‘Face The Nation’ moderator to address ASU grads at Cronkite School convocation

Margaret Brennan, CBS News senior foreign affairs correspondent and moderator of "Face the Nation," will deliver the keynote speech at the spring 2018 convocation of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

The ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 8, at Comerica Theatre in downtown Phoenix. More than 300 students are expected to graduate.

Brennan, who became moderator of the influential CBS News program in February, is currently the only woman serving as a solo anchor of a major Sunday political affairs show. “Face the Nation” is one of the longest-running news programs in the history of television, having debuted Nov. 7, 1954.

Since joining CBS News in 2012, Brennan has covered the Obama and Trump administrations and the U.S. Department of State. She reported on major national security stories, including nuclear negotiations with Iran, restoration of diplomatic ties with Cuba and the standoff with North Korea. In 2017, she was named White House and senior foreign affairs correspondent.

“Margaret Brennan is a leader in TV news and someone who has broken barriers for women in journalism,” said Cronkite Dean Christopher Callahan. “She’s the kind of journalist our students emulate, and we’re thrilled that she’ll be here to speak to them directly.”

Prior to joining CBS News, Brennan spent a decade covering the global financial markets, serving as an anchor and correspondent for Bloomberg Television and CNBC. She began her career as a producer at CNBC.

Brennan graduated with highest distinction in 2002 from the University of Virginia, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in foreign affairs and Middle East studies with a minor in Arabic. As a Fulbright-Hays Scholar, she studied Arabic at Yarmouk University in Irbid, Jordan.

She is a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations and sits on the advisory board for the University of Virginia School of Politics.