Anchored woman: Kate Sullivan.

KATE SULLIVAN STILL REMEMBERS GETTING NERVOUS when, as a youngster, she served as a reader in her church. To help her, the priest offered a piece of advice she has never forgotten: "This isn't about you. This is about the Word of God. And you are simply the vehicle."

Sullivan feels the same way about her job as a television journalist. Not that she's comparing the Word of God to the news, mind you. But she has the attitude that "this isn't about me. It is about conveying the news."

She still feels a moment of nervousness, however, before going on the air at Little Rock's ABC affiliate, KATV. That's where she co-anchors the station's Live at Five, News at 6, and News at 10 broadcasts. And the 29-year-old hopes that feeling never goes away.

"I think it means I'm committed and I want to do a good job," she says. "When that little feeling of nervousness goes away before a show, it'll be a shame because it might mean that I don't care. Regardless of what you do, if you really love it and want to do it well, there is a slight fear to that."

She always delivers--and delivers well. Last fall Sullivan was voted Arkansas' best newsperson by readers of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. As a reporter and anchorwoman, she has built a reputation for keeping Arkansans well-informed, whether the news happens to involve a state park fire, a presidential library opening, or a forensic research farm riddled with dead bodies.

Sullivan sees doing the news as an education and a vocation. One of her favorite scriptures is "An aptly spoken word is like apples of gold in settings of silver" (Prov. 25:11). "Words have power," she says. "My job is to seek the truth and to seek that 'aptly spoken word.' As a reporter, you have the power to help or hurt every day.

"I remember almost every story I cover because I remember the people involved. Every day I try to tell their story and convey what they're thinking, what they're feeling, as accurately as possible."

In her first reporting job at the CBS affiliate in South Bend, Indiana, she did a story on the working poor and recalls interviewing a woman who fit the description. The irony there was that "I was making less than she was making. But at the same time I knew that that wouldn't always be the case for me. It would always be the case for her. I realized then, that day, the importance of my job, the importance of really sharing some of those viewpoints."

A native of Lakeville, Massachusetts--40 minutes south of Boston--and a lifelong Catholic, she is the only child of parents who were both teachers: her mother, of eighth-grade English; her father, of high-school Russian. Not surprisingly "my studies were of premier importance," she says. "I guess looking back, I was sort of a nerd."

After working at the South Bend station for two years, Sullivan got a call from KATV and went to Little Rock to interview for the job. "It just seemed like the right place to come at the right time in my life," she says. "Arkansas really has been the greatest surprise in my life. I believe coming to Arkansas was really like a gift from God."

SULLIVAN LOVES THE PEOPLE THERE. HER POSITIVE encounters began the day she called to hire an Arkansas company to move her. "The woman who answered the phone asked me who was picking me up at the airport," Sullivan says. "I told her I didn't know. She said, 'Well, honey, if you can't find anyone, you call me back, and I'll come and get ya.'"

And then there was the extended, firsthand-experience piece, "The E-life." In May 2001 Sullivan was locked in an apartment for two weeks to see if she could survive with only a computer. She had to order everything off the Internet: food, furniture, everything. The station broadcast her progress each day. She had no communication with the outside world except through the computer--and the UPS guy.

The story garnered 6,000 e-mails and 300,000 hits on KATV's website. "People would write in: 'I'm a disabled vet. I know what it's like to be alone.' People really shared their hearts and shared their stories," she says.

"It's a privilege to be the person who comes into your home at night," she says. "I don't take that lightly. I'm honored, really, that people would want to spend their 5, 6, or 10 o'clock hour watching the news and feel comfortable knowing that I'm the one they turn to. I work hard every day to earn their trust and I enjoy it immensely."

What does she see in her future? "I will go wherever God wants me to go. Right now, God wants me here in Arkansas-and make no mistake about it, God's hand on my path here is crystal clear. And I am so very grateful for that."

HELAINE R. FREEMAN, a reporter at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. This article is reprinted with permission from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.