Ms. Valente Verified

Judy Valente gives frequent talks on faith and work issues and often serves as a speaker at spiritual retreats for women and young professionals. She also has been a consultant to the Garrett-Medill Center for Religion and News Media at Northwestern University. [CR-LF][CR-LF]Valente is an award-winning journalist and a published poet. She served as a staff writer for The Washington Post and at The Wall Street Journal in the Chicago and London bureaus. She was twice a Pulitzer Prize finalist -- most recently in 1993 -- for her front page story in The Wall Street Journal chronicling the life of a Midwest father caring for his son dying of AIDS. Her articles have also appeared in People and Parade magazines. Valente is also the author of "Twenty Poems to Nourish Your Soul," an anthology of poems and reflections on finding the sacred in the everyday. [CR-LF][CR-LF]As a correspondent for Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, Valente has received numerous awards for her reports, including the Unity Award in Media from Lincoln University and a Silver Angel Award from Excellence in Media for "Disabled Accessibility;" the U.S. International Film and Video Festival 2001 Silver Screen Award for her report on "Rural Churches;" the 2002 Certificate for Creative Excellence for "Deaf Mass;" and in 2003, "AIDS and the African-American Church" was awarded a Gold World Medal from the New York Festivals for and also honored by the Clarion, the National Association of Black Journalists, and the Unity Award in Media from Lincoln University; her 2004 feature on "Misericordia," was recognized by the Angel Awards, the U.S. International Film and Video Festival, the Gabriel Awards, the Unity Award in Media from Lincoln University and the New York Festivals. Valente has also received acclaim for her poetry; winning the 2005 Aldrich Poetry Prize for her chapbook, "Inventing An Alphabet."[CR-LF][CR-LF]Valente holds a bachelor's degree in English and the classics from St. Peter's College in Jersey City, N.J., and certificates from the Sorbonne in Paris and the Dante Alighieri School of Languages in Siena, Italy. She also holds a master's in fine arts in creative writing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. [CR-LF][CR-LF]She resides in Chicago and Normal, Ill., with her husband, Illinois Circuit Court Judge Charles G. Reynard.

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