Meagan Perez, a College of Media & Communication master's program alumna, has received a total of five Emmy Awards for her work in newsrooms across the country. Perez graduated with her M.A. in strategic communication and innovation in May 2021 and has applied it to the many different hats she wears as a television news producer in the various studios of which she has been a part of.
With over ten years of experience working in the news industry— she began working in TV during her freshman year as an undergraduate student in 2009— Perez is paving the way for other young professionals who also want to leave their marks on the industry. Although her journey in news began in Baltimore, Maryland, she was still able to achieve more than imagined, and her talents traveled with her everywhere she went.
Perez worked her way up in news with her dedication to the industry, objectivity and knowledge, which she said she gained from her education and being in the field. Her passion for her career is now being recognized.
“I have won five Emmys in total in my career,” said Perez. “The first one came from when I was working in Philadelphia in 2017 as a producer. The second came in 2021 when I was working in San Antonio. In November 2022, I won a total of three more Emmy Awards. All of them are related to news, but it is still a huge honor for me having this background. There are regions throughout the country where local Emmy chapters have awards that they give out, and each Emmy represents the regions I've been in.”
Perez's Emmy Awards all deal with things she has helped her team cover and her overall stance as an executive producer. The three awards she received most recently were related to the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooting coverage while she was based in San Antonio. Namely, she was awarded with best regional breaking news, continuing coverage and best newscast for her work with this topic.
Perez holds CoMC near to her in everything she does and credits completing a final project in her master's program in the college to how she is able to succeed in her work.
“One of the wonderful things I've gained in the program is having research skills,” said Perez.
“Having communication research skills and the background I have in news has helped me solve problems at a much better rate. My team was speculating about missing persons coverage and whether it was biased. I took the research skills I gained and put it to the test.”
Her graduate education in CoMC took her to a new level as a professional since she was able to take a final project for class, use a topic she was curious about at work, and turn it into answers for her colleagues. She also noted she plans to use this set of skills to help her do further research on other topics her team may raise their eyebrows about in the future.
“I started at Texas Tech in 2019,” said Perez. “I knew I wanted to get my master's degree here and it was easy to do my program online while I still lived and worked in San Antonio at the time. I found myself loving it here.”