Connie Schultz to headline Founders Day

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz will be the keynote speaker at the 2008 Central Ohio SPJ Founders Day Banquet on Wednesday, May 21. The chapter also will present four college scholarships and its First Amendment, Brick Wall, Distinguished Service and Appreciation awards.

Schultz, a nationally syndicated columnist for The Plain Dealer and Creators Syndicate, won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for what judges called “her pungent columns that provided a voice for the underdog and the underprivileged.” It is a common theme in her work. That year she also won the Scripps Howard National Award for Commentary and the National Headliner Award for Commentary.

In 2003 Schultz was a Pulitzer finalist for a series “The Burden of Innocence” about a man imprisoned for 13 years for a rape he did not commit. The real rapist read her series, turned himself in, and is now serving a five-year sentence. Her series won the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Social Justice Reporting, the National Headliner Best of Show Award, and awards from Harvard and Columbia universities.

Random House published her first book, “Life Happens – And Other Unavoidable Truths,” in 2006. Her second book for Random House, “…And His Lovely Wife,” a memoir of her husband’s race for the Senate, was published in 2007. Schultz is married to U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown. They have four grown children.

Connie Schultz is a true raconteur, a storyteller who sees life, whose words catch you up and take you places you’ve been … but didn’t see quite that way.

Schultz will sign books (which will be available for purchase) following her remarks.

Register online or download a registration form.

(Contact Sarah Bacha for information on corporate tables.)