User:Lswmovies/Garvin Thomas

Garvin Thomas

Garvin Thomas is an Emmy Award winning television journalist currently with NBC Bay Area, KNTV, in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a reporter, photographer, editor, and sometimes fill-in anchor. He is in charge of the Bay Area Proud franchise, which "profiles the people, the groups, and the companies making the Bay Area, and the world, a better place to live." Prior to joining NBC Bay Area, Thomas had worked in Boston, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and overseas in Berlin, Germany.

Education
Garvin grew up in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts, and graduated from Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School in 1984. He then went on to pursue his degree at Boston College, where he majored in Germanic Studies and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1988. He also attended the Universitat Konstanz in Konstanz, Germany for one year.

Professional Career
Recently, Garvin has reported on a volunteer who had logged more than 16,000 hours for a Bay Area non-profit organization, One World Futbol and other inspiring success stories in the San Francisco Bay Area. His stories are produced under KNTV's Bay Area Proud banner. Thomas has utilized social media to extend the reach of Bay Area Proud, most notably through his Twitter page, and related stories use the hashtag #bayareaproud on the social networking website. Thomas has experience throughout multiple aspects of television journalism. According to his bio, he "started out at NBC Bay Area as a general assignment reporter, but his responsibilities and skills have grown over the years." He is versatile as a writer, reporter, photographer, editor and fill-in anchor. He "also shoots and edits all his own stories."

Career History
Thomas has more than two decades of experience working in television news, and has worked in Boston (on two separate occasions), Berlin, Minneapolis and Los Angeles. He joined NBC Bay Area in 2004. Previously, he worked with KABC Los Angeles for a short time in early 2004, WHDH in Boston for five years, and WCCO in Minneapolis, MN for five years. He was also involved in Monitor Broadcasting in Berlin, Germany, where he was the Associate Producer for World Monitor.

Awards
Garvin has won more than a dozen regional awards for both his reporting and photography. Among these awards are multiple Emmy awards; he won New England Emmy Awards for reports on the deadly 1999 Worcester fire and the 2000 presidential debates while at WHDH. He won the award for Outstanding News Reporting in 1999, and for Outstanding Spot News Coverage in 2000 for each respective story. He has won numerous other awards as well:
 * 2010 Press Photographers Association: Best Sports Photography
 * 2009 Press Photographers Association Award: Best Feature Photography
 * 2007 Mark Twain Award: Reporter of the Year
 * 2007 Mark Twain Award: Best Serious Feature
 * 2005 Mark Twain Award (formerly APTRA): Best Light Feature
 * 2004 Northern California Emmy Award: Best Serious Feature News Report
 * 2004 Associated Press Television and Radio Association Award: Best Serious Feature
 * 1997 Minnesota Associated Press Award: Best Sports Feature
 * 1997 Peabody Award: WCCO Mentoring Team Station Project
 * 1994 Alfred I. Dupont Award: WCCO Dimension Unit
 * 1993 Chicago/Midwest Emmy Award: Best News Special

Personal Life
In December of 2002, Garvin and his wife, Karen, quit their jobs as news reporters at Boston area TV stations to spend a year travelling the world. The Cape Cod Times published a story about their trip prior to their departure, and detailed the preparations that went into the trip. Their website chronicling the journey says, "On December 1st, 2002 Garvin and Karen headed off on a once in a lifetime adventure. We left our jobs, gave up our apartment, and put our stuff in storage in order to backpack around the world. One year, 6 continents, 17 countries, and countless miles later we returned to the United States." Currently, Garvin and his wife live in the South Bay with their three children.