Public Radio Tulsa welcomes Elizabeth Caldwell to our staff and our city! Elizabeth joins Public Radio Tulsa as a reporter and All Things Considered local news anchor, and joins News Director Matt Trotter and Morning Edition anchor/reporter Chris Polansky on our KWGS local news team. Elizabeth brings with her experience as both a print and radio journalist, covering stories from Kodiak, AK to Oklahoma City.
We caught up with Elizabeth for a chat in between stories this week:
Public Radio Tulsa: Tell us a little about yourself, Elizabeth...
Elizabeth Caldwell: One interesting bit of trivia about me is I've been to every continent, even Antarctica. When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was travel, and not comfortably. For some reason I wanted to suffer; I guess like a real adventurer. As soon as I graduated high school, I enlisted in the Coast Guard. I was lucky because I was stationed on an ice breaker. I got to see a lot of the world before I was even twenty. The military will satisfy your need to be tired and hungry, too.
The fact that I am a veteran is very important to me. I could talk a lot about it, but I'll save it for my work. Hopefully I will be able to cover the veteran community quite a bit (especially the female veteran community). Other than those things, I suppose it's important to know I am from south Florida and I am what is called an "elder Millennial."
PRT: You've been here for two weeks! What do you think so far?
EC: A mentor once told me, "look for people, not jobs." I'm glad I did that in this case. Matt is a good person to work for (so far).
As for Tulsa, I think it's an exciting place to be. It's growing and changing, and I'm interested in what is to come for this city.
PRT: When you're not covering news, what do you do for fun?
EC: I have a couple of dogs and we walk a lot. I like to read. I also have a personal podcast that takes up a lot of time. I used to wander around and talk with people for the podcast, but now that I'm doing that in my day job I've been considering how I will change the format.
