Kara Kostanich is an award winning television news anchor and reporter.
Her love for people and desire for truth has paved a path to telling stories that make a difference.
She has been on the front lines of massive natural disasters, covered landmark launches of NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery and Space Shuttle Endeavor. She has also sat face to face with two U.S. Presidents.
Kara has served as an anchor and reporter for WPEC-TV in West Palm Beach, Florida. Previously she was a reporter at KREM-TV in Spokane, Washington. She began her career at WBBJ-TV in Jackson, Tennessee where she was an anchor and reporter.
Kara spent 2008 on the campaign trail in Florida covering then Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain’s battle for the White House. In January 2010, she was the lead reporter on a massive 33-day recovery effort to find a group of students and professors who were killed in the deadly earthquake in Haiti.
Among her varied assignments she has covered three national political conventions, reported from Ground Zero on the third anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks and covered the National Police Memorial Funeral in Washington D.C.
After the fatal tsunami struck South Asia in 2005, Kara traveled to Banda Aceh, Indonesia to chronicle the work of a group of Tennesseans determined to help those who lost everything. The Tennessee Associated Press honored Kara for her series on their mission.
In 2006 Kara broke the story about a Tennessee preacher fatally shot by his wife. The story captured national headlines for more than a year. She also exposed a sex offender illegally operating a daycare center.
Outside of work, Kara has a passion for adventure. She has traveled across six continents, visiting more than 40 countries. In 2001, she spent seven months on what she fondly calls an “Around the World Adventure” where she trekked to the far corners of Asia, Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand. The trip taught her the value of freedom of information, an experience that ultimately inspired her to become a journalist.
Kara is from Chehalis, Washington, a community of 7,000 nestled between Seattle and Portland. She loves the outdoors and enjoys skiing, biking, SCUBA diving and sailing.
Kara graduated cum laude from Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island and earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from American University in Washington, DC. She has studied abroad in Belgium and Chile.
