Charisse Gibson is a National Edward R. Murrow and Emmy award-winning Journalist, Producer, and Evening News Anchor at WWL-TV in New Orleans, LA.
She began her television career at WWL-TV in 2010 as a desk assistant. She used that time in the newsroom to work with Reporters, Anchors, and Photographers to better sharpen her skills in front and behind the camera leading to writing as an Associate Producer for the WWL-TV Morning Show. Her time behind the scenes working with New Orleans legends such as Sally-Ann Roberts and Eric Paulsen led to a career as a TV News Producer on the Mississippi Gulf Coast at WLOX-TV where she would jump in front of the camera from time to time as a Fill-in Anchor and Reporter. Sometimes all in the same day while producing the same show. She also spent time at KSLA News 12 in Shreveport, LA, and FOX 19 Now in Cincinnati, OH as a breaking news anchor, co-anchor/host of the “Morning Xtra” as well as Producer/Host of “Cincinnati Connection” a public affairs television show exploring social and community issues throughout Cincinnati.
During her time at FOX 19 NOW, Charisse was Emmy-nominated for her documentary on the Freedom Riders and their connection to the Greater Cincinnati area including the training of hundreds of students at Miami University for the Mississippi Summer Project or Freedom Summer. With a serious interest in culture and history, she produced a special report called “The Migration of Sound” exploring how jazz music traveled the Mississippi River and found its way in Cincinnati’s West End community.
Now that Charisse is home, she shifts her focus to the ever-changing landscape of New Orleans and surrounding areas. In her Emmy-nominated series “Treme: Death of a Neighborhood, Survival of a Culture,” Charisse explores the many factors that decimated America’s first black neighborhood and the birthplace of Jazz. Continuing her interest in community issues, her Emmy-nominated special report “Victims of Progress Pt 1 & 2” explore how the petrochemical industry is quite literally erasing history as districts mostly lived in by black residents whose families have been there for generations have been converted into “industrial/residential” districts. These districts also run along the same corridor that gained the moniker “Cancer Alley” though it was originally dubbed “Plantation Country.”
Her work goes beyond documentaries, Charisse has reported live in the field in the aftermath of an attack on an NOPD officer in the French Quarter, the first reporter on the scene. She has anchored countless hours of coverage during Hurricanes, breaking news such as the Hard Rock Collapse and Elections. She is also a skilled interviewer and community advocate.
Her latest project “The Talk: A Hard Conversation About Race in America” was the winner of both a regional and national Edward R Murrow Award for Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. “The Talk”, done after the murder of George Floyd, was written, produced, and hosted by Charisse Gibson and filmed by photojournalist Derek Waldrip. It centers on conversations many Black parents have with their children at a certain age on how to remain safe in America. The documentary opened itself up to a series that continues today.
Charisse is a proud HBCU graduate of Southern University A&M College in Baton Rouge, LA. She is also an active member of the National Association of Black Journalists, voted (2022) as President of the New Orleans Association of Black Journalists.
