Journalist to speak on women, minorities in media, politics

Submitted by Marmian Grimes
Phone: (907) 474-7902
11/27/06

Award-winning Washington political and economic correspondent Peggy Simpson will be in Fairbanks this week as part of the Snedden Lecture Series, hosted by the University of Alaska Fairbanks journalism department.

Simpson will give a public presentation, "Women and minorities in media and politics: The times they are a-changin’,"? Wednesday, Nov. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Noel Wien Library. She will give a lecture, open to the UAF community, Tuesday, Nov. 28 from 9:45-11:15 a.m. in Schaible Auditorium. Simpson is also scheduled to meet with local journalists during her weeklong visit to Fairbanks.

Early in her career, Simpson worked as a reporter for the Associated Press, covering Congress, national banking and labor issues, and the Hispanic, American Indian and women’s movements. She also covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald. Simpson worked for the AP for nearly two decades and eventually was a key plaintiff in a class-action suit involving the AP’s hiring practices.

Since 1991, Simpson has worked as a freelance reporter. She has covered national, political and economic issues for Women’s Enews and was a contributing editor to Ms. Magazine. She has also covered central and eastern Europe for a variety of business and general-interest broadcast and print news outlets.

The UAF journalism department hosts visiting journalists as part of the Snedden Endowed Chair of Journalism. Helen Snedden made the endowment in honor of her late husband and former Fairbanks Daily News-Miner publisher C.W. Snedden.

CONTACT: Charles Fedullo, UAF journalism department chairman, at (907) 474-7795 or via e-mail at ffcbf@uaf.edu. Marmian Grimes, UAF public information officer, at (907) 474-7902 or via e-mail at marmian.grimes@uaf.edu.