NPR’s Michele Norris to Deliver Nix Lecture for UA’s Blackburn Institute

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Award-winning National Public Radio journalist Michele Norris will deliver the 2014 Frank A. Nix Lecture, a program of The University of Alabama’s Blackburn Institute.

The lecture will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 2, in Morgan Auditorium on the UA campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Norris is a host and special correspondent for NPR. Previously, Norris served as co-host of NPR’s newsmagazine “All Things Considered” with Robert Siegel and Melissa Block. Norris hosted the program from 2002 to 2012. While on sabbatical, Norris traveled the country and developed two initiatives: “The Race Card Project” and NPR’s “Backseat Book Club.” Her current role will allow her to continue this work while producing in-depth segments for NPR programs.

In 2010, Norris released her first book, “The Grace of Silence: A Memoir,” which focuses on how America talks about race in the wake of Barack Obama’s presidential election, and it explores her own family’s racial legacy. The Christian Science Monitor called it one of the best books of 2010. Using her memoir as a catalyst for conversation, Norris has addressed thousands of students through campus “One Book” programs, encouraging discussions about the history of race relations in the United States.

Before coming to NPR, Norris was a correspondent for ABC News from 1993 – 2002. As a contributing correspondent for the “Closer Look” segments on “World News Tonight with Peter Jennings,” Norris reported on education, inner city issues, the nation’s drug problem and poverty. Norris has also reported for the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. Her Washington Post series about a 6-year-old who lived in a crack house was reprinted in the book “Ourselves Among Others,” along with essays by Václav Havel, Nelson Mandela, Annie Dillard and Gabriel García Márquez.

Norris has received numerous awards for her work, including the 2010 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for her and co-host Steve Inskeep’s program, “The York Project: Race and the 2008 Vote”; the 2009 Journalist of the Year award from the National Association of Black Journalists; the National Association of Black Journalists’ 2006 Salute to Excellence Award, for her coverage of Hurricane Katrina; the University of Minnesota’s Outstanding Achievement Award; and the 1990 Livingston Award.

She was honored in 2007 with Ebony magazine’s eighth Annual Outstanding Women in Marketing & Communications Award. In 2009 she was named one of Essence magazine’s 25 Most Influential Black Americans. Norris also earned an Emmy and Peabody awards for her contribution to ABC News’ coverage of 9/11. She is on the judging committee for both the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism and the Livingston Awards. Norris is also a frequent guest on “The Chris Matthews Show” on NBC News.

Norris attended the University of Wisconsin, where she majored in electrical engineering, and she graduated from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where she studied journalism. She lives in Washington, D.C., and she is married to Broderick Johnson. She has two young children and a stepson who attends college in California.

Focused on exploring ethical leadership in the national arena, the Frank A. Nix Lecture complements the Blackburn Institute’s mission of forming a network of ethical leaders who both understand contemporary issues and work toward progressive change in Alabama as well as the world. The lectures are named in honor of the late Frank A. Nix, a prominent Alabama business leader and member of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education.

For more information on the lecture, phone the Blackburn Institute at 205/348-3277.