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Katie Couric |
12/14/12Randolph-Macon College President Robert R. Lindgren is pleased to announce that the 2013
Commencement speaker will be Katie Couric.
Couric is an award-winning journalist and TV personality, a cancer-research advocate, and a best-selling author. She is the host of
Katie, a daily syndicated daytime talk show that premiered in September 2012. She also serves as a special correspondent for ABC News and is a contributor to
ABC World News,
Nightline,
20/20,
Good Morning America,
This Week and primetime news specials.
“I am thrilled that Katie Couric will be addressing our seniors and their families on such an important day,” says Lindgren. “Her remarkable career, steadfast dedication to vital cancer research, and her dynamic personality and extraordinary accomplishments make her an inspiration to all of us. We are eager to welcome her to our beautiful campus next spring.”
James R. Allen Jr. ’57, a faculty member at Yorktown High School in Arlington, Virginia while Couric was a student there, has remained close friends with her throughout the years.
“Katie is a very engaging speaker with incredible talent and a real ‘eye’ for news,” says Allen. “These characteristics, along with a quick wit, make her a wonderful choice as our Commencement speaker. I am pleased to have her as a friend and look forward to having her grace the campus of my alma mater.”
Couric served for an unprecedented 15 years as co-anchor of NBC News’
Today (1991-2006) and was the first solo female anchor of a national nightly news broadcast, as anchor and managing editor of the
CBS Evening News with Katie Couric (2006-2011). At CBS News, Couric was also a contributor to
60 Minutes,
CBS Sunday Morning and CBS News primetime specials.
In addition to her
New York Times bestseller,
The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons From Extraordinary Lives, Couric is the co-author of two children’s books. While at CBS, she developed several online content initiatives, including
@KatieCouric, a weekly web show featuring interviews with top newsmakers, authors and cultural figures. She also expanded CBS News’ primetime 2008 election year coverage by creating and anchoring post-primetime webcasts from the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates, and President Obama’s 100th day in office.
During the past two decades, Couric has covered the most important news stories around the world. She has also covered eight Olympic Games, the funeral of Princess Diana and the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Her 2008 interview with Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is considered one of the most impactful political interviews in recent memory. She has received numerous awards for her interviewing and reporting skills throughout the years, including the Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Newscast and the Walter Cronkite Award for Special Achievement.
Couric, a tireless advocate for cancer research and awareness, is a co-founder of Stand Up To Cancer, an organization that has raised nearly $200 million in funds to accelerate research that can get new therapies to patients quickly. After losing her husband, Jay Monahan, to colon cancer in 1998, Couric became a public leader in the fight against the country’s second largest cancer killer. In 2000, she launched the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance with the Entertainment Industry Foundation and cancer activist Lilly Tartikoff to fund cutting-edge research in colorectal cancer and generate awareness about the life-saving value of screening. Couric helped co-found The Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Couric began her broadcast journalism career as a desk assistant at ABC News in Washington, D.C. in 1979. Over the next 10 years, she worked as an assignment editor, associate producer, producer, and political correspondent for CNN, and reported for WTVJ in Miami, Florida and WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., before joining NBC News in 1989 as deputy Pentagon reporter. In June 1990, she was named NBC’s first national correspondent.
An Arlington, Virginia native, Couric graduated with honors from the University of Virginia in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in English and a focus on American Studies. She lives in New York City and has two daughters.
R-MC Senior Class President
Jaren Hackman ’13 is excited at the prospect of hearing Couric deliver the Commencement address.
“Katie Couric is a role model for all of us,” says Hackman, a
sociology major. “She is a trailblazer and someone I’ve admired for a long time. I am honored to be a part of what I know will be a memorable Commencement Day.”
Randolph-Macon College’s
Commencement ceremony will take place on
Saturday, June 1, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. at the Frank E. Brown Fountain Plaza.
For additional information, contact Anne Marie Lauranzon at
alauranz@rmc.edu or (804) 752-7317, or Pam Cox at
pamelacox@rmc.edu or (804) 752-3712.