by Rachel Ayres | News Editor
Award winning journalist and author Bob Woodward will be the featured speaker at this year’s President’s Leadership Forum.
Woodard is an associate editor of The Washington Post, has written 19 books, has shared two Pulitzer Prizes and has “won nearly every American jouranlismaward,” according to bobwoodward.com.
For assistant professor of communications, Nichole Bogarosh, Woodward’s contributions to journalism are invaluable.
“Seriously, as someone who was a journalism and communication major in college myself, the idea of someone of that caliber would come to my school […] would have been mind blowing,” Bogarosh said.
Known for his breakthrough coverage of the Watergate scandal, Woodward has become a very influential person in journalism and American history.
“I feel like when Bob Woodward, along with Carl Bernstein, did the Watergate story, and really broke that open and developed that story for all the other outlets to follow that really set a level of investigative journalism standard that we hadn’t seen before and that in many ways we haven’t seen since,” Bogarosh said. “But, it put that gold standard for people to try to achieve and so having somebody of that caliber come to visit us is a unique opportunity.”
Since the fall of 2012, Whitworth has hosted The President’s Leadership Forum. Past speakers include Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State, and Fareed Zakaria, a journalist with CNN and The Washington Post.
According to Whitworth’s Director of Corporate Relations, Maxine Lammers, these big name speakers come because of Whitworth’s reputation.
“Time with students, Beck’s interview style during the Forum, a sponsor reception with the speaker – all reflect the relational style we champion at Whitworth. It’s why big-name speakers enjoy coming,” Lammers said.
In picking a speaker for each forum, Whitworth looks for a speaker who can, “help our community engage in critical and careful thinking, civil discourse and effective action,” according to Whitworth.edu.
“I know they are always looking for a speaker with broad based appeal who can lend insight to a topic or something that might be going on in the world. Someone who thinks broadly and can maybe present both sides of an issue or a policy,” Lammers said.
A Q&A session with Woodward will be held Thursday, Oct. 3, at 4p.m. in the MPR.
The President’s Leadership Forum luncheon, where Woodward is the featured speaker is on Friday, Oct.4. This event is by pre-registration only.