MILWAUKEE, WI (OnFocus) – OnFocus contributor and local media personality Carrie Lippert Gillaspie featured Milwaukee Bucks Sideline Reporter Zora Stephenson on her podcast, Candid, earlier this week.
Stephenson grew up in Virginia and had a love for basketball from a young age. She went on to play Division I basketball at Elon University in North Carolina. She began her broadcast career working as a news reporter in Greenville, North Carolina at WNCT-TV, where she won the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas’ Reporter of the Year in 2016. Her next stop was to Denver, Colorado, where she was an Emmy-award winning news reporter and anchor for FOX13 and Colorado’s Own Channel 2 News.
She joined the Milwaukee Bucks Broadcast team in 2019, where she does everything from game interviews to long form storytelling. In addition to her reporting duties, Stephenson also does both play-by-play and analysis work. In 2021, she made history by becoming the first woman broadcaster to do play-by-play of a Bucks game – and the first woman to do so for any major men’s sports team in Wisconsin.
CANDID is hosted by award winning TV and radio personality, Carrie Gillaspie. In each episode, Carrie meets you at the corner of entertaining and educational by bringing you the news of the week in pop culture and trending topics, the honest unfiltered thoughts of trying to be an adult in the world, and fun interviews with people in various aspects of media and journalism.
IN THIS INTERVIEW…
Zora tells us about growing up in Virginia, being a curious and outgoing child, and her crazy love for basketball from a young age. Carrie is curious how being a student athlete in college shaped Zora’s journey and work ethic. Zora shares why she took a job in news out of college when she wanted to work in sports, and how she used her time in news to get better at sports reporting. Carrie and Zora talk about the importance of networking, staying in touch with people, and making connections in the industry. Carrie tells Zora why she thinks the Bucks recent championship was so important to the city and Zora gets real about why she loves the city of Milwaukee. Carrie is curious about Zora’s vision for her future, and what her advice is to other journalists who want to pivot lanes.
