Keynote and Master of Ceremonies

Kim Stephens broadcasts live for 5 hours each day M-F at FOX26 in Fresno. She started ‘Great Day’ with Kopi Sotiropulos in 2003. Her years of live reporting prepared her for this job that commonly calls for adlibbing breaking news all around the world. She’s also a full-time lecturer at Fresno State in the Media, Communications and Journalism Department.

Her career started in 1988 with a telecommunications degree from Chico State. Her first job was in Bakersfield, CA at KERO where she worked her way up the ranks from morning anchor/reporter to weekend anchor/producer to weeknight anchor/reporter. (All the while working as a waitress during the day and even working a few months at KERN radio for the midday news.)

She then moved to the southeast and worked as the nighttime anchor at WBIR and WVLT in Knoxville, TN. While there she earned her master’s degree in broadcast management at The University of Tennessee. In 2000 she and her family moved back home to CA for her to join NBC Bay Area as a technology and business reporter and weekend news anchor at KNTV.

Kim has four Emmy® nominations, earned an Emmy® in 2016 and an Edward R. Murrow Award in 2021. She was inducted into the Silver Circle in 2014 for her 25+ years in the TV news business. In 2017 Kim was awarded the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Governors’ Service Medallion and in 2018 the Governors’ Citation for her dedication to journalism and the communities in which she gives so much. In September 2023, the American Advertising Federation, Fresno named Kim ‘Professional of the Year’. Kim mentors young broadcasting students at Pepperdine University for ‘Camp News.’ In 2022, Kim and Faith Sidlow, the chair of the MCJ Department, wrote a textbook, Broadcast News in the Digital Age: A Guide to Reporting, Producing and Anchoring Online and on TV. They are now contracted to write the second edition.