Diane Willis ( Bruhn) (born July 4, 1948) is an American journalist, documentalist, teacher and newscaster.

Career as a broadcaster

Willis graduated

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

from

Augustana College Augustana College may refer to: *Augustana College (Illinois) *Augustana University Sioux Falls, South Dakota *Augustana University College, Alberta See also *Augustana Divinity School (Neuendettelsau) The Augustana-Hochschule Neuendettelsau is ...

and earned several master's degrees from both the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

and

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

. She spent six years teaching

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and journalism before becoming a broadcast journalist. During 1981-82 her first job was at

KTVI KTVI (channel 2) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CW owned-and-operated station KPLR-TV (channel 11). Both stations share studios on B ...

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, where she reported and anchored. By 1983, she moved to Boston's

WNEV-TV WHDH (channel 7) is an independent television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is owned by Sunbeam Television alongside Cambridge-licensed CW affiliate WLVI (channel 56). WHDH and WLVI share studios at Bulfinch Place (ne ...

, where she started as a reporter and soon became the main female anchor alongside veteran reporter Tom Ellis, to lead the 6:00 pm news hour, by that time a strong third place in the ratings. The newscast received good reviews from the critics during her tenure; although she stepped down in 1986. She then taught Journalism at

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

for a few semesters alongside her then-husband Jim Willis. Soon after, in January 1987, she joined WRTV in Indianapolis as the 6:00 and 11:00 pm anchor with Clyde Lee. They would remain as the principal faces of the news division until 2001, when both agreed to resign and left the television news business. With Lee, she began a new consultant firm named Lee-Willis Communications, specializing in public relations, crisis communications and training corporate executives to deal with the media. This firm had a mild controversy when WRTV reported that the former anchors had received $30,000 from a high school to make public relations related releases. Willis replied that they couldn't do any more for them.

Personal life

Diane and Jim Willis married in the early 1980s, and in 1983, they adopted two sons, David and John. The couple divorced. Willis and Clyde Lee married in 2000.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Willis, Diane Television anchors from Boston American television reporters and correspondents American women television journalists Living people 1948 births 21st-century American women