Barbara Ciara Biography
Barbara Ciara is an American journalist of African descent working for WTKR as an anchor on weekdays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on News 3. She joined the station in July 2000 and has served the station for more than 2 decades.
Previously, she worked for the partnership between WVEC-TV and WHRO public television as managing editor from the fall of 1996 to the summer of 2000. While there, she produced and co-hosted the Newsmagazine “This Week in Hampton Roads.”
Barbara Ciara Education
Ciara attended the University of Arizona. However, she left school to work a full-time position at KZAZ. She later returned to school and joined Hampton University where she completed her undergraduate studies. In 2000, she became a Summa Cum Laude graduate and attained a Bachelor Of Arts degree in Broadcast Journalism.
Barbara Ciara Career
Ciara works for WTKR as an anchor on weekdays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on News 3. She joined the station in July 2000 and has served the station for more than 2 decades. Previously, she worked for the partnership between WVEC-TV and WHRO public television as managing editor from the fall of 1996 to the summer of 2000.
While there, she produced and co-hosted the Newsmagazine “This Week in Hampton Roads.” An Emmy-awarded journalist, she has worked in the industry for more than 3 and a half decades. She traveled to secure the story of the U-S air assault against the Taliban in Afghanistan after the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center.
Almost a decade before that, she provided coverage for Operations Desert Shield/Storm and Operation Enduring Freedom from active military sites in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Also, she has broadcasted critical enterprise stories where she broadcasted the people of Cuba who landed at GITMO to break free of communist rule.
After the US Military hit the beaches of Haiti after an uprising, she brought the stories of the Military campaign on board the command ship U-S-S Mount Whitney. Nationally, she has broadcasted political campaigns and investigative reporting. Further, she had interviews with leaders such as Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Oprah Winfrey.
Ciara delivered analysis on XM Radio, CNN, National Public Radio, CBS News, and the Tom Joyner Morning Show aside from providing quotes for the New York Times and the Washington Post among other news outlets. For several years, she worked for “The Daily Press” as a columnist.
In 2012, she started receiving interviews for the eminent national “History Makers” project, the state’s biggest African American Video Oral history collection archived in the Library of Congress. She served as an inductee of the Silver Circle awards of the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences- National Capital Chesapeake Bay chapter in 2011.
Ciara provided coverage of the inside the White House interview with then-President, Barack Obama. Her investigative work includes consumer fraud, felony voting rights, an investigation on Klan activity in Hampton Roads, a campaign broadcast, apartheid on city land at Portsmouth’s Bide-A-Wee golf course, and a health insurance investigation that caused the broadcast for an incurable ill man.
She had a one-on-one interview with Oprah Winfrey. She has produced multiple works that provide history at an angle with the world today like her awarded documentary about “Massive Resistance” in Virginia that has potent interviews of the” Norfolk 17.″
Early career
During her junior year, she left college in pursuit of a full-time position at KZAZ in 1976. For 5 years, she worked as an assignment editor, noon anchor, producer, and ultimately news director. In 1978, she served as the youngest female and initial African-American to attain the management position of news director at a commercial TV station in the southwest.
Ciara has served both the NBC and ABC affiliates in the Hampton Roads area. In February 1997, she served as managing editor for LNC for 2 years. While there, she assisted in creating a format, cross-train print reporters, and debuted the 24-hour News partnership.
Her interest in journalism started when she arranged a protest in the cafeteria of her junior high school. The protest started because girls were not allowed to wear slacks unless it was a snow day. She started her career when she worked in Tucson, Arizona on the school newspaper at Pima Community College.
Awards and Honors
In the Readers’ Choice Awards, Coastal Virginia Magazine named her the best local Female TV News Anchor in the Hampton Roads Area in 2017. For her work on screen and in the community, she has attained many community and professional honors. However, she is most proud of giving a voice to the voiceless. Ciara received the Capitol Regional Emmy Award for her series, “Guilty Til Proven Innocent.”
Additionally, she has received honors from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism for her reports about ethnicity and race. In 2008, she was named one of the “Ebony Power 150 Organization Leaders” by Ebony Magazine for her work as president of the National Association of Black Journalists.
In 1997, she received an Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio and Television News Directors Association. In the same year, she received an Emmy nomination for “Operation Haiti” which featured children who live in poverty on the island nation. For the series, “Letters from the Hood,” she received a 1995 Emmy nomination.
The series documented children who live in violent urban regions. Additionally, she has received many Associated Press and United Press International awards since 1986. Also, she received many prestigious “Excel” awards from the Hampton Roads Black Media Professionals.
UNITY, Journalist of Color, and The National Association of Black Journalists
A strong believer in public service, she has worked with several non-profit organizations. In August 2007, she served as the President of the National Association of Black Journalists. Next, she served worked as the president of UNITY: Journalists of Color, a coalition between Black, Native American, Hispanic, and Asian Journalists. As president, she served as an advocate for balanced broadcasts of the community, diversity in the newsroom, and boosting roles for minorities in management positions.
Barbara Ciara Age
Ciara was born on July 27, 1956, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. She is 67 years old as of 2023.
Barbara Ciara Family
Ciara has managed to keep her personal life away from the limelight hence she has not disclosed any information about her parents. It is also not known if Ciara has any siblings.
Barbara Ciara Wife / Husband
Ciara married her husband, Arthur Jarrett, Jr. Even so, she keeps details regarding him private. However, we will update this information once its publicly available.
Barbara Ciara Net Worth
Ciara has an estimated net worth ranging between $1 Million – $5 Million which she has earned through being a journalist.
Barbara Ciara Salary
Ciara earns an annual salary ranging between $40,000 – $ 110,500.
Barbara Ciara Knee Surgery
Ciara underwent double knee replacement surgery in 2016. Her surgery was done by Dr. Louis Jordan from the Jordan-Young Institute. Michael Livoti, her physical therapist helped her do a range of stretching and balancing exercises.
