Catching up with Danielle Campbell: From News 12 to Catholic Charities

When Danielle Campbell left News 12 after a 31-year run in 2023, the job desert loomed. As any 60-year-old mother of four knows, that desert can be both daunting and punishing. But such moms also tend to be made of sterner stuff than the rest of us: She eventually landed at Catholic Charities of Long Island, where she now heads up communications and hosts the Catholic Faith Network's "You Did It for Me."

A self-described person of faith, Campbell explained in a recent phone interview that there is a rough-hewed logic to a career that went from radio (WNBC, 1010 WINS in the 1980s) to the Long Island chapter of Alexandria, Virginia-based Catholic Charities USA, which helped 16 million people last year, according to its annual report.

On "You Did It for Me," Campbell talks to fellow Long Islanders who got support from Hicksville-based Catholic Charities, or to others who are simply grateful — like celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich, whose family emigrated to the United States from Yugoslavia during the so-called Istrian-Dalmatian Exodus of the late 1940s with the organization's help. (The show's name comes from the Bible's Gospel of Matthew 25:40, where Jesus tells his followers that "whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me.")

The idea came from Msgr. Jim Vlaun, the head of the Uniondale-based CFN, "who called me up [and said] Catholic Charities was suffering from a lack of knowledge about what it did — which is basically helping families in need right here, with boots on the ground, making a tangible difference in the lives of Long Islanders," Campbell said. "He wanted me to tell good stories about great people doing wonderful things for LIers,' and I thought OK, I can do that with my eyes closed. Sign me up! It's better than doing stories on 'What do you think of gas prices?' "

In an interview, Vlaun said of Campbell, "First and foremost, she's a caring Catholic woman who lives her faith, and she's a Long Island icon beloved by many. It's worked out beautifully. It's a great match."

Telecare, the TV station of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, was founded in 1969 and was renamed Catholic Faith Network in 2018. "The God Squad" was born here (first hosted by Rabbi Marc Gellman and Msgr. Tom Hartman) while prominent local TV journalists have passed through as well (Jane Hanson, Rolland Smith, Magee Hickey, Dr. Frank Field). News 12 alumnae Colleen McVey and Jackie Lukas have prominent on-air roles. The station has a million weekly viewers on TV and the web, according to Vlaun.

Faith and reporting aren't mutually exclusive, Campbell insists, or at least they've never been for her. At News 12, "I would cover a home destroyed and the family would be outside, and I had no problem hugging them, and telling them 'You'll get through this.' I've always had a faith-based" style.

The Huntington native joined News 12 as a freelancer in 1992, then later became one of its most prominent reporters and anchors — an eyewitness to every major breaking news story on Long Island and a not-insignificant number of international ones, too, over that run. A 2010 report on the Haitian earthquake earned both an Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Award.

Yet the stories that meant the most to her, she says, weren't the big headlines, but instead the ones that got lost in the crush of daily news — the average person doing extraordinary things, like Deer Park resident Gina Lieneck, who devoted her life to boat safety after the death of her daughter in a boating accident in 2005.

At Catholic Charities, Campbell is the point person who has to convey to the press, viewers, donors or anyone else paying attention just how desperate many people are right now. "We're seeing people on a regular basis, like families, living in their cars," she says. "We are the provider of last resort, and quite often social services will call us and say, 'We can't help them, they're falling through the cracks.' ''

Campbell does seem happiest, however, when those cameras are rolling.

"I don't have to push my Catholicism or my beliefs. It just happens naturally while I'm telling their stories. Our senior citizens — whether Jews, Muslim or Hindu — are just so grateful when you tell them they're going to be OK. I say 'God's got you and I'm praying for you and keep your faith.' They look at me and hug me and say, 'Thank you for saying that.' "