Meet The Team
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Jeff Thelen
Anchor
Jeff Thelen is the most veteran member of the Newschannel 7 team. The Campbellsport native started here as a part-time reporter in 1994 while working as news director at WDUX Radio in Waupaca.
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Heather Foster
Anchor
Heather joined WSAW in April of 2015. Before arriving in Wisconsin, she spent nearly six years reporting and anchoring at KXII-TV in north Texas.
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Sean Caldwell
Sunrise 7 Anchor/Executive Producer
Before coming to Wausau, Sean worked as an evening anchor, producer, reporter and graphic designer for KCWY News 13 in Casper, Wyoming. KCWY was awarded Station of the Year by the Wyoming Association of Broadcasters during both years of Sean's tenure.
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Kassandra Sepeda
Anchor
Kassandra Sepeda joined WSAW/WSAW news team in September 2016 as co-producer and anchor for WZAW. She became a member of the Sunrise 7 Anchor team January 2017.
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Dale Ryman
News Anchor
Dale joined NewsChannel 7 in April 2007 as weekend sports anchor and reporter. He was named the station's sports director in May 2009 and was promoted to WZAW's NewsChannel 7 at 9 anchor in November 2017.
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Holly Chilsen
Anchor
Holly Chilsen joined the NewsChannel 7 team in August 2012 as a producer for the 6 and 10 evening weekday newscasts. Since then, she’s anchored Sunrise 7 Sunday and NewsChannel 7 Weekend. After two years working weekends, she moved on to produce and anchor NewsChannel 7 at 4, on our Fox affiliate, WZAW.
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Emerson Lehmann
Anchor/MMJ
Emerson Lehmann joined WSAW/WZAW in June of 2019 as a weekend anchor, reporter and producer for the NewsChannel 7 team. Born and raised in Kewaskum, he is thrilled to be starting his professional news career in his home state of Wisconsin!
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Heather Poltrock
Digital Content Manager
Heather Poltrock came to WSAW as a sports intern in August of 2007. She is now the digital content manager for NewsChannel 7 and the main online content producer for WSAW.com.
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Desiree Fischer
Assignment Editor
Desiree Fischer came to NewsChannel 7 in 2002 as a part time production assistant and now serves as NewsChannel 7’s Assignment Manager.
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Ashley Hommer
Senior News Producer
Ashley Hommer joined the WSAW-TV team in March 2015 as the 6 and 10 pm News Producer. In October 2019, she was promoted to Senior News Producer and joined the WSAW management team.
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Kailin Schumacher joined WSAW/WZAW in June of 2019 as a morning reporter for the Sunrise 7 team. Born in Little Chute, Kailin has been a Cheesehead her whole life and is so happy to be starting her professional career at home.
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Stella was born in New York City and raised nearby in New Jersey, but she still considers herself to have Wisconsin blood—her father’s family calls the state home.
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Noah Manderfeld came to WSAW in June of 2020 as a reporter. Noah was born and raised in the small town of Northfield, Minnesota. Growing up with a love of baseball and sports, he decided at the age of 12 that he wanted to broadcast sports.
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Tony Langfellow joined the NewsChannel 7 team in May 2020 and is a weekday reporter and the Sunrise 7 Sunday Anchor and Producer. He is a native of Robbinsdale, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis.
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Leif Ender
Sunrise 7 Producer
Leif Ender joined the NewsChannel 7 team in July 2020 and is the Sunrise 7 News Producer. He is a Wisconsin Native, from West Salem, Wisconsin.
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Steve Combs
Producer
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Mark Holley
Meteorologist
Mark comes to WSAW after working at WEAU in Eau Claire for almost 6 years. Mark was born in Pottstown, PA, but after graduating from Owen J. Roberts High School moved to Wisconsin to attend the University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point before transferring to Mississippi State.
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Austin Kopnitsky
Meteorologist
Austin Kopnitsky came to WSAW as Sunrise 7 Meteorologist in April 2019. Austin came from Sioux City, Iowa where he was a weekend meteorologist, as well as a reporter. Austin later became the morning meteorologist before moving to Wausau.
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Jeremy Tabin
Meteorologist
Jeremy Tabin is a familiar face here in North Central Wisconsin. He has been a meteorologist at Newschannel 7 for nearly 15 years.
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Chad Franzen
Meteorologist/Web Director
Chad Franzen returns to central Wisconsin for another stint at forecasting the quickly changing weather of Wisconsin. Chad worked in Wausau at another station from 1998 until 2004 and then spent another 2 years working at WREX in Rockford, Illinois.
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Reece Van Haaften
Sports
Reece Van Haaften joined WSAW in November 2017 as a sports director. Reece is originally from Chaska, Minnesota, but he’s been all around the Midwest. Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Michigan, Minnesota and South Dakota are all the places Reece has called home.
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Matt Infield
Sports
Matt Infield joined WSAW in August 2018 primarily as a sports reporter, with some responsibilities in news as well.
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Brennen Scarborough joined the NewsChannel 7 team in June of 2018 as a reporter. Brennen was born and raised in Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. He graduated from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul with a degree in multimedia communications with a double major in Bible. He also played on the football team for all four years.
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Bridget Fargen
News Director
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Emily Davies
Investigative Reporter
Emily Davies began her career at NewsChannel 7 in 2013 and has worked in several positions since then. She helped launch the 7 Investigates team in 2016, which has done award-winning work for the people of north-central Wisconsin.
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Jacqueline Policastro
Washington Bureau Chief
Jacqueline Policastro created the Gray Television Washington News Bureau in 2014. She’s covered Congress and the White House for more than a decade.
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Ted Fioraliso
Senior Reporter/Executive Producer
Ted Fioraliso returned to Washington, D.C. in April 2016 as a senior reporter/executive producer at the Gray Television Washington News Bureau.
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Peter Zampa
Multimedia Journalist
Peter Zampa joined the Gray Television Washington News Bureau in June 2015 as a multimedia journalist.
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Alana Austin
Multimedia Journalist
Alana Austin joined the Gray Television Washington News Bureau team in August 2017 after spending three years covering national and state politics in Richmond, Virginia at Gray TV's WVIR-TV.
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Kyle Midura
Multimedia Journalist
Kyle Midura joined the Gray Television Washington News Bureau in September 2017 from Gray TV's WCAX-TV.
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Timothy Knapp
Supervisor of Videography
Timothy Knapp joined the Gray Television Washington News Bureau in September 2018 as Studio Manager and Photojournalist. He now serves as Supervisor of Videography.
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Jillian Angeline
Multimedia Journalist
Jillian Angeline joined the Gray Television Washington News Bureau in January 2019 as a multimedia journalist.
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Karen Daborowski
Producer
Karen Daborowski joined the Gray Television Washington News Bureau in January 2019 as a producer.
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Natalie Grim
Multimedia Journalist
Natalie Grim joined the Gray Television Washington News Bureau as a multimedia journalist in June 2019.
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Kristin Kasper
Multimedia Journalist
Kristin Kasper joined the Gray Television Washington News Bureau in July of 2019 as a multimedia journalist.
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Tyler S. Smith
Photojournalist/Editor
Tyler Smith joined the Gray Television Washington News Bureau in July 2019 as a photojournalist/editor.