Teri Okita

Teri Okita has been a correspondent for CBS Newspath, the affiliate news service of CBS News, since May 2000. She is currently based in Los Angeles, Calif.

Okita spent a large part of her first year with CBS News reporting on then-Vice President Al Gore during his presidential campaign, which led to her coverage of the election recount in November 2000. She was present on the steps of the Supreme Court for the historic announcement of the recount decision.

Okita covered daily politics at the White House, Congress, the Pentagon, and the Supreme Court for Newspath's Washington bureau (2001-04). During and after the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, she was on-site to report on the aftermath of the tragedy and also covered recovery efforts at the World Trade Center in New York. On the heels of the war in Iraq, Okita was sent to the Middle East, where she covered conflicts in Kuwait and Baghdad (2003). That was the first of several trips to Iraq for Okita, including coverage of the capture of Saddam Hussein in and the first Iraqi election in the post-Saddam era (2005).

Okita has reported on a wide range of stories, mostly breaking news, but also presidential conventions and inaugurations, the Washington, D.C. sniper murder spree, President Ronald Reagan's funeral, the Academy Awards, the Grammy Awards, NASA space launches, the Michael Jackson trial, the Scott Peterson trial and the Timothy McVeigh execution, in addition to hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes and landslides.

Before joining CBS News, she was the weekend anchor/reporter at WUSA-TV, the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C. (1996-2000), and anchored the weekday news at KGMB-TV, the CBS station in Honolulu (1992-96). Okita began her career in journalism in Missoula, Mont., as weekend anchor/reporter at KECI-TV (1989-92).

Okita was graduated from Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, Calif., with a bachelor of arts degree in communications. She was born in Kailua, Hawaii and currently resides in Los Angeles, Calif.