News Release

Ifill of PBS to deliver Weatherspoon Lecture
at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School

CHAPEL HILL -- Gwen Ifill of the Public Broadcasting Service will deliver the Weatherspoon Lecture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School on Jan. 26.

The free public lecture, at 5:30 p.m. in the McColl Building’s Maurice J. Koury Auditorium, is part of the school’s Dean’s Speaker Series. Those wishing to attend are asked to RSVP by e-mailing kfbsrsvp@kenan-flagler.unc.edu or by calling (919) 843-7787. Parking will be available in the Kenan-Flagler Business School deck.

The annual Weatherspoon Lecture was created by a generous gift from longtime UNC and Kenan-Flagler supporters Van and Kay Weatherspoon. The lectures bring to campus visiting scholars and world leaders within politics, education, business and government.

Ifill, moderator and managing editor of "Washington Week" and senior correspondent for "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," will speak on "Politics, Policy and Reality: What’s Really Going on in Washington." "Washington Week" is the longest-running public affairs program on PBS.

Ifill has moderated debates in national elections, the most recent one being the 2004 vice presidential debate.

For "Washington Week," she oversees a public television tradition launched in 1967: a report on key news events of the previous week. As managing editor, she selects which stories to examine, chooses each week’s panel of leading Washington, D.C.-based news correspondents and moderates the question-and-answer format on air.

On "The NewsHour," Ifill helps provide in-depth coverage of current events with a mix of debates, interviews and feature stories.

Prior to joining PBS, Ifill was chief congressional and political correspondent for five years at "NBC News." While at NBC, she covered the top political stories of the day for "NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw," "Today," "Meet the Press" and MSNBC.

She worked for many years in print journalism before becoming a leader in broadcast news. She was a reporter for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Evening Sun and The Boston Herald American.

For more information on upcoming lectures in the Dean’s Speaker Series, visit www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/News/Events/index.cfm.

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UNC Kenan-Flagler contact: Kim Weaver Spurr, (919) 962-8951 or spurrk@unc.edu