Lisa Parker joined NBC 5 as a consumer investigative reporter in 1996. For years, her Target 5 consumer-investigative unit tackled a range of viewer complaints: from the everyday consumer headache, to product safety, to sophisticated financial schemes. Then in 2016 Lisa helped launch NBC 5 Responds, a new unit to help viewers solve their consumer issues one –on-one; Parker and the Responds team recovered more than a million dollars for viewers in the first year.
Parker's work has garnered 15 Midwest Emmys, two Edward R. Murrow Regional RTNDA awards, three Gracie Allen awards, and several state and local broadcast awards. She brings a depth and dimension to NBC 5's consumer reports, with a style aimed at bringing real benefit for viewers.
Early on, a tip led Parker and the Target 5 team to a story that would have national implications. She was the first to report on the dangers of high levels of lead in imported vinyl mini blinds. The story that started in Chicago soon had a nationwide effect, as the product was pulled from stores shelves across the country. As a result of "Blind Danger," parents everywhere were warned, and an industry changed its practice. Each year thereafter, Parker and producer Robin Green continued to tackle topics that include children's product safety, potential defects in automobiles, and toxins in mainstream consumer products.
The stories are often gut-wrenching. Lisa was among the first to report on the “Bye-Bye Syndrome,” where parents and caregivers who were driving away from home, accidently backed over small children who followed them to their cars. She and Green were also first to expose carbon monoxide poisonings and deaths connected to keyless ignitions systems in newer model cars.
Many of Parker's reports have national implications - but her unit also concentrates attention on the everyday obstacles many consumers face. The unit tackles thousands of consumer problems every year, most of which never air on television, but help to serve the needs of NBC5 viewers.
Parker came to NBC5 from WAVY-TV in Norfolk, Virginia. Before that she worked as consumer reporter for WBAY-TV in Green Bay, Wisc. She started her career in broadcasting as a part-time camera operator and producer for KWWL in Waterloo, Iowa. Parker speaks fluent Spanish. She is a 1988 graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
She and her family love living in the Chicago area.
Find her on Facebook and Twitter, as well as NBCChicago.com and click on the Investigative tab.
