Award-Winning Journalist Michele Norris Comes to the Wharton Center, 9/15

Michele Norris is an award-winning journalist with more than two decades of experience. She is currently a host and special correspondent for NPR. Previously, Norris served as co-host of NPR's newsmagazine All Things Considered, public radio's longest-running national program, with Robert Siegel and Melissa Block. Norris began hosting the program in December, 2002, and stepped away from her All Things Considered duties during the 2012 presidential campaign. While on sabbatical, Norris spent a time traveling the country and developing two successful initiatives: The Race Card Project and NPR's Backseat Book Club.

Tickets to Michele Norris are on sale now online at whartoncenter.com, at the Auto-Owners Insurance Ticket Office at Wharton Center, or by calling 1-800-WHARTON.

Michele Norris has a voice that is undeniably recognizable and that embodies both authority and calm. Captivating and astute on air, Norris has presented leading news, weighing in on American culture - including race and the influence of news media - since she joined NPR in 2002. Prior to her tenure at NPR, she served as an ABC News correspondent where she covered education, America's inner cities, the national drug problem, poverty and, most recognizably, the aftermath of 9/11.

Norris has received many honors in journalism for her insight into American culture and social issues, including: the Peabody Award, duPont Award, and "Journalist of the Year" by the National Association of Black Journalists. She was recently named Essence magazine's "25 Most Influential Black Americans."

In September 2010, Norris published her first book, The Grace of Silence: A Memoir. The book focuses on how America talks about race in the wake of the Obama presidency, and how her own complex legacy has shaped her dedication to informing others through sound and voice. Grace of Silence: A Memoir is one of several options being offered to students and community members as part of the "One Book, One Community" program, which encourages members of the community to discuss issues of importance to us all. This year the focus is on issues of racial equality - reflecting on where we have come as a nation, and where we still have to go.