Lisa Thomas-Laury

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Lisa Thomas-Laury is a news anchor in Philadelphia.

Ms. Thomas-Laury started at WPVI-TV in Philadelphia on February 20, 1978 as noon co-anchor and reporter. She was promoted to the 5 p.m. newscast in 1983. While she was at the station, she frequently substituted for Jim Gardner. She also has done the monthly Fast Forward, series, now hosted by Rick Williams, a show geared for teenagers.

Lisa Thomas-Laury, an African-American, is one of the first minority women to anchor in a major metropolitan market, a group that currently includes her fellow WPVI anchor Tamala Edwards, WCAU-TV anchor Renee Chenault-Fattah and KYW-TV anchor Alycia Lane.

[edit] Medical Leave

In 2002, she began to experience health problems. Her first symptoms were tingling in her feet in which she assumed was from too much power walking. Her problem was initially misdiagnosed. According to a WPVI special report from November, 2005, Lisa finally ended up at the renowned Mayo Clinic in Minnesota where she got the right diagnosis. It is a syndrome called POEMS - which can involve nerve damage, organ enlargement, hormonal imbalances, and skin changes. She went on medical leave from Action News for almost a year and returned to work on September 11, 2003. She was scheduled to return to hosting the annual Thanksgiving Day parade, which she had missed hosting the previous year. Unfortunately her health problems returned, causing her to miss the parade and return to medical leave.

In May 2004, Jim Gardner announced on the air that Lisa Thomas-Laury would be permanently leaving her anchor duties (but not leaving WPVI itself, as Gardner said that the door would be open for her to return when her health permitted) in order to have more time to focus on her recovery.

[edit] Announced Return To Broadcasting

During the WPVI 11:00 p.m. newscast on November 22, 2006, Lisa Thomas-Laury made a guest appearance and announced that she would return to the news station in the next few weeks. She appeared the following day, November 23, 2006 during the broadcast of Philadelphia's annual Thanksgiving Day parade, the parade she once co-hosted. She returned to Action News on January 2, 2007 with a report on the opening of Oprah Winfrey's school for girls in South Africa. Since then, Thomas-Laury has filed reports for the 5PM, 6PM and 11PM newscasts. On multiple occasions in March of 2007, she has anchored the entire 5PM broadcast with either Monica Malpass or Rick Williams.

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