Ehud Barak, Jane Goodall and Gilbert Grosvenor.

ALUMNI AND FRIENDS

Guest speakers enlighten

Students at the School of Communications benefit from close encounters with a steady stream of visiting world leaders, nationally known media professionals and guest lecturers. Some come for a day, some for a week, some for the full length of a winter term. All make a significant impact.

Communications students often have opportunities to take part in small-group press conferences, dinners or gatherings even with the most special guests. Visitors over the past several years include former President George Bush, Queen Noor of Jordan, Ralph Nader, Gloria Steinem, Lech Walesa, Bobby Seale, Julia Butterfly Hill, Ehud Barak, Russell Means, Jane Goodall, Cornel West, Benazir Bhutto, David Halberstam, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Walter Cronkite, Thomas Friedman, Elie Wiesel and Anna Quindlen. Speakers set for the remainder of 2004-05 include Chris Wallace, Eric Schlosser and John Glenn.

Some of the other outstanding individuals who have devoted their time to visiting with Elon's School of Communications students in the last few years include:

• Gilbert Grosvenor, chairman of the National Geographic Society Board of Trustees
  


• John Merrill, one of the nation's most renowned media ethicists and international journalism scholars
  


• David McCullough, Pulitzer-winning author and historian
  
  
• David Gergen, writer and political commentator who served as an adviser to presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton
  


• Michael Beschloss, prize-winning author and historian
  


• Sander Vanocur, former national TV correspondent with experience at most of the major networks
  
  
• Jim Goodmon, president and chief executive officer of Capitol Broadcasting, and an advocate of broadcasting in the public interest
  


• David Shribman, Pulitzer-winning political columnist and Washington bureau chief for the Boston Globe
  


• Mike Jensen, reporter and commentator for NBC News
  
  
• Reid Ashe, president and chief operating officer of Media General, and the man who oversaw the convergence of the Tampa Tribune, WFLA-TV and TBO.com, an online operation
  
  
• Callie Crossley, winner of an Emmy Award and a DuPont-Columbia Award; formerly a producer for ABC-TV's "20/20"
  
  
• Jan Schaffer, a Pulitzer-winning investigative reporter while with the Philadelphia Inquirer and currently the director of J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism
  
  
• Jean Kilbourne, internationally recognized for her work on tobacco and alcohol advertising and the image of women in advertising
  
  
• Jay Matthews, education writer and columnist for the Washington Post and author of "Harvard Schmarvard"
  
  
• Doug Marlette, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist who also draws the syndicated daily comic strip "Kudzu"
  
  

• Tim Riley, rock 'n' roll journalist who has worked the Washington Post and National Public Radio and has written books on the Beatles and Madonna
  

• Fred and Beth Cate, attorneys known as experts on copyright law

• Mary Beth Marklein, USA Today higher-education reporter
  


• Anne McGrath, special projects editor for education at U.S. News & World Report
  
  
• Frank Daniels Jr., former publisher of the Raleigh News & Observer and chair of the board for the Smithsonian Institution
  
  
• Rolfe Neill, former executive with the New York Daily News, Philadelphia Daily News and Charlotte Observer, and trustee for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
  
  
• Horace Carter, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service and publisher of the Tabor City Tribune
  
  
• Pat Stith, pioneer in computer-assisted reporting and Pulitzer winner for the "Boss Hog" series in the Raleigh News & Observer
  
  
• Chris Economaki, legendary racing announcer
  


• Terry Labonte, star NASCAR driver