Rebecca Schleicher is a seven-time Emmy award-winning journalist and your Middle Tennessee transportation expert!
She juggles multiple roles daily, including news anchor, traffic anchor and transportation reporter.
Rebecca arrived in Nashville in May 2015, joining NewsChannel 5 as a reporter on the evening newscasts. With the area booming, the station moved her to the new traffic anchor and transportation beat reporter position to help fill a vital role in January 2017.
So much has happened in Nashville in recent years, and Rebecca has been there for all of it. She covered all aspects of the massive Transportation Plan and voter referendum in 2018. And, as fate would have it, she was filling in on the anchor desk during the two biggest news events in recent memory: the devastating March 3, 2020 tornado outbreak that carved a 60-mile scar across Middle Tennessee, and the downtown Nashville bombing on Christmas Day, 2020. She was honored with three Emmy awards for anchoring the coverage on those fateful days, before ever holding a news anchor position full-time. In 2022 the station named Rebecca anchor for the new 9 a.m. newscast.
Before making Middle Tennessee home, she worked for two years as a reporter and fill-in anchor at FOX 25 in Oklahoma City. There she spent much of her time chasing tornadoes and covering the ins and outs of a growing community. She spearheaded a series of reports on long contaminated water that led to dozens of health problems for people in the surrounding communities, traveling to the EPA for answers on why it was taking so long to clean up the mess. Before that, she worked at KCEN in Waco, Texas, where her series of reports on a sheriff accused of sexual harassment preceded an election where citizens voted him out of office.
Rebecca hails from the "other" UT. A proud Longhorn, Rebecca graduated with high honors from the University of Texas at Austin, earning degrees in both journalism and government. While at school she was a cheerleader for the Horns, a vice president of her sorority, the youngest on-air reporter for a local Austin news station and still found time to take a semester to study abroad in Tel Aviv, Israel.
When she's not at work you can find her hiking with her husband Drew and their dogs Rondo and Zoe, two spunky Australian Shepherd rescues.
Rebecca is a bit of a local guru, well-versed in the latest happenings and newest restaurants in town. She loves to cook (well – really to eat), which lead her to start an herb and veggie garden during the pandemic. Be sure to send her any tips – she appreciates hearing them!
She and Drew are also skilled at woodworking, tiling and cosmetic renovations, transforming multiple homes, including their current house.
Rebecca volunteers with numerous community food drives, the Nashville Rescue Mission and is trained as a volunteer coordinator with Hands on Nashville. She goes to as many elementary schools as she can to serve as a guest reader and helps teach Sunday School at The Temple. She has emceed numerous charity events, helping with as many local causes as she can.
Feel free to email her for help with nonprofit events — she’s happy to give back to the community she loves.
