WMAL News is proud to nominate Heather Curtis as best reporter in the 2016 Chesapeake Associated Press awards competition.

Heather Curtis covers local news for the D.C. metro area for WMAL Radio. She enjoys the thrill of covering breaking news and the challenge of using as much natural sound as possible to bring listeners to the scene.

Since joining WMAL in 2015, Curtis’ broad swath of assignments has included Pope Francis’ visit to Washington, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, D.C.’s steep rise in the murder rate and the sexual assault trial of serial killer Jesse Matthew.

Before joining WMAL, Curtis spent more than two years with cross-town news rival WNEW, preceded by several years at news/talk stations in New England.

This entry includes:

– Vigil for Charleston church shooting victims at the Metropolitan AME Church

– A live hit from the Papal parade through downtown Washington.

– A wrap on the Pope’s address to Congress.

– A feature on kids sledding Capitol Hill in defiance of a ban set forth by U.S. Capitol Police

– A report on students being burned during a chemistry experiment at Woodson High School in Fairfax

-Jesse Matthew being sentenced on a sexual assault conviction in Fairfax County

– A long form piece on the influx of illegal weapons being used in crimes in D.C.

– A feature on a University of Maryland professor who writes songs for cats

– Coverage of the National Chicken Wing Eating contest