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2024 Board of Governors Award Honoree Announced

Updated: May 14



Iconic news anchor Denise Koch will receive the 2024 Board of Governors

award from the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS-NCCB), organization president Adam Longo announced earlier this month

  

The longest running female news anchor in the Baltimore market, Denise Koch has served as a reporter and anchor with WJZ-TV over the last 40 years. Starting out on “Evening Magazine” as a weekly tipster “Daring Denise,” it didn’t take long for Koch to move from tipster to the newsroom, and then to the anchor desk. Prior to her career in TV news, Koch was a professional actor performing at regional theatres around the country. She also taught at the University of Wisconsin, Michigan and UMBC as well as served as Literary Manager at Baltimore's Center Stage.  


“Denise embodies all the qualities we look for when recognizing journalists in our region,” Chapter President Adam Longo said.  “She is committed to ensuring a better future for Baltimore City by actively serving the community through her time and influence on countless organizations and people in need through her decades in Baltimore,” he added.


Colleague and WJZ reporter Paul Gessler stated “Professionally, I can't say I've ever worked or witnessed a lead anchor work as hard as she does. She actively seeks out stories and people to highlight in the midst of her full-time anchoring. She is the embodiment of a storyteller who knows stories happen out in the community, not in the studio. She is a newsroom leader like no other, shepherding generation after generation of journalists through an ever-changing industry.”


The Emmy Award–winning journalist has traveled to China, West Africa and Jamaica to report the news. She's also covered the home front from around the U.S. and from every corner of Maryland—bringing local, national and world events into sharp focus for WJZ viewers. Even sports fans went with Denise as she covered Baltimore's search for an NFL team in Chicago to the Ravens' quest for the Super Bowl trophy in Tampa.


Her work in the community is especially important to her. She's been on the advisory boards of the Hospice Network of Maryland, Success in Style—clothing women re-entering the workforce, and the Maryland Committee for the Children. Denise is also a founding member of the Women’s Leadership Institute of Baltimore—a panel of women, supported by Maryland's only women's college Notre Dame University, dedicated to working for gender equity, on which she serves on the President’s Advisory Council.


For 10 years, she was a member of the Howard County Arts Council and is a former two-term board member of the United Way of Central Maryland as well as a member of their women's leadership council.  


Denise also served two terms on the board of Camp Opportunity, a camp for abused and

neglected children and is currently on the board of Turn Around, Inc. which is a sexual assault, domestic violence center. 


The Board of Governors Award reaches beyond those usually awarded for television news and production by recognizing achievements by individuals, organizations or companies in community service or other worthwhile endeavors within the National Capital Chesapeake Bay's region. Historically, the Board of Governors Award is presented for truly outstanding achievement and unique accomplishment of some duration and durability. 

  

Koch will be recognized during the 66 th Emmy ®  Awards ceremony on Saturday, June 22 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Bethesda, Maryland.  

  

The National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences was established in 1958 and is an organization comprised of more than 1,600 television broadcast professionals dedicated to fostering and recognizing outstanding achievements in television production throughout the National Capital Chesapeake Bay region.

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