Author and veteran White House journalist Helen Thomas will speak at 7:30 p.m. April 12 in McDaniel College’s Forum, located in Decker Center. Directions to The College can be found here.

The lecture, "From JFK to George W.: Holding their feet to the fire, Helen-style," is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Michele Leiberman, associate director of media relations, at 410-857-2294.

Thomas has served nearly 50 years as correspondent and White House bureau chief for United Press International, and now as a columnist for Hearst Newspapers. Often called the “First Lady of the Press,” Thomas has covered every president since John F. Kennedy. She has traveled around the world with Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H. Bush, and Clinton, and continues to cover the presidency of George W. Bush.

In 1974, she became the first female White House bureau chief of a wire service. She was the first woman officer of the National Press Club, the White House Correspondents Association, and the first woman member of the Gridiron Club.

Thomas is the author of four books, “Thanks for the Memories Mr. President: Wit and Wisdom from the Front Row at the White House,” “Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public,” “Dateline: White House,” and “Front Row at the White House: My Life and Times.”

Among many awards and accolades, the Washington Press Association Foundation recently gave Thomas a Lifetime Achievement Award. She was presented with an Intrepid Award from the National Organization of Women, and is the recipient of the Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award from the White House Correspondents Association and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation. In 1976, the World Almanac named Thomas as one of the “25 Most Influential Women in America.”

She earned her bachelor’s degree from Wayne State University.

The lecture is sponsored by the President’s Office, the Departments of English, Political Science and Communication, and by the McDaniel chapter of the Society for Collegiate Journalists.