Athens, Ga. – Brian Williams, Emmy and Peabody award-winning anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News, will serve as the chief moderator for “The Carter Presidency: Lessons for the 21st Century,” Jan. 19-21, at the University of Georgia. Williams’ participation will occur on Saturday, Jan. 20.
“The Carter Presidency,” which commemorates the 30th anniversary of Jimmy Carter’s inauguration as the 39th President of the United States, will offer a critical exploration of the major political challenges and dilemmas of the Carter presidency and how those experiences can be applied to the challenges the U.S. and the world are facing today. The conference is co-sponsored by UGA’s School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) and the Carl Vinson Institute of Government.
Williams is a veteran correspondent of political campaigns and elections, as well as the Middle East, and has traveled to dozens of U.S. cities and foreign countries during the course of his career. Williams has reported on countless stories of national and international importance, including intensive live coverage of the September 11, 2001 attacks on America and their aftermath. For his acclaimed coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, the four-time Emmy winner received two of television’s highest honors: the Edward R. Murrow award for “Best Newscast” and the George Foster Peabody Award administered by the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Prior to his broadcasting career, Williams worked in the White House during the Carter administration, beginning as a White House intern.
“The President called me and said he would only ever ask me to do one thing. How could I say no?” said Williams. “Starting as an intern in the Carter White House, life has brought me to this point: having a hand in the assessment of this important presidency.”
The three-day symposium is expected to attract leading scholars, Carter administration officials and journalists to the UGA campus to discuss the lessons learned from the Carter years on such issues as energy policy, the Middle East, Islamic fundamentalism, environmental concerns, human rights and mental health issues. In addition to academic presentations and panel discussions, it will include a town hall meeting with President and Mrs. Carter and a keynote address by the president.
John A. Maltese, a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor of political science in the School of Public and International Affairs, will direct the commemoration. Maltese has worked closely on this project with Hamilton Jordan, Carter’s White House Chief of Staff, who is affiliated with UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government.
For more information on the conference, please see http://www.uga.edu/carterconference.
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