s Press Club with their Ethics Award and with the Edward R. Murrow Award presented to KCAL9 news for overall excellence. She is a 2012 inductee of the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.
Outside of the newsroom, Harvey has dedicated her career to community service, advocating for children, education, those in the special-needs community and victims of domestic violence. She co-founded and served as the co-chairwoman of the Good News Foundation, and is the recipient of two honorary doctoral degrees from American Intercontinental University and Mount Saint Mary’s University, Los Angeles. In 2015, Pat was named a Susan G. Komen Circle of Promise Ambassador in the fight against breast cancer. Harvey has also received the Silver Star Award from the YMCA, and the NAACP’s Ida B. Wells Award.
The Los Angeles Area Governors Award has been bestowed upon individuals, companies and organizations that have made a positive impact in the Los Angeles community. Past recipients include Christine Devine and “Wednesday’s Child,” Bill Stout, Hal Fishman, Johnny Grant, KCET, Ted Meyers, Bill Welch, Vin Scully, Jerry Dunphy, Larry McCormick, George Putnam, Gene Autry, KTLA, KMEX, Jess Marlow, Kelly Lange, Joel Tator, Chick Hearn, Pete Noyes, Dr. George Fischbeck, KMEX Univision, Bob Eubanks, Stan Freberg, Telemundo’s KVEA, Steve Edwards and Susan Stratton.
