Careers? Sure, but life centers on kids

He told listeners on KNST (790-AM) Wednesday morning that his wife, Valerie Cavazos-Parisi, had given him the "are-you-serious look" when he told her his plan.

Since his Jeep started acting up several weeks ago, she'd been driving him in at 5 a.m. and would then pick him up again at 10 a.m. In between, and afterward, there were two school-age kids to care for and Cavazos-Parisi's own career to manage, but she didn't mind.

It's actually a simple schedule for this pair, who have been juggling journalism careers, kids and cars for years.

As a rule, they help each other out. They've worked hard in recent years to become more diverse in a rapidly changing field, but still love old-fashioned journalism and the thrill of a good story.

But regardless of what's happening in their professional lives, one principle stays central all the time: Their children are their highest priority.

Cavazos-Parisi, 45, now hosts the "21st Century Workforce" segment on Inside Arizona Business, which airs on KVOA - Channel 4.

She also works on Aim4College, a corporation she founded nearly two years ago which includes television and online radio shows as well as DVDs and a Web site, Aim4College.com. The goal is to assist parents in helping their kids do well in school in preparation for college and future careers.

"I wanted to be a teacher before I got into broadcast journalism, so now I get to do both," said Cavazos-Parisi.

Parisi, 52, hosts KNST's locally produced morning news/talk show.

But shift back 18 years, and this couple was living on the East Coast. They were moving around a lot — six states in 10 years — and sometimes worked in different cities.

At the height of their careers, Cavazos-Parisi was head anchor for a Fox affiliate in Hartford, Conn., and Parisi was the news editor of WRGB-TV in Albany, N.Y.

As they'd done before, they were living somewhere in between the two cities and commuting each day. Together, they were earning close to $200,000 — a lot of money for a couple of journalists from blue-collar backgrounds.

"This is what we all thought was the dream," Parisi said of that period.

The dream changed suddenly, though, and weighed in at about 7 pounds, 2 ounces.

"Suddenly the career ladder didn't seem like the biggest thing anymore," Parisi said of the birth of their son, James, 11 years ago. "We learned about three-quarters of the way through that you don't want to go to the top and give up your life."

After about a year of commuting and working out schedules so one of them could always be home to care for the baby, they surrendered. The Northeast and its big money were no match for James Jr.

And so the Parisi family headed back to Cavazos-Parisi's hometown of Tucson and a grandmother who was waiting there.

"We would do it again in a heartbeat," Cavazos-Parisi said. "I was so career minded. I had no idea I would love being a mother so much."

Parisi agrees.

"It's been all about the kids ever since," he said. "You think you're a big career person? You wait."

For Parisi, a love of journalism took hold when he was in his 20s. He worked in radio news in different New England cities, including Boston and his hometown of Providence, R.I. After turning 30, he took his first job as a television anchor and reporter in New London, Conn.

After being promoted to news director there, he started doing the hiring. It was then that he received a résumé from a Valerie Cavazos of Tucson, Ariz. She'd graduated recently from the University of Arizona and was ready for a change of scenery.

After she was hired, their friendship formed quickly and never changed. He was in his early 30s and she was in her mid-20s.

"We would just talk and talk and talk," Parisi said. "It's what still gets us through."

When the couple returned to Tucson with their toddler son in 1997, Cavazos-Parisi worked for KOLD.

Parisi, 52, said he didn't find his niche right away, but eventually he began working at KNST as a news anchor, then news director and now he's the morning talk-show host.

Cavazos-Parisi worked as a KOLD anchor for five years. After that, she produced and hosted "Livin' Latin" and "Hispanic Heritage," which aired on the local CW affiliate, KWBA, for more than four years.

Seven years ago this month, they welcomed Samantha, their second child.

Cavazos-Parisi is the daughter of a Ukrainian father and a Mexican-American mother. (She took her mother's name early in her career, she said, because she wanted to embrace her Hispanic heritage. Her father died of a heart attack when Cavazos-Parisi was 13.)

She said she wasn't always proud of her heritage. As a young girl, Cavazos-Parisi tried to hide her ethnicity — ashamed of stereotypes she'd heard about Russians and Hispanics. That changed as she grew.

"My mother was so proud that I had succeeded as a broadcast journalist that I wanted viewers to know my cultural history," she wrote in response to an e-mail from the Star.

Parisi, the son of Italian parents, has some busy mornings at his job, with the Wall Street crisis and the presidential election approaching.

He said he never thought in terms of parties and conservative versus liberal until about five years ago. He allows people of all political affiliations to talk on his show, and says he is "always open to new ideas."

"Labels don't work," he wrote in an e-mail to the Star. "It's polarizing and freezes us from making good things happen in this world."

But enough about politics and journalism. Ask Parisi about his kids. They're polite, and excellent students, he said. They're full of health, and joy.

"They're just beautiful," Parisi said.

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