Adrienne Bankert
Adrienne Bankert, the oldest of seven children, grew up in the Placer County town of Sheridan. She is an alumna of Sierra College where she received her Liberal Arts degree later transferring to the University of Southern California where she received a Communication degree.
She is currently employed as an anchor/reporter for Channel 3 KCRA News/KQCA and the host of KCRA 3’s Common Ground. She began her news career there in 2004 as a traffic anchor. Bankert feels that her start in reporting road conditions was a wonderful beginning; since then she has worked various stories from features to the death of a Sheriff’s Deputy and the Butte County wildfires. She is very grateful for the unique opportunity to work for the # 1 station in the 19th largest TV market in the country and feels that "coming home" was a great step to major growth.
As a student at Sierra College, Bankert was grateful to receive excellent guidance and insight from her teachers and the counseling staff, especially when she didn’t know the next step to take. She fondly recalls being told by Carla Epting-Davis, a counselor at Sierra to "get it together, girl, and transfer!" Bankert remembers Epting-Davis going as far as to drive her down to Southern California so she could check out the campus.
“I didn’t have the best grades or even competitive SAT scores. But that trip gave me a vision that I could get into this school (USC)”, says Bankert.
That was the inspiration needed to pursue the private university setting that began her career in television. It was USC where she hosted talk shows on the university television station. Bankert interviewed community leaders, activists, and Hollywood stars such as George Lucas.
While in Southern California Ms. Bankert’s first “paid gig” was as TV host for PBS affiliate KLCS, later freelancing for companies like McGraw Hill, ABC/Disney, and Spike TV.
Bankert says that she has always had great support and was often given a guiding hand. Because of the wonderful help she's received Bankert does whatever she can to give back to the community. She truly believes you should "never forget where you come from." She often speaks to community groups, and schools. She also works with the READ Across America Program annually. This fall Bankert will help host the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk and the National Coalition for 100 Black Women’s annual community awards luncheon.
One of Bankert's mottos is, "be content wherever you're at! Love where you're at, live where you're at."