Leah McLean leaving most KSTP anchor duties, will take on reporting

Leah McLean is leaving some of news anchor duties at KSTP-TV, Channel 5, and the station is bringing in a journalist who made her name covering groundbreaking concussion research.

McLean will remain at the anchor desk for the 5 p.m. newscast, and Pittsburgh's Jackie Cain will move into the vacant 6 and 10 p.m. duties, the station announced Tuesday. The timing of the shifts was not disclosed.

McLean, who has anchored the three newscasts for the past 13 years, will take on reporting assignments.

"This is something that I have been thinking about for quite some time," McLean, 39, said in a statement issued by KSTP. "As a journalist, my first love is being in the middle of the action and seeing things as they happen up close."

After five years, Cain is leaving WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, where she has been an anchor and reporter.

A major highlight in her time in her home state was her multi-segment series on Dr. Bennet Omalu and his discovery of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) during the autopsy of famed Pittsburgh Steelers football player Mike Webster.

That breakthrough was the basis of the Hollywood movie "Concussion." Cain had a small on-screen role in the movie while it was being shot in Pittsburgh.

Cain now serves on the board of the Patrick Risha CTE Awareness Foundation in the Philadelphia area.

Cain, 35, graduated with honors from West Virginia University, where she attended on a four-year dance scholarship.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482