Emcees

Lauren Ashburn

Lauren Ashburn is an award-winning on-air anchor and executive producer. She is managing editor of USA TODAY Live, the television arm of the nation’s newspaper. She’s covered natural disasters around the world, 9/11 from the Pentagon, and has interviewed countless celebrities and politicians. She’s hosted a cable series called, “Debate” featuring people from both sides of political issues in a theatre-in-the-round format. She sits on the Management Committee of USA TODAY helping transform the company to include more video products. She serves on the Women’s Advisory Board of the GSCNC. She graduated from Albright College and from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is married, has two children (7 and 3) and lives in Washington DC. Lauren still has her brownie uniform and Girl Scout badges from her days growing up in Reading, PA. “Now I’m teaching my daughter the lessons I learned in Girl Scouts.”

Shannon Bream

Shannon Bream anchors weekend newscasts on NBC4. During the week, she is a general assignment reporter. Her professional life began as an attorney specializing in discrimination and harassment law. In 1999, she was selected over 50 other competitors to become a "citizen panelist" on Politically Incorrect. A taste of live television prompted her to apply for a job at WFTS in Tampa. She started as a writer then became a reporter before moving to Charlotte to anchor the evening news for WBTV.

When Shannon moved to Washington in 2004, it was for the second time. Years earlier, as a college student at Liberty University, she was an intern on Capitol Hill. Also during that time, Bream was crowned Miss Virginia and went on to become a top 10 finalist in the Miss America pageant.

Outside of work, Shannon's activities are as varied as her professional interests. She has performed around the world as a pianist, vocalist and songwriter. And she's also a marathon runner, having completed her first in 2002.

Shannon earned a Juris Doctorate with honors from Florida State University College of Law. She and her husband, Sheldon, live in Washington.

Lesli Foster

Lesli Foster is an Emmy award-winning journalist who anchors the 9 NEWS NOW weekend morning newscasts on W*USA 9 on Saturday and Sunday mornings. She also fills in on the anchor desk on weekdays and covers stories around the region as a 9 NEWS NOW general assignment reporter.

Lesli, who joined W*USA 9 in 2001, is a featured journalist in the book "Women Journalists at Ground Zero" by Judith Sylvester and Suzanne Huffman, which documents personal experiences of 24 female journalists who covered September 11th. She has interviewed many national luminaries including former New York City Mayor Rudolph Guilliani, Queen Noor, Dorothy Height, Vernon Jordan, Walter Cronkite, Danny Glover, Pat Buchanan and many others.

Prior to joining W*USA 9, Lesli was a reporter for WBAL-TV, where she was named Best TV-News Personality by Baltimore's CityPaper. She began her career in her native Michigan, where she was a weekend anchor and reporter for WEYI-TV, an NBC affiliate in Flint, Michigan.

A graduate of DC's Howard University, Lesli gives her time to many causes and organizations throughout metropolitan Washington. Journalism, she says, is her life's work, and an essential way to make a difference in the lives of people.

Tracee Wilkins

Tracee Wilkins is a television journalist whose passion is using media as a tool for activism and community change. This reporter's motto is, "be honest, fair, accurate and balanced." Tracee is originally from the Washington metropolitan area. She attended Prince George's County Public Schools graduating from High Point High School in Beltsville, Maryland.

She is currently working as a freelance morning reporter for NBC 4 in Washington, the area's number #1 news station. In the summer of 2005 Tracee was featured in the Washingtonian Magazine as one of Washington's young hot T.V. journalists to watch. Before returning to DC she spent 4 years in North Carolina working as the government beat reporter and a fill-in anchor for WFMY in Greensboro, a Gannett station. While there, Tracee agreed to return to Washington to report for WUSA Channel 9 for one week after the September 11th attacks.

Tracee's first on-air job was in Columbus, Mississippi with WCBI-TV. While in Columbus, she picked up a first place Associated Press Award for General News.

Joining the NBC 4 team in 2003 literally brought her career full circle. After graduation from Frostburg State University in 1997, Tracee's first job in TV news was with NBC 4. In one year, she worked her way from a production assistant to a segment producer and writer.

In college, Tracee majored in Mass Communications with a minor in African-American Studies. It was her love for African Studies that sent Tracee overseas to Tanzania, Africa after graduation. For one summer, she served as a volunteer, teaching African American History to children in Arusha while writing for the Arusha Times.

Tracee has brought her love for volunteering back home to Washington. She's created and is leading a teen mentioning group called "Girls R Talking" with the Metropolitan Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington. When she's not volunteering, Tracee is working on her first novel, running, bike riding, painting or on the golf course.