Steve Hartman

'Assignment America' Correspondent

(CBS)  Steve Hartman has been a CBS News correspondent since 1998, having served as a part-time correspondent for the previous two years.

His latest project for the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric titled "Assignment America," lets viewers decide where he goes and what he covers. Every week Hartman reveals three story pitches. Viewers log on to CBSNews.com to vote for their favorite. Hartman takes the winning pitch and turns it into a story for the following Friday's show.

Hartman is also well known for his multiple award-winning feature series, "Everybody Has a Story." Hartman proved the adage by tossing a dart at a map of America and then randomly picked an interview subject from the local phone book. Debuting in 1998, Hartman produced more than 100 such pieces.

He has won many prestigious broadcast journalism awards for his work: an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, an Emmy Award for writing and four RTNDA/Edward R. Murrow Awards, including three consecutive citations for Best Writing.

Previously, Hartman was a columnist for 60 Minutes Wednesday and was a correspondent for two primetime CBS News magazines, "Public Eye With Bryant Gumbel" (1997-98) and "Coast to Coast" (1996-97).

Before that, he was a feature reporter for KCBS-TV, the CBS owned station in Los Angeles (1994-98). His daily segment on the KCBS early evening newscast looked at offbeat stories and personalities in Southern California and earned him numerous awards.

Hartman also was a feature reporter for WABC-TV New York (1991-94) and KSTP TV Minneapolis (1987 91). He began his career in broadcast journalism at WTOL TV Toledo, Ohio, as a news intern and general assignment reporter (1984-87).

All told, Hartman has collected nearly two dozen local Emmy Awards for writing, reporting and editing.

Hartman was graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1985 with a degree in broadcast journalism. He lives in New York.