At Home With Catherine Garcia & Family

NBC 7 anchor Catherine Garcia and her husband, Tad, welcome me to their North County home with its sweeping view of the California coastline. This day is busier than most because a truck is parked in the driveway and a construction crew has just dug a huge hole in a side yard for a hot tub. But Garcia is as calm and unflappable as she is on air, anchoring multiple nightly newscasts for the station where she has worked for 19 years, first as a reporter and now alongside co-anchor Mark Mullen.

Garcia and Tad, who manages state training funds for companies, were college sweethearts at the University of Southern California, later moving to Texas, where Garcia worked as an anchor and reporter in El Paso, Austin, and Dallas. But when the couple decided to have a child (son Jackson is now 15 years old), they moved back to their native California to be closer to family. “It’s the only place that feels like home and the only place I’d want to raise my family,” says Garcia, who is third generation Mexican on her mother’s side and British/Scottish on her father’s side. Both sides of her family moved to the West Coast more than a century ago.

“I love our neighborhood,” she says of their family-friendly community. “There are always kids playing in the street. We know so many of our neighbors. Halloween is so fun here!” They bought their 1970s-era home five years ago and have been renovating it in stages ever since. Although the house was in good condition, it needed updating. So, the couple gutted the house to take advantage of the ocean views, knocking down a wall to open up the kitchen, installing new custom cabinets and a large island topped with quartzite. They also added wood beams to match those in the entry and living room and installed wood floors throughout.

“The kitchen is a favorite spot because we love cooking,” says Garcia. “It’s probably my favorite thing to do as a family. Our son Jackson is a great cook! He’s been helping me in the kitchen since he was really little. We try to sit down to a homemade family dinner together at least four nights during the week. And we also love to have friends and family over for dinner as often as we can.”  

They also hang out in the cozy family room with a fireplace, television, and comfortable leather couches where Ponch, their chocolate Labrador retriever, and Charlie, a silver lab (each weighing in at 100 pounds), like to lounge. Two cats, Olive and Lulu, complete the family’s menagerie. 

Nearby is the study where Garcia anchored nightly newscasts during the height of the pandemic. “Never in a million years would I have guessed that I would be anchoring on an iPhone from my own home!” she exclaims. “But that experience proved that it’s technically possible and even had some perks.” Garcia got to see her family more, and even did laundry between newscasts. Jackson, who at times was playing video games in the next room, had to “keep it down” during broadcasts.

The bookcase in the study holds Garcia’s beloved volumes — she is an avid reader — and displays numerous reporting awards. She is especially proud of the two Emmys, a Golden Mike, and “Best in Show” honors from the San Diego Press Club that she and her team won for “Breakdown: Investigating San Diego County’s Mental Health Care Crisis,” a year-long project that revealed a system “in need of an overhaul.” 

“I learned an incredible amount researching this project,” Garcia reflects. “Most importantly, I think, is just how many San Diego families are facing challenges in getting the care they deserve. And also, how important it is for us to fight the stigma of mental health issues so that people seek and get the treatment they need. I believe there needs to be a fundamental shift in how we look at mental health care… so that it is no different than any other kind of health care. Making sure our brains are healthy should be no different than making sure we have a healthy heart or getting treatment for a broken bone.”

Recently, the station aired a follow-up report to highlight progress that has been made. “County leaders are, fortunately, taking this issue very seriously and making some real investments to address it,” Garcia says. “But they admit there’s still a lot of work to be done. At least we’re headed in a better direction!” She is now working on an extensive project about the dangers of fentanyl.