Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist to Speak Oct. 29 at Ohio Wesleyan
Connie Schultz (Photo by Gus Chan/The Plain Dealer)
DELAWARE, Ohio – Pulitzer Prize-winning and nationally syndicated columnist Connie Schultz will speak at 4 p.m. Oct. 29 at Ohio Wesleyan University.
Schultz will discuss the political landscape in Ohio during an off-year election, including how the current political climate affects the political aspirations of Gov. John Kasich, the right to vote in Ohio, and the power of journalism to induce change.
Schultz will speak in Room 312 of the R.W. Corns Building, 78 S. Sandusky St., Delaware. The event is free and open to the public.
In addition to writing for Creators Syndicate, Schultz is a regular essayist for Parade Magazine. She also is a contributor to The New York Times and The Washington Post. She won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for columns that judges praised for providing “a voice for the underdog and the underprivileged.”
Also in 2005, Schultz won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award for Commentary and the National Headliner Award for Commentary. She was a 2003 Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing for her series, “The Burden of Innocence,” chronicling the ordeal of Michael Green, who was imprisoned for 13 years for a rape he did not commit. The week after her series ran, the real rapist turned himself in after reading her stories. The series won the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Social Justice Reporting, the National Headliner Award’s Best of Show, and journalism awards from Harvard and Columbia universities.
In 2004, Schultz won the Batten Medal, which honors “a body of journalistic work that reflects compassion, courage, humanity and a deep concern for the underdog.”
Schultz also is a fellow with the Vietnam Reporting Project. Her 2011 series, “Unfinished Business,” explored the long-term impact of Agent Orange in the United States and Vietnam. Recently, the series won the Associated Press Managing Editors Journalism Excellence Award in International Perspective.
Schultz is the author of two books published by Random House: “Life Happens – And Other Unavoidable Truths,” a collection of essays, and “…and His Lovely Wife,” a memoir about her husband Sherrod Brown’s successful 2006 race for the U.S. Senate.
Schultz’s Ohio Wesleyan presentation is being sponsored by the Department of Journalism and by the American Landscape Course Connection Network, part of the university’s OWU Connection curricular initiative. The American Landscape examines the changing U.S. landscape in reality and imagination, including how it has been shaped by natural forces and human beings.
Learn more about the Department of Journalism at https://www.owu.edu/academics/departments-programs/department-of-journalism/ and more about The OWU Connection at https://www.owu.edu/academics/the-owu-connection/.
Founded in 1842, Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts universities. Located in Delaware, Ohio, the private university offers 86 undergraduate majors and competes in 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Ohio Wesleyan combines a challenging, internationally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities to connect classroom theory with real-world experience. OWU’s 1,750 students represent 46 U.S. states and territories and 43 countries. Ohio Wesleyan is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” listed on the latest President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, and included in the U.S. News & World Report and Princeton Review “best colleges” lists. Learn more at www.owu.edu.