Amanda Kenney joined WFXR’s Good Day Virginia team as a morning anchor in January of 2021.
She waited four years to call Roanoke home again. Amanda left Roanoke in 2017 to anchor the evening news in Altoona, PA, and couldn’t wait to come back. Before working in Altoona, you may have seen her out and about reporting and anchoring for another station in the Roanoke area. Amanda has also worked in College Station, Texas, Waco, Texas, and Binghamton, New York.
Amanda grew up in New Jersey with a very big, tight-knit family. She is proud of her Cuban and Polish roots. The stories from her grandfather as a Holocaust survivor ignited her passion to give the voiceless a voice and share stories like his. Amanda anchored the morning news in high school where she fell in love with broadcasting. She studied Broadcast Journalism and Political Science (as well as Italian Politics in Italy) at Hofstra University, making her the first member of her family to earn a four-year college degree.
Amanda is now an Emmy Award-winning journalist with more than a decade of experience in news. She has done just about every job in the business but loves getting to share stories impacting the community, holding people accountable, and stories that promote kindness. Amanda has covered a wide range of news from historic flooding in both Binghamton and West Virginia to a fertilizer plant explosion in Texas and President Trump’s visit to a Pittsburgh synagogue following a mass shooting. She’ll never forget reporting on the trial of Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter with Roanoke ties that killed 13 people and injured more than 30 others. Amanda also closely covered the tragic murder of her co-workers Alison Parker and Adam Ward, which was by far the hardest assignment in her career.
When she’s not working, Amanda loves to get outdoors whether it’s in her garden, yoga, hiking, on her paddleboard, or with her pup Paxton! She loves to get out in the community and meet new people. If you see her around, don’t be afraid to say hello! She believes everyone has a story and you never know, she might tell your story next on WFXR News!
