Host
Liz Walker
After twenty-five, highly-acclaimed years at the WBZ-TV News anchor desk, most recently as a news anchor weekdays at 12:00 Noon on WBZ-TV , Walker decided to focus her journalistic expertise, creativity, and passion for the community on her new show. Walker joined WBZ-TV in April 1980 and went on to anchor the station's evening newscasts for almost 20 years before moving to the dayshift in June 2000 to spend more quality time with her family.
In the summer of 2001, Walker traveled to war-torn Sudan with a group of local ministers including Rev. Ray Hammond, Gloria White Hammond, Gerald Bell and Harvard student activist Jay Williams on a fact-finding mission on the controversial slave trade in southern Sudan. Walker and her group were guests of Christian Solidarity International, a European-based organization that has evoked international controversy with its efforts to buy back slaves who have been traded in the bitter 20-year Sudanese Holy War. She has since been back twice, most recently visiting the region of Darfur, where 250 thousand people have been killed and 1.8 million displaced in what is considered to be the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
Walker, who shot her own footage during her trips to Sudan, was honored with the Edward R. Murrow Award for a News Story by the Regional Television Radio News Director's Association in 2002. In January 2002, she produced an independent documentary on Sudan entitled "In the Lion's Mouth."
Recognized often for her exemplary work on the air and in her community, Walker received the Prestigious Governor's Award from the New England branch of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 1997. In addition to her work in news, Walker has hosted and co-produced several documentaries for WBZ-TV , including "Friends Like These," for which she received recognition from the prestigious Gabriel Awards.
Walker has long been actively involved in WBZ-TV 's public service campaigns and many community projects. Most recently, she co-founded "My Sister's Keeper" a grassroots organization that supports micro-enterprise projects for women in Sudan. She has a special interest in the victims and survivors of domestic violence, and along with former state representative Marjorie Claprood, helped found the Jane Doe Safety Fund, a multi-million dollar project to support domestic abuse shelters and safe houses around the Commonwealth. The long-running "Stop the Violence" campaign, which put the breadth of the station's resources behind an effort to increase awareness of violence issues in the home, in schools, and on the streets, was a cornerstone of the station's public service efforts for more than decade. Walker was at the forefront of the station's initiative and took the message to young people around the region stressing the importance of education and setting goals to break the cycle of violence.
Walker began her broadcasting career in 1974 in her hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas, where she was the Director of Public Affairs for KATV. She later moved to KMGH-TV in Denver, where she served as weekend anchor and reporter, specializing in investigative consumer affairs and the court beat. Prior to joining WBZ-TV , Walker worked for KRON-TV in San Francisco as a reporter and early morning anchor, and host of the daily magazine program "Midday."
Walker has served on committees and boards of the Big Sister Association, Boston's Children's Museum, The Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, and the Pediatric AIDS Charitable Trust of Boston. She has also spent much of her personal time speaking to young people about the importance of education and setting goals. Her busy speaking schedule has included visits to high schools and colleges around the state. In addition she spends time helping to raise money and awareness for a variety of causes including AIDS, breast cancer prevention, and homelessness, and she has been involved with numerous community groups such as the Project Hope Housing Project in Dorchester and the Newton Police Department Project D.A.R.E.
A graduate of Olivet College in Michigan, Walker earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi and American Women in Radio and Television. Walker lives with her son in the Greater Boston area.
WBZ-TV is part of CBS Television Stations, a division of CBS Corporation.
