Chris Jansing Biography

Christine Ann "Chris" Kapostasy-Jansing (born January 30, 1957) is an American television news correspondent. She currently works for NBC News as their Senior White House Correspondent. From 2010 to 2014, she hosted an MSNBC show called Jansing and Company.

Early life and education

Jansing was born to a Roman Catholic family in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, the youngest of 12 children of Joseph and Tilly Kapostasy. She is of Hungarian and Slovak descent. Originally a political science major, Jansing switched majors to broadcast journalism after working for the college radio station. In 1978, she graduated from Otterbein College in Ohio.

Career

After college, she worked as an intern at a cable station in Columbus, Ohio, and then accepted a job for a short stint at radio station WIPS in Ticonderoga, NY. She then accepted a position as a general assignment reporter for WNYT television in Albany, NY, where she quickly rose to become the weekend anchor and then the weekly co-anchor. She stayed at WNYT for 17 years. While there, she won a New York Emmy Award in 1997 for her coverage of the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta. Jansing joined NBC News in June 1998. She has since anchored and reported for MSNBC and has been a substitute anchor for The Today Show, and the Sunday version of NBC Nightly News. In 2008, she relocated to Los Angeles and worked as a field reporter for two years before returning as an anchor in 2010. Chris Jansing previously anchored the 10am hour on MSNBC weekdays on Jansing and Company, with Richard Lui regularly serving as a correspondent and substitute anchor. The show ended on June 13, 2014, when Jansing became NBC's Senior White House Correspondent.

Awards

• An Emmy Award for her coverage of the 1996 Olympic Park bombing at the Olympic Games in Atlanta.
• "Best Person" award from the New York State Broadcasters Association for her report on hunger in New York State.

Personal life

In 1982, she married Robert Jansing, a chemist, who ran an analytical chemistry laboratory, and in 1998, upon her move to NBC, she began using her married name. She explained it was easier for viewers to pronounce. She and her husband subsequently divorced, but she has continued to use the name "Chris Jansing" professionally.