Barbara Walters to Speak at Drew University

Television journalist Barbara Walters and popular co-host of The View will be the final speaker for this year’s Drew Forum.

As Drew’s 2014 Thomas H. Kean Visiting Lecturer, Walters will speak at the Simon Forum on April 3 at 8 p.m. and the title of her talk is: Behind the Scenes with Barbara Walters. The event is sold out, but a limited number of media representatives will be allowed to attend.

Besides giving her talk at the Simon Forum, Walters will also meet and talk with a group of Drew honor students, the Baldwin Scholars.

Barbara Walters has long been a fixture on our television screens. She began her career as the youngest producer with NBC-TV’s New York station, WNBC-TV. She became a writer for CBS News before working as a writer and reporter for NBC’s Today Show. In 1963, she became a co-host of the program and in 1974 NBC officially designated her as the program’s first female co-host.

She was a part of the NBC News team that traveled to China to cover the visits of President Richard Nixon in 1972 and President Gerald Ford in 1975.

Walters joined ABC News in 1976 as the first woman to co-host the network news. In September 2004, after 25 years as co-host and chief correspondent of ABC News’ 20/20, Walters left the show to begin a new phase in her career at the network as an active member of the news division. Her final 20/20 season included coveted interviews with Hillary Rodham Clinton, Martha Stewart and Fidel Castro. 

Barbara Walters has arguably interviewed more statesmen and stars than any other journalist in history. She has interviewed every American president and First Lady since Richard Nixon. 

In addition, she has interviewed such world figures as Boris Yeltsin, Jiang Zemin, Margaret Thatcher, Moammar Qadaffi and Sadaam Hussein. She was the first American journalist to interview Vladimir Putin. She conducted the first interview with George W. Bush following 9/11. Most recently, in December, she conducted an exclusive interview with Syrian President Bashir al Assad.

Her Barbara Walters Specials are continuously top rated and have included legends from Sir Laurence Olivier to Audrey Hepburn and superstars from Betty White to George Clooney. Walters’ The 10 Most Fascinating People special broadcast, launched in 1993, features a review of the year’s most prominent newsmakers.

Walters is also creator, co-owner, executive producer and co-host of The View, recipient of the 2003 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show. In August 2009, The View hosts received a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host, the first time multiple hosts received this honor. She has announced she will retire from television later this year.

Walters is also a New York Times best-selling author for her 2008 memoir, Audition.

If you would like to attend Walter’s speech as a member of the media, please contact Drew’s Office of Communications at 973-408-3628.

About the Forum

The Drew Forum has been the region’s leading venue for public lectures since 1994. World leaders, history makers, opinion shapers, and scholars from a variety of fields have all graced our stage. The Drew Forum is presented through the generosity of the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation. The Thomas H. Kean Visiting Lecturer appears through an endowment created in honor of the former N.J. governor and Drew president with whom it shares its name.

About Drew University

Drew University is a private, liberal arts university located in Madison, N.J., just 29 miles west of New York City. Ranked among the top liberal arts institutions nationwide by U.S. News & World Report, Forbes and Washington Monthly, Drew is also listed in Princeton Review’s Best 378 Colleges. The Drew promise—We Deliver Full-Impact Learning to the World—emphasizes the university’s commitment to borderless education that enables a student’s greatest success in a globally connected world. Drew has a total student enrollment of more than 2,000 in three schools: the College of Liberal Arts, the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies and the Drew Theological School. The undergraduate program offers degrees in 30 different disciplines, while Caspersen and the Theological School offer degrees at the master’s and doctoral levels.