Alisia Salters, or more commonly known as Lisa, is an American journalist, sports caster and sports anchor as well as a respectable former collegiate women’s basketball player. She has been reporting sports news on ‘ESPN’ and ‘ESPN on ABC’ since 2000.
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Lisa was born on March 6, 1966 in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, USA. She was educated in Upper Merion Area High School and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from Pennsylvania State University in 1988. While in college, ESPN’s famous journalist gave a shot at her women’s basketball career. She played at the guard position for the Lady Lions Basketball team. However, basketball players are traditionally tall in general. Lisa however was 5 feet 2inch tall – that’s her current height as well – thus being the shortest basketball player in her College’s history. As unfortunate as it may seem at first, Lisa saw it as an achievement and proudly held the distinction of being the shortest player in the history of her college.
After enjoying such an active progress in sports as a college student, it only makes perfect sense that her career in journalism would focus on sports as well and take place as her main interest. Since 2000, Lisa has been reporting for ESPN and ESPN on ABC. Previous to her joining ESPN, she covered the murder case of O.J. Simpson for ABC. From 1988 to 1995, she reported for WBAL-TV. She also worked for ABC News from 1995-2000. While working in Los Angeles, she was named the first West Coast correspondent for the ABC affiliate news service, NewsOne, in February 1995.
Even though today she is a leading presence in her respective field, ESPN’s reporter has covered several assignments including worldwide coverage of the Middle East and the Iraq War for ESPN, the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan, the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens Greece, and the 2006 Winter Olympics at Turin, Italy. The list also consists of coverage on the Oklahoma City bombing trials, the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and the crash of TWA flight 800, among other major stories for World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and other ABC News outlets.
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She covered for ABC famine and civil wars in Rwanda and Somalia. "People with machine guns walking the streets," she recalled. "It was like 'Mad Max.' I think I was in more danger there." Among other of her stories, the ex-Penn Stater covered the war in Qatar. “Obviously, we're a sports network, so we're not going to be covering the war like another network would be," Salters said on an interview. "We were looking for good sports stories that were in this part of the world. One guy in charge of the Tomahawk launchings ... was an Olympic rower and wants to try to qualify again. Another guy I just spoke to [Tuesday] on the Constellation was invited to an NFL workout. Stories like that.”
Her current assignments include secondary side-line reporter of the NBA for ABC, college football, college basketball and Monday Night Football for ESPN. Her first assignment at ESPN was that of a general reporter in March 2000. As a part of ESPN’s coverage in December 2000 through January 2001 she reported on the murder trial of Carolina Panthers.
Her notable credits are as a featured correspondent of E: 60 ESPN’s news magazine show which had its debut in October 2007, Monday Night Football, NBA on ABC in 2006, the award winning Outside the Lines series, Good Morning America and World News Tonight.Lisa was also nominated for the Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Long Feature story Ray of Hope in 2008. She is a member of Upper Merion Area High School’s Hall of Fame.
Lisa does not give out many details of her personnel life. When her colleagues were asked about her personal life in an interview, they replied that she does not have a single girlfriend with whom she shares her feelings. The attractive and sexy Lisa was in a relationship with Rick Carlson not too long ago. Unfortunately, wedding bells never rang for this couple. The beautiful Lisa is not married and hence, there is no question of divorce. In fact, due to her dynamic behabior and single relationship status, there have been numerous rumors around Lisa’s sexual preferences. Whether she is a homosexual or not has never been thoroughly discussed, perhaps partially because she never allowed such a discussion. In any case, judging by her character, we believe that if it finally happens to tie the knot with somebody, she’ll make an exceptional wife!
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In the mean time, she has embraced the important role of motherhood by adopting a boy, who she named Samuel. She always wanted to be a mother. She signed up with an adoption agency. As a single woman, she thought it would be a challenge to compete with married couples. Eventually, a young woman chose her as a candidate to adopt her unborn baby. She met the woman, who was in the final month of her pregnancy.
The two were comfortable with each other and the decision to adopt was finalized. Lisa was on an assignment in Dallas covering a night ESPN NBA game when she got news that the woman was in labor. She covered the first half of the broadcast and then rushed to catch a flight back home. It was a long flight, flying to Phoenix in the west and then taking another flight to the east. She made it on time to be there for the birth of her baby son. Lisa is a very contented mother and lives in Fell’s Point, Baltimore with her adopted son. Salters has been doing a wonderful job raising Samuel. She says that during the firsts six-week with the baby she felt: “the most content I’ve ever been.”
Last Modified: Apr 8, 2020
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