• Sara Shookman is an Emmy Award-winning journalist at the WKYC-TV Network.
• She is married to Angelo DiFranco and the couple does not have any kids.
• Sara is active on various social media platforms with over 10,000 followers on Twitter.
• Her net worth is estimated to be over $1 million.
• Sara is a big philanthropist and has won five regional Emmy Awards and one regional Edward R. Murrow Award.
Known for movies
Shook 2004
as Man in Bookstore
Contents
Who is Sara Shookman?
Sara was born in Akron, Ohio USA on 10 October 1986 under the zodiac sign of Libra, and holds American nationality. She is popular for being an Emmy Award-winning journalist who works for the WKYC-TV Network as an anchor and reporter.
Early life and education
Sara grew up in Ohio with her mother and father Becky and Scott Shookman, and her sister Kimberly. Her father was battling cancer but didn’t manage to win the battle and passed away when he was 59 years old in 2015 – there is nothing known about Sara’s mother and sister.
Sara stated during an interview that she knew she wanted to be part of the broadcasting industry since she was in seventh grade – she met Tracy McCool, an anchor working for Fox8 Cleveland, and immediately fell in love with her job. At that time, Sara was part of the musical theater and was already performing but in a rather different way. While at high school, Sara was a cheerleader and a member of the track and field team as she was very sporting – she even held a record for shot put. After she matriculated from her local high school as a Valedictorian of her class, and president of the Science Club, she enrolled at Ohio University, and graduated from the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism. While at the university, she worked for WYKC as an intern, and is now working full-time with them.
Career
As soon as she graduated, she moved to Athens in Ohio to work for WOUB network, but soon switched to Knoxville in Tennessee as she got a job as a reporter and a news anchor for WVLT channel – during her time there, the Tennessee Associated Press named her one of the best TV reporters in the state.
She began working for the WKYC station around the time when Ariel Castro was arrested – she was the one to cover the story for the station, and they did such a great job that the entire team at WKYC won the Emmy Award for the Best Newscast in 2013. Sara was working with the Channel 3 part of WKYC next year, and once again she and her team won another Emmy Award for the Best Newscast. She was also hosting a podcast with Danielle Sills who is a producer for Channel 3 – it is focused on events which are happening in the city of Cleveland.
One of the biggest stories which she covered was the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia in 2014 – she was the only local reporter who covered the games, and reported to several other stations including “USA Today”. She also traveled to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to cover the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
Sara has been called “the anchor of the future” by the Director of WKYC News, Brenna Donnellan. She is currently working for the Channel 3 News at WKYC as their journalist and anchor, and is keeping up with local news as well as national and international events.
WKYC Channel 3
WKYC is a 70 years-old station which first aired on 31 October 1948. It is an NBC-affiliated TV station licensed to Cleveland, owned by Tegna Incorporated, and broadcasts a high definition signal from its transmitter in Parma, Ohio – its studios are located on Tom Beres Way which is a part of the Lakeside Avenue called after Tom Beres, who used to work for WKYC as their political reporter before he retired in 2016.
Personal life
Sara married the love of her life Angelo DiFranco on 2 September 2017, at the Historic Coast Guard Station located on Whiskey Island in Cleveland. Around 250 people attended the wedding with a nautical theme – Sara wore a dress by Laura Smith who works for “A Bride’s Design” in Avon – her ten bridesmaids wore red color gowns designed by Badgely Mischka. The couple went for a ride around the Plaza in a boat after the 20-minute long ceremony – while they were riding, the guests were able to eat, to music played by a jazz quartet made-up of students from the Cleveland Institute of Music who were praised for their performance.
Sara and Angelo first met at Ohio University in 2005 when they were both studying there, however, they were only friends back then and it took them around 10 years to begin dating, as they went out together for the first time in 2015. One year after that, Angelo asked her to marry him in August 2016. Angelo is a businessman who works as a project manager for Paragon Consulting Incorporated, based in Cleveland.
The couple does not have any kids, but they have a dog named Basil.
Who is Angelo DiFranco?
