Veteran TV journalist Brian Williams to visit campus for a conversation on broadcast news

Update 11/9/2023: Watch the recording of "A Conversation with Brian Williams."

Brian Williams, former anchor of MSNBC's The 11th Hour with Brian Williams and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, will be on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus for a conversation about the evolution of broadcast news in America on Monday, October 23, 7-8 p.m.

This event is free and open to the public and is presented by the Richard and Leslie Frank Center for Leadership and Innovation in Media at the University of Illinois College of Media. 

Attendees may join the event at the Beckman Institute Auditorium, 405 N. Mathews, Urbana, or register to join via Zoom. The conversation will be led by Colleen King, director of the Frank Center and clinical assistant professor of journalism. King worked closely with Williams as his executive producer of The 11th Hour. 

“Working with Brian Williams was the privilege of a lifetime and a daily course in broadcast excellency,” King said. “I can’t wait to hear him reflect on his 40 years in television—and to introduce him to our students, so he can offer advice on reporting, interviewing, and on-air delivery.”

Brian Williams is a 40-year veteran of television news and is among the most highly decorated journalists of his generation. He has received a dozen Emmy Awards, 11 Edward R. Murrow Awards, the duPont-Columbia Award, the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, and the industry’s highest honor: the George Foster Peabody Award, which he received for his tireless coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Over the course of his career, he covered every major story imaginable: political conventions and presidential elections, our nation’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, conflict in the Middle East, natural disasters, and countless mass-casualty tragedies in the United States and abroad. He traveled to more than two dozen countries, many of them aboard Air Force One. He has interviewed six American presidents. 

For more information, please contact Colleen King, director of the Frank Center and clinical assistant professor of journalism, at cck@illinois.edu.