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Centennial Reunion brings Nina Totenberg to campus

NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg
NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg

Nina Totenberg, National Public Radio's legal affairs correspondent, will be the keynote speaker for the College's Centennial Reunion in June 2011.

Ellen Hofheimer Bettmann '66 P'91, a high school classmate of Totenberg's, suggested the College invite her to speak. The College -- as well as many alumnae -- wanted a woman speaker in honor of the College's Centennial and its roots as a women's college.

Bettmann said she and Totenberg grew up in the same town and graduated from Scarsdale High School in New York.

"I am a big fan of Nina's and think her NPR reporting is excellent," Bettmann said. That's why she suggested the College ask Totenberg to speak. "I'm delighted she's available and has agreed to come that weekend."

Totenberg's work -- including coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court -- has won her widespread recognition. She has broken stories on topics that include the Watergate legal appeals, Anita Hill's allegations about Justice Clarence Thomas, and occasional marijuana use by Supreme Court nominee Douglas Ginsburg.

NPR received the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award in 1991 for its gavel-to-gavel coverage -- anchored by Totenberg -- of both the original Clarence Thomas hearings and the inquiry into Hill's allegations, and for Totenberg's reports and exclusive interview with Hill.

Totenberg joined NPR in 1975. Her reports air regularly on its critically acclaimed "All Things Considered," "Morning Edition" and "Weekend Edition." She also is a regular panelist on "Inside Washington," a weekly syndicated public-affairs television program.

Totenberg has won every major journalism award in broadcasting and was the first radio journalist to win the National Press Foundation award for Broadcaster of the Year. Most recently she was the recipient of the 2010 Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.



November 15, 2010