HOUSTON — Ugochi Iloka joined the KHOU 11 News team October 2021. You can catch her reporting weekday mornings and at noon.
Ugochi is a native Houstonian and feels honored to cover the news for KHOU 11, here in her hometown.
She graduated from Sam Houston State University with a BA in mass communications with an emphasis in broadcast journalism and minor in political science. She moved back to Texas after spending five years reporting for WBRC FOX 6 News in Birmingham, Alabama.
Ugochi worked in their Tuscaloosa news bureau. This is where she learned how to enterprise and dig for stories solo, most of the time.
She landed an exclusive interview with former Alabama Governor Robert Bentley. Ugochi was the first reporter he agreed to talk to on camera in the state, since the first time he resigned from office. Bentley pleaded guilty to campaign and ethics violation in 2017.
Ugochi was also one of the few reporters who covered Alice Johnson's release from the Pickens County, Alabama jail. Johnson is the woman Kim Kardashian met with President Donald Trump about to free from jail. She served 20 years behind bars for a drug charge.
Before her run in Alabama, Ugochi also spent some time reporting in Fayetteville, Arkansas for 40/29 news. In the over three years she worked for the ABC affiliate there, her most memorable story involved speaking to a construction worker's fiancée. The construction worker was killed. OSHA said poor site work conditions was to blame for his death. Ugochi also won an Arkansas AP Award for continuous coverage on Scott County's severe flooding. The sheriff there was killed trying to save a woman from flood waters.
Ugochi is excited to tell impactful stories in Houston, which for her has always been home, carrying H-town in her heart wherever she lived. She's Nigerian-American and has always been asked if her first name Ugochi is Japanese. It's actually, Igbo and means "God's glory." Ugochi attended boarding school in Nigeria for most of middle school.
When she's not reporting the news, she's spending time with her family, friends, and sorority sisters. Ugochi's parents migrated to Houston from Nigeria 40 years ago. She also has a vibrant smart 7-year-old daughter named Skylar. Ugochi is a proud member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated. Please email her at uiloka@khou.com or find her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to connect.
She wants to hear from you, whether it's about a story idea, event or just saying hello don't hesitate to reach out.