About Belva

Belva Davis is a history maker, an award-winning journalist, a pioneering feminist, a dedicated community servant, a wife and mother, and a gifted storyteller.

As a popular anchorwoman, Davis has landed in the middle of some of the biggest news events of recent history.  From her base in San Francisco, she has traveled the world reporting on politics, terrorism, racial and gender issues and the role of art and culture in increasing human understanding.

Her hardscrabble beginnings instilled an ability to persevere and to succeed even under difficult conditions.  Born in the Deep South during the Great Depression, with no permanent home for most of her early life, she learned to make the best of her circumstances.  Those lessons also allowed her to successfully move from segregated newspaper and radio work to become the first black woman hired as a commercial television news reporter on the West Coast.

Davis has anchored at three major network affiliates, CBS, NBC, and PBS.  She currently hosts a highly respected political affairs program on KQED-TV San Francisco, the most watched public TV station in the United States.  In the country’s fifth largest television market, her high “Q” rating (the researched measurement of a media figure’s likability and trust) has allowed her to move seamlessly among the stations.

Davis has seldom talked about key aspects of her life behind the camera, so she could continue reporting the news, rather than become its subject.  Now, four decades into her work as a broadcast journalist, she not only shares her personal perspective on public events, but also explores the trajectory of an extraordinarily tenacious life through an extraordinarily changeable era.

BelvaDavis.com is her first foray into interactive broadcasting, using the Internet as a means of communication, and continuing her life’s mission to reach across the boundaries of gender, generation and geography.

Honors & Awards

Belva Davis is the recipient of numerous awards, including:

American Women in Radio and Television, Golden Gate Chapter
Lifetime Achievement Award, 1999
Belva Davis Diversity Scholarship, established in 1999

International Women’s Media Foundation
Courage Award, Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient, 2004
NPR Interview with Tavis Smiley

Leon and Sylvia Panetta Institute
Jefferson-Lincoln Award, 2007

National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), Northern Calif. Chapter
Silver Circle Inductee, 1989, Governor’s Award 1995
Seven-time winner of Northern California Emmy Awards

Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame
Inducted, 2007

NEWSEUM:
One of 500 journalists to be profiled

Congressional recognition

American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)
Former Vice President
Chair Emeritus, National Equal Employment Opportunities
“Belva Davis” Award for Diversity

National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ)
Lifetime Achievement Award

Coro Northern California
Leadership Award, 2004

Honorary Doctorates (for television and community service work), 1996:
John F. Kennedy University
Golden Gate University

100 Black Men of the Bay Area
Lifetime Achievement Award, 2005

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
Honorary member

Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Best newscast, 1978

Radio Television News Directors Association
Award for Excellent Broadcasting

Numerous AP Awards (Associated Press)