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Jodi Long anchors ����vlog 8 News at noon and 5 p.m. weekdays. She joined the ����vlog team in October 2023 eager to share in its longstanding legacy, success and journalistic commitment to central Iowa.

While she wasn’t born in Iowa, Jodi likes to say Iowa raised her. She is a graduate of Ankeny High School, where she was a track athlete who ran at the Drake Relays and state meets every year. (Her relay team’s record still stands today!) Working in her hometown has provided her with valuable connections and relationships. She finds great importance in giving back to the community who gave her so much in her formative years.

Jodi has worked on television in central Iowa for a decade. In that time, she extensively covered the search for Mollie Tibbets, the downtown Younkers building fire, the fatal ambush of two local police officers, and the racial reckoning of 2020.

She is an Emmy-nominated and award-winning journalist for her stories about women impacted by human trafficking in the state, the lack of insurance coverage for Iowans seeking treatment for eating disorders, and the effort to diversify Iowa’s birth workers with the goal of improving birth outcomes of women of color.

Away from work, Jodi devotes all her time to her husband, Ra Shaan and their two children. “We are homebodies by choice, but we all enjoy exploring new restaurants and attractions in Des Moines,” she said. She also likes to spend time with extended family and friends, shopping, catching up on reality TV shows and attending her family’s church in Clive.