Shara Park
Shara Park is a five-time Emmy award winning journalist who joined the KSL 5 News team in 2007. She is currently the breaking news anchor for KSL 5 News Today and KSL 5 News at Noon. She can also be heard reporting the top local stories on KSL NewsRadio 102.7 FM/1160 AM.
Shara is one of KSL’s go-to reporters for breaking news. In 2018 she covered Utah’s biggest breaking stories; the death of University of Utah student athlete Lauren McCluskey, the raging wildfires in Utah County, and the passing of Thomas S. Monson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 2017 she traveled to London, England covering the terrorist attack on Westminster Bridge that killed a Utah man and injured his wife. In 2016, she was on the ground in Pinedale, Wyoming and the first to report the discovery of the missing UTA truck belonging to kidnapped and murdered UTA employee Kay Ricks.
Shara’s investigative reporting in 2014 on the avalanche death of BYU student Ashleigh Cox lead to the changes in dispatch codes and an emergency phone installed in American Fork Canyon. In 2013, she was embedded with Utah Task Force 1 as they responded to catastrophic flooding in Boulder, Colorado. And in 2012, Shara traveled to Puyallup, Washington to cover the heartbreaking deaths of Susan Cox Powell’s two sons at the hands of their father.
Before joining KSL, Shara worked as a sports/news anchor for KCSG Television in St. George, UT. Prior to that, she had the difficult task of living in Hawaii and interning with KWXX Radio, and KPUA as a feature sports writer. Shara also completed two sports internships at ABC 4 News in Utah.
Shara has been recognized multiple times for her reporting by the Rocky Mountain Southwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 2019 she received an Emmy for her work on the documentary Road to Recovery, which took an in depth look at opioid abuse in Utah. Shara’s reporting on school safety and the Safe UT app is also featured in a series of reports that won KSL the prestigious Edward R. Murrow for Outstanding Journalism in 2019. Shara has also been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists, and the Utah Broadcasters Association. In 2019 she was named Utah’s best television reporter by the SPJ and took home first place for her breaking news reporting, an honor she also received in 2017.
Shara graduated with a degree in communications and a minor in journalism from Northern Illinois University. While there she was recognized by the University as the 2004 Broadcaster of the Year for her work with NTC, CNN Local Edition. While at NIU Shara played volleyball for the Division I Huskies and she was a member of the Track & Field team.
Shara grew up in West Valley City, UT and attended Granger High School. She currently lives in Sandy with her husband and two very energetic kids.
When she’s not covering breaking news, she also takes a special interest in sharing the stories of those in our community who go above and beyond to bring others up. You can send your story ideas to her at spark@ksl.com.
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Twitter: @KSLSharaPark
