ALTAMONT — Elisa Streeter was introduced to the world of television news at an early age. She grew up watching her father, television anchor Howard Streeter, on stations in Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; and St. Louis.

Streeter recalled going to the newsroom with her father who also created Emmy Award-winning documentaries. It was a career she had decided to follow until she was 18 years old and tragedy struck: Her father died of a heart attack.

“It made me rethink my life choices because I saw the stress that the industry caused,” she said.

Streeter instead studied sociology at the University of Missouri, and received her bachelor’s degree in the subject. After that, she worked for three years at the Missouri School for the Blind, which she loved. But Streeter still found herself drawn to the news and realized her true calling remained in journalism, she said.

“I was still fascinated by what made people tick and what made the world work,” she explained.

“I think that video has such an impact,” she said, of her decision to work in television news. “I know I’ve been moved to tears by video, or it’s moved me to do something.”

Her career includes 30 years at the television station WTEN, or News10 ABC, where she first worked as a reporter before becoming a news anchor. She now hosts the 4, 4:30, 5:30 and 11 p.m. newscasts. At the end of this year, Streeter, who is 61, plans to retire.

“I’m just looking forward to where life takes me,” she said. “And being open to what this new chapter brings.”

Streeter will be honored by the Women’s Press Club of New York State as Media Person of the Year at its annual awards and scholarship dinner on Oct. 24.

After working at the Missouri School for the Blind, Streeter returned to the University of Missouri at age 25, earning a master’s degree in journalism. She then started working as a television reporter at KTUL in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she remained for two years.

“I covered a lot of tornadoes while I was there,” she said.

Streeter next came to the Albany area to work as reporter at WTEN. Streeter  had roots in the area as her sister lived in North Adams, Massachusetts, and her father grew up in Dorset, Vermont.

It was two years after moving to Albany that Streeter met her husband, Chris Sanford, who worked as the Enterprise editor at the time. She and her husband have three children together. Streeter recalled driving to Altamont to meet Sanford and said she fell in love with the village, which “felt like a Norman Rockwell painting.”

After living in Altamont for 27 years, she said she still enjoys the sense of community she gets from saying hello to people while walking her dog or going to the post office.

After covering both uplifting and tragic news stories, Streeter said she can’t single out one as most important. But she said that covering the news has let her see the best of people come out during the worst of times.

“So many come out to help when things are really, really bad,” she said.

Her background in sociology has served her well during her career in journalism, she said. Not only has she occasionally used her knowledge of sign language while working — she learned sign language on the job in order to communicate with children who were both deaf and blind by signing into their hands — she also learned about understanding the different challenges people may face in life.

“You just have to walk a mile in people’s shoes,” she said.