Roger Runningen is an agriculture and commodities reporter in the Bloomberg News Washington bureau. Runningen graduated from Winona (Minn.) State University in 1972 with a B.A. in political science and speech. He spent 12 years as a Washington regional reporter for the Small Newspaper Group covering agricultural, politics and Congress, and is a former chief spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He has won several awards, including ones from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and the National Association of Agricultural Journalists. Runningen and his wife, Marsha, have two sons, Mark and Jeffrey, and live in Springfield, Virginia.