Award-Winning CNN Journalist Soledad O’Brien to Deliver Hanify-Howland Lecture at Holy Cross
Event part of 40th anniversary celebration of coeducation at College
CNN journalist Soledad O’Brien will deliver the 47th Hanify-Howland Memorial Lecture on March 19 at 8 p.m. in the Hogan Ballroom at the College of the Holy Cross. Following her talk, O’Brien will be available to sign copies of her book “The Next Big Story: My Journey through the Land of Possibilities” (Penguin, 2010), which will be available for purchase prior to the lecture at the Holy Cross Bookstore, as well as at the event. The talk is free and open to the public.
O’Brien is the anchor for the CNN morning show “Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien” and a special correspondent for the network. Since joining CNN in 2003, O’Brien has reported breaking news from around the globe and has produced award-winning, record-breaking and critically acclaimed documentaries on the most important stories facing the world today. In 2010, she wrote her highly praised memoir, which chronicles her most significant reporting moments and how her upbringing and background influenced her experiences.
In 2011, O’Brien won her first Emmy for “Crisis in Haiti” (Anderson Cooper 360) in the category of Outstanding Live Coverage of a Current News Story. O’Brien was part of the coverage teams that earned CNN a George Foster Peabody award for its BP oil spill and Katrina coverage and an Alfred I. duPont Award for its coverage of the Southeast Asia tsunami. The National Association of Black Journalists named O’Brien the Journalist of the Year and the Edward R Murrow Awards lauded her with the RTDNA/UNITY award for “Latino in America” in 2010.
O’Brien came to CNN from NBC News where she anchored the network’s Weekend Today. She is a graduate of Harvard University and lives with her husband and four children in Manhattan.
Since 1965, the Hanify-Howland lecture series has brought to the Holy Cross campus a series of distinguished speakers who have exemplified in their own work the spirit of public service that the series was established to encourage. Past speakers include Retired Lieutenant General Brent Scowcroft, USAF; Hon. Clarence Thomas ’71, Supreme Court justice; Ruth Wedgwood, director of the Program in International Law and Organizations at Johns Hopkins University; investigative journalist Bob Woodward; and most recently Steven D. Levitt, co-author of the bestselling books “Freakonomics” and “Superfreakonomics.”
In keeping with the traditional practice of the Hanify-Howland Series, O’Brien will conduct a seminar on campus, which will allow students to interact with the speaker in an intimate and intellectually exciting environment.
Holy Cross is celebrating the 40th anniversary of coeducation with a series of events throughout the 2012-13 academic year. Students, faculty, and staff will have extensive opportunities during the year to reflect on, acknowledge, and commemorate the moment in 1972 when the College opened its doors to women students for the first time.
Media Coverage
- Telegram & Gazette, March 13: CNN’s Soledad O’Brien looks to motivate at Holy Cross lecture
- Boston Globe, March 11: Journalist Soledad O’Brien to give Holy Cross talk
- GoLocalWorcester.com, Feb. 26: CNN’s Soledad O’Brien To Deliver Lecture At Holy Cross
For additional information, please contact Cristal Steuer at 508-793-2419.