College Relations
Liz Walker to address Salem State degree recipients
May 10, 2007
Contact: Jim Glynn at 978-542-7519 or james.glynn@salemstate.edu
SALEM – Television news anchor Elizabeth Walker of CBS4 News will address 1,100 degree candidates at Salem State College's 197th undergraduate commencement exercise beginning at 10:00am Saturday, May 19.
Walker joined WBZ-TV in 1980 and went on to anchor the station’s evening newscasts for almost 20 years before moving to the dayshift in 2000. In 2001, she traveled to war-torn Sudan with a group of local ministers on a fact-finding mission on the controversial slave trade in southern Sudan. Walker and her group were guests of Christian Solidarity International, a European-based organization that has evoked international controversy with its efforts to buy back slaves who have been traded in the bitter 20-year Sudanese Holy War. She has since been back twice, most recently visiting the region of Darfur, where 250 thousand people have been killed and 1.8 million displaced in what is considered to be the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
Walker, who shot her own footage during her trips to Sudan, was honored with the Edward R. Murrow Award for a News Story by the Regional Television Radio News Director's Association in 2002. Also in 2002, she produced an independent documentary on Sudan entitled "In the Lion's Mouth."
Walker will be one of four honorary degree recipients during Salem State's commencement ceremony, which will take place at the college's Rockett Arena inside the O'Keefe Sports Center on Canal Street. Salem State will also award honorary degrees to educator Elizabeth Rawlins, jazz great Lennie Sogoloff, and posthumously to the college's former vice president of academic affairs Janyce Napora.
For information about Commencement, visit: salemstate.edu/commencement
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