Alicia Smith is an 8-time Emmy award-winning anchor and reporter on WXYZ. She is currently the Morning Anchor on 7 News Detroit This Morning. You can watch her from 4:30am – 7:00am on WXYZ and from 7:00am – 8:00am on TV 20 Detroit Monday through Friday.
In 2023, 2021, 2018, and 2009, she was honored with the Emmy for Best On-Air Talent from the Michigan Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Alicia has also earned 4 Emmy awards for her reporting. She has been recognized for her reporting on societal concerns, missing children, continuing coverage of the Oxford High School shooting in 2021, and breaking news coverage of the Michigan State University shooting in 2023.
Alicia joined Channel 7’s top-rated morning team in January of 2007 – happy to help people start their day informed and prepared. January of 2025 marks her 18th year in this role.
She has worked as both an anchor and reporter since 1995 – a year after she got into the business as a “one-man-band” journalist – shooting and editing all of her stories.
One of her most memorable experiences was reporting for several days from Ground Zero on the 9/11 anniversary in 2002 – where she produced and delivered 11 reports, helping her station earn an Emmy for special coverage of that solemn anniversary.
She continues her work as a storyteller by going out each week and raising the voices of people in metro Detroit about everything from scams to consumer issues along with personal stories of courage and inspiration.
Alicia is passionate about giving back to the community and promoting causes close to her heart – including Make-A-Wish Michigan, Epilepsy Foundation of Michigan, Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN), the Sky Foundation, Michigan Humane, the Salvation Army Eastern Michigan Division, Grant Me Hope, Friends of Foster Kids, the Michigan Adoption Resource Exchange, and the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy’s early literacy program called Reading and Rhythm on the Riverfront.
Alicia is a big animal lover and hosted the annual Michigan Humane Day of Giving Telethon on Channel 7 for over a decade. She also created and led the BuildUp for five years – a partnership with Habitat for Humanity Detroit and WXYZ’s Detroit 2020 team to help with construction and block improvement efforts in Detroit neighborhoods.
Earlier in her career, Alicia worked as an anchor/reporter at WWMT in Kalamazoo, Michigan; an anchor/reporter at WTVM in Columbus, Georgia; an anchor/reporter at WBSG in Brunswick, Georgia; and an intern at CNN in Washington, D.C., WTOC in Savannah, Georgia, & WBSG in Brunswick, Georgia.
Alicia is a graduate of the University of Georgia where she studied at the prestigious Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and was selected to serve as a George Foster Peabody Awards Student Judge.
Alicia majored in Broadcast News and minored in Political Science while also being involved in Alpha Gamma Delta sorority and a variety of campus activities and philanthropies.
Before graduating from UGA, Alicia was honored by the Young Alumni Council for the University of Georgia Alumni Society as the Senior Female of the Year.
Alicia enjoys living in metro Detroit with her husband Erik – who grew up in Commerce Township – and their two rescue cats "Max" and "Mischa" who they adopted from Michigan Humane during the pandemic in October of 2020.
If you have any story ideas or questions for Alicia, email her at asmith@wxyz.com.
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