KY3’s Ashley Reynolds accepts leadership role with Crosslines

provided by Ashley Reynolds

Ashley Reynolds, an award-winning journalist at KY3, has accepted a job with Crosslines Community Outreach.

Ashley Reynolds, an award-winning consumer investigative journalist at KY3, has accepted a leadership role at a Springfield-based nonprofit that runs a food pantry, diaper bank and clothing closet for children.

Starting March 2, Reynolds will be the new spokesperson and director of development for Crosslines Community Outreach. She will help launch the nonprofit’s new shelter for women in the spring.

Reynolds grew up in Springfield, discovered journalism as a student at Hillcrest High School and has spent the bulk of her 16-year career at KY3, the Springfield area’s NBC affiliate. She was executive producer – and the face of – the news station’s On Your Side segment.

Acting on tips from viewers, she reported on consumer-focused stories about money, health and safety.

“We exposed so many scams, discovered loopholes in the fine print and chased down a few crooked contractors,” said Reynolds, in a goodbye video aired during the 6 p.m. KY3 news Feb. 20. “We held people accountable and gave a voice to the little guy. My best days were when customers got their money back and when a wrong was made a right.”

Reynolds will no longer be a full-time reporter but she will continue to contribute to KY3 by producing a weekly segment on scams for the digital desk.

“I’m going to still warn you about the latest scams and show the red flags,” she said in her goodbye video. “And I hope your organization or church invites me to come and speak. I’m offering Scam School for anyone who will listen.”

Dave Davis built the broadcast journalism program at Hillcrest – and its flagship HTV Magazine program, which has repeatedly won national awards. He praised Reynolds’ tenacity and commitment to journalism.

“This was her passion. I tell people ‘You can’t go into journalism if you don’t have a fire in your belly.’ It’s just not the kind of profession you want to dabble in,” he said. “You have to be all in.”

Davis taught Reynolds and kept tabs on her while she pursued a broadcast journalism degree. They have remained close.

“She was in the studio all the time, doing everything, learning everything she could,” he said.

Davis, who spent more than four decades at Hillcrest before retiring in 2024, said Reynolds is tender-hearted, and the consumer role at KY3 was a perfect fit.

“Every story she did was a heads-up, here is a way to improve your life, here is a way to avoid disaster,” said Davis, now a teacher at Greenwood Laboratory School. “That fits her personality. She does have a helping spirit, a caring spirit, and she is just good people. And people in the Ozarks know that.”

Reynolds, who will remain in the Ozarks, said it will be hard to step away from her full-time reporting job but that she is eager to be home every night with her husband and daughter.

Deana Butcher, who taught for seven years at Missouri State University after retiring from Springfield Public Schools in 2015, said her daughter pursued journalism to serve her community.

“She loves helping people. She loves talking with people,” Butcher said. “She still has that passion.”

Butcher said for all of Reynolds’ accolades, she is most proud of her work ethic and love of family. She said Reynolds has been offered jobs in bigger markets but opted to stay in Springfield.

Except for a short stint in Kentucky after graduating from the University of Missouri, Reynolds has spent her entire career in Springfield. She interned at KY3 at age 17 – as a Hillcrest student – and returned full time in 2011.

She has four regional Emmy awards and is a two-time winner of the regional Edward R. Murrow award. She has more than a dozen awards from the Missouri Broadcasters Association and was lauded in 2018 by the Missouri Police Chiefs Association.

“She is very connected, and she wants to raise her daughter here,” Butcher said. “That is a mama’s dream to have their kid be a hard-working, successful person who wants to stick around.”