WRTV anchor Shepherd leaving for not-for-profit post

WRTV-TV Channel 6 anchor Trisha Shepherd is leaving the station at the end of the month to take a position with Riley Children's Foundation.

Shepherd, who anchors the station's newscasts at 6 p.m., 7 p.m. and 11 p.m., joined WRTV in September 2007 after stints at stations in Des Moines, Iowa, and Champaign, Ill.

Her last day with the station is Sept. 23.

She joined WRTV at the same time as former co-anchor Todd Wallace, who left the station last year after WRTV declined to renew his contract. The station introduced the much-ballyhooed "Todd and Trisha" anchor team, designed to lift the station out of third place in the ratings, with a recreational vehicle tour of central Indiana. The station replaced Wallace with former ABC News correspondent Todd Connor.

WRTV had recruited Shepherd after losing its star anchor, Martha Weaver, who returned to her hometown of Minneapolis. Weaver's co-anchor, Ray Cortopassi, was reassigned and eventually left the station for an anchor job with WXIN-TV Channel 59.

Shepherd, who hails from Chicago, said in a statement that the move to Riley Children's Foundation will give her a chance to "combine three things I love: writing stories, helping children in the community, and spending more time with my three children, Calvin, Clara and Daisy."

"My family's juggling act has become more challenging recently with both my husband and I working nights, and two of our three children in school full day," she wrote. "I knew it was time for a big change."

Shepherd, who has a background in choir and theater, has appeared in several productions at Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre and often sings the national anthem at public events.