Chrys Peterson to be Touchstone keynote speaker on Sept. 25

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The Press Club of Toledo annually recognizes newsmakers and news breakers in the Northwest Ohio region through the prestigious Touchstone Awards.

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Chrys Peterson

This year’s ceremony – the club’s 16th Touchstone Awards – will take place on Thursday, Sept. 25 at the Toledo Club.

The Press Club is proud to announce its featured speaker will be Chyrs Peterson, the former anchor at WTOL-TV, Channel 11. Chrys has been a fixture at WTOL and, more importantly, in this community for 20 years.

In February, Chrys left the station to spend more time with her family. While at WTOL, Chrys won a number of awards, including an Emmy Award for her 2011 story “Behind the Badge,” documenting the stress police officers endure on and off the job, as well as Community Service for her breast cancer awareness campaign. She has received three Edward R. Murrow awards for journalism, and awards from the Associated Press, including the 2011 Best Enterprise Reporting award.

Chrys is a Magna Cum Laude graduate from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications. She also has a Master’s degree in Organization Leadership from Lourdes College. Her first professional broadcast journalism job was anchoring the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts at WHSV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Harrisonburg, followed by anchoring the morning and noon newscasts at WNEP-TV, the ABC affiliate in Wilkes Barre/Scranton, Pa.

In 1994, she joined WTOL, the same year as Jerry Anderson and Robert Shiels, now Channel 11’s chief meteorologist. The trio, along with Sports Director Dan Cummins, who joined the station in 1980, have been the CBS affiliate’s evening news team for a decade. Their 5 p.m. weeknight broadcast was awarded an Emmy in 2012 for Best Newscast.

Since 1995, Chrys has served as Honorary Chairperson for the Northwest Ohio Komen Race for the Cure for Breast Cancer. In that time, the event has grown from 600 to 18,000 participants. This year, she helped to organize a Race for the Cure event in Findlay, which saw 3,100 participants in its inaugural year.

Chrys has served on local boards for the American Red Cross, Komen for the Cure & Make-A-Wish and has received numerous honors for her community work including the “Jefferson Award” (twice), “Milestones” award, “20 Under 40” award, Big Brothers/Big Sisters “Hero” award, “Women of Toledo” award, “Touchstone” award and “Golden Touchstone.”