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Legendary Journalist Ed Gordon Named FVSU Visiting Lecturer

Posted on Jul 19, 2018

For Immediate Release

July 19, 2018

(Fort Valley, GA) "” Fort Valley State University today announced that trailblazing Emmy Award-winning journalist Ed Gordon will serve as a visiting lecturer for the Fall 2018 semester. Gordon will teach special "master classes" at FVSU to provide students with invaluable first-person insight into historic, contemporary, and emerging issues related to the journalism field based on his professional experience. Course topics will range from a look at the business of media to the etymology of a news story, including the impact of social media on its development and distribution. Visiting lecturers at FVSU are professionals with distinguished careers who have been recognized as pioneers in their fields. Gordon's course will be part of programming in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts and Media Studies.

"I am excited to become a member of the FVSU family," said Gordon. " Being a visiting lecturer gives me a real opportunity to share my skills and some tricks of the trade with a new generation of aspiring journalists. I want to thank Dr. Jones and his staff for the warm welcome. Most of all, I look forward to engaging with these students who are readying themselves for a career in communications."

FVSU Visiting Lecturer Ed Gordon Download high resolution photo here.

Few journalists have pioneered pathways with the profundity of Ed Gordon. He rose to national prominence as anchor of BET News, host of BET Tonight, and creator of Conversations with Ed Gordon, a one-on-one interview series of specials, also on BET. As one of the first and few nationally-televised anchors with a special focus on news related to people of color, he has showed the world the power of the African-American intellectual and social perspective. At the same time, he has helped African-Americans demand and receive attention on the issues and people most important to them. Today, Gordon is the host and executive director of Ed Gordon, a quarterly news magazine on Bounce TV, a regular commentator on the Steve Harvey Morning Show, president of the multi-service production company Ed Gordon Media, host of the nationally syndicated radio program Weekend with Ed Gordon, and delivers daily commentary through Right Now with Ed Gordon segments broadcast on radio stations across the country.

"Ed Gordon is a uniquely innovative leader who can prepare our students for careers as change agents and to lead forward-thinking disruption in their fields instead of merely reacting to it," said Dr. Paul Jones, FVSU president. "His students will receive a priceless education no book can replicate."

Gordon's reputation for journalistic excellence has not been built solely on issues facing African-Americans, however. He has been a contributing correspondent for NBC's Today Show and Dateline, CBS's 60 Minutes II, PBS, and NPR. The impeccably well-prepared journalist has interviewed an extraordinarily diverse array of newsmakers and legendary public figures, including President Barak Obama, President Bill Clinton, South African President Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey, Beyonce, Michael and Janet Jackson, Kevin Hart, Idris Elba, Tupac Shakur, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, O.J. Simpson, and R. Kelly. He anchored BET's coverage of the 2012 presidential election, Obama's second inauguration, Nelson Mandela's funeral in South Africa, and the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8sy-v1iC1w

More recent career highlights include an emotional interview with The Mothers of the Movement, a group of women whose children had been killed by senseless violence, a profile of "Auntie" Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and exclusive interviews with comedian Steve Harvey, R&B singer Maxwell, and the cast of the mega-movie, Girls Trip.

In addition to an Emmy, Gordon has received numerous other awards including an NAACP Image Award and the Journalist of the Year Award from the National Association of Black Journalists.

The visiting lecture "master classes" are made possible through a grant from the FVSU Foundation's Presidential Excellence Fund.

More about Ed Gordon can be found here: http://edgordon.net/bio.htm.

About Fort Valley State University

Founded in 1895, Fort Valley State University, a University System of Georgia institution, is one of the nation's most innovative and affordable academic institutions. Leveraging its unique role as an 1890 land-grant institution, the college conducts more science, technology, engineering and math federal research than any other public teaching college in the state of Georgia, making curriculum-enhancing research opportunities available to students learning to be leaders in innovation. The university's undergraduate and graduate campus and online degree programs enroll almost 3,000 students from all over the world. Named the most affordable online school in the nation for student economic mobility, the university has produced more African Americans with mathematics degrees than any other college in the nation in two of the past four years. FVSU students participate in more than 80 academic and civic organizations, honor societies and study abroad programs. FVSU is a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and NCAA Division II League. Learn more by visiting www.FVSU.edu.

Media contacts only:

Teresa Southern

Phone: (478) 822-7589

Email: southernt@fvsu.edu

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