Donna Brazile, political commentator, professor, author and chair of the Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute, will present the keynote address for Indiana University of Pennsylvania's 19th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. commemorative program on Jan. 29.
The program, “Dawning of a New Era,” begins at 7 p.m. in the Eberly College of Business auditorium. Brazile's address is “Martin, Malcolm, Rosa, Obama and Now Us: The Politics of Climate Change.” It is free and open to the community.
Brazile has worked for every presidential campaign since 1976. She was the first African-American woman to lead a presidential campaign as campaign manager for Al Gore in 2000. Brazile wrote a best-selling autobiography, “Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics” and cowrote “What We Do Now.”
She is a weekly contributor and political commentator for CNN, a political consultant for ABC News and a contributor to National Public Radio's “Political Corner.” She also writes a column for Roll Call newspaper and Ms. magazine.
She serves as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and has served as a senior lecturer at the University of Maryland, resident fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics and as the Senator Wyona Lipman chair at Rutgers University Center for American Women in Politics.
Brazile is the recipient of a number of awards, including Washingtonian magazine's 100 Most Powerful Women in Washington, Essence magazine's 50 Most Power Women in America and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Award for Political Achievement.
Brazile is a native of New Orleans and currently serves on the board of directors of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, the agency directing the state's recovery after Hurricane Katrina. She is the founder and managing director of Brazile and Associates, a political consulting and grassroots advocacy firm based in Washington, D.C.
Other events planned at IUP in honor of King on Jan. 29, also free and open to the community, include screening of the film “King” at 10 a.m. in the Crimson Event Center, Folger Hall, followed by a luncheon and reflections workshop from 1 to 3 p.m.
For more information about the events, call the IUP African American Cultural Center at (724) 357-2455.