November 11, 2008
Purdue Ag Fish Fry to feature veteran political journalist
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - |
Andrea Mitchell, the anchor of MSNBC's "The Andrea Mitchell Hour" and chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News, will be the guest speaker during the luncheon that begins at 11:30 a.m. in the Toyota Blue Ribbon Pavilion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis.
Mitchell's talk, "The View from Washington," will be based on her extensive background in foreign affairs and political races. She joined NBC News in 1978 as a general correspondent based in Washington, D.C. and has covered every presidential election since then. Over the years, she has reported on evolving political stories and foreign policy issues in the United States and abroad for "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams," "Today," "Meet the Press" and on both CNBC and MSNBC.
Her international experience includes a series of exclusive interviews with Cuban President Fidel Castro and unprecedented access in Cuba that resulted in an hour-long documentary aired in 2003. She reported in 2002 and 2003 on the United Nations debates leading up to the Iraq war, and her assignments have taken her to North Korea, Afghanistan, the Middle East, Bosnia, Kosovo, Pakistan and Haiti. She has been a longtime analyst of the intelligence community and has reported on Osama Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network since 1996.
"We are particularly excited to have Andrea Mitchell as our speaker this year," said Donya Lester, executive secretary of the Purdue Agriculture Alumni Association. "She has covered the historic 2008 presidential election since its beginning, and she will certainly provide us with an inside look at the new administration's policies that will be taking shape by the first of February. She has a front-row seat for these events, and with her extensive knowledge of global politics, she will no doubt give us insights as to how the beginning of the Obama presidency is resonating around the world."
In 2005, Mitchell's first book "Talking Back," a memoir about her experiences as one of the first women to cover five presidents, Congress and foreign policy, was published. She also has received awards such as the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the Leonard Zeidenberg Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association, recognizing her contributions to protect First Amendment freedoms.
Her tenure at NBC News has included assignments as energy correspondent, chief White House correspondent, chief congressional correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent. She covered the White House during both of Ronald Reagan's terms. In 1988 she was first to break the story that George Bush had selected Sen. Dan Quayle of Indiana as his running mate, and she was selected to serve as a panelist at the second Bush-Dukakis debate that year. In 1992 she became NBC's chief White House correspondent after covering Bill Clinton's presidential campaign from the New Hampshire primary to the general election. In 2000, she was NBC's lead correspondent covering Hillary Rodham Clinton's race for the U.S. Senate. In 2004 she was first with the story again, breaking the news that Sen. John Kerry had selected North Carolina Sen. John Edwards to share the Democratic ticket.
The Fish Fry is the annual meeting of the Purdue Agricultural Alumni Association. Tickets are $20 and must be purchased in advance. Tickets are available by contacting the Purdue Ag Alumni office at (765) 494-8593 or by e-mailing agalumni@purdue.edu.
The Ag Forecast, a program highlighting important topics in agriculture, will precede the Fish Fry starting at 9:30 a.m. in the Old National Bank Grand Hall, also located on the fairgrounds.
Writer: Elizabeth Fritz, (765) 494-8402, elfritz@purdue.edu
Source: Donya Lester, (765) 494-8593, lesterd@purdue.edu
Ag Communications: (765) 494-2722;
Beth Forbes, forbes@purdue.edu
Agriculture News Page
PHOTO:
Andrea Mitchell, https://www.purdue.edu/uns/images/+2008/mitchell-andrea.jpg (Photo by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders)
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