The Chattanooga Women’s Leadership Institute (CWLI) will welcome three time Emmy Award winner Connie Chung as the keynote speaker for IMPACT, CWLI’s 9th annual leadership dinner. This event will take place on Thursday, February 27, 2014, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Chattanooga Convention Center.
In 1969, Connie Chung began her career in broadcast journalism in her hometown of Washington, D.C. She has worked for all major networks, including NBC in 1983 as an anchor and correspondent for the Saturday edition of NBC Nightly News. In 1993, Chung became the first woman to co-anchor CBS’ national news broadcast, the CBS Evening News. She joined ABC News as co-anchor and correspondent on 20/20 in November 1997, and in January 2002, joined CNN to anchor Connie Chung Tonight. She left on-air duties in March 2003 but returned in 2006 to co-host a weekly program on MSNBC with her husband, Maury Povich.
She has received three Emmy Awards, including two for Best Interview/Interviewer. In addition to these awards, Chung received the Amnesty International Human Rights Award for her reporting on young women in Bangladesh who were burned with acid as revenge for turning down men’s advances and several awards for an investigative hour on a 1966 civil-rights case. The report resulted in the indictment, trial, and conviction of a murderer more than three decades later. She is also the recipient of a George Foster Peabody Award, honors from American Women in Radio and Television and an Outstanding Young Woman of America Award.
Chung graduated from the University of Maryland earning a Bachelor of Science degree. She also has honorary doctorate degrees from Brown University, Providence College, Wheaton College, and Norwich University.
“We invited Ms. Chung to keynote our IMPACT dinner because she helped pave the way for many women in her industry,” said Lesley Berryhill, Managing Director of CWLI. “As a journalist, she persevered in what, at the time, was a very male-dominated field and got the respect she deserved. Her professional achievements have inspired multiple generations of women and made her a household name.”
CWLI is a non-profit, membership organization whose mission is to increase the leadership skills and capabilities of women in the Chattanooga community. Through a variety of networking, training and educational programs, CWLI provides women with connections and skills to help them progress to leadership positions.
For the past eight years, CWLI has hosted several notable female leaders, including Gloria Steinem; FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair; Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell; the first female Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Wilma Mankiller; Stacy Allison, the first American woman to summit Mt. Everest; and Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space.
Tickets for CWLI’s IMPACT Leadership Dinner are $65 each. Table Host sponsorships, which include a table for eight, priority seating. and a listing in the program, are $1,200. For more details, visit www.cwli.org or call (423) 394-8173.
Source: CWLI