2022 Honoree
Denver 7 News Director Holly Gaunt leads their newsroom and production of news on all platforms, including television, streaming and digital. She oversees 100 journalists that comprise the teams producing newscasts, providing editorial decisions required to give viewers news coverage in the Denver metro market.
Her career began in the early 1980’s at two Denver television stations, working as a production assistant, writer and producer before taking a producer role in New Orleans. Other opportunities beckoned at KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City, as Managing Editor; WBAL-TV in Baltimore as Executive Producer; Assistant News Director at WTTG-TV in Washington, D.C.; Vice President/News Director at WTXF-TV in Philadelphia; News Director at Seattle’s KOMO-TV, KUNS-TV, KOMONEWS.Com; and back to Denver as Vice President of News and Digital Content/News Director at KDVR-TV, KWGN-TV.
Through her leadership roles in the newsroom, she covered the Oklahoma City bombings, the 9/11 attacks, the D.C. area snipers, school shootings, and historic wildfires. She has won eight Edward R. Murrow Awards, 10 Regional Emmy Awards and one national Emmy Award for Investigative Journalism.
She believes stations have the unique ability and resources to help people in need and created two consumer investigative series called “Problem Solvers,” at KOMO-TV and KDVR-TV. She has now implemented “Denver7 Gives”, the charitable fund designed to help people who have been victimized by criminals or impacted by disasters. As Denver 7 Vice President and General Manager Dean Littleton notes, “Holly’s true north is her heart for people.”