Stephanie Claytor is a Florida Associated Press award winning multimedia reporter, covering the news in the Polk County bureau. Daily, you will find her out in the community writing, shooting, and editing her stories with pride. Simply put, Stephanie does it all!

Stephanie joined Spectrum Bay News 9 in March 2016. She has covered several high-profile stories including the sinkhole at Mosaic, the relocation of a confederate monument and the arrest of former Lakeland Commissioner, who was charged with second degree murder. Her stories have made national news and beyond. The Ohio native has worked for several television stations across the country. She began her career in Kirksville, Missouri as a multimedia reporter and weekend anchor. From there, she worked in Shreveport, Louisiana and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

While working as a reporter in Albuquerque, she covered several high-profile police shootings that made national news as well as the Department of Justice's reform of the Albuquerque Police Department.

Stephanie has a bachelor's degree in Broadcast Journalism, Spanish and International Relations from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She had the privilege of interning  at the ABC News bureau in Washington, DC for one semester, where she gathered content on Capitol Hill for ABC Owned and Operated Stations. During the summers, she participated in the Emma Bowen Foundation’s internship program, where she interned at FOX 8 WJW in Cleveland, OH over the span of four years.

Stephanie speaks fluent Spanish. She studied abroad in the Dominican Republic and after college, she embarked on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Bogota, Colombia, where she taught English to college students. These experiences inspired her first book Blacktrekking: My Journey Living in Latin America, which details these experiences. 

Stephanie is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. In her spare time, you’ll most likely find her Latin dancing or traveling with her husband. She loves exploring Florida's beaches and tourist destinations and even blogs about them. As of 2019, Stephanie’s been to 14 countries, you can read about it here. 

You can catch Stephanie's reports weekdays and weekends on Spectrum Bay News 9. She loves interacting with viewers on social media, so follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and send her story ideas.