Graduating from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, Stark worked as a documentary producer for PBS's "Inside Story," where she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting for her work on the CBS/Westmoreland trial.

Stark joined Dow Jones in 1988 where she was correspondent and later senior producer of the weekly "Wall Street Journal Report." In 1996 she became anchor and editor of her own live, daily business news program, "Heard on the Street A.M." Stark also anchored public affairs program, "Metro Journal," which won an award for local political coverage in its first year.

Stark joined ABC News in 1998. She won an Emmy Award for her participation in ABC's millennium coverage and a George Foster Peabody Award for her participation in the network's coverage of 9/11.

Ms. Stark is the mother of two children, Ben and Sara, and lives in New York City.

On April 2, 2010, she announced that she had been laid off along with several other employees in the middle of a 25% staff downsizing by ABC News.