Dan Rather, Barbara Walters to Speak at Drew Forum

Former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather will kick off the 2013-14 Drew Forum lecture series next month with insights on issues facing the U.S. at home and abroad, the university has announced.

Rather is scheduled to speak Nov. 12.

The series also will feature appearances by Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein (Jan. 29), former CNN chairman Walter Isaacson (Feb. 26) and Barbara Walters, co-host of the ABC talk show The View (April 3).

The Drew Forum, established in 1994, is the region’s leading public lecture venue, with past speakers including American statesmen, foreign heads of state, nationally known journalists and noted historians, the university said in a news release.

The lecture series is presented with support from the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation and from former New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean, who was president of Drew University from 1990 to 2005.

The Rather event will begin at 8 p.m. in the Simon Forum and Athletic Center on the Drew campus in Madison. Parking will be at nearby Giralda Farms. A shuttle bus will transport ticketholders to the venue.

Series subscriptions to the 2013-14 Drew Forum series are $107 plus handling and include admission to all four events. Single-event tickets, available for the Rather and Walters event only, are $32 each, plus handling. Subscription and ticket purchases can be made through the Drew University Box Office at 973-408-3917. For more information about the Drew Forum visit www.drew.edu/community/forum.

More About the Speakers

From Drew University

Dan Rather has been a broadcast journalist for over 40 years. He joined CBS in 1962 and made his mark the following year by reporting on the President Kennedy’s assassination. From 1981 until 2005 Rather anchored the CBS Evening News. His latest venture is the show Dan Rather Reports on HDNet.

Ezra Klein, a columnist for The Washington Post and Bloomberg, oversees “Wonkblog” at the Post. He is also a regular contributor and analyst for MSNBC. In 2011, Ezra Klein's Wonkblog was the most widely read blog at The Washington Post and GQ Magazine named him one of the 50 most powerful people in Washington D.C.

Walter Issacson is president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, an educational and policy studies group in Washington, D.C. Previously he was the chairman and CEO of CNN and the editor of Time magazine. He has also authored several biographies.

Barbara Walters, a pioneer among women journalists, began her career in television on NBC’s Today Show. She later jumped to ABC, where she spent 25 years as co-host and chief correspondent of the ABC news magazine 20/20. Since then she has hosted a number of the network’s news specials. She can currently be seen on her hit show The View, which she co-founded in 1997.