Renée Cooper is a transplant from the southeast, with her heart now rooted in the Midwest. She joined the WCIA 3 News team in May 2021 after spending three years in Bismarck, the capital city of North Dakota.

She has a passion for public service and for ethics. As the lead investigative reporter running our Target 3 team, Renée is first and foremost a watchdog for the public.

Renée was formerly a crime/investigative reporter, and weekend anchor/producer at KXMB-TV12 in Bismarck. There she won two First Place Eric Sevareid Awards from the Midwest Broadcast Journalists Association. The first was for her writing and the second, for a series she put together over the course of four months, diving into systematic barriers affecting tribal citizens across the state.

Before that, she graduated from the University of South Carolina, where she studied Broadcast Journalism, Studio Art, and ran the student media TV station.

As an intern in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015, Renée was on scene following the hate crime attack at Mother Emanuel AME Church that left nine dead. If she didn’t know already, this moment solidified her purpose. Renée focuses on telling the stories that matter, diving deep into data and not letting up until she gets the answers that the public deserves. She will work hard to earn your trust, keep it, and be a resource in keeping the truth at the surface in our communities.