GRADUATION: 2007 Speakers Named
GRADUATION SPEAKERS NAMED
http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/students/graduation2007
Many thanks for your input for this year’s Graduation speakers. Two
distinguished journalists will be speaking to you at graduation (it’s just a
coincidence that they are from the same newsroom).
ON TUESDAY, MAY 15, the Pringle Lecture will be delivered by DANA PRIEST,
national security correspondent of The Washington Post, where she has worked
for 20 years. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for beat reporting (in part
for her revelation on secret prisons run by the CIA). That was the third
year in a row that she had a Pulitzer connection. In 2005, she was a
finalist in two categories - beat reporting, for her coverage of
intelligence agencies; and national reporting, as part of the Post team that
covered the Abu Ghraib abuses). In 2004, her book, “The Mission: Waging War
and Keeping Peace With America’s Military,” was a Pulitzer finalist in
general non-fiction.
Most recently, she helped reveal the crises at Walter Reed Hospital earlier
this year. Read more about her extraordinary work (and watch some of her
appearances as a guest panelist on “Washinton Week with Gwen Ifill” on PBS)
at the Dana Priest Fan Site: http://www.danapriestfansite.com/
ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, the winner of the school’s highest honor, the Columbia
Journalism Award (and therefore, the main graduation speaker for you and
your guests) is BEN BRADLEE, the legendary editor of The Washington Post.
During his years as executive editor of the Post from 1965-1991, he helped
transform the paper from a local daily into an internationally-recognized,
world-class news operation. Among the stories he was intimately involved
with: the Pentagon Papers and Watergate. Adjunct professor Betsy West told
me just last night how how great a big-event speaker Bradlee is and that we
are all in for a treat. More on Bradlee at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Bradlee and http://www.gtnspeakers.com/speakers/speakers.php?speakerid=302
The student speaker will be AKISA OMULEPU, your class president - no
introduction required.
Remember: check for last-minute changes to venues or timings -
http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/students/graduation2007
We are also going to hold two briefings about all aspects of graduation -
watch for information about that.
