Five days a week a young woman with a flawless American accent, distinctive face and Ethiopian jewelry appears on R-News, the only 24-hour cable news channel in Rochester, N.Y.

Known to more than 220,000 Rochester area residents as “Liz Medhin,” Elizabeth Teodros Wolde Medhin enters their living room almost daily with news on everything from the latest double homicide to cars stranded in the snow to the story of an 11-year-old girl starting libraries in Mali and India.

At 24, Elizabeth is one of the few Ethiopian Americans who has made it as a broadcast journalist in the United States.

She was born in Alabama, where her mother is originally from, but was raised in Milwaukee, Wis.

Elizabeth is very proud of her midwestern background.

“We tease her about that,” said Rocco Vertuccio, reporter/anchor at R-News, who works with Elizabeth on weekends. He said she likes to point out that Wisconsin is “more than just cheese and beer.”

Elizabeth often uses words like “forensics,” midwestern lingo for high school speech and debate clubs. And she has an aversion to big East Coast cities like New York, which may make her famous, but keep her far from home.