Central Florida’s 1st Place Favorite Local TV/Web Personality
Nancy Alverez has been in the Central Florida news business for more than two decades, and in that time she has established herself as not only a trusted voice in local news but as a true ally and supporter of the LGBTQ community.
“Our LGBTQ community is made up of many people I greatly admire and respect,” she says. “These are leaders and professionals who are resilient, authentic, kind and hard working. Many of them had to overcome significant challenges or trauma just to simply live their truth. That, to me, is the definition of strength and an example for my children.”
Alverez came to Orlando from South Florida in 2000 and says in that time she has seen Central Florida grow into an area of diversity and inclusion.
“I love that I can see and feel us changing, becoming bigger and relevant in spaces beyond the tourism industry,” she says. “As a journalist, I’ve covered many difficult things in our region. I have seen the best of us in tough times and I am proud to be raising my children in a community that rises in beautiful ways.”
One of the most difficult stories Alverez has had to cover in her time as a journalist was the 2016 shooting at Pulse. But in that tragedy, she says she saw a community come together and vow not to let hate win.
“Almost seven years ago, our community gathered at a vigil at Lake Eola and we vowed, together, to live in honor of the 49 people whose own lives were cut short at Pulse,” she says. “It’s a vow I take very seriously and one of the things I live by. I know many in our LGBTQ and Hispanic communities feel the same way. I believe we all have an obligation to remember and honor an event that changed us. In big and small ways, in both our personal and collective growth; we show how it made us stronger, we honor that vow. That makes me proud of our LGBTQ community and our community as a whole.”
It’s that commitment to and pride in the community that led our readers to vote Alverez as their Favorite Local TV/Web Personality, and her message to those readers?
“Simply thank you,” she says. “Watermark has been an integral part of our community as its grown, grieved, celebrated and everything in between over the years. It’s an honor to be recognized by the readers.”
