Lisa Fernandez
Lisa Fernandez is an old-fashioned newspaper reporter who works online in a TV station.
Lisa came to KTVU in 2017 and has worked in the Bay Area as a journalist for more than 30 years.
At KTVU, Lisa covers the sexual abuse scandal at the all-women's FCI Dublin prison, where she was chosen by the Society of Professional Journalists of Northern California in 2024 as the "Journalist of the Year," the in-custody deaths at Santa Rita Jail, and the federal oversight over the Oakland Police Department. She also covers breaking news, civil rights cases, immigration and education issues and actually loves doing a light feature.
Lisa truly believes that journalism can effect change, by letting the public know more about the world that they live in.
Lisa spent most of her career as a print reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, covering cops, city hall and religion. She's also worked at the LA Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Reuters, NBC Bay Area, and the Democrat & Chronicle in Rochester, New York, where she is from.
She met her husband in 1995 when they were both young reporters at her first real journalism job: Bay City News in San Francisco.
Lisa loves to teach journalism and she has been an adjunct professor at San Jose State University. She has her master's degree in journalism from Medill at Northwestern University.
In her free time, Lisa volunteers with the Society of Professional Journalists at San Quentin Prison helping incarcerated men hone their writing and reporting skills, and she coaches high school seniors write their college essays.
She is also an exercise instructor, teaching spin, yoga, aqua and body sculpting classes.
Lisa lives in Oakland, Calif., with her husband. She has two adult children.
Have a story tip or idea for Lisa? Contact Lisa at lisa.fernandez@fox.com or (510) 874-0139.
The latest from Lisa Fernandez
Football player shot by San Jose police poised to be awarded $8M
A college football player shot four times by a San Jose police officer as he was wrestling a gun away from people inside a taqueria is poised to be awarded $8 million by the city – in what could be the second-largest police payout in city history.
Judge orders halt on ICE courthouse arrests in Northern California
A federal judge in San Jose has ordered a halt to ICE arrests at courthouses, arguing that immigrants are between a rock and a hard place: They face either getting arrested for trying to follow the law, or are not showing up to court and facing automatic deportation.
NHTSA investigating Tesla Model 3 door releases following complaints
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a defect investigation into Tesla's Model 3 vehicles over the car door's release and concerns the controls may not be easy to find in an emergency – the same concerns of Piedmont families whose college-age children died in a Cybertruck with the same type of door release.
Viral: Cousins surprise California grandparents with Christmas sleepover
What the video shows is the couple's grandchildren re-creating "Grandparents' Christmas" held in Los Gatos, Calif. – a tribute to an annual tradition of more than a quarter-century, which for several years had gone by the wayside.
PG&E Saratoga substation fire briefly knocks out power to thousands
A fire at a PG&E substation in Saratoga briefly cut power to nearly 17,000 customers Wednesday morning before being contained just before noon.
Gov. Newsom declares state of emergency regarding California storms
California's Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday proclaimed a state of emergency in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Shasta counties, as a series of atmospheric rivers begins to pummel the state.
‘Looked like a lagoon’: Menlo Park residents wake up to flooded streets
Streets in Menlo Park were flooded early Wednesday morning, prompting police and fire crews to go door to door warning residents to shelter in place and prepare for possible evacuations in a neighborhood near the Meta campus.
Power fully restored in San Francisco after massive weekend outage: PG&E
PG&E on Tuesday said all power has been fully restored to San Francisco customers following a massive outage that drew international attention over the weekend.
Sierra snow: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
While snow starts late Christmas Eve, the worst conditions should arrive on Wednesday night and continue through Christmas Day, with heavy snow and dangerous travel, especially above 6,500 feet.
San Francisco immigration court decimated
San Francisco's immigration court is now decimated, down to just four judges left to decide asylum cases starting Jan. 1, from a high of 21 at the start of the year.