Mary Jo Perino-Ford is a former television sports journalist. She was named Kentucky Sportscaster of the Year in 2009 and 2010 and in 2011 was the first woman elected to the board of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.

Early life and education

Perino was raised in Alexandria, Minnesota. Her grandfather started a television station, and her father worked there, and her interest in becoming an anchor began while she was a child and visiting her father at work. In 1999, Perino completed her Bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri.

Career

After graduating college, Perino first worked in television as a reporter in Terra Haute, Indiana, eventually also becoming a sports anchor on weekends for a year. She was then hired by the LEX18 sports department in 2002 and was a weekend anchor for four years. In July 2006, Perino joined the

CNN Headline News HLN is an American basic cable network. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, the network primarily carries true crime programming. The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982 by Turner Broadcasting as CNN2 (later renamed Headline News ...

network as a sports anchor. In 2007, she left CNN Headline News and returned to LEX18 as the main sports anchor. Perino was the Sports Director at WLEX in

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...

before leaving in December 2020 for Sema4, a laboratory specializing in women’s health and genetics.

Personal life

Her favorite football team is the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

. She and her son are also fans of the

Kentucky Wildcats The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30,473 ...

References

External links

Mary Jo Mitchell biography
at

CNN.com CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perino, Mary Jo Living people American sports journalists Year of birth missing (living people) Women sports journalists University of Missouri alumni