In June 2008, Melanie Hebert moved back to her hometown of New Orleans to co-anchor the weekday morning news at the NBC affiliate WDSU NewsChannel 6.   She returns to NOLA from Southern California where she anchored the top-rated morning and afternoon news programs in the Palm Springs market "KESQ News Channel 3 in the Morning" and "News Channel 3 at Noon."  Her morning news team there won an Emmy Award for coverage of the 2007 SoCal wildfires.  In California, she also worked as a freelance entertainment reporter covering movie premiers in Hollywood. Hebert has anchored and reported during some of the nations biggest stories, from major hurricanes and wildfires to the death of Former President Gerald Ford. She has conducted interviews in the homes of celebrities from Anne Rice to Brittney Spears, and she interviewed President Barack Obama over the phone during her 12 hour on-air shifts of continuous international coverage on Hurricane Gustav.  A presidential candidate at the time, she questioned him about Congressional support for Louisiana's coastline and levee protection system. Now named the Consumer Reporter for WDSU, Hebert grew an interest in consumer issues in Southern California where she broke the story of a real estate scam victimizing more than 60 Mexican residents who lost up to $40,000 each.  Her investigation prompted several class action lawsuits and an arrest warrant for realtor Haydee Verdugo. Hebert also followed stories beyond the U.S. border investigating Mexican dental businesses and producing an undercover series on black-market pharmacies. Hebert began her television career in Los Angeles at the nationally-syndicated  entertainment news magazine Extra.  Her entertainment reporting has been featured on Access Hollywood and the Detroit-Based Movie Show Plus.  She took to the anchor desk for the first time in Baton Rouge, where she also hosted and produced a weekly public affairs show.  There she covered the trial of serial killer Derrick Todd Lee, and she organized several special projects including two half-hour specials on the Miss Teen USA pageant. She also launched the two-week Olympic Special From Baton Rouge to Athens  while serving both as Executive Producer and Co-Anchor.  But her favorite part of the job was hosting the MDA Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon and actively volunteerly for the Muscular Dystrophy Association for several years. A former Homecoming Queen at Louisiana State University, Hebert was also captain of the LSU Golden Girls Dance Team as she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication with a concentration in Broadcast Journalism and minors in Dance and Photography. She spent part of her college career in New York City as well, while studying at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and working at a law firm on 5th Avenue.  Hebert has traveled the country as a choreographer, coached the nationally ranked LSU Tiger Girls Dance Team, and worked as the Director of Publicity for the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre.  She remains a strong advocate for the arts and on the West Coast served as a judge for Universal Dance Association competitions in Hollywood and Phoenix.  In the community she has been extremely involved in teaching Catholic Education to middle school students, Big Brothers/ Big Sisters of the Desert,  United Way, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, New Orleans Teens Encounter Christ, the Louisiana Alliance for Dance and the Louisiana Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association of which she was a founding board member.