Valerie Coleman Morris
Former Business Anchor for CNN Financial Network; Emmy Award-Winning Journalist
SPEAKER FEE RANGE: Please Inquire
TRAVELS FROM: California
Emmy award winning journalist, Valerie Morris is the former Business Anchor for CNN. She recently declined a new contract with CNN to focus on her core interest and passion - financial literacy for women, young adults and people of color, the most disenfranchised segments of the population concerning money issues. Morris will continue to write and narrate the nationally syndicated radio column which she created in 1986 called With the Family in Mind - that focuses on family and sandwich generation issues and their money implications - which airs on CBS Network Radio. A popular lecturer on financial literacy for women of all ages and stages in life, she also works as a facilitator, keynote speaker and Mistress of Ceremonies for senior executive conferences and corporate staff and employee special events. Her money literacy message is for students of all ages but she has a special desire to speak to college students about getting a financial life before debt becomes a way of life.
Emmy award winning journalist, Valerie Coleman Morris is a former Business Anchor for CNN domestic and CNN international. In her latter years at CNN Morris reported primarily on Personal Finance issues with a daily segment called 'Smart Assets'. In 2007, Valerie Coleman Morris decided to follow her passion and focus exclusively on financial literacy as an aspect of business and social economics. Her core interest is financial literacy for women and people of color, two of the most disenfranchised segments of the population concerning money issues.
A sought-after lecturer on financial literacy and money management, Valerie Coleman Morris also works as a facilitator, keynote speaker and Mistress of Ceremonies for senior executive conferences and corporate staff and employee special events. Valerie Coleman Morris has recently expanded the focus of her message from financial literacy to financial self-reliance, motivating women to understand the path to financial independence.
Valerie Coleman Morris continues to write and narrate the nationally syndicated radio column which she created in 1986 called "With the Family in Mind" -that focuses on family and sandwich generation issues and their money implications. These segments air on CBS Network Radio three times a week.
Morris' broadcast career spans more than 35 years and both coasts. Valerie Coleman Morris came to CNN in 1996 from WPIX-TV in New York where she was both a general assignment reporter and weekend anchor. Morris began her career as a broadcast journalist in San Francisco where she worked for KRON-TV and KGO-TV as a researcher, general assignment reporter and ultimately an anchor. Morris was also the morning drive anchor at KCBS Radio in San Francisco and midday anchor at KCBS-TV in Los Angeles.
Valerie Coleman Morris has received a roster of awards including three California Emmy Awards for both breaking news events and special reports. Morris was a major contributor to KCBS-Radio's Peabody Award team coverage as co-anchor following the 1989 California earthquake in which a portion of the San Francisco Bay Bridge collapsed.
Valerie Coleman Morris has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from San Jose State University in California and a Masters in Broadcast Journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York, where she was the recipient of a New York Times fellowship.
A sought-after lecturer on financial literacy and money management, Valerie Coleman Morris also works as a facilitator, keynote speaker and Mistress of Ceremonies for senior executive conferences and corporate staff and employee special events. Valerie Coleman Morris has recently expanded the focus of her message from financial literacy to financial self-reliance, motivating women to understand the path to financial independence.
Valerie Coleman Morris continues to write and narrate the nationally syndicated radio column which she created in 1986 called "With the Family in Mind" -that focuses on family and sandwich generation issues and their money implications. These segments air on CBS Network Radio three times a week.
Morris' broadcast career spans more than 35 years and both coasts. Valerie Coleman Morris came to CNN in 1996 from WPIX-TV in New York where she was both a general assignment reporter and weekend anchor. Morris began her career as a broadcast journalist in San Francisco where she worked for KRON-TV and KGO-TV as a researcher, general assignment reporter and ultimately an anchor. Morris was also the morning drive anchor at KCBS Radio in San Francisco and midday anchor at KCBS-TV in Los Angeles.
Valerie Coleman Morris has received a roster of awards including three California Emmy Awards for both breaking news events and special reports. Morris was a major contributor to KCBS-Radio's Peabody Award team coverage as co-anchor following the 1989 California earthquake in which a portion of the San Francisco Bay Bridge collapsed.
Valerie Coleman Morris has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from San Jose State University in California and a Masters in Broadcast Journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York, where she was the recipient of a New York Times fellowship.
- Money Has No Conscience; It Depends On Yours
When it comes to money, women need to be far sighted, start saving early and stick to their money plan. The world we’re living in demands more and more that we accept responsibility for our lives – physical and fiscal - no matter how complicated. Women are more vulnerable as we age because we have very unique money issues. While it’s important to look to professionals for advice, in the final analysis, women must first commit to the mindset that personal financial intelligence – matters, and that they are capable of accumulating money and protecting it. Taking charge of improving and maintaining fiscal health starts with putting one’s own financial oxygen mask on first meaning making a plan, committing to it, having a metric for what that plan can do for you and the time frame in which it will be done. Act with urgency. No movement; no improvement. Whatever age, women cannot allow
themselves to become victims of money paralysis. - With the Family in Mind
Part of achieving a healthy state of the family is to know who's responsible for its life-cycle orchestration. With the Family in Mind knows where the responsibility lies. Being a caregiver for those at the beginning of the life cycle - our children - or, for those at the end of the life cycle - our aging parents, is stressful under the very best of circumstances. With the Family in Mind reminds each of us that family - matters. The intent is to look at family dynamics or experience and remind us how much we have in common. - Leadership
We cannot lead with yesterday's leadership skills. While character, intelligence, and judgment are still important and essential for good leadership, there are new tools that need to be added to the mix. Leadership also means to understand, assume and nurture financial literate and responsible people. - The Sandwich Generation
The Sandwich Generation is made up of adults caught in the middle. Adults 45 to 65, most often, facing the dilemma of raising their own children while assisting aging parents, or actively monitoring a frail parent's decline. The financial concerns are real. Retirement nearing but perhaps now re-set; kids going to college or boomeranging home to get their financial feet under them; elder parents frail and often outliving their carefully stashed retirement savings. It's the portrait of the vast majority of American adults. It's no easier for the old to get older than it is for their adult children to deal with the role reversal of becoming the "parenting child". Respecting elder independence, managing aging parent healthcare needs long-distance, transitions with growing and grown children, new families/stepfamilies, divorce, widowhood and second marriages. Balancing all the needs and cooperating in assisting resolutions. - Diversity
Noticing differences is politically correct these days. Diversity is "in". Its value is being recognized just about everywhere. While it's being courted in the global workplace, many American businesses operate without maximizing the added value of their diversity bottom line. Since culture is an acquired, learned skill, in the workplace of the 21st century, cultural expertise will give businesses a proper sense and attitude to the world's people and communities. The cultural overlays regarding money must be recognized and discussed– especially given the ongoing recession and multi-generation family living situations it’s creating. - The Financial Futures of Women
Valerie also addresses audiences on a variety of Family and Societal issues with great success. Recognizing the extreme importance of family ties, Valerie's useful, insightful and sensitive commentary on family issues has helped thousands across America keep Family Matters in priority and proper regard. - It’s Your Money So Take It Personally
Her talks on Financially Empowering the Public, and the Financial Futures of Women, are highly valued by Valerie... knowing as she does, that financial issues are threatening to so many of us.
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