Veronica de la Cruz is an American television news anchor and philanthropist. Since May 5, 2014, de la Cruz has been with KPIX/KBCW in the San Francisco Bay Area as a news anchor. She previously worked for NBC News and CNN. In memory of her late brother, she formed the Eric de la Cruz Hope for Hearts foundation in order to provide assistance to heart transplant patients.
Career
Early in her career, De la Cruz worked as an anchor and reporter at an NBC affiliate in Yuma, Arizona. She served as morning and mid-day anchor, and did live shots and produced packages for the 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. newscasts. During her time at KYMA-TV, De la Cruz covered numerous stories on U.S.–Mexico border issues, the nation's nursing shortage, and the plight of the migrant farm worker. During the 2002 Winter Olympics, she interviewed figure skating hopeful Sasha Cohen. De la Cruz also produced a series on the homeless before leaving the station, with whom she continues to do volunteer work periodically. De la Cruz hosted a music show for SonicNet/Digital Planet, where she interviewed many different artists including: Hoobastank, Vertical Horizon, Eagle Eye Cherry and the Roots. Her other work includes working as a host and reporter for Eruptor Entertainment's Living Giant, covering the international music scene. She reported from locales including Ibiza, Spain. De la Cruz also worked as a host and producer of the showDirect Drive on the Digital Entertainment Network. De la Cruz joined CNN in 2003 and in 2007, moved from the network's world headquarters in Atlanta to the New York offices. She anchored live coverage of major breaking stories including the death of former President Ronald Reagan, the tsunami in Southeast Asia, the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict and Hurricane Katrina. De la Cruz formerly appeared on CNN's Emmy-nominated morning show, American Morning, from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern time, providing Dotcom Desk information to CNN's early morning viewers. She became a contributor to their domestic network with the segment "Dotcom Desk", which launched during the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami. She also substituted as a replacement anchor for CNN U.S. and HLN, formerly CNN Headline News. De la Cruz previously anchored the CNN broadband news service, CNN Pipeline, now CNN.com Live, and was one of its four founding anchors. Her contributions to CNN's news coverage include reporting on Hurricane Katrina, working with the victims and relief desk, and numerous on-line reports with CNN broadband news. During the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, De la Cruz interviewed keynote speaker Bill Gates of Microsoft shortly before his retirement. In June 2008, she flew to Northern California to work with the Sacramento police vice squad as they tried to crack down on minors selling themselves through Craigslist. At that time, she asked Jim Buckmaster, CEO of Craigslist, why the website continued to advertise erotic services on their site. In November, Craigslist announced they would try to fix the problem by charging for the ads. De la Cruz, whose mother is of Asian descent, has done many reports on Asian Americans. Among them were growing up Asian in America, human trafficking, and the significance of the Asian American vote in the 2008 Presidential race. De la Cruz left CNN in 2008 and joined NBC/MSNBC. From 2010–2014, she was an alternating anchor on both Early Today on NBC and First Look on MSNBC, and served as a correspondent for NBC News. She also filled in as news anchor on Today. De la Cruz has also been on the forefront of new technology. She is one of the first and only cable network news journalists to shoot segments with a Flip Mino video camera, which she edits herself on a Mac. She also regularly engages in discussion with her viewers via Facebook and microblogs on Twitter. De La Cruz is currently the evening anchor at CBS San Francisco, anchoring the 6 p.m. news on KPIX 5 and hosting Bay Area Nightbeat on their sister station, KBCW, at 10pm.
In 2009, De la Cruz started a campaign to save the life of her brother, Eric de la Cruz. Eric needed a heart transplant but was refused due to poor health insurance. Veronica tried raising money through social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook as well as web pages that were created for her family's cause. Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor joined the cause and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Eric as well as bringing much needed attention to the fight for proper health insurance. Despite these efforts, Eric died in July 2009. On April 20, 2010, De la Cruz formed the Eric de la Cruz Hope for Hearts foundation to provide assistance to heart transplant patients. Tweeple, a magazine covering news related to Twitter, named De la Cruz as one of its picks to watch, calling her a "Trailblazer" and saying "...She is an inspiration and a catalyst for change beyond just Eric’s scenario. The national exposure is generating more and more debate on the problems in Medicaid, Medicare in the United States..." On the one year anniversary of the passage of health care reform, De la Cruz made an appearance on MSNBC to share her brother's story. She was interviewed by Contessa Brewer. De la Cruz also wrote an article about her brother and the need for health care reform for The Huffington Post.
Personal life
De la Cruz was born in Northern California but grew up in Canada. Her father is Jewish, and her mother is of Chinese and Filipino background. As a child, she was a competitive figure skater until an injury ended her career.
