In 1993, she landed her first TV job at the nation's first all-news local broadcast station, KNWS-TV in Houston, Texas. She moved in 1994 to become the main anchor at WCFT, the CBS affiliate station in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In 1995, she then moved to Springfield, Missouri to work at KYTV, the local NBC affiliate, where she became the first person of color to anchor the news in the Ozarks. In 1996, she accepted an offer from KGTV to work in San Diego, starting in March 1996.