Erica Riggins is an award-winning journalist on Spectrum Bay News 9, Tampa Bay’s only 24-hour news channel.

After serving nearly two years as the Public Information Officer for the City of St. Petersburg, she recently returned to Bay News 9 to make deeper, impactful connections with our audience.

A Texas native, Erica’s broadcasting career had an unusual beginning. Graduating as a mechanical engineer from the University of Texas at Austin, Erica put her degree to work as an equipment engineer for Motorola. Over the next several years as she grew within the company, Erica realized that she wanted to be a part of something bigger and to make a difference in her community. Shifting her career path, Erica returned to school to study communications and television journalism.

Erica began her career as a journalist in Sherman, Texas as a weekend anchor and reporter at KXII-TV. From there, she returned to her hometown to report for the 24-hour local news channel News 8 Austin, now Spectrum News, and later anchored the evening news.

Always looking for new challenges, Erica moved to the Tampa Bay area to serve as weekend morning anchor for Bay News 9. For nearly 20-years, Tampa Bay viewers have been waking up to her on Your Morning News.

Recognized for her exceptional achievements, Erica won an Emmy award for Outstanding Live Report for her story on students protesting the Iraq war. She also won the prestigious national Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Documentary for a series focusing on the growing and disturbing trends of child abuse. Other awards and honors that Erica has garnered include: the Pinellas County Urban League’s President’s Award, the Outstanding Community Service Award from the Teamster’s National Black Caucus, and Outstanding Service in the Field of Communications from the national sorority of Phi Delta Kappa. The award she is most proud of is the community service award named in her honor from Men in the Making.

Erica has a passion for uplifting and protecting children. She’s proud to be an advisory board member for the Heart Gallery of Pinellas and Pasco, a Gulf Coast JCFS program connecting foster children with their forever homes.

You’ll find her spending most of her personal time in area parks and playgrounds with her three sons.