Tasmin Mahfuz (born May 28, 1987) is an American television journalist and news anchor. In December 2015, Mahfuz, a

Gracie award The Gracie Awards are awards presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (AWM) in the United States, to celebrate and honor programming created for women, by women, and about women, as well as individuals who have made exemplary contr ...

recipient, joined WDVM, formerly known as WHAG, as an evening

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

, making her the first Bengali-American woman to anchor a nightly

newscast News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or telev ...

Early life and education

Mahfuz was born and raised in Florida, the daughter of Abdul and Nazmun Mahfuz. Her parents are both of Bangladeshi descent. Her father, Abdul, is a businessman and philanthropist, emigrated to the United States in 1979 when he was 19 years old from

Chittagong, Bangladesh Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in B ...

. One of his many charitable projects includes an all-girls high school in Chandanaish, Bangladesh, for rural girls to receive an education, which otherwise was impossible for women in the area due to distance and poverty. Currently, a college is in the planning and development stages adjacent to the high school. Nazmun produced and hosted weekly television shows for South Florida's PBS and WLRN. She attended high school at The King's Academy in West Palm Beach and went on to complete a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...

from

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...

in 2009. Following her graduation, Mahfuz took part in a two-year internship at the United Nations.

Career

In 2012, she joined

Ebru TV Samanyolu TV was an international Turkish language TV station with its headquarters in Istanbul. Samanyolu TV was previously owned by Yayıncılık A.Ş. Yayıncılık A.Ş. is a media company that operates radio and television broadcasting, pub ...

, an international network, and reported from

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, New York City and

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

. Her assignments included covering the devastation after Hurricane Sandy in

Sandy Hook shooting The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people. Twenty of the victims were children between six and seven years old, and th ...

and the

in Newtown, Connecticut. Mahfuz reported from the United Nations, providing

Breaking news Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in orde ...

from the

UN General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Cur ...

, on US–Iran relations, the Crimean annexation and developments in Syria. In August 2014, Mahfuz joined ABC 4 Utah as a reporter/ Southern Utah Bureau Chief. She launched the station's first TV news bureau in St. George and was responsible for covering 20,000 square miles with a population of over 200,000 people by herself. Mahfuz joined

WDVM-TV WDVM-TV (channel 25) is an independent television station licensed to Hagerstown, Maryland, United States, serving the Washington, D.C. television market. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CW owned-and-operated station WDCW (cha ...

in December 2015 as a full-time evening

. She anchors the weeknight news from 5–5:30 pm, 6–8 p.m. and 10–11:30 p.m. to audiences in the Washington DC market, which includes

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

Northern Virginia Northern Virginia, locally referred to as NOVA or NoVA, comprises several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is a widespread region radiating westward and southward from Washington, D.C. Wit ...

and regions within

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

and

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Awards

Mahfuz won the Alliance of Women in Media's

Gracie Award The Gracie Awards are awards presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (AWM) in the United States, to celebrate and honor programming created for women, by women, and about women, as well as individuals who have made exemplary contr ...

for Outstanding Producer in

TV news News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or televi ...

in June 2015. The Society of Professional Journalists – Utah Chapter presented Mahfuz an award for her reports as a multimedia journalist in 2015. In 2015 and 2017, the Federation of Bangladeshi Associations in North America recognized Mahfuz for her work in mainstream journalism as a 2nd generation Bengali-American.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahfuz, Tasmin 1987 births Living people People from West Palm Beach, Florida Emory University alumni American women television journalists 20th-century American women 21st-century American women 21st-century American journalists