Lisa Sylvester — Leader, Mentor and Face of WPXI-TV Weekday News in Pittsburgh

LISA SYLVESTER OF WPXI-TV. (PHOTO BY CHIEF IKHANA-HAL-MAKINA)

A mass shooting. A massive fire. An abduction. A storm that knocks out power to 300,000 residents.

WPXI-TV’s Lisa Sylvester delivers the news to Pittsburgh-area viewers in somehow, a calm but upbeat manner. She delivers the news in a way that never overwhelms her, allowing the audience to remain relaxed even in the most tense of news situations.

Sylvester is the unquestioned “face” of Channel 11, especially with longtime anchor David Johnson’s retirement in December 2024.

In 2013, Sylvester came to Pittsburgh, teamed with Johnson, anchoring the 10 o’clock news on Fox 53, along with the WPXI 6 and 11 o’clock newscasts.

At that time, you could still see the long-running news team of Johnson and Peggy Finnegan in the 5 o’clock hour, and Johnson was a mainstay at night.

But for the past year, it’s been all about Sylvester. A television station takes a hit when a pillar such as Johnson leaves the anchor chair, but it was Sylvester who kept the fast-paced, “11 at 11” rolling as the person viewers had come to know for the past 12 years in that timeslot. Gordon Loesch was named as Johnson’s replacement for the evening and night newscasts with Sylvester in mid-January 2025.

Sylvester holds the distinction of being the only current African American woman to anchor a weekday or weeknight newscast in Pittsburgh (Andrew Stockey, of WTAE-TV, is currently the longest-running African American anchor in Pittsburgh to occupy a weekday or weeknight position). The last Black woman to do so prior to Sylvester was KDKA’s Kimberly Gill, who left in 2014 for a position in Detroit. Currently, Jatara McGee anchors the weekend morning news on WPXI, and Chandi Chapman anchors the weekend evening news on WTAE (Channel 4). They are the only other Black women currently anchoring newscasts in Pittsburgh on a regular basis.

WPXI’S LISA SYLVESTER, SECOND FROM RIGHT, WITH THE WOMEN OF ZETA PHI BETA SORORITY INC. (PHOTO BY CHIEF IKHANA)

“One of the things that makes Lisa so likeable and approachable is how grounded she is,” WPXI’s news director, Scott Trabandt, told the New Pittsburgh Courier exclusively, Sept. 18. “I guess any parent with two teenagers gets grounded quite a bit at home. But she’s the same person in the newsroom and on the anchor desk as when she’s running errands or shuttling her kids to activities, and that helps her to show emotion and be empathetic (and) at the same time she can be curious and ask tough questions.”

Sylvester, who anchors the 5, 6 and 11 o’clock weekday newscasts on Channel 11, and the 10 o’clock news on Fox 53, carved out some time on Aug. 22 to host the Courier’s “Men of Excellence” awards ceremony at the Sheraton Hotel Station Square.

“I like doing events, I like doing debates and forums because I believe it’s so important to not just connect with the community, but provide the services beyond what you see when I’m anchoring,” Sylvester told the Courier after another event that she hosted, a Pittsburgh mayoral forum at a church on the North Side in March. “When you can help people make better and informed decisions, that is really important.”

Prior to Johnson’s retirement, Sylvester said she started becoming more of a leader inside the walls of WPXI’s Television Hill studios.  “I have two kids…and we talk a lot about leadership and what is leadership, and I think being a leader is looking around and seeing what’s wrong with the community, what’s wrong with the neighborhood and what needs to be done, and not questioning should I or should I not but actually taking action,” Sylvester told the Courier.

At times, Sylvester will speak at area schools. “I take pride when I see young people, when I see elementary school students and they want to go into the news business,” Sylvester said. “I believe that what we do on this earth and the time we spend on this earth, it can’t be just about ourselves. It has to be about something greater than ourselves.”

Caring and authenticity goes a long way in the local news business. Over time, viewers become familiar with local news anchors and almost welcome them into their homes like an extended family member.

For Sylvester to have this type of longevity in Pittsburgh, which does not have the African American viewership dynamic as opposed to Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago, it’s a testament to her talent and admiration from all factions of Pittsburgh viewers.

“Lisa was the only local news anchor in the country to have 1-on-1 interviews with Donald Trump and Kamala Harris last fall,” noted Trabandt. “She asked tough, fair questions  of both candidates with specific impacts and interests to the Pittsburgh region, and both campaigns credited her for doing solid, fair journalism.”

Trabandt also said Sylvester “cares deeply about fairness and objectivity, making sure we offer up all sides on an issue. She has gone out into many different communities as part of her Coffee & Conversations series, and she brings that perspective to the anchor desk each night.”

Sylvester is also close to the aforementioned McGee and WPXI reporter Talia Kirkland, who is Black. As McGee and Kirkland continue their ascent in the tough news business, Sylvester, who’s seen it all in her industry stops at ABC News and CNN among others, acts as a mentor to them.

“Before she actually started here, she was one of my mentees,” Sylvester said about McGee, who graduated from Shady Side Academy and the University of Maryland. “She would show me her reel, I would tell her to ‘work on this,’ or ‘try this.’ I have watched her grow up and just blossom, it has been amazing.”

As for Kirkland, the Penn Hills High School and Duquesne University graduate, Sylvester described her as “amazing. She does amazing things in the community with kids and different organizations.”Sylvester added: “It is important for me and for everybody to not just think about what we do for ourselves, but what we can do to help elevate others around us…because that’s the stuff at the end of the day that really matters.”

WPXI’S LISA SYLVESTER (PHOTO BY CHIEF IKHANA)