Kyra Phillips: Global Down Syndrome Foundation
2013 Quincy Jones Exceptional Advocacy Award Recipient

Kyra Phillips

Kyra Phillips

Kyra Phillips is the award-winning journalist who anchors “Raising America with Kyra Phillips” on HLN. This daytime interactive broadcast focuses on news stories told through a parental lens and how they impact the modern American family. Phillips joined CNN in 1999, moved to HLN in August 2012 and led the network’s 2012 election coverage. She is based at the network’s world headquarters in Atlanta.

Phillips completed four tours of reporting in Iraq, not only writing about the war, but how it has affected life for the Iraqi people. Her war coverage secured her the Atlanta Press Club’s National Reporter of the Year for 2007. Her coverage about race relations and tensions in Jena, La., following the appearance of nooses at the town’s high school earned her a top documentary award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Phillips reported on and produced a number of documentaries and special coverage, from Billy Graham’s last revival in New York, to the announcement of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in Alaska, the Atlanta courthouse shooting, Hurricane Katrina and sexual assault in our prestigious military academies.

Phillips became the first female journalist to fly in an F-14 air-to-air combat training mission over the Persian Gulf. She has extensive police, SWAT and weapons training and has participated in specialized aviation training with the Navy’s elite TOPGUN School.

Before joining CNN in October 1999, Phillips served as an investigative reporter in the Special Assignment Unit for KCBS-TV in Los Angeles. From 1994-1995, she was a weekend anchor and reporter for WDSU-TV in New Orleans. Previously, she anchored the weekend newscasts and reported for WLUK-TV in Green Bay, WI. Phillips also has served as morning anchor for KAMC-TV in Lubbock, Texas, and as a field producer for CNN-Telemundo in Washington, D.C.

Phillips has won five Emmy awards, two Edward R. Murrow awards for investigative reporting and in 1997, The Associated Press named her Reporter of the Year. Additionally, she has won numerous Golden Microphones and other honors. Phillips’ investigation into how a convicted murderer could purchase personal information about children triggered national legislation and earned her the Bill Stout Memorial Award for enterprise reporting.

Since 1992, she has been a Big Sister with Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America. She is on the board of The Brain Tumor Foundation for Children and served as Emcee of the Global Down Syndrome Foundation’s Be Beautiful Be Yourself DC Gala. She is married to fellow journalist John Roberts, and they are the proud parents of beautiful twins.

The Global Down Syndrome Foundation is proud to announce Kyra Phillips as the 2013 Quincy Jones Exceptional Advocacy Award recipient.