White House Correspondent, Pulitzer Winners to Speak in State College

The chief White House correspondent for The Associated Press and Pulitzer Prize winners will appear at free, public events in State College this week.

First up is Ben Feller, the White House correspondent, who will read excerpts of his work and participate in a question-and-answer session at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the State Theatre, 130 W. College Ave. The audience will be welcomed to join in.

Feller grew up in Boalsburg, worked for the Centre Daily Times in the early 1990s and recently won the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency. His State Theatre visit will be part of Penn State’s Foster Conference of Distinguished Writers.

Two other reporters — Barbara Laker and Wendy Ruderman, both of the Philadelphia Daily News — are slated to speak as part of the Foster Conference on Wednesday. Their joint appearance, scheduled for 10:10 a.m. in the HUB-Robeson Center auditorium, will follow the same format. It also will be free and open to the public.

Laker and Ruderman won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. The award recognizes their yearlong series ‘Tainted Justice,’ which focuses on urban narcotics officers.

Established in 1999, the Foster Conference has brought 31 Pulitzer Prize winners to speak locally.