Reed Cowan

Reed Cowan (born Darrin Reed Cowan July 24, 1972 in Roosevelt, Utah) is an Emmy winner and Emmy nominee working as a television news anchor in Miami, Florida for WSVN.
Cowan moved from Salt Lake City to Miami's WSVN after seven years working as an anchor and reporter for KTVX TV in Salt Lake City and KSL TV in Salt Lake City. While at KTVX, Reed Cowan anchored Good Morning Utah During his time at KTVX, Cowan covered the terrorist attacks of 9-11, the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, the murder of Lori Hacking, the death of President Ronald Reagan and the fugitive stories of polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs. While at KTVX Cowan won Emmy awards for reporting. Prior to joining KTVX, Reed worked as a reporter and weekend morning anchor for KSL TV.
Prior to his time at KSL & KTVX, Cowan worked as an anchor for CBS 29 in Bakersfield, California and as an anchor for TV 9 & 10 in Cadillac, Michigan. Before his first full time stints as an anchor and reporter, Reed Cowan worked as a part-time on-air reporter for Fox's KSTU in Salt Lake City Utah and as a radio disc-jockey for KNEU Radio in Roosevelt, Utah while in college.
Background
Cowan is the son of Russell Lynn Cowan and Judy A. Jenson-Cowan. His father currently serves as Mayor of Roosevelt, Utah. Cowan's father and twin brother were noted basketball athletes in Utah in the 1960s. His maternal grandparents owned nightclub "The Oasis" where Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline once performed and his paternal grandparents owned a bar at the same time called "Reed's Club." Both establishments were the only ones of their kind in the Mormon-dominated eastern Utah community where Cowan was born.
Personal tragedy
On April 23 2006, Cowan's four year old son was killed in his mother's back yard. Wesley Cowan died after falling from a horizontal set of monkey bars, hanging in a trapeze apparatus suspended from the bars. Cowan, who is divorced from his son's mother, arrived on-scene moments after emergency crews arrived to find TV cameras trained on his own personal tragedy. This event made national news as Cowan granted his first interview on the tragedy speaking about experiencing being "On the other side of the lens.
Cowan released a documentary on the death of his son Wesley and his subsequent efforts to build schools in Kenya during that country's post-election violence of 2007 entitled The Other Side of The Lens. In 2005, Country Music artist Collin Raye recorded Cowan's song The Power in You in Nashville. Cowan wrote the song to be a theme song for the "Power in You" organization, created by Mary Kaye Huntsman. Huntsman is the daughter in law of billionaire philanthropist Jon Huntsman, Sr.
Also in 2005, Cowan signed a publishing deal with Mapletree Publishing to publish his first book Afraid at School. This book, which awaits release, provides the narratives of hundreds of school-age youth in expose format telling what happens at school relative to one of Cowan's pet causes, the eradication of school bullying.
Activism
One year after his son's death, Cowan traveled to Africa to open two Wesley Cowan schools in Africa's Masai Mara. Shortly after his loss, Cowan started The Wesley Smiles Coalition to work in tandem with Free the Children, started by Craig Kielburger. After raising substantial monies for the projects in Africa in the first year after his son's death, Cowan opened schools, water treatment facilities, mobile-medical clinics and other community infrastructure along Enelerai road in Kenya and in Kenya's Motoni district. Cowan's journey to Africa was chronicled by the Deseret News in Salt Lake City where he told reporters, "I will raise at least one school a year in my son's name until the day I die."
In addition to serving as operator of the Wesley Smiles Coalition, Cowan is also on the advisory board for Free The Children and is producer of the youth organization Power In You.
Cowan drafted the first legislation in Utah specifically aimed at curbing bullying in school. Sponsored in the Utah house by Representative Ronda Menlove and in the Utah Senate by Senator Patrice M. Arent, the resolution against bullying, harassment and intimidation in schools was the first of its kind and called for a formal reporting system and cohesive school-to-school response in instances of school bullying. The resolution passed unanimously in Utah's House and Senate.
At hearings testifying in favor of the resolution, Cowan told of his own years of being picked on in school, saying "lets send a message to Utah kids that we care about their safety and happieness a school."
Motivational speaker
Cowan is a speaker on the subject of bullying in school. Each year, Cowan speaks to at least thirty thousand youth about school bullying and its ties to school violence and suicide. In 2006, Cowan was featured as the keynote speaker at the National Youth Crime Prevention seminar.

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