CNN Commentator, Presidential Advisor Gergen at TAMIU Feb. 24

David Gergen, advisor to four United States presidents, senior political analyst for CNN and Harvard University professor will make a rare public appearance at Texas A&M International University on Thursday, Feb. 24 at 8 a.m. for a special morning lecture and breakfast.

Tickets are $35 and are available for advance purchase with the University’s Office of Institutional Advancement at 326.GIVE (4483). Funds for the presentation will help support TAMIU’s student leadership program, Leadership TAMIU.

Gergen is a professor of public service and director of the Center for Public Leadership (CPL) at the Harvard Kennedy School. In 2000, he published the best-selling book, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton.

TAMIU president Dr. Ray Keck said the University is honored to have the opportunity to host Gergen.  This past summer, Dr. Keck and TAMIU students participated in the inaugural Latino Leadership Initiative (LLI) at Harvard and met Gergen, a CPL faculty member.

“We were all very impressed by professor Gergen’s keen interest in fostering leadership, especially leadership by young Latinos.  His insight and accessibility to our students was inspiring and helped our Leadership TAMIU program here. During his visit here, he will be meeting with our LLI cohort to hear of their progress in leadership initiatives here,”
Dr. Keck said.

Gergen is originally from North Carolina. An honors graduate from Yale University and Harvard Law School, he served as an officer in the U.S. Navy for nearly three and a half years in Japan.

He joined the Nixon White House in 1971 as a staff assistant on the speech writing team with Pat Buchanan, Ben Stein, and Bill Safire. He became director two years later. Gergen went on to become director of communications for Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, counselor on domestic and foreign affairs for Bill Clinton and his Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, and adviser to George H.W. Bush’s 1980 presidential campaign.

Today, Gergen works as a political journalist and analyst. He was the first managing editor of Public Opinion, a magazine affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute. From 1985-1986 he worked as an editor at U.S. News & World Report, and remains an editor-at-large there. He taught at Duke University from 1995-1999.

His TV career began in 1985 at the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour for Friday night discussions of politics. Now, he appears frequently on CNN as senior political analyst for Anderson Cooper 360 and Situation Room.

In 1999, Gergen joined the Harvard faculty. He is also active as a speaker on leadership and sits on many boards, including Teach for America, the Aspen Institute, and Duke University. A member of the Washington, D.C. Bar and the Council on Foreign Relations, he holds 18 honorary degrees. In addition to lecturing and commenting, he blogs and twitters daily at davidgergen.com

He lives in Cambridge, Mass., with wife Anne, a family therapist.  The couple has two children, Christopher and Katherine, and four grandchildren.

Leadership TAMIU is an innovative leadership-training program at the University. It offers a  series of group experiences, opportunities to develop skills, self-assessment exercises and targeted ways to test leadership through community outreach.  Students self –select to participate in Leadership TAMIU, but must meet requirements, attend group meetings and complete assignments as part of their personal commitment.

For additional information, contact the University’s Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at 956.326.2180, e-mail prmis@tamiu.edu, click on tamiu.edu or visit social networking sites on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at prmis@tamiu.edu