Award-winning journalists to present during annual Foster-Foreman Conference

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. — One Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and a Pulitzer-nominated Penn State alumna will be the featured speakers on consecutive days during the Foster-Foreman Conference of Distinguished Writers on the University Park campus in late October.

Anna Wolfe of Mississippi Today and Lyndsay Green of the Detroit Free Press highlight the annual conference with sessions on Oct. 23 and Oct. 24, respectively. Both sessions, which are free and open to the public, will be conducted in Freeman Auditorium of the HUB-Robeson Center.

Wolfe is an investigative reporter who covers inequality and corruption in government safety net programs, nonprofit service providers and institutions affecting the marginalized. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for her package “The Backchannel.” The series revealed how a former Mississippi governor used his office to steer millions of state welfare dollars to benefit his family and friends, including NFL quarterback Brett Favre.

Wolfe's session will kick off the two-day event and include a talk followed by a question-and-answer session. The talk will start at 6 p.m. Oct. 23.

Green is a dining and restaurant critic at the Detroit Free Press who earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism at Penn State in 2010. She was named the 2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist in the criticism category based on a series of columns. She also earned a James Beard Award-winner for Emerging Voice in Journalism this year, which honors food authors, broadcast producers, hosts, journalists, podcasters and social media content creators.

Green has an essay, “Accidently Anonymous,” which is featured in the latest edition of the “Best American Food Writing” anthology series, published by Mariner Books, a Harper Collins imprint. She has covered style and beauty for many well-known magazines like Ebony and Teen Vogue. She’s also the creator Beauty Atlas, a digital magazine that showcases how people from all corners of the globe view beauty.

Green's talk and question-and-answer session, starting at 6 p.m. Oct. 24,  will conclude the conference.

The Foster-Foreman Conference was designed to bring students together with standout journalists and is an opportunity for students to acquaint themselves with distinguished role models in the profession.

The conference, made possible by a gift from Penn State alumni Larry and Ellen Foster, was designed to bring students together with some of the best reporters and writers in journalism. The conference was initially named in their honor and then renamed in 2011 to honor Gene Foreman, the Penn State faculty member who directed the event from its inception in 1999 until his retirement in 2006.

Larry Foster, who died in October 2013, was a Penn State Distinguished Alumnus and Lion’s Paw Medal recipient who retired in 1990 as vice president of public relations at Johnson & Johnson. An author himself, he pub­lished “Robert Wood Johnson: The Gentleman Rebel” in 1999. Foster served on the Penn State Board of Trustees from 1980 to 1989 and was president of the Alumni Association and the Penn State Fund Council. Before joining Johnson & John­son, he was a reporter, bureau chief and night editor of the Newark News in New Jersey. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Penn State in 1948. Ellen (Miller) Foster has, along with her late husband, been committed for many years to philanthropy at Penn State. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University in 1949.

Foreman joined Penn State in 1998 after retiring from The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he managed newsroom operations for more than 25 years under various titles — managing editor, executive editor and deputy editor. During his tenure, the Inquirer won 18 Pulitzer Prizes.

At Penn State, he was the Larry and Ellen Foster Professor from 1999 until his retirement from full-time teaching in December 2006. He taught courses in news editing, news media ethics and newspaper management. In 2003, Foreman received two awards for excellence in teaching in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications — the Deans' Award and the Alumni Society Award. In 2013, the Alumni Society gave him the first Douglas A. Anderson Contributor Award in recognition of his work on behalf of the Bellisario College.