AMES, Iowa -- Christine Romans, a 1993 Iowa State University journalism graduate and host of CNN's weekend business program "Your $$$$$," will receive the James W. Schwartz Award for Distinguished Service to Journalism and Communication from ISU's Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication. Romans will be presented the award during homecoming activities on 3 p.m., Friday, Oct. 16, in the Hamilton Hall Seminar Room.
The Schwartz Award is the highest honor conferred by the Greenlee School. The school's advisory council and faculty nominate candidates, and faculty members select the winner.
The awards' ceremony will be partnered with an open house for the Iowa State Daily. Refreshments will be served.
"The selection of Christine Romans is especially timely as we seek information about the economy," said Michael Bugeja, professor and director of the Greenlee School. "Her reporting and analyses throughout the years have been among the best in the financial news industry. As a former Reuters correspondent, and in her current position as CNN correspondent, she has a global perspective that enhances her reporting and observations."
Romans is currently co-anchor of "Your $$$$$," and a featured correspondent for various CNN programs. Her coverage focuses on the current economic crises and the latest breaking developments and what they mean to Americans and their money.
"I feel like every story I have reported over the past 15 years has led me to this moment in our nation's history," Romans said. "Rarely does one story affect virtually everyone. This is that touchstone story that will define how we will live our lives now and for generations to come."
After graduating from ISU, where she served as editor of the Iowa State Daily, Romans quickly learned about commodities, the stock market and gross domestic products as a reporter with Knight-Ridder Financial News in Chicago. Then, as a wire service reporter for Reuters, she covered various beats, including derivatives, currencies, bonds, and stock index futures.
She joined CNN in 1999 and reported live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Romans went on to anchor CNNfn's "Street Sweep." Romans tracked the market's boom through the late 1990s to the economy's uphill battle after the Sept. 11 attacks. She has been a correspondent for "Moneyline" and "Lou Dobbs Tonight," and her reporting is often featured on CNN International.
She received an Emmy Award in 2004 for her work on "Exporting America," a "Lou Dobbs Tonight" investigation into the impact of globalization on U.S. workers. Romans was part of the coverage teams that earned CNN a George Foster Peabody award for its Hurricane Katrina coverage and an Alfred I. duPont Award for its coverage of the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia. In addition, the National Foundation for Women Legislators has honored her with its media excellence award for business reporting.
Romans joins a list of Schwartz Award recipients that include Hugh Sidey (1950), Time Magazine's White House correspondent; Robert L. Bartley (1959), Pulitzer-prize winning editor of The Wall Street Journal; Lauren Soth (1932), former editorial page editor of The Des Moines Register and a Pulitzer prize winner; Tom Knudson (1980), Pulitzer-prize winning reporter for The Des Moines Register and The Sacramento Bee; Kevin Cooney (1974) and Mollie Cooney (1975), anchors and reporters for KCCI-TV in Des Moines; Ann Cooper (1971), United Nations correspondent for National Public Radio; and Chris Adams (1988), reporter for The Wall Street Journal.
