Al Gore, Nora Ephron, Anderson Cooper on UB Lecture Slate

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Former vice president Al Gore will speak at the University at Buffalo next April to cap the 2006-07 Distinguished Speakers Series.

The series, which opened on Sept. 19 with a special 20th-anniversary lecture by 1989 Nobel Peace Prize recipient His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, will host a second Nobel Peace Prize recipient later this season: Wangari Maathai, an activist and environmentalist.

Also scheduled to appear are newscaster Anderson Cooper, ocean explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau and writer-director Nora Ephron.

All lectures in the series will be held at 8 p.m. in the Mainstage theater in the Center for the Arts, North (Amherst) Campus, unless otherwise noted.

"The Distinguished Speakers Series embodies one of our core functions as a public research university -- to contribute to public knowledge, to engage in the issues shaping today's world and to serve as a forum where those issues can be discussed and debated," said UB President John B. Simpson. "Serving a regional, national and global public, UB provides the ideal site for exchanging thoughts and perspectives with some of the foremost public figures, artists and thinkers of our time.

"This year's slate of speakers represents major players in such important fields as environmental conservation, the arts, world events and the global economy," Simpson noted. "UB is proud to bring their voices to center stage as part of the 20th annual Distinguished Speakers Series, and we look forward to sharing these experiences with our broader communities."

William Regan, director of the Office of Special Events, added that UB is pleased "to present a lineup that follows the Dalai Lama's message of compassion and peace across borders with speakers noted for their own compassion, activism and commitment to help shape a better future for our world."

The next speaker in the series will be journalist and CNN host Anderson Cooper, who will appear Nov. 11 in Alumni Arena, North Campus.

Host of CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360°," Cooper presents an unconventional, wide-ranging news program covering the world's top stories, as well as the underreported ones. He also is a contributor to CBS's "60 Minutes."

Prior to joining CNN in 2001, Cooper worked for ABC as a news correspondent and as a contributor to "20/20" and "World News Tonight." Cooper moved to ABC from a position at Channel One News as chief international correspondent, reporting and producing stories from hot spots around the world.

Throughout his 15-year reporting career, Cooper has anchored such major news stories as the Sri Lankan tsunami, the Iraqi elections, Terri Schiavo and Hurricane Katrina. He received the National Headliner's Award for his tsunami coverage, an Emmy Award for his work as part of ABC's coverage of Princess Diana's funeral and the Chicago International Film Festival's Silver Plaque for his report on the Bosnian civil war.

He is the author of "Dispatches from the Edge," a memoir reflecting back on his experiences as a witness to the devastation of events such as Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami.

2004 Nobel Peace Laureate and Green Belt Movement founder Wangari Maathai will be the keynote speaker for the 31st annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Event, to be held on Feb. 2. Lecture sponsor is the UB Minority Faculty and Staff Association.

Named by Time magazine as "one of the 100 most influential people in the world," Maathai is a champion for democracy, human rights and environmental conservation.

The recipient of a doctorate from the University of Nairobi in 1971, she was the first woman in Central and East Africa to earn a doctorate. She chaired the National Council of Women in Kenya during much of the 1980s and founded the Green Belt Movement (GBM), a broad-based, grassroots organization focusing on empowering people to improve their community's quality of life by protecting their environment. GBM has facilitated the planting of 30 million trees in Kenya.

The movement's Pan-African Network trains individuals from throughout the continent to return to their own countries and share GBM's approach to community building, conservation and development of tree-planting programs. Initiatives based on the GBM model have been established successfully in Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe.

Maathai has served on the U.N. Commission for Global Governance and the Commission on the Future. In 2002, she was elected to Kenya's Parliament and appointed assistant minister for the environment.

In addition to the Nobel Peace Prize, she is the recipient of the Légion d'Honneur -- France's highest honor -- the Disney Conservation Fund Award.

