Lisa Thomas-Laury is a retirednews presenter inPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania,United States. From 1983 to 2003, she co-anchored the 5 p.m. newscast aired byWPVI-TV.

Thomas-Laury started atWPVI-TV in Philadelphia on February 20, 1978, as noon co-anchor and reporter, beating outOprah Winfrey for the position. In 1983, she was promoted to the 5 p.m. newscast, co-anchoring it until 2003 with now-retired news anchorMarc Howard. At the same time, she frequently substituted forJim Gardner when he was unable to anchor the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts. She also has done the monthlyFast Forward series, a show geared toward teenagers; it is currently hosted by Rick Williams. She has taken over the African-American-oriented, locally producedVisions program (now namedNew Visions) fromVernon Odom.^{[citation needed]}

Thomas-Laury is one of a few African American women to anchor in the Philadelphia market, a group that includes WPVI anchorTamala Edwards, formerWCAU anchorRenee Chenault-Fattah,KYW anchor Natasha Brown, andWTXF anchorJoyce Evans.^{[citation needed]}

In 2002, Thomas-Laury began to experience health problems. Her first symptoms were tingling in her feet, which she assumed was from too much power walking. Her problem was initially misdiagnosed. According to a WPVI special report from November, 2005, Lisa finally ended up at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where she got the right diagnosis: she was suffering fromPOEMS Syndrome, which can cause nerve damage, organ enlargement, hormonal imbalances, and skin changes. She went on medical leave fromAction News for almost a year and returned to work on September 11, 2003. She was scheduled to return to hosting the annual Thanksgiving Day parade, which she had missed in 2002, but her health problems returned, causing her to miss the parade again and return to medical leave.^{[citation needed]}

In May 2004,Jim Gardner announced on the air that Lisa Thomas-Laury would be permanently leaving her anchor duties (but not leaving WPVI altogether, as Gardner said that the door would be open for her to return when her health permitted) in order to have more time to focus on her recovery.^{[citation needed]}

During WPVI's 11:00 p.m. newscast on November 22, 2006, Thomas-Laury made a guest appearance and announced that she would return to the station in the next few weeks. She appeared the following day, November 23, 2006, during the broadcast of Philadelphia's annual Thanksgiving Day parade, the parade she once co-hosted. She returned toAction News on January 2, 2007, with a report on the opening of Oprah Winfrey's school for girls in South Africa. Since that time, Thomas-Laury has frequently filed reports for the noon, 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 11 p.m. newscasts and has also filled in on them as anchor.^[1][2]

She retired on Wednesday, May 25, 2016, after a 38-year career at the station. The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia inducted Thomas-Laury into their Hall of Fame in 2009.^{[citation needed]}

In 2017, she wrote a memoir,On Camera and Off, When the News is Good and When it's Not. She spent most of 2017 on a regional book tour.^[3]

• Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia bio

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