Former WCCO-TV anchor Pauleen Le is joining housing nonprofit Project for Pride in Living as its director of communications and marketing. Le left the station on June 20 after three years as a reporter for the morning newscast and anchor for its streaming service.
Since 1972, Project for Pride in Living (PPL) has worked to provide affordable housing units and build generational wealth through career and homeownership coaching in the Twin Cities.
Le’s introduction to journalism came from WCCO legend Darcy Pohland, who interviewed her for a story about her high school. Le remembered how warm and kind she was, but also how much fun she was having. That night, Le watched the story and was amazed.
“I was like, wow, she was there for hours, and she didn’t miss a beat about the whole day’s activities. And that story was maybe like a minute or a minute and a half,” Le said.
Pohland became a mentor to Le and helped her get an internship at WCCO before Pohland’s death. After stops in Indiana and Wisconsin, Le returned to the station in 2022 as a reporter and anchor on the CBS News Minnesota streaming service.
When she arrived, she asked to work the morning newscast. While the hours were grueling, she loved the opportunity to tell meaningful stories and is grateful for the coworkers who made that possible.
Her swan song at WCCO was an hour-long documentary on the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War that she executive produced, edited and reported. The daughter of Vietnamese refugees, Le had wanted to do the project her entire career.
“I got to meet so many interesting people from so many different communities here in Minnesota that I didn’t know about, that I didn’t ever get to learn about in school,” Le said.
