Washington Post business writer visits campus

Sharon Walsh, national business corespondent for the Washington Post based in New York City, will serve as the spring semester’s business writer in residence this week.

Her residency will include a public talk on “Paths to a Career in Journalism” on Friday, April 23 at noon. She will speak in the Nafziger Room of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication on Vilas Hall’s fifth floor.

Walsh has broad responsibilities with the Washington Post, covering banking, corporate legal issues, white-collar crime and corporate leadership. She was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for her investigative work on the involvement of Clark Clifford and Robert Altman in BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International). She also has received the Washington Dateline Award for investigative reporting and an award for financial reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Walsh first joined the Post in 1982, serving as assistant metro editor. She previously was assistant business editor for projects at the Philadelphia Inquirer, a news editor for U.S. News & World Report and copy desk chief for Knight-Ridder Financial Service.

A graduate of the University of Louisville, she earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas. She has participated in the Duke University visiting journalist program and served as a University of Michigan journalism fellow.

The Walsh residency is part of the ongoing Business Writer in Residence program, sponsored by the School of Business, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and Office of News and Public Affairs, with support from the UW Foundation. During the week Walsh will speak to classes in journalism and business, consult with individual students and give a talk in the “What Matters to Me and Why” series in Chadbourne Hall.