Ray Suarez to appear at the State University of New York at New Paltz Distinguished Speaker Series

NEW PALTZ– The State University of New York at New Paltz welcomes Ray Suarez, author, senior correspondent for PBS News Hour, and host of Destination Casa Blanca, as a speaker in the College’s Distinguished Speaker Series at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 7, in the SUNY New Paltz Athletic and Wellness Center. Suarez will be speaking about the role media plays in disasters and how 9/11 changed the media culture in America.

Suarez is the sixth guest in the College’s Distinguished Speaker Series that began hosting two speakers a year in 2008. The Distinguished Speaker Series connects the community, alumni, friends, faculty, staff, students and their families with well-known authors, policy makers and leaders, scientists, media experts, business people, and other luminaries.

Suarez has more than 30 years of varied experience in the news business. He joined The News Hour in 1999 after leaving National Public Radio where he was host of the call-in news program Talk of the Nation.

Suarez has also worked as a Los Angeles correspondent for CNN, a producer for ABC radio network, and a reporter for various American and British News Services Over the years Suarez has narrated, anchored or reported many documentaries for public radio and television including the nationally-broadcast Anatomy of a Pandemic and Jerusalem: The Center of the World.

Suarez recently wrote The Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America, which examines the tightening relationship between religion and politics in America. Suarez also wrote The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration, and has contributed to several other books, including What We See, How I Learned English, and Brooklyn: A State of Mind. Suarez currently hosts the monthly foreign affairs radio program America Abroad for Public Radio International, and the weekly politics program Destination Casa Blanca for Hispanic Information Telecommunications Network, HITN TV.

Suarez holds a BA in African History from New York University and an MA in the social sciences from the University of Chicago. He has also been awarded numerous honorary doctorates by many colleges and universities.

Suarez was the co-recipient of NPR’s 1993-94 and 1994-95 duPont-Columbia Silver Baton Awards for on-site coverage of the first all-race elections in South Africa, and the first 100 days of the 104th Congress, respectively. Ray Suarez’s lecture will be held in conjunction with the Institute for Disaster Mental Health at SUNY New Paltz annual conference on April 7 and 8, “Lessons from Adversity: Strengthening Preparedness with Reflections from 9/11.” Expert speakers who were directly involved in the mental health response to the violence perpetrated on September 11, 2001, will examine reactions through the lens of a decade’s perspective. For details about the IDMH conference or to register, please go to www.newpaltz.edu/idmh.

Ticket prices for the Ray Suarez lecture are $18 for the general public and $13 for SUNY New Paltz alumni/faculty/staff, seniors and students without a SUNY New Paltz ID. Students with a SUNY New Paltz ID are free, but tickets are limited and will only be available at the Lecture Center door on the night of the event.

For further information and to purchase tickets, please visit www.newpaltz.edu/speakerseries or call 845-257-3880 or 845-257-3972. Tickets may also be purchased in the Parker Theatre Box Office at SUNY New Paltz, open February 21 – March 11 & March 28 – April 7 Monday – Friday 11:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. or at the SUNY New Paltz Athletic & Wellness Center Box Office open Thursday, April 7, 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

The Distinguished Speaker Series is made possible in part by generous donations from Peter & Helena Bienstock, Shawangunk Valley Conservancy, Campus Auxiliary Services, Central Hudson, Chronogram Magazine, Empire State Bank, Heath Alliance of the Hudson Valley, Institute for Disaster Mental Health, M&T Bank, SobelMedia, Ulster Savings Bank, and WAMC. The College welcomes corporate sponsorships for the Distinguished Speaker Series. To find out about sponsorship and corporate recognition opportunities, please contact Sally Cross, Executive Director, SUNY New Paltz Foundation at 845-257-3240 or crosss@newpaltz.edu.

Arrangements for the appearance of Ray Suarez have been made through the Greater Talent Network, Inc., New York, NY.