HOUSTON – KSAT 12’s Dillon Collier has been named the 2018 TV Journalist of the Year by the Lone Star Awards.
The statewide media contest is administered by the Houston Press Club.
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This is Collier’s second award in this category. The Defenders investigative journalist previously won it in 2014.
"Our management has made a commitment to investigative journalism and has been unflinching in its support of the work we do," Collier said. "We have an incredible team and I’m honored to be part of it."
Collier joined the KSAT 12 Defenders in September 2016.
Dillon's investigative stories air weeknights on the Nightbeat. He also provides restaurant health reports for KSAT's "Behind the Kitchen Door" segments.
"Dillon and the entire Defenders team was tasked with holding people accountable and getting answers for our viewers. We have seen great progress on that front and we’re very fortunate to have someone of Dillon’s stature working for us and all of South Texas,” said KSAT 12 Vice-President and General Manager Phil Lane.
KSAT 12 News Director Bernice Kearney agreed.
"We know how important it is to our audience that they feel empowered and informed about the issues they care about," she said. "Truth matters. Dillon is a journalist who has demonstrated throughout his entire career that holding truth to power is in the best interest of all of us."
In addition to his two Journalist of the Year awards, he has also been named Texas Associated Press Broadcasters Reporter of the Year.
His recent investigative work includes exposing an Armed Forces veteran for defrauding the Veterans Affairs administration for hundreds of thousands of dollars, exposing the more than 30 gun incidents at San Antonio-area schools since the start of the 2013 school year and a months-long investigation that revealed that donated lunches for children in need ended up in the trash at San Antonio's municipal court.
The Tucson, Arizona, native is a proud graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.