KJZZ News Director and Reporter Peter O’Dowd will speak at Phoenix College Nov. 1 about his news organization’s major project to cover the U.S.-Mexico border and provide its audience with a deeper understanding of the region’s nuanced history and present-day issues.

The lecture is part of the PC Liberal Arts Department’s Fall 2011 Lecture Series. The event is free and open to the public.

KJZZ is the Valley’s local public radio station and National Public Radio member located at Rio Salado Community College in Tempe. Reporters at the station’s Changing America desk have spent the last year examining the people, history and current circumstances found in the borderlands. KJZZ reporters, including O’Dowd, have traveled into the interior of Mexico as well as Guatemala as part of their coverage.

O’Dowd has chronicled these trips and will share why they matter in a discussion titled, “Links to Home: Reporting On the Southwestern US, Mexico and Central America and Why We Should Care.”

As news director, O’Dowd leads a staff of reporters in seven bureaus across the southwestern United States. An accomplished journalist, his work has aired on The BBC, NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Talk of the Nation, and American Public Media’s Marketplace. He has covered technology, the housing bubble and the constant debate over immigration policy that keeps Arizona in the national spotlight.

O’Dowd has a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and a bachelor’s from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Prior to his journalism career, he taught English to schoolchildren in Tokyo, Japan.

DETAILS:

When: Tuesday, November 1, 2011
noon-1 p.m. AND 7-8 p.m.

Where: Phoenix College Osborn site, Willo Room, 3310 N. 10th Ave. (NE corner of 11th Avenue and Flower)

Admission: Free and open to the public

For more information, call 602-285-7651.