CBS journalist Jobina Fortson-Evans is continuing her Atlanta legacy

For Jobina Fortson-Evans, joining CBS Atlanta’s newsroom felt less like a career move and more like a homecoming to the city that first ignited her passion for storytelling. As a child, Fortson-Evans loved interviewing people with her camcorder. Years later, she joined the Tucker High School newspaper, which sparked her interest in a journalism career.

As a student at Howard University, Fortson-Evans completed internships at a local radio station and then a television station, where broadcasting caught her attention. “It was the combination of the writing, plus pictures and sound all together, that I enjoyed,” she says. “And I haven’t really looked back.”

Fortson-Evans later held on-camera jobs with TV stations in Maryland, Kentucky, and California. Before joining CBS Atlanta’s new team, she launched and hosted ATL Live, a daily lifestyle show on Atlanta News First. Along the way, she’s navigated the turbulence of the wider journalism industry, as traditional broadcast media looks for ways to incorporate social media into their model.

Her new role embodies this pivot: This year, CBS Atlanta shifted from the news desk model to debut a digitally augmented virtual-reality studio, where anchors interact with immersive visuals via a green screen. “With our set here, every single day is different, from the content to the way the show looks,” Fortson-Evans says.

As a reporter, she says she aims to root storytelling in the community. She points to CBS’s new on-screen QR code and phone number, which allows viewers to submit story ideas during each broadcast. “We are not necessarily going to lead with the news that everybody else is,” she says. “While there are shootings and fires and events that are happening here, our goal is to highlight the stories that are going to impact and help people the most.”

Representation is also a driving force for Fortson-Evans. “There is a legacy [in Atlanta] of Black women anchoring the news,” she says. “Growing up here, I watched Monica Kaufman Pearson, Brenda Wood, and Jovita Moore.” Though that legacy stretches back to the legendary Xernona Clayton, the first Black woman in the South to host a regularly scheduled prime-time television talk show, representation remains limited in the industry: A 2018 study found that nationwide, Black women comprise 2.62 percent of all journalists. Fortson-Evans sees her on-air visibility as a chance to influence the next generation of young reporters, especially women journalists of color.

Now that she’s back in her hometown—with three Emmys to her name—Fortson-Evans looks forward to amplifying the voices that make Atlanta what it is. “There are so many amazing people throughout this region that are doing great things and uplifting others,” she says. “That’s who we want to find to tell their stories.”

This article appears in our February 2026 issue.

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