Christen Renee Craig is a News Reporter, television producer

Television producer

The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...

, Assignment Editor and anchor for the ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 affiliate WSIL

WSIL-TV

WSIL-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for Southern Illinois, Southeastern Missouri, and the Purchase area of Western Kentucky that is licensed to Harrisburg, Illinois. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter in Creal Springs, Illinois. Locally...

 channel 3 in Carterville, Illinois

Carterville, Illinois

Carterville is a city in Williamson County, Illinois, in the United States, and is geographically situated between Carbondale, Illinois and Marion, Illinois. The city is located next to Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge's of land and water contain a wide diversity of flora and...

. Craig earned her bachelors degree in radio relevision mass communication

Mass communication

Mass communication is the term used to describe the academic study of the various means by which individuals and entities relay information through mass media to large segments of the population at the same time...

 from Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Southern Illinois University Carbondale is a public research university located in Carbondale, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1869, SIUC is the flagship campus of the Southern Illinois University system...

 in only three years while earning valedictorian

Valedictorian

Valedictorian is an academic title conferred upon the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony. Usually, the valedictorian is the highest ranked student among those graduating from an educational institution...

 honors. Craig was awarded the Ben Gelman Award for News Excellence in 2005. While attending Southern Illinois University, Craig worked as an anchor, reporter and executive producer for River Region Evening Edition on WSIU-TV

WSIU-TV

WSIU-TV digital channel 8 is a PBS member station based and located in Carbondale, Illinois, at Southern Illinois University. Programming can also be seen on WUSI-TV digital channel 19 in Olney, Illinois, a translator. Both stations serve the extreme southern part of Illinois and portions of...

, the university-owned news station. In 2008 Craig was named SIU news student of the year. She earned the 2008 Medium Illinois Market Silverdome award for best TV Reporter. In fall of 2008, she won an Illinois Associated Press

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

 award for Best Hard News Story documenting an incident of elder scam.

Christen Craig was born Christen McGill in McLeansboro, Illinois

McLeansboro, Illinois

McLeansboro is a city in Hamilton County, Illinois, United States. The population was 2,883 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Hamilton County. Located in Southern Illinois, the town was named for Dr. William B. McLean, who donated the land for its founding...

. She is the daughter of Richard and Sharon McGill of Ava, IL. She has three siblings: Josh, Jennifer and Alex.