Reporter Leigh Paynter joined the News 10 team in October 2010 as a Multimedia Journalist in the San Joaquin Valley newsroom. She's an NPPA award winning photojournalist and a returned United States Peace Corps volunteer.
Before coming to News10, Leigh was a one-man-band live reporter at WWSB-TV ABC 7 in Sarasota, FL. While in Sarasota, Leigh covered the British Petroleum oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, a divorce court custody battle over a chimpanzee, and produced a two-part investigative report: Inside the Minds of Pedophiles, in which she had on-camera interviews with convicted sexual predators.
Leigh also worked as a Washington, D.C. correspondent for WBRE-TV NBC in Wilkes-Barre, PA.
As a peace corps volunteer, Leigh served two years in the Republic of Armenia teaching English in a village secondary school and developing a journalism course at Yerevan State University. Back in the U.S, Leigh talks often to her Armenian host family and students, and plans to visit her village every other year.
Originally from Laurel Springs, NJ, Leigh graduated magna cum laude from Rowan University with a degree in communications and political science. She received her M.S. degree in broadcast journalism at Syracuse University.
In her spare time, Leigh enjoys traveling to non-tourist destinations, conquering new adventure sports, and studying languages.
If you have any interesting story ideas, please feel free to contact Leigh. She'd love to hear from you!
Email Leigh Paynter at lpaynter@news10.net
You can also add Leigh on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @PaynterPalatte.