Award-winning journalist Jennifer Peñate will join WCVB Channel 5, Boston’s News and Community Leader, as weekend evening anchor and general assignment reporter beginning on June 28. The announcement was made today by WCVB President & General Manager Kyle I. Grimes and News Director Margaret Cronan. Peñate will co-anchor weekend evening newscasts with Shaun Chaiyabhat and will report during the week.
Peñate comes to Boston from WFLA/WTTA in Tampa Bay, Florida. Her roles included anchoring English language newscasts on WTTA and WFLA, in addition to anchoring and creating WTTA’s Spanish language newscast “Noticias Tampa Hoy,” where she also served as the newscast’s managing editor. In addition, Peñate was an integral contributor to TampaHoy.com, the station’s Spanish language news website reporting on information important to the Latinx community.
“I am humbled be joining WCVB, one of the most highly regarded television stations in the country,” said Peñate. “I look forward to anchoring the weekend evening news with Shaun as well as contributing to the excellent journalism and impactful public service provided to the community by the Channel 5 team every day.”
Peñate spent the last three years as anchor and reporter on WFLA and WTTA where she received a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for her digital reporting on TampaHoy.com. Before WFLA and WTTA, Peñate spent three years as evening anchor at KNWA in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Peñate began her career in 2011 as a reporter at KODE in Joplin, Missouri where she earned several awards for her reporting including honors from the Missouri Broadcasters Association and the Kansas Association of Broadcasters. Also, while at KODE, she was named by the Joplin Regional Business Journal as one of the 2016 Most Influential Women.
She graduated with a Journalism and Spanish degree from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Peñate is also a member the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and Gamma Eta Sorority which was founded at the University of Florida.