UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An award-winning pair of journalists will present free public lectures on consecutive nights, offering insights about reporting, storytelling and much more, during the annual Foster-Foreman Conference of Distinguished Writers, which will take place Oct. 8-9 in Kern Auditorium at Penn State University Park.
Michael Biesecker of The Associated Press (AP) will kick off the two-day conference with a lecture at 6 p.m. on Oct. 8. Sarah Kaufman of the Washington Post will conclude the event with a lecture at 6 p.m. on Oct. 9. Both sessions will take place in Kern Auditorium (102 Kern Building) and will include time for question-and-answer sessions after the visitors share some examples and discuss their work.
Biesecker is a global investigative reporter for the AP based in Washington D.C. He reports on a wide range of topics, including human conflict, conflict change and political corruption. Biesecker’s work tracking potential war crimes in Ukraine was recognized with the 2022 Gold Medal from Investigative Reporters and Editors, the organization’s top award.
He was a contributor to the AP team that won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, as well as the top award for the Overseas Press Club of America.
Kaufman is the Pulitzer Prize-winning dance critic of The Washington Post and the author of "The Art of Grace: On Moving Well Through Life." She writes about the arts, entertainment and the union of art and science.
She has been a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, a Princeton University McGraw Professor of Writing and Ferris Professor of Journalism. She also serves on the faculty of the National Critics Institute and mentors young writers through various programs. Kaufman was a French-American Foundation Journalism Fellow and a U.S. Senate page. Kaufman joined The Washington Post in 1994 after working at the Buffalo News and the Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
The Foster-Foreman Conference was designed to bring students together with standout journalists and is an opportunity for students to acquaint themselves with distinguished role models in the profession.
Made possible by a gift from Penn State alumni Larry and Ellen Foster, the conference was initially named in their honor and then renamed in 2011 to honor Gene Foreman, the Penn State faculty member who directed the event from its inception in 1999 until his retirement in 2006.
Larry Foster, who died in October 2013, was a Penn State Distinguished Alumnus and Lion’s Paw Medal recipient who retired in 1990 as vice president of public relations at Johnson & Johnson. An author himself, he published “Robert Wood Johnson: The Gentleman Rebel” in 1999. Foster served on the Penn State Board of Trustees from 1980 to 1989 and was president of the Alumni Association and the Penn State Fund Council. Before joining Johnson & Johnson, he was a reporter, bureau chief and night editor of the Newark News in New Jersey. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Penn State in 1948. Ellen (Miller) Foster has, along with her late husband, been committed for many years to philanthropy at Penn State. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University in 1949.
Foreman joined Penn State in 1998 after retiring from The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he managed newsroom operations for more than 25 years under various titles — managing editor, executive editor and deputy editor. During his tenure, the Inquirer won 18 Pulitzer Prizes.
At Penn State, he was the Larry and Ellen Foster Professor from 1999 until his retirement from full-time teaching in December 2006. He taught courses in news editing, news media ethics and newspaper management. In 2003, Foreman received two awards for excellence in teaching in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications — the Deans' Award and the Alumni Society Award. In 2013, the Alumni Society gave him the first Douglas A. Anderson Contributor Award in recognition of his work on behalf of the Bellisario College.