Gwen Tolbart, BA 95, Fox5DC weather anchor and reporter | Photo: Fox5DC
The Washington, D.C.-based Fox5DC weather anchor and reporter is among Maryland’s Top 100 Women named by Baltimore paper The Daily Record.
The award recognizes professional achievement, community involvement and mentorship. Tolbart is in good company, with members of congress and senators among past honourees.
The Montreal native began her career as an actress and television personality on Canadian programs like Degrassi High and Travel, Travel in the early 1990s.
“While working on Degrassi High in Toronto I saw an ad for The Weather Network,” says Tolbart, who became the station’s first black regular on-camera meteorologist.
“I had an on-screen presence, but realized I didn’t have the foundation and tools I needed,” says Tolbart, who kept her television spots and enrolled in Concordia’s Department of Journalism. “Concordia gave me that.”
After graduation, opportunity brought Tolbart south of the border. She spent five years in Dallas, Texas, where she won an Emmy with CBS before she moved to Washington in 2002, to join Fox5DC.
She was drawn to Washington because in the U.S. capital, “local news is national news.”
Committed to serving the community, Tolbart now volunteers with two local charities for the homeless and disadvantaged, Our House and New Endeavours by Women.
“While I was in Dallas I volunteered with teen mothers, children with reading difficulties and mentored journalism students,” says Tolbart. For her efforts, she received the 1998 National Association of Black Journalists Community Service Award.
The Top 100 women will be honoured at a ceremony on May 5 in Baltimore.
“It’s really humbling to receive this award,” says the veteran reporter.