Park Distinguished Visitor Series Brings ABC Reporter to Campus

Emmy Award–winning news reporter Carole Simpson will share her insights and expertise with Ithaca College students during a three-day stay on campus as part of the Park Distinguished Visitors Series in the Roy H. Park School of Communications. Simpson, who is a senior correspondent for ABC News and anchor of ABC’s World News Sunday broadcast, will also give a free public lecture on "Race, Gender, and the TV Network Wars." Her talk is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 1, in Ford Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music.

Simpson reports frequently on family and social issues for World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, 20/20, and Nightline. She was one of the reporters on the critically acclaimed documentary Black and White in America and anchored three hourlong ABC News specials: The Changing American Family, Public Schools in America, and Sex and Violence in the Media. In 1992 she was the moderator for the second presidential debate between George Bush and Bill Clinton — and the first ever to use a town meeting format.

During her visit to the College Simpson will speak in journalism and other communications classes; present master classes on "Diversity and the Newsroom of the 21st Century," "The Art of the Interview," and "Ratings and News: The Bottom Line"; observe and critique a production of ICTV’s Newswatch program; and meet informally with students and faculty.

Simpson began her broadcasting career as a reporter and anchor in Chicago. She joined NBC News in 1974, covering the U.S. Congress and hosting a public affairs program on Washington’s WRC-TV. In 1982 she moved to ABC News, where she covered then–vice president George Bush, accompanying him on domestic and foreign trips and on his 1988 presidential campaign. In 1990 Simpson was a member of ABC’s Nightline team in South Africa and helped anchor live coverage of the release of Nelson Mandela from his 27-year imprisonment. She has also anchored such major stories as the Persian Gulf war, the Tiananmen Square massacre, and the Clarence Thomas–Anita Hill congressional hearings. In 1999 she coanchored coverage of the Senate impeachment trial of President Clinton for ABC network affiliates.

Simpson has received numerous awards, in particular for reporting on social issues and for her efforts to improve opportunities for women and minorities in broadcasting. Her honors include the Milestone in Broadcasting Award from the National Commission on Working Women and Turner Broadcasting’s Trumpet Award, given to African Americans who have distinguished themselves in their profession. She currently chairs the ABC News Women’s Advisory Board and serves on the boards of the Radio-Television News Directors Association and the National Press Foundation. She was recently appointed to a two-year term on the Carnegie Task Force on Learning in the Primary Grades.

The Park Distinguished Visitors Series is made possible by a grant from the Park Foundation. Past visitors have been Jeff Greenfield, political analyst for CNN (1996–97); Bob Brown, ABC News correspondent (1997–98); P. J. O’Rourke, best-selling author and leading political satirist (1998–99); and Clarence Page, author, commentator, and Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist (1999–2000).