Jackson Free Press

Brittany Noble-Jones made her debut as WJTV's new morning show anchor Monday, Aug. 10, joining "News Channel 12 This Morning" co-anchor Andrew Harrison.

Noble-Jones, 28, grew up in St. Louis and first came to Mississippi to attend Alcorn State University, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in mass communications in 2009.

After graduation, Noble-Jones spent a year working behind the scenes operating the camera as associate producer for KAIT-TV in Jonesboro, Ark. Deciding that she could do more by furthering her education, Noble-Jones enrolled at Arkansas State University and earned a master's degree in radio and television in 2011.

She first appeared in front of the camera as a reporter for WBBJ-TV, the ABC affiliate in Jackson, Tenn., in 2010. She also reported for NBC affiliate WEYI-TV in Flint, Mich., in 2011 and CBS affiliate KMOV-TV in St. Louis from 2013 to 2015.

While working in St. Louis, Noble-Jones covered the death of Michael Brown and the ensuing protests in the nearby town of Ferguson, which she considers to be the most significant moment of her journalism career. She was one of the first reporters on the scene and the first to speak to Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden. The situation was of special impact to Noble-Jones, who comes from a family filled with members of law enforcement.

"My mother, Beverly Noble-Barnes, was a major in the St. Louis Police Department before she retired, and my father, Mark Washington, was a police officer in Orange County in California," Noble-Jones said. "I also have several aunts, uncles and other family members who are police officers."

Due in part to her work in Ferguson, the National Association of Black Journalists selected Noble-Jones as the 2015 Emerging Journalist of the Year at the NABJ convention in Minneapolis on Aug. 8. St. Louis-based publications The Riverfront Times and St. Louis Magazine also named her the best TV reporter in the St. Louis area.

"Receiving the award, it was quite surreal for me," Noble-Jones said. "A lot of people I respect in the journalism community were there praising my work on the Ferguson story. That was a hard story for me to cover, and it felt good to see all the work I put into it acknowledged. I always thought journalism was a great way to help people, going out and connecting with them to tell their stories, reaching out and getting answers or doing something that can help them. Young reporters can get overlooked in this industry, so this was a vindicating experience for me, receiving that recognition."