Canisius University presents “Moving Forward: Building Leaders for the Future,” an education, health and economic empowerment summit on Thursday, February 14 from 9:00 a.m. – 2 p.m. at The Buffalo Niagara Convention Center, 153 Franklin Street in Buffalo. Jeff Johnson, inspirational speaker and social activist will speak at 11 a.m. The event, sponsored by the college’s Academic Talent Search Program, is free and open to the public.
As MSNBC contributor and White House correspondent for The Grio, an African American web site owned by NBC, Johnson covers many important issues facing the nation. He spent the last decade merging the worlds of politics and popular culture, including formerly serving as senior advisor for Media and Youth Outreach for People for the American Way, national director of the Youth & College division of the NAACP, and as vice president of the Russell Simmons Hip Hop Summit Action Network.
The only reporter to receive an exclusive post-inauguration interview with Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected female head of state and Liberia’s first elected female president, Johnson is also one of only two news correspondents to receive an exclusive interview with Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, who has not granted interviews with U.S. media outlets for 13 years.
In 2008, Johnson received the NABJ Salute to Excellence Award for BET’s Life & Death in Darfur, Jeff Johnson Reports series. He regularly contributes commentary and analysis about issues related to race, politics, popular culture and socioeconomics for news broadcasts and publications, including MSNBC’s Dayside and Hardball with Chris Matthews, CNN’s Headline News, CNN’s International, Larry King Live, the FOX News Channel, Huffington Post, CNN.com, theRoot.com, EbonyJet.com and Upscale magazine. Johnson is the author of Everything I’m Not Made Me Everything I Am: Discovering Your Personal Best (Smiley Books, 2009).
For more information, contact the Academic Talent Search Program at Canisius University at 716-888-3280.
Canisius University is one of 28 Jesuit universities in the nation and the premier private university in Western New York.
Canisius Celebrates Black History Month
January 31, 2013
