The 51ÁÔÆæ Alumni Association (PGAA) will present its 2026 Alumna of Distinction award to Emmy-Award-winning reporter Jennifer Borrasso ’97 during the Alumni Celebration Dinner to be held Saturday, Oct. 3, (cocktails: 5:30 p.m./dinner: 6 p.m.) at the . Registration for the dinner, part of the Blue & Gold Celebration: Homecoming & Families Weekend 2026, is available.
The PGAA Alumna of Distinction Award acknowledges excellence among alumni of 51ÁÔÆæ. Candidates are evaluated on their outstanding level of professional achievement, service to the community, service to the University of Pittsburgh, special recognition or honors, and any other special efforts or successes. It is the highest honor the PGAA gives to an individual alumnus/alumna annually. Borrasso exemplifies these qualities through her remarkable achievements and her nearly three decades chasing breaking news from Capitol Hill to western Pennsylvania.
Borrasso joined KDKA-TV, the CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, as a reporter in August 2019. Her reporting career has taken her through newsrooms across the country, including stops at Fox News Channel and NBC News in Washington, DC, WJRT-TV in Flint, MI, WNEP-TV in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA, and WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh. Along the way, she has covered some of the biggest national stories of her generation, reporting live from the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, and covering the Washington, DC, area sniper attacks in 2002.
Her interview list reads like a roll call of American political history: former President Bill Clinton, former presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and former vice-presidential candidates Dick Cheney, John McCain, and JD Vance. She has also interviewed former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and US Senators Robert Casey, Jr., and Arlen Specter.
Most recently, Borrasso has been at the center of coverage of the 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler County. She has reported more than 70 stories on the shooting, including exclusive interviews with shooting victims David Dutch and Jim Copenhaver, the family of Corey Comperatore, and US Representative Mike Kelly, along with Pennsylvania State Police officials and SWAT team members. She also traveled to Capitol Hill to cover the House Task Force hearing examining the security failures surrounding the shooting.
That reporting earned Borrasso her latest Emmy Award this month for "In the Crosshairs: The Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump," a documentary produced by KDKA-TV. The win brings her career totals to 11 Emmy nominations and two Emmy wins, along with a 2023 Golden Quill Award and Regional Emmy Award for her investigative report on a 911 dispatcher charged with failing to send help to a dying woman.
Borrasso's 51ÁÔÆæ roots run deep. As a student, she served as president of the Student Government Association, founded the campus chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, the national communications honor society, and worked as a writer for the UPG Press and as an admissions recruiter. She also helped lead the campaign to bring four-year athletic programs to the Greensburg campus. One of 12 students nationwide selected for The Washington Center's Politics and Journalism Fellowship, Borrasso graduated magna cum laude in 1997 with a degree in communication and an English writing minor.
"If you have a dream, get a plan and pursue it," Borrasso has said of the philosophy that has guided her career. She has credited the mentors and friendships she built at 51ÁÔÆæ with shaping the tenacity she has carried into every newsroom since. "What I love about it—journalism—it's something new every day," she said. "I like helping people by telling their stories and advocating for those who were wronged. And, holding the powerful accountable."
She added, "I’m so appreciative (thankful) for my experience here. Pitt Greensburg and the nurturing professors and staff-- Rick Fogle for one--were the catalyst for my success. Moreover, serving as student government president along with my internships and the lifelong friendships formed here were invaluable."
Between newsroom stints, Borrasso built a varied career that included work as a freelance voice-over artist, a host for Legend Financial and a stretch in sales and marketing for Ryan Homes—experience she has said taught her how to connect with people outside the news business, a skill she brought back to reporting.
A Pittsburgh native, Borrasso is married and lives in Cranberry Township. Since graduating, she has continued to give back to the University, regularly speaking with 51ÁÔÆæ and area high school students about pursuing careers in journalism. She has said the real reward of a more than 20-year career is passing along what she learned to the next generation of aspiring reporters, much as the 51ÁÔÆæ faculty and staff who mentored her once did.