Willa Sandmeyer

Willa Sandmeyer is an award-winning broadcast journalist with more than three decades of experience in news reporting.

She has worked both in television and radio news in Southern California.  Among the stories she has covered are wildfires, El Nino storms and flooding and the Northridge earthquake. Willa was present during the 2005 landslide in La Conchita where she spent the next week covering the search for survivors and the aftermath of the tragedy. Her reporting has taken her overseas including a 1999 trip to Albania to report on refugees fleeing “ethnic cleansing” in Kosovo.

Willa began her television career at KEYT in Santa Barbara. After four years there her work shifted to Los Angeles where she reported for channels 2, 5 and 9. Among her interviewees were President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeline Albright.

Willa came to KCLU in 2012 as both a reporter and fill-in anchor. She was named morning anchor in 2015. In June 2023, Willa stepped back as full time host of Morning Edition. She now acts as fill in host.

Her reporting has earned multiple Emmy Awards and the Associated Press’ Mark Twain Award for excellence in reporting.

Willa and her husband enjoy travel, mountain biking and hitting the beach on the South Coast.