Former CEO of CNN and Editor of Time Magazine to Give Lecture at ECU

Greenville – The Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences at East Carolina University is pleased to announce the Premier Lecture for the 2008-09 Voyages of Discovery Lecture Series. On Wednesday, October 8, Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, will discuss “Creative Thinkers Who Have Shaped Our World.” His lecture, which is being sponsored by the David Julian and Virginia Suther Whichard Fund, will begin at 7 p.m. in Wright Auditorium on the ECU campus. A book signing will follow.
Tickets for the general public are $10 and are available through the ECU Central Ticket Office by calling 252-328-4788, 1-800 ECU-ARTS or (voice/TTY) 252-328-4736. Students, faculty and staff may obtain free tickets through the Central Ticket Office.
Isaacson is the author of several best-selling biographies including Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003) and Kissinger: A Biography (1992). He serves on the Board of Directors of Reader’s Digest Association, Tulane University and Teach for America, and he is also on the advisory councils of the National Institutes of Health, National Constitution Center and the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC.
He began his career in journalism at the Sunday Times of London and then the New Orleans Times-Picayune/States-Item. Isaacson joined Time magazine in 1978 and served as a political correspondent, national editor and editor of new media before becoming the magazine’s fourteenth managing editor in 1996. Then he became chairman and CEO of CNN in 2001, and two years later, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute.
After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Isaacson was appointed by Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco to be the vice-chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. In December 2007, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to be the chairman of the U.S.-Palestinian Partnership, a government and private sector partnership that works to provide economic and educational opportunities for the Palestinian people.
He received his bachelor of arts in history and literature from Harvard College and a master of arts in philosophy, politics and economics at Pembroke College of Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
The Voyages of Discovery Lecture Series is made possible through generous contributions from the Dean’s Advancement Council of the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences, the East Carolina Alumni Association and additional friends and supporters of the college.
For more information, contact Dr. John Tucker, director of the series, at or 252-328-1028. Information also is available at http://www.ecu.edu/voyages.
Individuals requesting accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) should call 252-737-1016 (voice/TTY) at least 48 hours prior to the event.