Reed Cowan
"Every life has a story, every story has a lesson, and every lesson has the power to change the world."
When I tell stories, this is my drumbeat and my mantra. It's also my promise to those who view or read my stories that I will always deliver on this mission to hold up a mirror to people-first journalism.
I come from a family of storytellers. From the cowboy poets of my youth in rural Utah, to the searing memoir style of my nationally-published aunt, to essays written to challenge and elevate our culture, I come by my love for telling stories organically.
My career in broadcast began in radio more than three decades ago when I was still in high school reporting sports scores from the sidelines. A graduate of Utah State University, I was the first college student put on air in Salt Lake City to cover the breaking news of wildfires in Utah's west desert. I was Utah's first LGBTQ anchor and one of the lead reporters on the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping case, a story I broke on our morning show on that horrible day.
On another horrible news-making day, I found myself the subject of a tragic story, forever changing the way I interact with victims. I was the reporter who made national news for being paged by my television station to what ended up being the accidental death of my four-year-old son, Wesley. CBS published a story about what it was like to be a reporter who found himself on the other end of the lens, and my evolution to compassion in journalism.
In Miami, I found myself reporting live for CNN and Studio B with Shepard Smith, and traveling to cover the stories of people swept up in Haiti's natural disasters. In Las Vegas, I was honored with Emmys and an Edward R. Murrow award for my hours-long live coverage the night of the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting.
I was a national reporter covering the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Pyeongchang, South Korea, and Tokyo, Japan. These experiences helped me to tell the stories of triumph and difficulty in Rio's neighborhoods, of crossing over into Kim Jong-Un's North Korea and being front and center for quarantines as Tokyo hosted the global games amidst a global pandemic
I'm also a documentarian, having directed, written and produced two films that have been screened at film festivals around the world, including the Sundance Film Festival for a film shot in San Francisco with the Oscar-winning writer of Milk, Dustin Lance Black.
Because I believe storytelling is an art and a craft, I know I'll never reach the ideal or the pinnacle, as I'm always a student studying ways I can perfect the craft for you, the people whose stories are sacred and whose trust you extend for us to tell your stories. Because of this, I'm close to graduating with a Master's Degree from Harvard University, where I work constantly to be a better writer.
As a KPIX anchor, community issues reporter, and Executive Producer over EPIC storytelling, I hope to get to know you and earn your trust. I promise that when I tell your story, I'll do my best to live my values about how stories can shape and change our world, always seeking to make visible what is essential to the stories that shape this beautiful part of California.
