Lauren Young is a department editor at BusinessWeek, covering all aspects of personal finance. Before BusinessWeek in 2003, Young had a similar beat as a senior writer at SmartMoney. She also covered mutual funds and capital markets for Dow Jones News for three years and was a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal. Young is a 1989 honors graduate of Penn State University, and she received her master's in journalism from Northwestern University in 1993. She was awarded the 2003 Northwestern University Alumni Assn. Service Award.