MU business and financial journalism professor Marty Steffens will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award from Indiana University this Saturday.
Steffens, who earned her bachelor’s degree from Indiana in 1978, is one of six journalism alumni to receive the award this year.
Steffens said it is a tremendous honor to be selected as a recipient.
“This is equivalent to the Missouri Honor Medals in the way it looks at the achievements of your career, so it’s very amazing to get this award from the university,” she said. “It’s actually only the third or fourth year they’ve even done this award. They began this award on the 100th anniversary of the university’s journalism school.”
In addition to serving as a reporter and editor for publications across the nation, Steffens has organized many workshops for journalists in different countries across the globe.
Steffens also worked as the executive editor of the San Francisco Examiner and The Press & Sun Bulletin in Binghamton, New York.
“With the San Francisco Examiner, I pretty much restarted a mega-metro newspaper from scratch,” Steffens said. “Here, I’ve taught hundreds of journalists about business journalism, and I’ve taught hundreds of journalists around the world.”
Steffens has taught both business journalism and basic journalism skills like writing, editing and how to start a newspaper. While teaching in the Middle East, she taught about working as a journalist in a democracy.
Steffens said she was set on entering the field of journalism at an early age.
“I worked on my high school newspaper and was fortunate enough to work for my local newspaper while I was still in high school, so I had an early opportunity to really feel what it was like,” she said. “This was also before Watergate happened and the power of journalism was evident, plus our ability to bring truth to power.”
Tom Warhover, associate professor and executive editor for innovation at the Columbia Missourian, has known Steffens since 1993.
“We discussed journalism a lot when she was an editor at the Dayton Daily News and I was an editor at the Virginian Pilot,” Warhover said. “We were both involved in trying to figure out better ways to do our craft through what was then called civic journalism.”
Warhover said Steffens has been an important figure in the newspaper industry for the last 25 years, both in her work in civic journalism and with various projects.
“She’s always been in the orbit of doing good works,” he said.
Steffens joined the MU faculty in 2002, after a renowned 30-year career in the news industry.
“I think overall it’s my international work right now that’s very satisfying, as well as my work here at Mizzou,” Steffens said. “I’m very happy to be a part of the Missouri faculty.”