Gerri Willis is an American television news journalist and former host of ''The Willis Report'', a daytime program on Fox Business, focusing on consumer and personal finance issues.

Early life and education

Gerri Willis was born on August 14, 1959, in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. She is a graduate of Columbia Business School and

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the ...

located in

Oxford, Ohio Oxford is a city in Butler County, Ohio, United States. The population was 23,035 at the 2020 census. A college town, Oxford was founded as a home for Miami University and lies in the southwestern portion of the state approximately northwest ...

where she was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow. While attending Miami, she was also the Business Manager of ''The Miami Student'', the oldest college newspaper in the U.S.

Career

Prior to joining Fox Business, Willis served as the personal finance editor for

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

, hosting a weekly half-hour program titled '' Your Bottom Line'', which focused on ways to save Americans money and the economy's effects on personal finance. Before CNN, she worked at '' Smart Money'' magazine as the senior financial correspondent. She joined the Fox Business Network in March 2010, appearing across all programming on the network. Willis is the author of two business books, ''The Smart Money Guide to Real Estate Investing'' and ''Home Rich''. She was also the winner of the Excellence in Retirement Savings Reporting award in 2001, which is bestowed by the American University School of Communication and the Investment Company Institute's Education Foundation.

Personal life

Willis married David Evans in 1994. In May 2016, Willis announced her

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a r ...

diagnosis after discovering an abnormality and seeing her physician in April. Nearly a year later, she indicated that dealing with the cancer has been a blessing, and has reconnected her with her faith. By October 2017, she had undergone a

mastectomy Mastectomy is the medical term for the surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. A mastectomy is usually carried out to treat breast cancer. In some cases, women believed to be at high risk of breast cancer have the operat ...

, four months of chemotherapy, and five weeks of daily radiation treatment. In an interview with ''

Westchester Magazine ''Westchester Magazine'' is a magazine and website that covers news, culture, lifestyle, nightlife, shopping, and other local information within Westchester County, New York. It is published monthly by Today Media, LLC, a company located in Rye, ...

'' that same month, she announced she had been in remission since the start of the year. On January 28, 2020, it was announced that Willis would take a leave of absence as she undergoes surgery to address pre-cancer cells.

References

External links

* * 1959 births 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers American business and financial journalists American business writers American television news anchors American women television journalists CNN people Fox Business people Journalists from North Carolina Journalists from Ohio Living people Miami University alumni People from Butler County, Ohio People from Spruce Pine, North Carolina Women business and financial journalists {{US-journalist-1950s-stub