Former New York Times reporter Judith Miller to be keynote speaker for readiness conference at K-State

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Source: Gloria Freeland, 785-532-0721, gfreela@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Beth Bohn, 785-532-6415, media@k-state.edu

Friday, October 27, 2006

FORMER NEW YORK TIMES REPORTER JUDITH MILLER TO BE KEYNOTE SPEAKER FOR READINESS CONFERENCE AT K-STATE

MANHATTAN -- Judith Miller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times investigative reporter who went to jail to protect a confidential source, will be the keynote speaker at a crisis communications conference at Kansas State University.

The conference, "Community Readiness Communications: Accurate Messages in Times of Crisis," is Nov. 8-10 at the K-State Student Union. It is sponsored by the McCormick Tribune Foundation, the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications and the Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media. It will bring together journalists, public officials, health and safety experts, military personnel, public relations specialists and others to address what to do before, during and after a disaster or emergency.

Miller's presentation will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 10, in the Union's Forum Hall. It is free and the public is welcome.

Miller left the New York Times in November 2005, shortly after spending 85 days in jail for refusing to reveal a source in the Valerie Plame case. Miller joined the newspaper's Washington bureau in 1977. She became the first woman to be named chief of the Times' bureau in Cairo, Egypt. She also served as a Paris correspondent; news editor and deputy bureau chief of the newspaper's Washington bureau; co-coordinator of a unit to enhance the paper's coverage of radio, TV, advertising and publishing; a special correspondent during the Persian Gulf crisis; and a special correspondent for the New York Times Magazine.

Miller is the author of four books, including the best-selling "Germs, Biological Weapons and America's Secret War," which she co-authored in 2001 about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and anthrax letter attacks. She won an Emmy in 2002 for a "Nova"/New York Times documentary based on articles for the book. She also was part of a team in 2002 that won a Pulitzer Prize for a January 2001 series on Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.

Registration for the rest of the conference, which is $100 for all three days or a $50 per day rate for one or two-day attendance, is available online at: http://jmc.k-state.edu/conf/jmcreadinessbrochure.pdf

More information also is available by contacting Gloria Freeland, director of the Huck Boyd Center, at gfreela@k-state.edu