The Frazier History Museum has hired longtime television news anchor Rachel Platt as its director of community engagement.
“Rachel is a community leader and a skilled collaborator who will be a wonderful addition to our team,” Frazier President and CEO Penny Peavler said. “Her compassion, creativity and many years understanding and sharing stories most important to this region will help the Frazier sustain its position as the place where the world meets Kentucky.”
Platt has over three decades of experience as a television anchor and reporter, most of which were spent on the anchor desk at WHAS-TV in Louisville. Since joining the station in 1989, she co-anchored several programs, including Good Morning Kentuckiana, Great Day Live, and newscasts at various time slots.
“Life is full of chapters,” Platt wrote in a blog post addressed to her viewers and the community that was published Monday, “and one of my most fulfilling chapters is coming to a close: my career in journalism.”
As the daughter of an Air Force officer, Platt moved around a lot as a child. But with a 29-year stint at WHAS-TV, the longest she has ever lived in one place, she considers Louisville her adopted hometown.
She will step down from her position with the station on Dec. 21.
“I am not a retirement kind of gal,” she adds, noting that life is “all about the next chapter. Mine will be at the Frazier History Museum, doing community programming, education, and engagement. It’s a role that combines all of my favorite things: storytelling, history, learning, and, of course, you, the community.”
As the director of community engagement, Platt will play a key role in helping design and implement the Frazier’s educational content and will lead a focused effort towards building programs and leading dialogue on issues relevant in our community. She will be responsible for overseeing the museum’s public programming, including educational programs for schools, youth and adults; historical interpretations and performances; and special public events.
Platt has received four Emmy Awards for her reporting. One of those awards came from her trip to Vietnam, where she followed a group of veterans from Bardstown back to the battlefield as they came to terms with their losses. She received another Emmy for her work with the Louisville Metro Police Department’s Homicide Unit.
Her reporting for WHAS-TV has taken her overseas to Vietnam, Sarajevo, and Guadeloupe, when Tori Murden became the first American to row across the Atlantic.
She is involved with several organizations in the community, including the American Heart Association (AHA), Ovarian Awareness of Kentucky (OAK), Build a Bed, the Crusade for Children, and Honor Flight Bluegrass.
“One of the Frazier’s slogans is It Starts Here,” she writes. “I hate goodbyes, so here’s to new beginnings with old friends, you — and it starts here.”
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