Donna Doogan

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Donna Doogan
Born Donna Elizabeth Macibrowski
February 28, 1971 (1971-02-28) (age 53)
Columbus, Ohio, United States
Other names Donna Hacken
Donna Mac
Ethnicity White
Occupation Journalist
Physician/veterinarian
Notable credit(s) Evening Anchor for WFCN (1998-2006; with Louisa Ogden)
Evening Anchor for WCOL (2006-2014; with Rhonda Spencer at 4 and 10)
Weekend Morning Anchor for WIFX (2015)
Weekend Evening Anchor for WTOR (2016-)
Title News Anchor
Religion Catholic
Spouse Tim Doogan (widowed)
Dan Hacken (divorced)
Children Danielle & Drew Hacken
Family Yes

Donna Doogan (born February 28, 1971) is an American author, physician, vetrinarian, and television anchor.


Early life[edit]

Donna was raised on the southside of Columbus and graduated from Bishop Hartley High School in 1990. She holds a BS '94 in Communications from Ohio State University. She is the niece of former Columbus mayor Greg Lashutka.

Career[edit]

Donna started her career in 1994 as the morning anchor for then ABC affiliate WXCO (now a Fox O&O) in Cincinnati. In 1995, then became the morning and noon anchor for WCOH in Cleveland where she remained until August 1998. Donna then took the opportunity to land a main anchor gig in Jacksonville and became the anchor of the anchor of the 5:30 and 11 p.m. newscasts on CBS affiliate WFCN-FTV. She remained at WFCN until 2006.


Jacksonville to Columbus[edit]

Tim Doogan's contract with WFCN expired on May 31, 2006 and because they could not agree on the terms of a new contract, Tim left the station and accepted a position with then-Columbus, Ohio Fox affiliate WCOL (now an ABC affiliate).[1] Donna then took the opportunity to return to her native Columbus and became the anchor of the 4 and 10 p.m. broadcasts WCOL where she co-anchored with Rhonda Spencer until departing in 2014.

Columbus to Indianapolis and Fort Wayne[edit]

On June 20, 2014, WCOL announced that Donna's contract would not be renewed; she, along with her co-anchor Rhonda Spencer, Collen Rea, Kevin Stapleton, meteorologist Tim Doogan, sports director Mark Childers, and reporters Katie Romo and Antonio McCall were among the 18 staffers laid off from the station due to budget cuts enforced by NoSirGifts Fantasy Television Stations.[2] This was due to J Stephenson's reign at WCOL after an infamous disagreement between Stephenson and Lynsey Everman lead to a disaster in Columbus.

Donna then took a job at CBS affiliate WIFX in Indianapolis where she began to anchor the weekend morning broadcasts. On April 2, 2016, she began appearing on WIFX's sister station WTOR with Perri Johnson on the weekend evening broadcasts.


Donna filled in as a guest moderator on Vote for the Girls after the death of moderator Kathy Roberts in the seventh season. This lead to speculation that she would be joining the moderator panelist on VFTG for the eighth season. On November 19, 2018, Donna earned her very first victory as winning moderator as her last Vote for the Girls pick, Bobby Bones, was controversialy announced the winner of the twenty-seventh season of Dancing with the Stars.

On December 28, 2022, Jenna Zinn and Donna Doogan jointly announced plans to open a medical facility to treat humans and animals in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Because of this role, Doogan's duties at WTOR will likley remain unchanged as Doogan is already the weekend evening anchor and reports two days a week.

Name changes[edit]

When Donna first joined WFCN in the late 1990s, her on-air name was Donna Macibrowski. After marrying WFCN's sports director Dan Hacken in 1990, she became known as Donna Hacken. After her marriage to WFCN chief meteorologist Tim Doogan, Donna retained her last name of "Hacken" on the air. However, when she joined WCOL, Donna officially changed her name to Donna Doogan. .

In her last WFCN broadcast on May 12, 2006 Mrs. Doogan went on to explain the change:


Family[edit]

She has two children, Danielle and Drew, from a previous marriage to WFCN Sports Director, Dan Hacken. She married WFCN Chief meteorologist Tim Doogan in 2007 and were married until his death on February 2, 2019.

Following Tim's death, Donna adopted a black cat named Jackson.

Filmography[edit]

Key
Denotes works that have not yet been released

Film[edit]

Year Title Role Notes Ref.
2024 Caprice & Ella: The Movie Herself

Broadcast Journalist[edit]

Year Title Notes Ref.
1994-95 Channel 7 News Cincinnati
1995-98 NewsChannel 10 Cleveland
1998-2006 12 News Jacksonville
2006-14 Fox 13 News/ABC 13 Action News Columbus
2014-present CBS 41 Action News

Television[edit]

Year Title Role Notes Ref.
2016-21 Vote for the Girls (United States) Judge Moderator on the purple team
2023-present Caprice & Ella herself Recurring cast

References[edit]

  1. Tim Doogan Leaving 12 Action News after 8 years
  2. "Channel 13 cuts from the top". 

External links[edit]