Professional Career
While a senior at the University of Maryland, she was a bureau reporter for four Washington D.C. area radio stations, covering Maryland state politics in Annapolis for Capitol News Service.
In 1993, she landed her first TV job at the nation's first all-news local broadcast station, KNWS-TV in Houston, Texas. She went on to become the main anchor at the CBS station in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In 1995, she then moved to Springfield, Missouri to work at KYTV, the local NBC affiliate, where she became the first person of color to anchor the news in the Ozarks. In 1996, she accepted an offer from KGTV to work in San Diego.
Since joining KGTV news, Kim has covered Santana and Granite Hills high school shootings, the search for Danielle Van Dam, the Heaven's Gate suicides, and the 1996 Republican National Convention.
In 2005, she was promoted to the 5:30 pm weekday anchor position. In 2006, she was named as co-host of the newly created hour-long 4:00 pm news program called 10-4 San Diego. In August 2008, Lee Ann chose not to accept the station's offer of a lower salary and left the news business.
She has received numerous awards for her work including an Emmy Award for investigative reporting, the California Teacher's Association award for best educational reporting for her coverage of bilingual education, and best news report by the California Chicano News Media Association, and two national Asian American Journalists Association awards for best reporting in Asian and non-Asian related issues. She is currently the executive director of a nonprofit organization she founded, the San Diego Asian Film Foundation.
Since leaving KGTV, Lee Ann has been honored for her nonprofit work including being awarded the 2010 KPBS Hero of the Month award, 10News Leadership Award, San Diego Magazine's Top 50 People to Watch in 2009, and gracing the cover of San Diego Family Magazine in May 2010.
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