JESSICA JEWELL

About Jessica

 

Jessica is an anchor and reporter at WSLS in Roanoke, Virginia. She is primarily the weekend evening anchor, but also co-anchors the weekday morning show as needed, most extensively from May through August 2019. On weekends, Jessica is the manager, overseeing all aspects of the newscast and content published on the station's website and social media. She is a general assignment reporter working with a photographer three days a week. While in Roanoke, she has covered major stories including the Congressional baseball practice shooting, the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Hurricane Florence and Gov. Ralph Northam's blackface scandal among other notable stories. Jessica stories have been nominated for an Emmy and received awards from the Associated Press.

 

Prior to moving to Virginia, Jessica worked as a multimedia Journalist at WNCT in Greenville, North Carolina. She reported primarily for 9 On Your Side Morning Edition. She shot, wrote, edited and produced stories which she reported live daily. As the morning show's only reporter, she frequently covered live breaking news. She also contributed daily content to WNCT's evening newscasts. She also anchored the weekday morning show and weekend shows.

 

Jessica graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 4.0 GPA from East Carolina University with a Bachelor of Science in Communication and a minor in Business Administration. In her class, Jessica was one of 15 EC Scholars, a full ride and ECU's most prestigious scholarship. She was also a student in the Honors College, where she worked as the Undergraduate Director of Marketing & Communications for three years.

 

For three years, Jessica worked as the anchor and special events reporter for three PEG Media government public access channels: Town of Clayton TV, Garner TV, and East Wake TV. 

 

Being involved in the community is near and dear to Jessica's heart, as noted in the documentary she produced following Greenville Fire Rescue entitled "Investigating Our Community's Heroes." She spent countless hours riding fire trucks and ambulances to document the work first responders do, how they do it and why they do it. 

 

Jessica interned at NBC News Channel in Washington, D.C., NBC News Channel in Charlotte, NC at the National and Live Desks, and WNCN in Raleigh, NC, working mainly with lifestyles show My Carolina Today. 

 

Jessica also hosted various marketing videos for ECU. The most extensive of these is a video series detailing ECU's history called Buildings Upon The Past. Jessica also hosted virtual tours and other videos for prospective students. She has voiced several radio advertisements for ECU. 

 

Throughout her life, Jessica has been an dedicated servant leader. She led various organizations in college and now leads as one of the senior reporters at WSLS. Jessica has dedicated hundreds of volunteer hours to numerous service organizations. Most significantly, she has spent more than 300 hours volunteering with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and frequently serves as a spokesperson for the organization in Roanoke.

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Jessica remains connected to ECU, mentoring journalism students, speaking to classes, and serving as an executive board member of the School of Communication Alumni Association, COMM Crew.

 

Jessica is pursuing journalism because she has an incredible passion for sharing stories that need to be heard. Her ultimate goal is to become a morning anchor in a top 25 market on the east coast.