KINGSTON, R.I. – October 22, 2013 – A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and entrepreneur will speak Tuesday, Oct. 29 as part of the University of Rhode Island’s semester-long honors colloquium.

Sheryl WuDunn will discuss her new book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women. Her lecture is this year’s Gender and Women’s Studies Carlson Lecture at 7:30 p.m. in Edwards Hall Auditorium, 64 Upper College Road, Kingston Campus.

Her talk is also part of the 51st annual URI honors colloquium titled, Great Public Schools: Everyone’s Right? Everyone’s Responsibility?

Note to media: for most lectures, speakers will be available from 3:30 to 5 p.m. for interviews. To make arrangements, please contact Dave Lavallee, URI Marketing and Communications, 401-874-5862.

WuDunn is a nationally renowned business executive, lecturer, journalist, and best-selling author. She is the first Asian-American to win a Pulitzer Prize, which she and her husband, The New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof, received for their reporting on the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. WuDunn has also won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Lifetime Achievement, the George Polk Award and Overseas Press Club Awards, as well as the White House EPIC Award.

She has coauthored three best-selling books, most recently Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women, which focuses on economic and social challenges facing women around the world. Since the book’s publication in 2009, WuDunn has launched Half the Sky as a social networking game and a PBS documentary series as part of a philanthropic effort. It has been featured on network television shows, most notably The Colbert Report and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Previously, WuDunn worked at Goldman Sachs as a vice president and at Bankers Trust as a commercial loan officer, as well as at The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. She held multiple positions at The Times, including the first anchor of its evening news program for a digital cable TV channel and as a foreign correspondent in Tokyo and Beijing. WuDunn has also discussed economic issues in Asia on television and radio programs, such as Charlie Rose and NPR.

WuDunn currently serves as a senior managing director at Mid-Market Securities, LLC, a small investment-banking boutique, where she raises funds for entrepreneurs in media technology, health care, and social enterprise. She earned a master of business administration degree from Harvard Business School and a master of public administration degree from Princeton University, as well as a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University.

This year’s honors colloquium is coordinated by David Byrd and Diane Kern of the URI School of Education and is supported by:

Major Sponsor: URI Honors Program

Sponsors: URI Office of the President; URI Office of the Provost; The Mark and Donna Ross Honors Colloquium Humanities Endowment; The Thomas Silvia and Shannon Chandley Honors Colloquium Endowment, as well as the following URI colleges, departments and offices, College of Human Sciences and Services, Talent Development, Multicultural Center, University College, WRIU’s The Beauty Salon, College of Arts and Sciences, The Harrington School of Communications and Media, John Hazen White, Sr. Center for Ethics and Public Service, Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, College of Pharmacy, College of Engineering, College of The Environment and Life Sciences, College of Business Administration, College of Nursing, Division of Student Affairs, Department of Marketing and Communications, Department of Publications and Creative Services, and Instructional Technology and Media Services. Rhode Island Public Radio is also a sponsor.

For more information on colloquium events contact Deborah Gardiner at 401-874-2381 or dgardiner@mail.uri.edu.

For information about ways to support the Honors Colloquium, contact URI professor Lynne Derbyshire, Honors Program director, at 401-874-4732. If you have a disability and need an accommodation, please call 401-874-2303 at least three business days in advance. For TTY assistance, please call R.I. Relay Service at 800-745-5555.