Ann Nyberg. Photo by Lora Karam Photography.

Ann Nyberg, Connecticut’s longest-serving, full-time female news anchor/reporter will receive the 3rd annual Spirit of Katharine Hepburn Award. The award is given by the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center (the Kate) to an individual who embodies the spirit, independence, and character of the legendary actress and will presented to Ann on Saturday, Aug. 25, at the Kate’s annual Summer Gala in Old Saybrook.

A resident of Madison, Nyberg is WTNH-TV’s longest-serving anchor/reporter in station history and has been nominated for multiple Emmys. In addition to anchoring several evening newscasts, she also produces and hosts the show Nyberg an on-air and online show she developed to share people’s stories with the masses.

In November of 2015, Nyberg was inducted into the prestigious Silver Circle of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) Boston/New England Chapter – an honor given to television professionals who have made significant contributions to their community and to the vitality of the television industry. In 2017, Nyberg was recognized, during the year of Harper’s Bazaar Magazine’s 150th anniversary, as a woman of success who pays it forward.

Nyberg has been a storyteller her entire life, which all started with a diary her mother gave her for Christmas when she was just 8-years-old, and the rest is history. As she says, “I never met a story I didn’t want to tell.” Her first book, Slices of Life, A Storyteller’s Diary debuted in October 2015, and is based on her diary. Her second book, released October 2016, is on the legendary Connecticut film actress, Katharine Hepburn. It is called Remembering Katharine Hepburn: Stories of Wit and Wisdom About America’s Leading Lady.

Nyberg began her journey in broadcast journalism immediately following graduation from Purdue University, where she earned a degree in journalism. She was a television journalist in Indiana and Oklahoma before making Connecticut her home. She and her husband have three daughters and two dogs, Henry Watson, a rescued Coon Hound and Mr. Trip Meeshu, a Golden Retriever.

Nyberg feels strongly about philanthropy and in 1993 she founded the Toy Closet Program at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital. Thousands of toys and other items are given to children of all ages to help ease their trauma. A lover of the arts, she is a Trustee of the Kate, the only theater in the world named after the iconic four-time Academy Award winning Connecticut actress. Nyberg is also the only honorary female member of the Walter Camp Football Foundation, which raises thousands of dollars for charity every year.

An advocate for all things local, Nyberg’s website Network Connecticut spotlights people and places, small businesses and innovators and entrepreneurs all over the state. She also owns a boutique in Madison, called Annie Mame, where she carries several Connecticut-made goodies to help small businesses push ahead. The name of her shop is in tribute to her favorite movie, Auntie Mame which came out in 1958 and starred Waterbury native, Rosiland Russell.

The Spirit of Katharine Hepburn Award, which will be presented to Ann Nyberg on Saturday.

The Kate’s August 25th Gala takes place on the historic Old Saybrook Town Green at 6 pm and includes a cocktail hour with silent auction and dinner by Max Catering. Ann will receive the award, a graceful statuette in the likeness of Hepburn by Kimberly Monson, an artist and faculty member of the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts. An exciting auction and live music and dancing round out the evening. GSB Wealth Management, a subsidiary of Guilford Savings Bank, is the Executive Producer sponsor for the event.

For additional information and/or to order tickets at $275 per person and up, visit www.thekate.org or call 860-510-0453.

The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center is a non-profit performing arts organization located in an historic theatre/town hall on Main Street in Old Saybrook. Originally opened in 1911 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Center has been renovated with public funds from the Town of Old Saybrook and donations raised by the Trustees of the Center. It includes a 250-seat theatre and a small museum honoring Katharine Hepburn, Old Saybrook’s most celebrated resident. As befits an organization born of such a public/private partnership, programming is eclectic, offering something for all ages and income levels on the Connecticut shore and in the lower river valley.