Jessica Aguirre is the 6 and 11 p.m. evening anchor at NBC Bay Area News and an Emmy award winning journalist. Jessica has been a primetime, evening anchor, in the Bay Area for over 20 years.
She began her career at the Spanish Language network, Univision, while attending the University of Miami. Before arriving in the Bay Area in 1998 she anchored and reported in Los Angeles and Miami, earning Emmy awards for her series on the struggles of migrant children and for her investigative work on child molesters as well as an Associated Press award for her series chronicling the struggle of boat people fleeing Cuba. During her tenure at NBC Bay Area Jessica won an Emmy for her poignant series, on the emotional journey of an East Bay transgender teen and her efforts to preserve her fertility before undergoing sex reassignment surgery, another Emmy for her live coverage of the "Ghostship" warehouse fire in Oakland and for field anchoring from the deadly Sonoma and Napa county firestorms.
Most recently Jessica was inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Silver Circle for twenty-five years of excellence in television journalism.
As the daughter of immigrant parents, Jessica is fluent in Spanish, and deeply involved in organizations that promote literacy and help stem the Latino achievement gap including The Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley. Jessica can also be found at many community events in the East Bay where she lends her voice to a variety of local causes. Her passion for news and global events has taken Jessica from Cuba to England and many places in between. She’s covered natural disasters like Hurricane Andrew, and man-made catastrophes like the Oklahoma City bombing, as well as race riots in Miami and the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 from ground zero. Jessica traveled to Brazil for the summer Olympic Games where she field anchored in English for NBC Bay Area and in Spanish for sister station Telemundo 48 , interviewing Bay Area athletes and highlighting the security and political issues, facing the people of Rio and Olympic tourists.
Here at home, Jessica has focused on covering laws and events that impact children, from investigative stories that uncover the loopholes set up by Jessica’s law to the deteriorating state of education in the public school system. Her Emmy nominated education show "Class Action" took a deep look at the issues facing California educators and public schools. Her investigative reporting into the aftermath of the Napa earthquake and the impact on local schools led to school safety legislation being introduced by Assemblyman Bill Dodd.
Jessica resides in the East Bay, with her two daughters. Her devotion to learning, supporting children and local charities has her routinely on the lecture circuit in the Bay Area discussing education, gender equity and minority advancement in the workplace. Jessica also serves on the board of Watermark, the Bay Area's largest membership organization dedicated to increasing the number of women in leadership positions.
