Ag Com Alum Lands News Anchor Role

By: Jamie Creamer

If the noon and 6 p.m. newscasts on WTVY Channel 4 in Dothan seem to have a more agricultural flavor these days, it's largely the doings of Tiffany Gilland Howell.

A December 2004 Auburn University College of Ag graduate with a degree in agricultural communications, Howell is, as she says, "living my dream" as she anchors the noon news and produces the 6 o'clock newscast on the television station she grew up watching.

That she can include farm-related items on the news programs is just an extra perk of the job.

"Agriculture has always been somewhat of a passion of mine, and I know how important agriculture is to the Wiregrass, so I incorporate as much information for area farmers as I can in the newscasts," she says.

Howell, who was raised on a cattle farm just outside of Ozark, is no stranger to the airwaves in southeast Alabama. She debuted several years ago in television commercials for Gilland Chevrolet, Pontiac-GMC, her family's car dealership in Ozark.

"I started doing the commercials when I was 18 and continued them while I was at Auburn and on through this year, when I became an anchor here at the station," Howell says from the WTVY studios. "One thing those commercials showed me was that I loved being in front of a camera."

When, as a high school senior, she started looking at college majors, AU's ag communications program jumped out at her.

"It combined my love for and interest in agriculture and communications all in one," she says. "Plus, I had heard so many wonderful things about the College of Agriculture at Auburn, I just couldn't turn it down. It was perfect for me."

While a student on Ag Hill, Howell served as an Ag Ambassador and was a member of the Auburn Young Farmers.

She did her ag communications internship at Channel 4, where, instead of piddling jobs, she was given the opportunity to do general assignment stories that aired on the 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts.

That internship led to a full-time job straight out of college as a behind-the-scenes overnight producer for WTVY-News 4, but within weeks, Howell had moved to dayside to produce the 5 p.m. newscast.

In June of this year, she earned the noon news anchor spot and, later in the summer, moved from producing the 5 p.m. program to the all-important-ratings-wise-6 p.m. newscast.

Right about the time Howell was graduating from Auburn and launching her career, she was also planning a wedding. She and Adam Howell, whom she met in an agricultural economics class at AU, were married in February 2005. The couple lives in Slocomb, a Geneva County town near Dothan, where he owns and operates a family pest control business.

Sure, Howell has visions of someday moving up to bigger media markets, but for now, she's almost illegally happy.

"When I majored in ag communications, I had no idea what I would wind up doing, but I guess in the back of my mind I'd always wanted to be a news anchor," Howell says. "Now that I've gotten the opportunity, especially working with my hometown station, I know that I'm living my dream-and my life has really only just begun."

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