March 31 2008 - NewsHour Correspondent to Speak at SUNY Plattsburgh

Ray Suarez, the senior correspondent for the "NewsHour" with Jim Lehrer on the Public Broadcasting System, will lecture at the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh on Monday, March 31, at 8 p.m. in the Warren Ballrooms, Angell College Center.

Suarez will speak on "Diversity in Journalism" as part of the Presidents' Speaker Series. His lecture is free and open to the public. Suarez' speech is sponsored by the American Democracy Project, College Auxiliary Services, Mountain Lake PBS, and Plattsburgh College Foundation.

With an extensive background in journalism, Suarez has 30 years of varied experience in the news business. He joined the “NewsHour” in October 1999 as a Washington-based senior correspondent, which can be seen locally on Mountain Lake PBS. Prior to that, he worked for Public Radio where he served as host of the nationwide, call-in news program "Talk of the Nation" for six years.

Suarez also served as a Los Angeles correspondent for CNN, a producer for the ABC Radio Network in New York, a reporter for CBS Radio in Rome and a reporter for various American and British News Services in London. He currently hosts the monthly public radio foreign affairs series "America Abroad" for Public Radio International and is the narrator for "American Radio Works," the documentary unit of American Public Media.

He holds a bachelor's degree in African history from New York University and a master's degree in the social sciences from the University of Chicago. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by many colleges and universities, including Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. He is a winner of the Benton Fellowship in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Chicago. Suarez has been honored with a Distinguished Alumnus Award from NYU and a Professional Achievement Award from the University of Chicago.

Suarez is the author of "The Holy Vote" and "The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration." He has also contributed to several other books including "Brooklyn: A State of Mind," "Local Heroes," "Saving America's Treasures," "Las Christmas," and "About Men." His writing has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune and many other publications.

Suarez is a life member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and was a founding member of the Chicago Association of Hispanic Journalists. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., he lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and three children.