Dawna Friesen is a Canadian television journalist, currently the chief anchor and executive editor of ''

Global National ''Global National'' is the English language flagship national newscast of Canada's Global Television Network. Editorial and production staff are based out of Global's national news centre at Global BC in Burnaby, British Columbia, with Dawna Fries ...

''.L. Scrivener
Dawna Friesen: From shy prairie girl to Global News anchor
''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'', September 20, 2010. She was previously a foreign correspondent for

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

Career

She started reading news at a hybrid television and radio station in

Brandon, Manitoba Brandon () is the second-largest city in the province of Manitoba, Canada. It is located in the southwestern corner of the province on the banks of the Assiniboine River, approximately west of the provincial capital, Winnipeg, and east of the ...

, in 1985 and from there went on to report for other stations in Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary, Vancouver, and Toronto. By the late 1990s she was recruited by national networks in Canada and the US and joined

. While at NBC, Friesen covered stories out of London as well as the Middle East, including the Israeli Palestinian conflict and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the kidnapping and murder of ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' reporter

Daniel Pearl Daniel Pearl (October 10, 1963 – February 1, 2002) was an American journalist who worked for ''The Wall Street Journal.'' He was kidnapped and later decapitated by terrorists in Pakistan.' Pearl was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and rais ...

in Karachi. She won a

News & Documentary Emmy Award The News & Documentary Emmy Awards, or News & Documentary Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts and Scien ...

as a correspondent in NBC's coverage of the

2008 United States presidential election The 2008 United States presidential election was the 56th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator from ...

. In 2010 Friesen joined

Global News Global News is the news and current affairs division of the Canadian Global Television Network. The network is owned by Corus Entertainment, which oversees all of the network's national news programming as well as local news on its 21 owned-and ...

as their ''Global National'' anchor, succeeding Kevin Newman. Friesen was the third full-time female news anchor to lead a nightly newscast in Canada, after

Sophie Thibault Sophie Thibault (born May 2, 1961) is a Quebec journalist and television reporter for the TVA network. Biography She earned a bachelor's degree in psychology, after which she became a radio reporter for CINQ-FM and CHAI-FM. She continued journal ...

in 2002 and

Céline Galipeau Céline Galipeau, OC, OQ, is a Canadian news anchor for Radio-Canada. Well known for her comprehensive and insightful coverage from Moscow, she is currently the weekday anchor of the network's flagship newscast ''Le Téléjournal''. Early life ...

in 2009, and the first in English Canada. In 2011 she won the

Gemini Award The Gemini Awards were awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television between 1986–2011 to recognize the achievements of Canada's television industry. The Gemini Awards are analogous to the Emmy Awards given in the United States ...

for best news anchor. In addition to ''Global National'', she also hosts the network's newsmagazine series ''

The New Reality ''The New Reality'' is the third and final studio album by progressive metal band Operation: Mindcrime. It is the third in a concept album trilogy on virtual currencies, internet banking and stock trading In finance, a trade is an exchange of a ...

''.

Personal life

Friesen was raised on a farm west of Winnipeg; her parents were nonobservant

Mennonites Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...

. Her father had her work on the farm, and she learned how to drive a tractor when she was six. Her mother was active in local politics. She moved with her family to St. Albert, Alberta and graduated from Paul Kane High School in 1981. She then moved back to Manitoba to attend

Red River College Red River College Polytechnic (RRC Polytech) is a List of colleges in Canada, college located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is the province's largest institute of applied learning and applied research, with over 200 degree, diploma, and cer ...

and worked as a waitress when she was young. Friesen graduated from RRC's Creative Communications program in 1984, and began her journalism career working in Brandon, Saskatoon, Thunder Bay and Winnipeg. She re-married on July 28, 2018, to Rick Anderson after she divorced

Tom Kennedy Thomas or Tom Kennedy may refer to: Politics *Thomas Kennedy (Scottish judge) (1673–1754), joint Solicitor General for Scotland 1709–14, Lord Advocate 1714, Member of Parliament for Ayr Burghs 1720–21 * Thomas Kennedy, 9th Earl of Cassilis ...

. Both of her parents developed dementia, and in 2014 Friesen was featured in a ''

16×9 ''16×9'' (formerly branded as ''16:9'' and ''16:9: The Bigger Picture) is a Canadian investigative newsmagazine television program created by Troy Reeb and Mary Garofalo that aired on Global for eight seasons. The series debuted on November 30, ...

'' program about dementia and how families cope with it.

Awards

* 2009

for Outstanding Live Coverage of a Breaking News Story – Long Form, as a correspondent in NBC's coverage of the

. * 2011,

, best news anchor

References

External links

Dawna Friesen
at globalnews.ca {{DEFAULTSORT:Friesen, Dawna Canadian television news anchors Journalists from Manitoba Living people Canadian Mennonites Red River College alumni Canadian women television journalists Global Television Network people NBC News people 1964 births 20th-century Canadian journalists 21st-century Canadian journalists Canadian Screen Award winning journalists 20th-century Canadian women