Wendy Tokuda

Wendy Tokuda is an award-winning journalist who worked as a primetime anchor in local TV news for almost 40 years, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Her signature series on low-income kids, ""Students Rising Above"" earned a Peabody, a national Emmy award, the national Sigma Delta Chi Award, the NAB Education Foundation Service to America Award and the Templeton Award for Creative Altruism.

She has won 7 regional Emmy Awards for reporting, and numerous lifetime achievement awards including the NATAS S.F./N. Cal Chapter Governor's Award, the NORCAL Radio and TV News Directors Lifetime Achievement Award, and the AP Stan Chambers Award for Extraordinary Achievement.

Tokuda started as a reporter at KING5 News in Seattle and went on to anchor prime time evening newscasts for KPIX CBS5 and KRON4 in San Francisco, and NBC4 in Los Angeles.

Tokuda was the first Asian American to anchor weekday primetime newscasts in San Francisco and one of the first journalists to report on the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.

For 17 years, Tokuda profiled low-income kids overcoming extraordinary obstacles for "Students Rising Above". Viewers would donate to a scholarship fund to help send these teenagers to college. This project eventually developed into a multi-million dollar non-profit by the same name.

Tokuda wrote two children's books with Richard Hall: Shiro in Love and Humphrey the Whale, which remains in print after more than 20 years. She also wrote Samson the Hot Tub Bear and collaborated on "Generations", on the history Japantown, San Francisco.

Wendy Tokuda retired from television in 2016 but volunteers with Students Rising Above, mentoring and speech coaching. She now works primarily on environmental restoration- removing invasive plants, planting natives and reducing fire risks.