Gilma Avalos is the anchor of NBC 4 New York’s 11 AM and 5 PM weekday editions of “News 4 New York”. 

Avalos’s reporting was a key component of NBC 4 New York’s award-winning COVID-19 coverage, honored in January, 2021 with the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for “creat(ing) a 360 view in real time of the coronavirus pandemic, with courageous and thorough reporting on the virus’s explosion in New York City.” The duPont has long been recognized as the broadcast, documentary and online equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, also awarded by Columbia University.

Avalos has covered many of the Tri-State’s biggest stories since joining WNBC in 2019, including the COVID-19 outbreak. She joined NBC’s flagship station following five years at KTVT, the CBS Owned station in Dallas/Fort Worth where she anchored weekday afternoon newscasts and delivered breaking news coverage. In 2016, Avalos was on the scene for the deadly ambush of five Dallas police officers and was one of the first to report on the police robot that helped bring down the suspect. She also covered the Amber Guyger trial and anchored continuous coverage of the verdict and sentencing.

Prior to joining KTVT, Avalos worked as a multimedia journalist and general assignment reporter at NBC 6/WTVJ-TV in Miami. Here, she was one of the first South Florida reporters to cover Trayvon Martin's shooting death and later travelled to Sanford, Florida to cover the trial of George Zimmerman. She began her professional career at News 12 The Bronx, where she anchored continuous coverage of Hurricane Irene in 2011. She also helped develop the pilot that would later become News 12 en Español.

Fully bilingual, Avalos was born in El Salvador and raised in Miami, where she learned English as a second language. She got her start in television at the age of 12 when she hosted “Paleokids,” a Spanish language children’s program focusing on the world of dinosaurs for Discovery Channel Latin America.

A graduate of Columbia University, Avalos interned for NBC News Partnerships at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, prior to earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Hispanic Studies. She lives with her family in New York.