Sharon Emily Epperson (born April 12, 1968) is a senior personal finance correspondent for

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

. She also appears on

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...

shows, ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * The current day and calendar date ** Today is between and , subject to the local time zone * Now, the time that is perceived directly, present * The current, present era Arts, entertainment and m ...

'' and ''

NBC Nightly News ''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas'' for its weeknight broadcasts ) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NBC television network ...

''.

Early life and education

Epperson is the daughter of David E. Epperson and Ceceila T. Epperson, a retired schoolteacher in the Pittsburgh Public School System, last teaching at Lincoln Elementary School in Pittsburgh. Her grandfather was a steelworker. Her father, now deceased, was Dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh for nearly 30 years and was the first African-American dean at the school. Epperson graduated from Pittsburgh's

Taylor Allderdice High School Taylor Allderdice High School is a public high school in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The school was established in 1927 and is part of the Pittsburgh Public Schools district. It was named for industrialist and S ...

in 1986 and was inducted into their alumni hall of fame in 2011. She served a summer internship at the age of 18 in the Pittsburgh Press library department. Epperson holds a bachelor's degree in

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

and government from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, a master's degree in international affairs from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, and an honorary doctorate from Carlow University in Pittsburgh. At Harvard, she joined the Lambda Upsilon chapter of the

Alpha Kappa Alpha Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. () is an List of African American fraternities, historically African-American Fraternities and sororities, sorority. The sorority was founded in 1908 at Howard University in Washington, D.C.. Alpha Kappa Alpha ...

sorority. She has been an adjunct instructor of international affairs at Columbia University's School of International Public Affairs since 2000.

Career

In 1996, Epperson began working with CNBC. She was previously CNBC's senior energy correspondent, stationed at the

New York Mercantile Exchange The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is a commodity futures exchange owned and operated by CME Group of Chicago. NYMEX is located at One North End Avenue in Brookfield Place in the Battery Park City section of Manhattan, New York City. ...

(NYMEX) covering the commodities markets on a daily basis for eight years. In 2015, Epperson was one of six panelists covering the Republican presidential debate. Epperson has covered personal finance in a column for '' USA Weekend'' magazine and her writing has also appeared in ''

Essence Essence () has various meanings and uses for different thinkers and in different contexts. It is used in philosophy and theology as a designation for the property (philosophy), property or set of properties or attributes that make an entity the ...

'' magazine, ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'', ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', and ''

Self In philosophy, the self is an individual's own being, knowledge, and values, and the relationship between these attributes. The first-person perspective distinguishes selfhood from personal identity. Whereas "identity" is (literally) same ...

'' magazine. She also authored ''The Big Payoff: 8 Steps Couples Can Take to Make the Most of Their Money and Live Richly Ever After.'' ''The Big Payoff
/ref> Epperson hosts the digital video serie
Retire Well

Awards

1995: 1st place honors from the National Association of Black Journalists for team coverage on Time magazine's cover story on the Nation of Islam.
1999: Silver World Medal from the New York Festivals, an international television programming competition.
2001: Gracie Allen Award from the Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television.
2003: Trailblazer of the Year Award from the New York Association of Black Journalists.
2003: All-Star Award from the Association of Women in Communications.

Personal life

A native of Pittsburgh, she and her husband, Christopher John Farley, also an award-winning journalist and author, live in Westchester County, N.Y., with their two children. They have been married since August 30, 1997. Her sister, Lia Epperson, is a civil rights lawyer and law professor at American University Washington College of Law, and former

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

CEO Ben Jealous is Sharon's former brother-in-law. In 2016, Epperson suffered rupture of a

brain aneurysm An intracranial aneurysm, also known as a cerebral aneurysm, is a cerebrovascular disorder characterized by a localized dilation or ballooning of a blood vessel in the brain due to a weakness in the vessel wall. These aneurysms can occur in an ...

while at the gym, but had no permanent brain damage.

References

External links