Angela Chen

Angela Chen believes in the power of a good story to change minds and even policy.  As KESQ’s morning anchor, she starts each day bringing those stories to the Coachella Valley before sunrise. “A journalist’s job is to dig for stories, to talk to people, to cover what no one else has covered,” she says. “That’s how you make things better.”

A native of Arcadia, near Pasadena, Chen came to the desert when her husband, Dr. Kris Westerhof — also a 40 Under 40 honoree — accepted a position at Eisenhower Health. At the time, she was an adjunct professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. When KESQ offered her the morning anchor position, it  felt like the natural next step in a career that had already taken her from San Diego to New York and Reno to Houston.

The work goes beyond delivering the news, Chen says. “Good journalism … can affect legislation.” She points to Troubled Waters,  KESQ’s Emmy-  and Murrow Award–winning series on the Salton Sea and Colorado River, as a career highlight that sparked renewed attention and millions of  dollars in state funding  for one of California’s most pressing environmental crises.

Asked what she wants to be known for, she smiles. “That I had really good puns, better puns than Patrick Evans at 5 in the morning.”

Then she turns earnest: “I want to … help make someone’s day better with my work and maybe change their lives just a little bit for the better. I feel like you should always leave something better than how you found it.”