NEWPORT, R.I. – Television news anchor Frank Coletta, host of “NBC 10 News Sunrise” and “NBC 10 News at Noon,” will present the Convocation address and be awarded an honorary degree when Salve Regina officially opens the 2010-2011 academic year during a ceremony on Wednesday, Sept. 8 at 2 p.m.
The annual Convocation ceremony traditionally welcomes students to the new academic year, and will be held beneath a tent on the lawn of Wakehurst Student Center, Ochre Point Avenue.
Presiding over her first Convocation as Salve Regina’s president, Sister Jane Gerety will address the concept of community. She will present Coletta with the degree of honorary doctor of humane letters.
Born and raised in West Warwick, Coletta is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston. He joined NBC 10 in 1978 as an assignment editor and later became a general assignment reporter. In 1982, he began anchoring the "Today" show local newsbreaks followed by the Saturday newscasts in 1983. He was named “Sunrise” anchor in 1985.
The recipient of numerous reporting awards from the Associated Press and United Press International, Coletta also received an Emmy nomination for investigative reporting in 1986. He has been named Best Morning Anchor by readers of Rhode Island Monthly magazine for 20 years in a row.
In recognition of his coverage of the business and financial communities on the Sunrise News Business Report, he received the Manufacturing Partnership Award from the Rhode Island Manufacturers Association in November 2003 and the Rhode Island District Director Award from the federal Small Business Administration in May 2006.
In 2001, Coletta was inducted into the Silver Circle of broadcasters for his 31 years of experience in the industry. The Silver Circle honor is given by the New England Chapter of the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences (the Emmy Award people). That same year he was named Citizen of the Year by the Mancini Lodge of the Sons of Italy in North Providence.