Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist Helene Cooper ’87 to Deliver Lecture
February 12, 2019
UNC Global Affairs
The Center for Global Initiatives (CGI) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will host UNC-Chapel Hill alumna Helene Cooper ’87 for CGI’s 25th anniversary celebration on Monday, February 25, 2019. Cooper will present “Gathering Global Stories,” a talk on the impact her time at Carolina had on her global career as a journalist and author at 5:30 p.m. in the Nelson Mandela Auditorium at the FedEx Global Education Center.
Cooper is a Pentagon correspondent with The New York Times, where she covers international economics, trade, foreign policy, race and politics. Her career at The New York Times began in 2004 as an assistant editorial page editor. In 2015, Cooper was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for their work reporting on the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, making her the first Liberian-born winner of the Pulitzer Prize. In addition to her work as a journalist, Cooper is the author of The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood, which was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography, and Madame President: The Extraordinary Story of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
“Helene Cooper has led an extraordinary career,” said Raymond B. Farrow, associate provost for global affairs and interim chief global officer. “We are honored to have her with us to celebrated CGI’s 25th anniversary and to help us look ahead to a new chapter in Carolina’s global journey.”
“We wanted to celebrate our anniversary with a speaker who would inspire students and reflect our values about global engagement,” said Niklaus Steiner, director of CGI. “As a migration scholar, I’m very interested to hear about her experiences leaving Liberia as a refugee during her youth.”
CGI specializes in opening access and removing barriers to global opportunities for traditionally underserved students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill by funding global courses, supporting global research and internships abroad, directing global events, and leading student-centered programs designed to encourage first-time travelers to fully embrace a global education at Carolina.
“Gathering Global Stories” will be hosted at the FedEx Global Education Center in the Nelson Mandela auditorium. The public talk begins at 5:30 p.m. and will be followed by a reception.
Event and media contact: Katie Costanza, katierc@unc.edu, +1.919.843.7546