Meet the Team

Kris Vera-Phillips

Senior News Producer

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Kris Vera-Phillips previously managed KPBS Evening Edition and KPBS Roundtable. As a Next Generation Leadership fellow, Kris worked with NPR, American Public Media and other organizations to launch the Public Media Village at the 2016 National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Conference. She also serves as a board member and external affairs liaison for the San Diego chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association. Her work has been recognized by the Associated Press Television-Radio Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. Before KPBS News, she produced news shows and news specials at CBS and NBC in San Francisco. She also produced news programs and digital content in Sacramento and Topeka, Kansas. She managed special coverage of live events including the final flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Beyond the newsroom, Kris taught American broadcast news classes at St. Petersburg State University in Russia. She earned her bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and her master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Outside of the newsroom, her favorite production is all about her family: her husband, cocker spaniel and and the latest addition to her pack, Alexander.

RECENT STORIES ON KPBS

Education

San Diego students show their robotics talent and innovation at the World Championships in Houston

M.G. Perez

Nine San Diego County high schools sent teams to compete at Houston's FIRST Robotics World Championships.
Education

Elementary students perform with San Diego Symphony at Rady Shell

Jacob Aere

It was quite the field trip Friday for thousands of elementary school students in San Diego. Their journey took them to the waterfront in downtown, where they took part in a world-class musical performance.
Quality of Life

FEMA aid deadline looms for January flood victims

Matthew Bowler

The deadline to apply for aid from FEMA with short-term rental assistance, home repairs and other expenses related to the historic rains and flooding in January is midnight Friday.
Economy

Volkswagen workers vote yes to unionizing, igniting UAW's push to organize the South

Andrea Hsu

Stephan Bisaha

Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., voted overwhelmingly to unionize with the UAW, setting a new trajectory for labor unions in the American South.
INDEPENDENT LENS: One with the Whale

Jennifer Robinson

Premieres Tuesday, April 23, 2024 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV / PBS App. Hunting whales is a matter of survival for Alaska Native residents of St. Lawrence. A family is blindsided when animal activists target their son, the youngest ever to harpoon a whale for his village - a hunt that feeds the community through winter. Also included is the short film "Everything Wrong and Nowhere to Go." Exploring the field of "climate psychology," this is a candid and comedic self-portrait in which the filmmaker turns the camera on herself and goes in search of a cure for her crippling climate anxiety.
Health

San Diego assemblymember proposes solutions to Medi-Cal eligibility burden

Heidi de Marco

Each year, families have to prove Medi-Cal eligibility or risk losing coverage. A San Diego assemblymember wants to take that burden away from families.