Emmy Award winning Cheryl Jennings is weekday co-anchor of ABC7 News at 11:00 a.m. and 5 p.m. She shares the anchor desk
with Dan Ashley at 5 p.m. Cheryl also files special assignment news reports and is the host of the community affairs
program Sunday On Seven.
She joined ABC7 in 1979 as a general assignment reporter and became the weekend news anchor in 1986. In 1988, she was
promoted to weekday anchor.
Cheryl is a pioneer in reporting on children's issues, women's rights and domestic violence and has been recognized
locally and nationally for her active involvement.
She worked on a six-part series on the children of Kosovo for which she received an Emmy nomination. She also hosted a
breast cancer special called Fighting Back. In 1998, she won an Emmy for hosting a show on caring for aging parents and in
1996, won two Emmy's for a special report on a camp for children with AIDS and for a segment of a program aimed at
teenagers called Straight Talk N' Teens.
Recently, Cheryl was honored by the League of Women Voters of San Francisco. She was selected as one of six women who could
be president of the United States.
In 2002, she received a national award from the American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT). Called the Gracie Allen
Award, it honors "superior quality and stellar portrayal of the changing roles and concerns of women." The report for which
she was honored, "Behind Bars: Battered Women Who Kill Their Abusers," was a profile of women serving life terms for
killing their abusive partners before a law was passed that allowed evidence of "battered woman's syndrome."
Cheryl has also been honored for her news reporting during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. She was the first ABC7 reporter
on the air with live, late-breaking news reports, as the aftershocks continued to rock the station.
She began her broadcasting career in 1974 at a San Francisco radio station. She worked as a reporter, anchor and a news
director before moving to television. In 1980, her documentary on sexual harassment of women in the work force received an
award of merit from the National Commission on the status of women.
Cheryl also helps in fund-raising for Camp Okizu, a program that sends children with cancer to summer camp. In addition,
she helps with fund-raising for The Taylor Family Foundation in Livermore which provides camp for children with
life-threatening illnesses.
Cheryl is active in community organizations. She is a long-time board member of the San Francisco Child Abuse Council, a
member of the Trade Advisory Board of the Journalism Department at San Francisco City College. She works with the
Tenderloin after-school program for children in San Francisco.
She is an honorary board member of LITA (Love Is The Answer), an organization in Novato which provides volunteer visitors
for senior citizens in nursing and retirement homes. She is also an honorary board member of a program in Rohnert Park
which serves children and families with AIDS, called Sunburst Projects. Cheryl also volunteers as a mentor for teens and
young people.
Cheryl attended both San Francisco State University and City College, where she majored in broadcast communication and
journalism.