October 6, 2017
Courtesy of Cactus Shadows School District
Erisa Nakano graduated from Cactus Shadows High School in 2005 – now she is a Senior Editor at the Breaking News Desk for ABC15. Here’s her story…
After graduating from Cactus Shadows High School in 2005, I knew I wanted to get into journalism and attended Arizona State University because of the Walter Cronkite School. On the first day of college, I got my foot in the door reporting for the campus radio station.
During my years in the journalism school, I interned for ABC15 News, the Arizona Diamondbacks as a video editor and produced on-air content for the campus radio and television stations. I was also fortunate enough to meet Walter Cronkite himself when he visited one of my classes before he passed away, which further motivated me to pursue a career in journalism.
In 2009, I got my first job out of college as the bureau chief and reporter for the NBC station in Albuquerque – based in Farmington, New Mexico. There I covered all news throughout the Four Corners region, learning to juggle shooting my own video, editing my own stories and setting up my own live on-air camera shots.
With an itch to return to my family in Phoenix, I moved back to Arizona in 2010 after getting a job offer at ABC15 behind the scenes as a web producer. The focus was writing and producing content for abc15.com and the station’s social media accounts.
Just a few months after starting my job, I first broke the news of the tragic Tucson mass shooting in January 2011 to viewers in the Phoenix area. I was working solo in the web department that Saturday morning when it happened and posted the information as it became available on the website, Twitter and Facebook. There are many tough stories to tell over the years, but I never take for granted the opportunity to gather all the information to inform the community.
Seven years later, I am continuing my career at ABC15 as a senior editor at the breaking news desk. In addition to being on alert for breaking news, I plan ahead to determine how ABC15 is covering upcoming events and future stories, including presidential candidates who held rallies in Phoenix before the election.
Updating the community about day-to-day news while also sharing compelling human-interest stories is my passion.
My family and I moved to Cave Creek from California right before my sophomore year of high school, and I’m happy to say that 15 years later, I’m still an Arizonan doing what I love.
Thank you for sharing your amazing story, Erisa – you are a FOREVER FALCON and we couldn’t be prouder!
Julia Scotto
Executive Assistant to
Dr. Debbi Burdick, Superintendent & Governing Board
Cave Creek Unified School District
480.575.2016 Phone/480.575.2092 Fax
jscotto@ccusd93.org
“You are what you do, not what you say” – C.G. Jung
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