Jean-Michel Cousteau, ocean explorer and environmentalist, will present the Graduate Student Choice Speaker lecture on March 1.

Carrying on the work of his father, the late Jacques Cousteau, Jean-Michel is the founder of Ocean Futures, a nonprofit organization dedicated to marine research, conservation and education. Through television, millions have traveled with him to remote locales, exploring the spectacular and mysterious underwater world of our oceans.

A tireless voice for the environment, Cousteau promotes the protection of our "world ocean" and the life within it against pollution, mining, fishing and development. He collaborates with Green Cross International and the Natural Resources Defense Council on such issues as protecting sensitive marine areas, avoiding oil spills and preventing use of damaging sonar systems. He served as spokesman on water issues at the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development at the 3rd World Water Forum in Kyoto.

Cousteau is an Emmy and Cable Ace Award-winning producer with more than 70 films to his credit. His 2006 documentary series for PBS, "Ocean Adventures," inspired President George W. Bush to create the Northwestern Hawaiian Island National Monument, the largest marine sanctuary in the world.

He is a recipient of the Environmental Hero award and the first to receive Oceana's Ocean Hero Award.

Journalist, novelist, screenwriter, playwright and director Nora Ephron will speak on March 28.

Named one of "The 25 Most Powerful Women in America" by Biography magazine, Ephron began her career as a general assignment reporter for the New York Post and essayist for Esquire and New York magazines.

In 1983, she wrote the best-selling novel "Heartburn," a hilarious fictional account of the breakup of her marriage, which was made into a movie starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. In 1989, she received an Oscar nomination for her screenplay for the film "When Harry Met Sally."

In the 1990s, Ephron began a career as a director with the romantic comedy "Sleepless in Seattle," starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, which was nominated for several Oscars.

She recently authored The New York Times bestseller "I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman," a candid, humorous collection of essays about women who are getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests and life itself.

The series will conclude on April 27 with a lecture in Alumni Arena by Al Gore, former U.S. vice president, senator, author and activist.

Lecture sponsor is Hodgson Russ, LLP.

Gore was inaugurated as the 45th vice president of the United States on Jan. 20, 1993. He was a central member of President Clinton's economic team and helped usher in the longest peacetime economic expansion in American history.

Past positions in government include service as President of the Senate, a Cabinet member, a member of the National Security Council and as the leader of a wide range of administration initiatives, including the fight for the V-chip, family and medical leave and more high-quality children's programming on TV.

He has also led the National Partnership for Reinventing Government, whose aim is to make American government smaller, leaner and more dynamic in order to keep up with the fast-moving global economy and Information Age.

Gore's environmental record is unparalleled. His pioneering efforts to protect the earth's ozone layer and to clean up toxic-waste dumps were outlined in his best-selling book "Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit," which recently was made into a motion picture entitled "An Inconvenient Truth" that has received rave reviews.

Presenting sponsor of the Distinguished Speakers Series is the Don Davis Auto World Lectureship Fund. Series sponsor is the undergraduate Student Association. Affiliated series sponsors are the Graduate Student Association, Hodgson Russ LLP, WGRZ-TV Channel 2, WBFO-FM 88.7, USA Today and the University Bookstore. Contributing series sponsors are the Division of Student Affairs, TIAA-CREF, UB Athletics, Center for the Arts, United University Professions, UB Alumni Association, Flynn & Friends Inc., Digicon Imaging Inc., BAV Services and the Buffalo Niagara Marriott.

Tickets for individual lectures will go on sale on Wednesday. For tickets to the Anderson Cooper and Al Gore lectures, visit the Alumni Arena Ticket Office or log onto www.tickets.com. Tickets to the Wangari Maathai, Jean-Michel Cousteau and Nora Ephron lectures can be purchased at the Center for the Arts box office or by visiting http://www.ticketmaster.com.

Those interested in purchasing series subscriptions should visit http://www.specialevents.buffalo.edu to download an order form, or call 645-6147, ext. 227.