News anchor to give Dean Stone Lecture

Network news anchor Meg Oliver will return to her alma mater Thursday, April 26, to give the annual Dean Stone Lecture at The University of Montana,

Oliver, a 1993 graduate of the UM School of Journalism, anchors the overnight CBS news program, “Up To The Minute.”

Oliver’s lecture is titled “The Battle For Your Attention: Everyone Wants It, But Is It Worth Your Time?” It will begin at 7 p.m. in Urey Lecture Hall and is free and open to the public.

The lecture precedes the journalism school’s Dean Stone Awards Banquet, scheduled this year for Friday, April 27, at the Holiday Inn Parkside in downtown Missoula. A social hour begins at 5 p.m. and dinner is at 6 p.m. Tickets are $15 for students and $25 for non-students. They can be purchased in Journalism Building Room 209 or Radio-Television at 730 Eddy St. Tickets should be purchased by Friday, April 20.

Both events are named in honor of the first dean of UM’s journalism school, Arthur L. Stone. The first Dean Stone event was held in 1957.

Oliver began her reporting and anchoring career working part-time at Missoula’s KECI-TV while a student in UM’s broadcast media program. Her first full-time position after graduating was at KCFW-TV in Kalispell.

She went on to positions at Northwest Cable News in Boise and Seattle; WTIC-TV in Hartford, Conn.; WWJ/WKBD-TV in Detroit; and KGPE-TV in Fresno, Calif., where she was the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. weekday anchor.

Before being named “Up To The Minute” anchor in March 2006, she had been serving as a freelance correspondent for “CBS Newspath” in Washington, D.C. There she covered major news stories, including the nomination of Chief Justice John Roberts and President George Bush’s 2006 State of the Union address.

Oliver’s work has garnered numerous honors, including four Associated Press awards, two Society of Professional Journalists awards and eight Emmy nominations. She lives in New York City with her husband and their young daughter.