Alison Damast is a staff writer for BusinessWeek covering higher education, business schools and career trends. She is a member of the team that produces BusinessWeek.com's Business Schools channel, which won National Magazine Awards in 2007 and 2008 for online community and personal service. She was previously a reporter for The Stamford Advocate in Connecticut, where she won several state and national awards for her education and health coverage. Damast holds a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor's from Tufts University.