Lisa Evers

Lisa Evers, formerly known as Lisa Sliwa, is an American journalist, reporter, and former model born on June 15, 1953. She is best known as a general assignment reporter for FOX 5 News and as the host of the television and radio program Street Soldiers with Lisa Evers in New York City. Over the course of her career, she has also served as a high-ranking leader in the Guardian Angels organization, a martial artist, and a long-time volunteer for youth and urban charities.

Evers grew up in Hinsdale, Illinois. In 1978, she began attending Lake Forest College, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics with a minor in 17th-century French literature.

Her modeling career began after a fashion photographer discovered her on the subway and took test shots. This led to a contract with Elite Model Management in the 1980s. Working in New York and Paris, Evers appeared in international publications, including French editions of Elle and Vogue, as well as magazines in Australia, India, and the United Kingdom.

While modeling, Evers served as vice-president of the Guardian Angels, a volunteer crime-fighting organization. She married the organization's founder, Curtis Sliwa, on Christmas Eve in 1981, though the couple later divorced. Operating under the name Lisa Sliwa, she co-hosted a talk radio show with him on WABC-AM in New York City. During her time patrolling as a Guardian Angel, she was once arrested and charged with disturbing the peace and obstructing justice after refusing a police officer's commands to leave a subway car. In 1983, she was assaulted in her Manhattan office by three men whom she fought off.

Evers holds a black belt in karate and has authored several monthly columns for Black Belt magazine from 1986 to 1994, as well as the 1980s book Attitude. In 1987, she became the first woman inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame as Woman of the Year, and she appeared in self-defense media such as Lisa Sliwa's Common-Sense Defense. During the 1980s, she also briefly attempted a professional wrestling career with the World Wrestling Federation, training with The Fabulous Moolah and demonstrating self-defense holds on Tuesday Night Titans in 1985.

In journalism, Evers initially worked as a freelance reporter for WINS and reported for the CNN Radio Network and the ABC Radio Network. She later became a general assignment reporter for FOX 5 News. Her long-running HOT 97 show, Street Soldiers with Lisa Evers, was adapted into a weekly television show on FOX 5 in 2016. Throughout her broadcasting career, she has secured exclusive interviews with major hip hop figures, including 50 Cent's first television interview in 2003, as well as interviews with Diddy, Jay-Z, DMX, and Fetty Wap.

Evers remains active in community outreach and charitable efforts. Supported by FOX 5 and HOT 97, she organized a drive that delivered a truckload of clothes, sneakers, and toys to Hurricane Katrina survivors. She also collaborated with the Hip Hop Has Heart Foundation to lead a major relief campaign in the Rockaways after Super Storm Sandy.