Wedged between a newsroom and an administrative office, on the Pierce College campus, survives the Media Arts room. Nebulous on the outside and unwelcoming on the inside, a gray cubicle a quarter of the way down stands out from all other surroundings. Professor Tracie Savage, former actress and journalist, is seated on a typical rolling desk chair, wrapped in a blue belted shirtdress. A blue abalone necklace embraces her neck matching one of the neatly lined up rainbow colored binders perched on a shelf behind her.
“As you can see I am over organized. I am known for generally being over prepared,” Savage said. “My binders allow me to be relaxed and I can be me.”
Savage is teased by her co-workers but organization has been key to her success in news reporting and at teaching film production and broadcasting for the past five years, one class a semester, while still on the air.
“Two years ago I decided I just wanted to teach,” Savage said. “I loved it so much. It was fun being in the classroom. Fun sharing my experiences. I really loved working with students helping and mentoring them and watching them go off to a four year school.”
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Savages’ parents Judy, a stage mother, later turned talent agent, and father George, of Kalis and Savage Advertising, brought seven-year-old Tracie and her two brothers to the San Fernando Valley. They were a show business family.
As a young working actress Savage’s education was done on set.
“When I was on Little House on the Prairie for two years, more than half of my education was done on the set and it was fun,” Savage said. ”Little House had a ton of kids and we did class in the set classroom with one teacher.”
Graduating from Granada Hills High School, Savage went on to UCLA. After two years she transferred to the University of Michigan to graduate with a BA in Communications and Public Relations.
As Savage entered into the world of journalism she landed a four year stint at WHIO-TV in Dayton Ohio, working mostly as a reporter. Returning to Los Angeles in 1991 she has covered major news stories locally and around the world. She covered the O.J. Simpson trial, the Heidi Fleiss trial, and remembers the Oklahoma City bombing as some of her best work.
Savage began covering sports, producing and hosting a LA Dodger’s Pre-Game show, “Covering the Bases,” for 5 years. She earned a Golden Mike Award for Sports Reporting in her first year as a Sports Anchor. Of all her awards the Golden Mike is her most coveted.
From doing her first commercial at age 2 for American Rambler to interviewing some of the most well known newsmakers of her time, Savage chose to start teaching at Pierce in the Spring of 2015, Multimedia 108. She now teaches here full-time.
“Tracie Savage is a great addition to the Media Arts department,“ Mary Anne Gavarra-Oh Dean of Academic Affairs said.
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Photography, Sean McDonald also said, “She is an amazing addition to our department.”
As she prepared for class she grabbed a colored binder and said, “You are never too old to reinvent yourself.”
