13 fascinating facts about Erin Kiernan:
• I am an only child.
• I could save your life -– I know CPR.
• I don’t have any cavities.
• My Irish husband proposed to me on St. Patrick’s Day. We got married in the Madison County Church visited by Pope John Paul in 1979. My husband grew up there and was blessed by John Paul during the visit. Our son was baptized there.
• I was once storm chasing as a young reporter and an anchor sent me straight into a developing tornado.
• I’m a fitness instructor and personal trainer.
• I played the piano and the clarinet as a kid and can’t play either now.
• I have a Voodoo kit on my desk (a gift from Sonya Heitshusen).
• I have a tattoo and a piercing and wish I’d never gotten either. (Why is your mother always right about these things?)
• I had a retainer for a couple of weeks in grade school before “accidentally” throwing it away during hot lunch. Consequently, I still have an overbite.
• In the middle of an interview, Steve Miller serenaded me with “Really like your peaches, wanna shake your treeeeeee.”
• My dad still sometimes calls me “The Dawes County Styler” because I won first place in a Dawes County, Nebraska 4-H modeling contest, wearing clothes I made myself. These skills (sewing/modeling) have gone the way of my piano/clarinet skills!
• My birth was delayed because my mother went into labor during a Nebraska football game.
Erin Kiernan rejoined the Channel 13 News Team in June 2005 to play a major role in the station’s ongoing success. In June 2006, Erin started anchoring the 5, 6, & 10 o’clock newscasts.
In addition to anchoring, Erin has written and produced many of the station’s award-winning investigative and feature reports.
The recipient of several regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for her reporting work, Erin earned a National Edward R. Murrow Award in 2012 with photojournalists Brandon McCauley and Randy Schumacher for a story about Iowan Mark Block overcoming impossible odds to climb Sears Tower in Chicago. Erin has also received regional Emmy Awards in the feature, consumer and instructional categories.
In 2008, the Iowa Commission of Persons with Disabilities chose Erin to receive its Media Award following special reports she produced on Iowans with disabilities.
Erin previously anchored the weekend news at KCCI, where she started in 1998. In addition to anchoring, she became known for her award-winning investigative work and special series pieces. In Spring 2004, she received a regional Edward R. Murrow award for her two-part series on date-rape drugs. In 2000, she also received a regional Murrow Award for her investigative series “True Colors,” which focused on racism at bars in the Des Moines metro area. She has also done investigative series reports on identity theft, sex offenders, arson, ecstasy, meth and unlicensed drivers.
Erin graduated from Drake University with a degree in broadcast journalism. While attending school, she worked as a part-time reporter at Channel 13 News. Next, she worked for WOI-TV as a reporter and photographer.
Born and raised in Chadron, Nebraska, she says her career in broadcasting really started when she imitated television news reporters while dressing up in her mother’s clothes as a child.
Erin is very involved in our community. She volunteers for various non-profits and teaches fitness classes at the YMCA. She is also an advocate for adoptive families and birth families and helped found “Iowans for Adoption”. She also helps run a support group for people dealing with infertility.
Erin loves the outdoors, animals, sports and music. Her favorite thing is spending time with her husband Michael and their kids, Michael Francis and Audrey.