There is not much known about Angelo other than the things one can find on his Linkedin account – he graduated from Ohio University in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Management Information Systems/Finance, and continued his education at Cleveland State University where he got his Master’s degree in Business Administration in 2015. He became a Certified Business Analysis Professional in May 2016, and a Certified ScrumMaster in August 2017. He shares the same passion for philanthropy as his wife Sara, and was part of the fundraising event organized by Pelotonia non-profit organization, and has volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House in Cleveland.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelo-difranco-cbap-csm-387b386
Angelo began his career in 2007 by working as an Intern for four months for the Ohio State Lottery Commission. He went on to work as a business analyst for Ernst and Young from August 2008 to January 2010, then worked for Safeguard Properties for five months, and stayed for three years with Avery Dennison as their business analyst. His next job was for AmTrust North America, after which he started his second most favorite job – he worked for Harley-Davidson Motor Company as their business analyst from May 2014 to December 2016 when he was promoted to be their Project Manager and Scrum Master until January 2018, when he started working for Agile Dynamics and then switched to Paragon Consulting Incorporated in September 2018.
His net worth is estimated to be over $3 million.
Sara’s other interests
Journalism is not the only thing which interests Sara, and is definitely not the only thing she is good that – Sara is said to be a very good writer and able to shoot her own footage if necessary. She shared on her Twitter account that she enjoys spending time on her own; she loves eating food in a dog position, because it combines three things which she likes – food, nature, and Yoga. She loves spending time on the water, and is very good at paddleboarding, and is said to be an excellent skier – she enjoys gardening and cycling when it’s nice weather. She is also very fond of travelling with her husband, and tasting food from all around the world – she admits that telling stories still remains her favorite thing to do.
Sara also competed in the Tough Mudder obstacle race, which is 12.8 miles (20kms) long, and it was the hardest thing she has ever done – she thought how there was going to be just a part of the race which is muddy, but the entire track was covered in mud. The obstacles were not a big deal for her, but the mud between them was waist deep and it was hard to move through it and almost impossible to run.
Because of her versatile nature, Sara was named one of the most interesting people in Cleveland by “The Cleveland Magazine” in 2014.
Sara’s biggest wish right now
As she is a big fan of indie music, Sara is dreaming about going to Bonnaroo to attend the four-day long musical camping festival in Tennessee. She likes camping but is not sure that she could handle staying at the camp for so long – she attended her first festival in 2014, it was the Forecastle Festival which is held in Louisville every year but she didn’t camp, instead, she stayed in a hotel, ate at restaurants, and then she would go to sleep. It is not an ideal way to spend time at a festival but that is how Sara does it.
We’ve arrived at #holdenarboretum for #ExtremeWeek. But the wind is so strong on the Emergent Tower, we may have to move inside for our live show. ???? it works in our favor. https://t.co/tPIevUVIwB pic.twitter.com/gyHPMyvWmQ
— Sara Shookman – WKYC (@SaraShookman) May 1, 2019
Philanthropy
Sara is also a big philanthropist and often dedicates her free time helping organizations such as the Northern Ohio Chapter of Leukemia and Lymphoma as she is a member of their Society Board of Trustees while she is also part of the Board of Directors for Towards Employment which aims to help people with all kinds of barriers find work. Sara also volunteers with The Boys and Girls Clubs of Cleveland and the SeriousFun Children’s Network’s Flying Horse Farms located in Mt. Gilead.
Appearance and net worth
Sara is currently 32 years old. She has medium long blonde hair, blue eyes, is 5ft 10in (1.78m) tall and weighs around 140lbs (64kgs).
According to authoritative sources, Sara’s current net worth is estimated to be over $1 million while an average salary at WKYC TV is estimated to be around $50,000 per year.
Awards and Social media presence
Sara is an amazing journalist, who has won five regional Emmy Awards and one regional Edward R. Murrow Award as a proof of that.
Sara is very active on several social media platforms which is something to be expected from a journalist – she launched her Twitter account in April 2008 and has since gathered over 10,000 followers and tweeted nearly 20,000 times. Her Instagram account is followed by almost 8,000 people while she posted more than 1,000 pictures – there is a Facebook fan page of Sara which has nearly 14,000 followers.
She has her own website which serves more as a blog, and offers links to all of her social media accounts.
Trivia
Sara stated to have inherited her sense of style from her grandmother, who used to love fashion and jewelry and was the one to gift her her first cashmere sweater as a Christmas gift.
Social profile links
Source: IMDb, Wikipedia
