Dan Ashley is an American journalist. He graduated from the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...

in 1985 with degrees in English and Speech Communication. He is an

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ', which itself comes from the Greek (). Anch ...

of ABC7 (

KGO-TV KGO-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It has been owned and operated by the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television network through its ABC Owne ...

)

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Bay Area News. Ashley came to ABC7 in 1995 as the weekday 5:00 p.m. news anchor and investigative reporter. One year later, in 1996, he was promoted to the anchor of the 6:00 and 11:00 broadcasts in addition to the 5:00 newscast.

Career as a journalist

In June 1996, Ashley replaced anchor Richard Brown on the 6 & 11pm news broadcasts. In February 2013, Ashley was given an inside look at the White House while there for a 1-on-1 interview With President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

. Other notable interviews conducted by Ashley include

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

General Colin Powell Colin Luther Powell ( ; – ) was an Americans, American diplomat, and army officer who was the 65th United States secretary of state from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African-American to hold the office. He was the 15th National Security ...

Rob Reiner Robert Reiner (born March 6, 1947) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and liberal activist. As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence with the role of Michael Stivic, Mike "Meathead" Stivic on the CBS sitc ...

Tom Brokaw Thomas John Brokaw (; born February 6, 1940) is an American author and retired network television journalist. He first served as the co-anchor of Today (American TV program), ''The Today Show'' from 1976 to 1981 with Jane Pauley, then as the anch ...

Rahm Emanuel Rahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician, advisor, diplomat, and former investment banker who most recently served as List of ambassadors of the United States to Japan, United States ambassador to Japan from 2022 ...

, and

Ben Carson Ben Solomon Carson Sr. (born September 18, 1951) is an American retired neurosurgery, neurosurgeon, academic, author, and government official who served as the 17th United States secretary of housing and urban development from 2017 to 2021. A pio ...

. Ashley is the longest-tenured main male news anchor in the history of ABC7 (

) in

. When

Hurricane Hugo Hurricane Hugo was a powerful tropical cyclone that inflicted widespread destruction across the northeastern Caribbean and the Southeastern United States in September 1989. The eleventh tropical cyclone, eighth Tropical cyclone naming, named st ...

struck

Charleston, SC Charleston is the most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean formed by the confluence of th ...

in 1989, Ashley was the last broadcaster to remain on the air covering the events. In 2005, he reported from Poland on the

March of the Living The March of the Living (, ; ) is an annual educational program which brings students from around the world to Poland, where they explore the remnants of the Holocaust. On Holocaust Memorial Day observed in the Jewish calendar (), thousands of p ...

with Bay Area holocaust survivors.

Awards

During his news tenure in Charleston, Ashley received the prestigious DuPont Columbia and the Edward R. Murrow Awards. In 2015, Ashley was inducted into the ''Silver Circle'' of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences San Francisco/Northern California Chapter . Ashley has won numerous Emmy Awards for his reporting, anchoring, and producing as well as a National Emmy Nomination for reporting.

Philanthropy

''Friends of Camp Concord (FOCC)'' is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Camp Concord, located in South Lake Tahoe. Ashley is on the board of directors and hosts an annual golf tournament fundraiser for the group. ''Dan Ashley's Rock The CASA'' is an annual benefit concert to raise funding and awareness for both CASA of Contra Costa County and Friends of Camp Concord. In 2015, Ashley became the Chairman of the board of directors for ''Music In Schools Today (MUST)'' He also serves on the boards of the Bay Area

American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...

, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of

Contra Costa County Contra Costa County (; ''Contra Costa'', Spanish language, Spanish for 'Opposite Coast') is a U.S. county, county located in the U.S. state of California, in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2020 United States census, the ...

, and the

Commonwealth Club of California The Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization based in Northern California. Founded in 1903, it is the oldest and largest public affairs forum in the United States. Membership is open to ...

. In 2023, Dan was elected to the Board of Visitors for the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

, his alma mater and hometown.

Personal life

Ashley is a singer/songwriter who leads his own Americana/Rock band whose members include widely recognized and accomplished touring musicians. Ashley was once a figure skating instructor. Ashley is married to his wife, Angela, and has two grown sons and three grown stepsons.

References

External links

Dan Ashley's biography
from

* *
Moves like Jagger? Newscaster Dan Ashley lives out his rock ‘n’ roll fantasy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashley, Dan American male journalists Living people Television anchors from San Francisco University of North Carolina alumni 1963 births