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Anniversary reception and program to honor WUIS and Illinois Issues

February 10, 2005

SPRINGFIELD - A reception and program celebrating the 30th anniversaries of public radio station WUIS and Illinois Issues magazine will be held Thursday, February 24, at the Executive Mansion, Fifth and Jackson Streets, downtown Springfield. The reception will begin at 6 p.m., followed by the program at 7:15 p.m.  The event is open to the public, however reservations are required.

Kevin Klose, president and CEO of National Public Radio, and Mike Lawrence, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, will deliver keynote addresses. J. Michael Lennon, emeritus vice president for academic affairs at Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and former publisher of Illinois Issues, will be master of ceremonies.

WUIS 91.9 FM is a member station of NPR. Illinois Issues, a not-for-profit monthly publication, focuses on analysis of public policy, with a special emphasis on Illinois government and politics. Both are part of the Center for State Policy and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Kevin Klose

Klose is a former editor and national and foreign correspondent with The Washington Post and an award-winning author. Before joining NPR in December 1998, he was director of U.S. International Broadcasting, overseeing the federal government’s global radio and television news services. He also served as president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which broadcasts to Central Europe and the former Soviet Union, and spent 25 years at the Post, where his positions included city editor, Moscow bureau chief, Midwest correspondent, and deputy national editor. His book Russia and the Russians: Inside the Closed Society won the Overseas Press Club’s Cornelius Ryan Award.
 

Mike Lawrence

Lawrence, a well-known name in state politics, has been at SIU’s public policy institute since 1997 and succeeded the late Sen. Paul Simon as director.  Lawrence served as press secretary and senior policy advisor to Illinois Governor Jim Edgar for nearly a decade, joining Edgar’s staff after working as a journalist for 25 years.  During his newspaper career, Lawrence specialized in coverage of state government and politics, serving as managing editor and editorial page editor of the Quad-City Times and chief of the state capitol bureaus for Lee Enterprises and the Chicago Sun-Times. He remains active as a columnist whose work appears regularly in five major Illinois papers.

Cost for the reception and program is $50 per person and reservations can be made by calling WUIS at 217/206-6516 or Illinois Issues at 206-6084 before February 14.