HIGH POINT, N.C., Dec. 1, 2009 – Justin Catanoso, founding executive editor of The Business Journal and award-winning journalist, has been named by High Point University to the Nido R. Qubein School of Communication Board of Advisors.

Catanoso, who studied journalism at Penn State University and earned a Master of Arts in liberal studies from Wake Forest University, began his writing career in 1982 – working for Centre Daily Times in Pennsylvania, the Knoxville Journal in Tennessee and the News & Record in Greensboro before moving on to found The Business Journal.

He has earned numerous awards, including several honors in 1992 following his pioneering investigative reporting into fraud in the tobacco industry. That year, he earned a Science-in-Society Award from the National Association of Science Writers, was honored as Medical Writer of the Year in North Carolina and received a Pulitzer Prize nomination.

In addition to his post at The Business Journal, Catanoso is a frequent and accomplished public speaker. Now represented by HarperCollins' Speakers Bureau, he has spoken to groups near and far on topics ranging from Italian culture and sainted relatives to regional economic development to the journals of Lewis and Clark. Catanoso's work has also appeared in The New York Times, Business Week, the Los Angeles Times, the Houston Chronicle, the Catholic Digest and on National Public Radio.

About the Nido R. Qubein School of Communication:
The 60,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art Nido R. Qubein School of Communication, named in honor of the university's seventh president, was dedicated on Sept. 15, 2009. The School is home to majors in Electronic Media, Games and Interactive Media Design, Journalism, Media and Popular Culture Studies, and Strategic Communication. The building is equipped with two television studios, an audio recording studio, a theatre, editing rooms, computer labs, interactive gaming labs, the Survey Research Center and more.

At High Point University, every student receives an extraordinary education in a fun environment with caring people. HPU, located in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina, is a liberal arts institution with 3,700 undergraduate and graduate students from 50 countries and 44 states at campuses in High Point and Winston-Salem. It is ranked by US News and World Report No. 5 among comprehensive universities in the South and No. 1 in its category among up-and-coming schools. Forbes.com ranks HPU in the top 6 percent among "America's Best Colleges." HPU was included in The Chronicle of Higher Education's "Great Colleges to Work For" 2009 listings. The university offers 68 undergraduate majors, 40 undergraduate minors and seven graduate degree programs. It is accredited by the Commission of Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and is a member of the NCAA, Division I and the Big South Conference. Visit High Point University on the Web at http://www.highpoint.edu/ or on Twitter at @HighPointU.