Kerry Washington to be Featured in Chancellor’s Speaker Series, Sept. 21

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Aug. 23, 2023) – A new academic year at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University means the start of the anticipated next season of the Chancellor’s Speaker Series. The university will host award-winning actor, director, producer and organizer Kerry Washington for the 2023 fall edition, Thursday, Sept. 21, at 6 p.m. in Harrison Auditorium. N.C. A&T alumna Danya Bacchus, national correspondent for CBS News and Los Angeles stations, will facilitate the discussion.

The upcoming speaker series installment – “Finding My Own – will embrace a conversation about finding one’s voice, purpose, happiness, identity, strength and peace. As the university continues to follow its new strategic plan, “Preeminence 2030: North Carolina A&T Blueprint,” the Chancellor’s Speaker Series is one of many opportunities for campus to meet goal 2, develop engaged global thought leaders and innovators.

A Bronx, New York, native, Washington has graced the silver and small screens for decades. The Emmy and SAG-winning, Golden Globe-nominated, fearless multi-hyphenate has received high acclaim for her work across film, television, theater, digital media, advocacy and beyond.

Washington received widespread public recognition for her role as Olivia Pope on the hit ABC series “Scandal,” breaking barriers as the first Black woman since 1974 to headline a network TV drama. Her film credits include “Django Unchained,” “Ray,” “The Last King of Scotland,” “Save the Last Dance,” “Our Song” and “The School for Good and Evil,” among many others. In 2016, she launched her production company, Simpson Street.

A lifelong advocate and activist, Washington is dedicated to using her voice to fight for justice. She has been honored as one of TIME magazine’s 2022 Women of the Year, in addition to appearing on the magazine’s Most Influential People list in 2014. She also received the 2013 NAACP President’s Award, the 2015 GLAAD Media Vanguard Award and the 2016 ACLU Bill of Rights Award. In 2022, Washington partnered with the Los Angeles Unified School District and others to launch The Roybal School of Film and Television Production, a magnet school aiming to drive transformational change across the entertainment industry for students from underserved communities.

Washington recently authored “Thicker Than Water: A Memoir,” which gives an intimate view into her public and private worlds while inspiring readers to search for — and find – themselves.

Bacchus provides original reporting for CBS, CBS affiliates and broadcasters around the globe. Her reporting portfolio includes significant stories such as the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and her family connection to the 1921 Tulsa Race massacre. Recently, she conducted an exclusive interview with Vice President Kamala Harris about the maternal mortality crisis. She has also covered multiple Grammy Awards and Super Bowls.

Bacchus has lived and traveled across the globe pursuing her passion for journalism including in California, Tennessee and Maryland and through a prestigious eight-month Knight-Wallace Fellowship in Turkey and Brazil.

Bacchus is a proud graduate of A&T and member of the National Association of Black Journalists. She is married to Eric Whipple, a fellow Aggie.

The speaker series is free and open to the public. Tickets will be available on a first come, first served basis at the University Ticket Office (Brown Hall), beginning Sept. 11. 

Members of the media seeking credentials should email Jackie Torok, university director of media relations, at jtorok@ncat.edu.