University Fast Links Academic Affairs Academic Calendar Academic Community Engagement (ACE) Academic Planning and Assessment Accepted Students Admissions (Undergraduate) Admissions (Graduate) Admission Requirements Analytical Laboratory Advising (Medical/Dental Related) Advising (SAM Center) Agricultural Sciences and Engineering Technology Alumni Association Alcohol and Drug Abuse Initiative Army ROTC - Military Science Athletics Banner Banking Bearkat Camp Bearkat Express Payment Bearkat Marching Band Bearkat OneCard Bearkat Transfer Scholarship Blackboard Blinn College Transfers Bookstore Books & Supplies Budget Office Bursar's Office Business Administration Calendars Campus Map Career Services Catalogs Class Schedule Computer Account Creation Computer Labs Continuing Education Controller's Office Correspondence Course Division Counseling Center Criminal Justice Current Students Dean of Students' Office Departments Department of Dance Dining Services Directory Education Educator Preparation Services Emergency Management Employment Opportunities English Language Institute Enrollment Management Environmental, Health and Safety Office Exchange Mail Facilites Management Facilities Space Management Faculty Senate Faculty/Staff Directory Final Exam Schedule Finance and Operations Financial Aid Fine Arts and Mass Communication First-Year Experience General Information Graduate Studies Great Names Health Sciences Honors College Homecoming Human Resources Humanities and Social Sciences IT@Sam IT@Sam Service Desk Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee (IACUC) Institutional Effectiveness Internal Grant Program Institutional Review Board (IRB) International Programs Joint Admission Students KatFacts Library (NGL) Lone Star College Transfers Lowman Student Center Map - Campus Marketing & Communications Math CAMP Medical & Allied Health Programs McNair Program Military Science Mobile Go Center Music Music Choir News Nursing Office of Business Services Office of the President Online Information Request Organization Chart Orientation - New Student PACE Parent Relations Office Parking Payroll Office Procurement and Business Services Procurement Opportunities Project Connect Property Prospective Students Public Safety Quality Enhancement Plan Reading Center Recreational Sports Registration Registrar's Office Research and Sponsored Programs Residence Life Risk Management Sam Shuttle SACS Reaffirmation Sam Houston Memorial Museum SamMenu (Download) SamWeb Sciences Services for Students with Disabilities Schedule of Classes Scholarships SHSU Marketplace Spirit Programs Staff Council Student Activities Student Government Association Student Health Center Student Legal Services Student Money Management Center Student Services Student Services Calendar Summer Camps Technology Tutorials Testing Center Theatre and Dance Today@Sam Tour the University Transcripts Transfer Equivalency Guide Transfer Students TRIES University Advancement University Center University Hotel University Park - Northwest Houston Campus University Police Department Veterans Visitor & Alumni Center The Woodlands Center Writing Center

Veteran White House Correspondent To 'Mingle' At SHSU

April 4, 2013
SHSU Media Contact: Alexis Andrei

 

Veteran journalist Ann Compton, who has paved the way for many aspiring journalists, will relay her experiences and wisdom to the Sam Houston State University community on April 23, at 11 a.m. in the James and Nancy Gaertner Performing Arts Center Concert Hall, as part of the President’s Speaker Series “Mingling with the Media” event.

As a White House correspondent for ABC News, Compton has traveled around the globe and through all 50 states covering seven presidents, vice presidents and first ladies.

Compton became the first woman assigned to cover the White House on a full-time basis by a network television news organization and consequently opened the door for many future females to be involved in the forefront of media coverage.

In addition to her journalistic endeavors, she served as a panelist for two presidential debates, in 1988 and 1992, and was assigned to be a floor reporter at the 1976 Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

Compton started her career in broadcast journalism at the local level.

An internship at Hollins College in Virginia led to a full-time job reporting for WDBJ-TV, a CBS affiliate in Roanoke. While reporting for WDBJ, she established a State Capitol Bureau in Richmond for the station. In 1973 was hired by ABC News and began reporting from New York, and a year later she was assigned to cover the White House.

In 2000, she became the chief Washington correspondent for ABCNEWS.com and wrote and anchored a daily political column called “On Background.”
On Sept. 11, 2001, Compton was the only broadcast reporter allowed to remain onboard Air Force One with President George W. Bush during the intense hours when he was unable to return to Washington following the terrorist attacks.

Her reports led to ABC News being awarded an Emmy for the network’s coverage of that day. She was also part of the team awarded the prestigious Silver Baton Alfred I. duPont Columbia University for the network’s coverage of 9/11.

In addition to that success, Compton was elected "president" twice, to lead the White House Correspondents' Association in 2007 and the Radio Television Correspondents Association from 1987-88. For 15 years she also served on the advisory board of the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center in New York.

In 2000, she was inducted into the Journalism Hall of Fame by the Society of Professional Journalists, and in 2004, she was voted into the national Radio Hall of Fame.

Compton and Dr. William Hughes, a physician in Washington, D.C., have three sons and a daughter.

The program is a joint presentation under the banner of the President’s Speaker Series, the Office of the President and the student public relations service, Priority One. Previous guests presented under this format have been SHSU Distinguished Alumnus and network news correspondent Dan Rather and baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan.

SHSU President Dana Gibson, along with the Department of Mass Communication’s Philip G. Warner Endowed Chair of Journalism and former White House press spokesman Peter Roussel, will join Compton on-stage for the discussion. The program will also include questions submitted by SHSU students.

The presentation is free and open to the public.

The President’s Speaker Series was created in 2002 by SHSU President Emeritus Jim Gaertner and was originally underwritten by the estate of the late Huntsville resident Lu Ellen Gibbs. The series is designed to bring prominent leaders to the Sam Houston State University campus. Speakers are chosen for their ability to deliver messages of substance with the potential to significantly impact the student body.

Previous speakers have included Alberto Gonzalez, Nolan Ryan, Dan Rather, Debbie Fields, David Robinson, Ken Jennings, J.C. Watts, Drayton McLane Jr., Sherron Watkins, Bob Dole, Marcus Luttrell, Lech Walesa, Tony Dorsett, and Stedman Graham.

For more information, contact the President’s Office at 936.294.3415 or events@shsu.edu or “like” SHSU Priority One on Facebook.

 

 

- END -

 

 

This page maintained by SHSU's Communications Office
Associate Director: Julia May
Manager: Jennifer Gauntt
Located in the 115 Administration Building
Telephone: 936.294.1836; Fax: 936.294.1834

Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu.