FERRANDO HONORED BY LOUISIANA-MISSISSIPPI ASSOCIATED PRESS BROADCASTERS

For the third straight year, former Southeastern Channel news anchor-reporter Erika Ferrando has won top awards given by the Associated Press Broadcasters and Media Editors.  A news reporter for WWL-TV Ch. 4 (CBS) in New Orleans (DMA 50), Ferrando won two 2019 awards in the Louisiana-Mississippi division. Her “Decorated Potholes” story won second place in the “Feature” category, and her “A Lift to Work Lifts Spirits” package, which went viral, finished second in the “General News” competition.  Ferrando also won top AP broadcasting awards in the Arkansas-Oklahoma region as “Best Solo Journalist” in both 2017 and 2018 while working for KTHV-TV Ch. 11 (CBS) in Little Rock, Ark. (DMA 57), winning for her stories “Moved to Mow” and “Veterans Provide Burial for Fellow Veteran Without a Family“, which also netted her an Emmy nomination in the Mid-America region of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 2019 Ferrando won a prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for her feature story, “A Walking Miracle“.  At WWL Ferrando has recently posted top of the newscast stories such as a peaceful protest in Jackson Square and temporary business closures due to the pandemic along with video and interviews on Twitter from the recent police tear gas incident at the Crescent City Connection.  A former news reporter, anchor and producer for the Southeastern Channel’s student newscast, “Northshore News,” Ferrando graduated from Southeastern in 2014 when she was named the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters’ first ever “Louisiana Student Broadcaster of the Year” out of all college TV and radio students in the state.  A Mandeville native,  Ferrando’s first job after graduation was as a news reporter for KPLC-TV (NBC) Ch. 7 in Lake Charles, La. (DMA 172). At the Southeastern Channel, Ferrando also won “Best in the South” recognition for news reporting from the Southeast Journalism Conference (eight states) and Mark of Excellence Awards for news reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists.