SPECIAL to SABEW
PHOENIX — The Society of American Business Editors and Writers has selected 18 business journalists for a weeklong seminar in Washington, D.C., in January that will immerse them in data and accounting skills.
Journalists will learn and work with experts at the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to explore the large cache of data each agency produces, as well as understand the importance of that data to readers.
The seminar, funded by the Walter and Karla Goldschmidt Foundation, will be held Jan. 12-17.
The group of 18 will also get a special briefing from economists at the Federal Reserve in Washington, and training in regulatory affairs from editors at Bloomberg Government. In addition, journalists will spend an entire day learning from experts at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
That agenda will include coursework on government accounting, SEC filings and non-profit accounting. Participants will also spend a half-day at the Investment Company Institute, accessing key industry and Economic Data from the Private Sector, and understanding the underlying data on retirement investing.
Downloadable version of the Goldschmidt data workshop schedule.
“This type of training fills a real need for SABEW. It’s intensive and classroom-style, which helps journalists not only learn skills but get the mentoring they need to put these skills into practice,” said Marty Steffens, SABEW Chair and University of Missouri business journalism professor, who will lead the training.
The Walter and Karla Goldschmidt Foundation has been a loyal SABEW funding partner since 2010.
The fellows:
Pat Ferrer is economic trends and health care reporter for Fort Collins Coloradoan. She has worked for the Coloradoan for 11 years in several capacities as city editor,
business editor (the position was eliminated in 2012) and now business reporter focusing on data-driven trend stories. She has been an editor and reporter for 30-plus
years in New England, Colorado and Wyoming. She lives in the foothills west of Fort Collins, with her husband, three dogs and two cats.
Howard Fine is a 15-year veteran of the Los Angeles Business Journal. He covers state and local public policy issues as they impact Los Angeles area businesses. He also writes about economic development, the local economy, local energy companies and other local companies. An LA native, he graduated from Bates College in
Lewiston, ME. He earned a master’s in journalism from Northwestern’s Medill School.
Darren Fishell is online editor for Mainebiz, a bi-weekly business journal covering the state. A native Californian, he came to Maine for school at Bowdoin
College and afterward worked as a beat reporter in print and online in both states. He was the founding editor of Diamond Bar Patch, in his hometown of Diamond
Bar, Calif., which he left in 2011 to move to Portland, and work at The Times Record in Brunswick, Me. He’s a jazz fan, enjoys the outdoor sights of New England and tries to coax a 1994 Toyota Camry into its 20th year.
Sheryl Jean is a business reporter for The Dallas Morning News. She writes mainly about the state and local economies, but also covers Texas Instruments Inc. and helps cover airlines. Before joining The News in 2008, she worked as a business reporter in California, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island and South Carolina. She’s a long-distance runner, cyclist, yoga enthusiast and world wanderer.
Chris Kahn is Bankrate’s research and statistics editor. He was a national energy writer at The Associated Press from 2008 to 2012. Before that, he covered a variety of subjects at AP, including state and federal courts, legislatures, immigration, sports, and arts and culture in Phoenix, Richmond, Va., and Roanoke, Va. Chris has a master’s degree from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. He also has undergraduate degrees in physics and anthropology from the University of Arizona. He lives in New York City.
Annalyn Kurtz joined CNNMoney as a reporter in 2010, and has been covering the recovery from the Great Recession ever since then. She writes about jobs, income inequality, Federal Reserve policy, and broader economic issues. Kurtz also works as an adjunct at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, where she teaches a course on covering economic indicators.
Li Lin (Linly), originally from Shanghai, China, is a graduate student at the Missouri School of Journalism. Being multilingual, she has traveled around four continents, including a stint working in Mexico. She worked as an online editor for CNBC Asia-Pacific, and was an export reporter at the FT group-affiliated Mergermarket.
Ricardo Lopez is an economics reporter and breaking news blogger at the Los Angeles Times, where he started working in summer 2011. He’s a graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno and grew up in Las Vegas. He’s worked at newspapers in Minnesota, Virginia and Delaware before joining the LA Times. In his free time, he likes to cook, train for half-marathons and spend time with his adopted pitbull.
Gail MarksJarvis is a syndicated personal finance columnist at the Chicago Tribune. She is author of the award-winning book “Saving for Retirement (Without Living Like a Pauper or Winning the Lottery)” 2012, FT Press. She sits on the SABEW Board of Governors.
Amy Martinez is a business reporter at The Seattle Times, where she writes about the Northwest economy and labor market. Her recent achievements include spearheading a four-day, front-page series on Amazon.com, which won a SABEW “Best in Business” award. Before joining the Times in 2006, she wrote about the cruise-ship industry in Miami and North Carolina’s changing economy. She has a master’s degree in American Studies from Florida State.
Kristen Painter is a business reporter at The Denver Post, covering airlines and aerospace. With previous experience as a general assignment reporter at the Post, she is often called on by the metro desk for breaking news, such at last year’s Aurora theater shooting or this year’s Colorado floods. She holds an M.A. in journalism and a B.S. in history. Outside of the newsroom, she is an avid runner, hiker and weekend happy hour patron, soaking up the Colorado lifestyle.
Paul Edward Parker is a reporter and resident data geek at The Providence Journal. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, like most finalists, was robbed. Among other subjects, he covers nuclear submarines and has ridden on a fast-attack submarine to an undisclosed depth below the North Atlantic. He is into genealogy and is descended from William the Conqueror and Lady Godiva, a fact which he has been unable to parlay into discount chocolate. He likes backpacking and is planning a 100-mile Appalachian Trail hike with his 9-year-old this summer and a 20-mile hike with his 7-year-old.
Olivera Perkins is a business reporter for The Plain Dealer, based in Cleveland. Her beat includes labor and employment issues. She was a 2008 Nieman fellow at Harvard University. She has won national awards, including a SABEW Best in Business and awards for business coverage from the National Association of Black Journalists. She has also won several statewide awards, including those from The Press Club of Cleveland.
Joseph Pisani is a business reporter for The Associated Press, based in New York. Born and raised in New York City, Pisani has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. Prior to joining AP, Pisani worked at CNBC. His work as appeared in USA Today and Business Week.
Jason Scott is a Dauphin County reporter for the Central Penn Business Journal. He covers Harrisburg’s fiscal crisis and how it has impacted business. I’m also on the hunt for stories about construction and real estate firms across Central Pa. and state government-related news. He previously works at newspapers in Carlisle and Wilkes-Barre, Pa. He invites readers to meet his for coffee and pastries to share story ideas.
Neil A. Shah covers the U.S. economy and demographics from The Wall Street Journal’s New York office. He also writes stories about rock music. He lives in Brooklyn.
Stephanie Stoughton is team leader for government contracting at Bloomberg News, managing a small team of reporters covering the roughly $500 billion U.S. government contracting market. She previously led Bloomberg Government’s team of defense analysts. Before arriving at Bloomberg in 2010, Stephanie was a news editor at the Associated Press in Washington and a business writer for The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and The Virginian-Pilot.
Dawn Wotapka is real estate reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Wotapka has degrees from North Carolina State and New York University. She has worked at the Raleigh News & Observer and the Long Island Business News and interned at the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and the Dallas Morning News. She lives in Queens with her
husband and two cats. As an Army brat, she has lived in 10 states – including Alabama, Colorado and Alaska – and on a military base in Germany. She loves to run, though
finishing one marathon was enough.
Workshop organizer
Marty Steffens is SABEW Chair of Business Journalism at the University of Missouri. She began teaching 12 years ago after a 30-year career in news, most recently as executive editor of the San Francisco Examiner, and before that the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin. She also worked at the Los Angeles Times, Minneapolis Star, St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dayton Daily News, among others. She’s trained journalists in 30 countries, including a semester as visiting professor at Moscow State University. Most recently, she led an acclaimed session on business data at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Rio. She’s coauthor of “Disaster on Deadline,” a text on disaster coverage (Routledge 2012). As a newspaper editor, she led several award-winning and Pulitzer-nominated projects. In 2013, she was honored with the SABEW President’s Award. The mother of three adult children, she lives in Columbia, Mo., with her husband and a full house of pets.
Trainer
Rob Wells is doctoral student at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism. In August 2013, he earned an MA in Liberal Studies at St. John’s College in Annapolis. A veteran financial journalist, Wells teaches business journalism at the University of Maryland and was a 2012 Reynolds Visiting Business Journalism Professor at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Prior to his academic career, Wells was Deputy Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires in Washington, D.C.; he has also reported for Bloomberg News, The Associated Press and newspapers in California. He and his wife, Deborah C. St. Coeur, live in Crownsville, Md. in a house filled with jazz records and various instruments.
