When Katie Jeffries was in elementary school, her father thought she would become a lawyer, her mother thought she would be a writer. As she grew up, she never lost the passion to investigate, debate, and write stories- so she became a journalist.
Katie Jeffries joined the First Coast News team in 2012 as a morning reporter on Good Morning Jacksonville. After a year, she took over as the Morning Traffic Anchor and Noon News Anchor. In 2019, she was promoted to a Morning Anchor. In addition to these roles, she also reports with an emphasis on covering cold cases.
In her time in Jacksonville, Katie has covered stories in nearly every corner of the First Coast. In May of 2017, Katie began her series “Unsolved”, which profiles local cold cases. The series won a regional Emmy award in 2019. In 2020, the series directly lead to the closure of a missing persons case in Jacksonville Beach.
She also created the social media series “Driving Me Crazy” which takes a sarcastic look at driving violations and has become a well-known series around the First Coast. It received a local Emmy nomination in 2020.
Katie is proud to have anchored and reported during several major events in Jacksonville. She has covered Hurricanes Matthew, Irma, Dorian and Hermine. Additionally, she covered the abduction of Cherish Perrywinkle, the murder trial of Michael Dunn, the Jacksonville Landing mass shooting, and the birth of the area’s first-ever conjoined twins. Though much of her reporting has a serious focus, she has won two regional Emmys for her light features “Bye Garbage” and “Flight School”.
Katie graduated summa cum laude from the University of Cincinnati with a BFA in Electronic Media and a minor in Business. While in college, Katie got her feet wet in journalism through an internship at WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was awarded the Fredric R. Ziv Award by the University of Cincinnati's Electronic Media Department, which gave her the opportunity to move to New York City for a summer internship with CBS's "Guiding Light."
After graduation, Katie began her journalism career as a reporter/fill-in anchor at WHIZ-TV, the NBC affiliate in Zanesville, OH, where her story, "An Eye in the Sky", received an Ohio AP Award. From there, she worked at WCTI in New Bern, North Carolina and covered multiple hurricanes, including the devastating Hurricane Irene.
Katie married her husband in 2019 and they welcomed their first son together in 2020. They are also parents to their two rescue dogs: Alvin & Arnold! She is a strong advocate for rescue animals. As the daughter and granddaughter of veterans, military issues are also close to her heart. She promises to work every day to give you the news that is important to your community.
If you have a story idea or just want to say hello, send her an email, kjeffries@firstcoastnews.com