Sharon Chin

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Sharon Chin is a general assignment reporter who also profiles Jefferson Award winners for CBS 5 Eyewitness News. Since she joined CBS 5 in 1997, Chin has reported everything from fires to features, from politics to perspective pieces, but she feels a special sense of pride bringing viewers the stories of Jefferson Award winners. She herself feels inspired as she shares the stories of our community’s heroes.

Chin admits she didn’t always want to be a reporter. She aspired to become a medical doctor, then realized she couldn’t stand the sight of blood! Just hours after she graduated from Lowell High School in San Francisco, she took an internship at an Asian American weekly newspaper and caught the news bug.

She landed her first job shooting, writing and producing her own stories at KTVL-TV in Medford, Oregon. Her very first report was a live shot in front of the damaged Bay Bridge the day after the Loma Prieta earthquake in October 1989.

In 1992, she returned to her native California to report and anchor weekends for KSBW-TV in Salinas. Before coming to CBS 5, Sharon freelanced as a technology reporter for KICU’s Silicon Valley Business show, and ZDTV News.

She received a 1997 Northern California Emmy award for a feature on the late Charlie Wedemeyer, the former Los Gatos football coach with Lou Gehrig’s disease who couldn’t walk or speak, but whose courage inspired others. Over the years, Sharon has also been honored with awards that include Reporter of the Year from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California, and Best Newswriting and Best Investigative Story from the Oregon Associated Press Broadcasters Assn.

Chin earned her bachelor degree in political science from UC Berkeley and master’s in journalism from Northwestern University. She mentors young journalists as a member of the Asian American Journalists Association. Chin and her husband, CBS 5 Meteorologist Lawrence Karnow, enjoy family time together with their daughter.

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