:Dawna Friesen
{{short description|Canadian television journalist (born 1964)}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=August 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Dawna Friesen
| image = Dawna Friesen 2011 crop.jpg
| caption = Friesen in 2011
| birthname =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1964|10|08}}
| birth_place = Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
| death_date =
| years_active = 1985–present
| death_place =
| education = Red River College Polytechnic
| occupation = News anchor
| alias =
| status = Global National anchor and executive anchor
(2010–present)
| title = News anchor and executive editor of Global National
| family =
| spouse = Tom Kennedy (? – 2018)
Rick Anderson (2018–)
| children = 1
| credits = CTV NewsNet anchor
(1997–1999)
NBC News foreign correspondent
(1999–2010)
Global National anchor and executive editor
(2010–present)
| agent =
| URL =
}}
Dawna Friesen (born October 8, 1964) is a Canadian television journalist, currently the chief anchor and executive editor of Global National.L. Scrivener, [https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/television/article/863150--dawna-friesen-from-shy-prairie-girl-to-global-news-anchor?bn=1 Dawna Friesen: From shy prairie girl to Global News anchor]. Toronto Star, September 20, 2010. She was previously a foreign correspondent for NBC News.
Career
She started reading news at a hybrid television and radio station in Brandon, Manitoba, in 1985 and from there went on to report for other stations in Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary, Vancouver, and Toronto.
By the late 1990s she was recruited by national networks in Canada and the US and joined NBC News.{{Cite news |date=July 13, 2010 |title=Dawna Friesen named new Global National anchor |work=GlobalNational.com |url=http://globalnews.ca/news/62721/dawna-friesen-named-new-global-national-anchor-2/}} While at NBC, Friesen covered stories out of London as well as the Middle East, including the Israeli Palestinian conflict and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the kidnapping and murder of The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi.[https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna3688577 Dawna Friesen: NBC News Correspondent]. NBC News. Retrieved December 12, 2014 She won a News & Documentary Emmy Award as a correspondent in NBC's coverage of the 2008 United States presidential election.
In 2010 Friesen joined Global News as their Global National anchor, succeeding Kevin Newman. Friesen was the third full-time female news anchor to lead a nightly newscast in Canada, after Sophie Thibault in 2002 and Céline Galipeau in 2009, and the first in English Canada.{{Cite news |last=Halfnight, Drew |date=July 13, 2010 |title=Dawna Friesen to replace Global National's Kevin Newman: 'My gender is just a non-issue for me' |work=National Post |url=http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/nbcs-dawna-friesen-to-replace-global-tvs-kevin-newman-as-news-anchor |access-date=April 1, 2016}}{{Cite news|last=Chung|first=Andrew|date=July 15, 2010|title=Quebec asks: Why the fuss?|work=Toronto Star|url=https://www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20100715/282875137059626|access-date=October 3, 2020}} In 2011 she won the Gemini Award for best news anchor.{{Cite web |date=September 7, 2011 |title=26th Annual Gemini Awards Culminate with Star-Studded Broadcast Gala |url=http://www.geminiawards.ca/press/26%20Gemini%20winners.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717004929/http://www.geminiawards.ca/press/26%20Gemini%20winners.pdf |archive-date=July 17, 2012 |website=Press release |publisher=Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television}}
In addition to Global National, she also hosts the network's newsmagazine series The New Reality.
Personal life
Friesen was raised on a farm west of Winnipeg; her parents were nonobservant Mennonites. Her father had her work on the farm, and she learned how to drive a tractor when she was six. Her mother was active in local politics. She moved with her family to St. Albert, Alberta and graduated from Paul Kane High School in 1981. She then moved back to Manitoba to attend Red River College and worked as a waitress when she was young. Friesen graduated from RRC's Creative Communications program in 1984, and began her journalism career working in Brandon, Saskatoon, Thunder Bay and Winnipeg. She re-married on July 28, 2018, to Rick Anderson after she divorced Tom Kennedy.
Both of her parents developed dementia; in 2014, Friesen was featured in a 16×9 program about dementia and how families cope with it.{{Cite news |last=Spicer, Roxana |date=August 13, 2014 |title=16X9: Inside the world of dementia, as a painful reality sets in |work=Global News |url=http://globalnews.ca/news/1286441/inside-the-world-of-dementia-as-a-painful-reality-sets-in/ |access-date=April 1, 2016}}
Awards
- 2009 News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Live Coverage of a Breaking News Story – Long Form, as a correspondent in NBC's coverage of the 2008 United States presidential election.{{Cite press release|title=30th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards - Winners|url=http://cdn.emmyonline.org/news_30th_winners.pdf|publisher=National Television Academy}}
- 2011, Gemini Award, best news anchor
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://globalnews.ca/author/dawna-friesen/ Dawna Friesen] at globalnews.ca
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Category:Canadian television news anchors
Category:Journalists from Winnipeg
Category:Red River College alumni
Category:Canadian women television journalists
Category:Global Television Network people
Category:20th-century Canadian journalists
Category:21st-century Canadian journalists
Category:Canadian Screen Award winning journalists