Today weekend co-host and NBC Nightly News weekend anchor comes to Park!

Lester Holt -- anchor of NBC Nightly News weekend edition and co-host of Today weekend edition -- will be on campus as this year's Jessica Savitch Distinguished Journalism Lecturer on April 14, 2009.

Holt will speak at 7:30 p.m. in Emerson Suites. His talk is free and open to the public.

Each year, the Jessica Savitch Lecture Series brings a broadcast journalist to Ithaca College to honor alumna Jessica Savitch '68. Past speakers include: Natalie Morales, NBC; David Muir '95, ABC News; Steve Capus, NBC News; and Mara Liasson, NPR.

Lester Holt is the weekend anchor for the flagship broadcast NBC Nightly News, and is also the co-anchor of the weekend edition of Today. In addition, Holt serves as fill-in anchor and correspondent for NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams and the weekday Today program. He also contributes to MSNBC, NBC’s 24-hour cable news network.

Holt has reported from many of the world's hot spots. In 2006, he reported from the front lines in Lebanon on the war between Israel and Hezbollah and from London on the terror threat to U.S. bound-airliners from the UK. In 2005, Holt was on the ground for Hurricane Katrina covering events both in Louisiana and Mississippi, and later that fall covered Hurricane Rita in Texas.

Before becoming co-anchor of Weekend Today, Holt anchored Lester Holt Live, a daily news show on MSNBC in which he covered breaking news and provided news updates and analysis. Holt has also served as the lead anchor for daytime news and breaking news coverage on MSNBC. He has served as a primary anchor for MSNBC's coverage of the biggest news events of the last several years, including Operation Iraqi Freedom and the war in Afghanistan, and he was the lead daytime anchor for MSNBC's coverage of Decision 2000. Holt also served as anchor of Countdown: Iraq, a nightly news telecast concentrating on the latest developments surrounding the war with Iraq, from October 2002 through March 2003.

Holt came to MSNBC from WBBM-TV in Chicago, where he spent 14 years. Previously, Holt worked as a reporter at WCBS-TV in New York City and at KCBS-TV in Los Angeles.

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