This coming Wednesday (3/26/2014) night at 7:00, award-winning broadcast journalist Soledad O’Brien will be the keynote speaker for MTSU’s celebration of National Women’s History Month. This is in the ballroom of the new Student Union Building. This is free and open to the public, and attendees are encouraged to arrive early to get a seat. Her address is entitled “Diversity: On TV, Behind the Scenes and In Our Lives”.

O’Brien was formerly with CNN, but joined Al-Jazeera America last year as a special correspondent. She and her production company, Starfish Media Group, provide short-form segments to “America Tonight,” the network’s prime-time current affairs magazine program. Starfish also produces hour long documentaries for the network.

In 2013, O’Brien also joined the team of correspondents for HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.” Starfish develops scripts and long-form programming concepts for HBO as well.

At CNN from 2003, O’Brien co-anchored “American Morning” and “Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien” and with reports on the London terrorism attacks of 2005, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Japan earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

O’Brien hosted and produced several documentary series on diversity for CNN as well, including “Black in America,” “Latino in America” and “Unwelcome: The Muslims Next Door,” which looked at the controversy surrounding the construction of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro.

She won an Emmy Award in 2011 for Outstanding Live Coverage of a Current News Story — Long Form for “Crisis in Haiti,” a segment of CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.”

In 2010, the National Association of Black Journalists named O’Brien its Journalist of the Year, and the Edward R. Murrow Awards honored her with the RTNDA/UNITY award for “Latino in America.”

With her husband, the Soledad O’Brien & Brad Raymond Foundation was formed to help young women gain the experiences, education and resources to overcome barriers to success. The foundation provides several scholarships for young girls across the country.

O’Brien’s visit is made possible by the MTSU Women’s History Month Committee, the Black History Month Committee, the Center for Innovation in Media, the Distinguished Lecture Fund, the Department of Electronic Media Communication, the Intercultural and Diversity Affairs Center, the School of Journalism, the June Anderson Center for Women and Nontraditional Students, the African-American Studies Program, Delta Sigma Theta sorority, the student organization Futuro, the Hispanic Heritage Month Committee, the University Honors College, the College of Liberal Arts and the Department of Political Science.