MAR 11, 2014 PROGRAM:
Under-told Stories: Making the Foreign Less Foreign
Fred de Sam Lazaro is director of the Project for Under-Told Stories, a program that combines international journalism and teaching, and a Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Hendrickson Institute for Ethical Leadership at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, in the Twin Cities and Winona, Minnesota.
He has served with The NewsHour since 1985 and is a regular contributor and substitute anchor for PBS' Religion and Ethics Newsweekly. He also has directed films from India and the Democratic Republic of Congo for the acclaimed documentary series, Wide Angle.
Fred has reported from 55 countries: from Haiti to sub-Saharan Africa to south Asia, he has focused on stories that are under-reported in the mainstream U.S. media. In addition to regularly covering AIDS, public health concerns, development issues and social entrepreneurship, he led the first American crew to report on the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region.
Fred is the recipient of two honorary doctorates, numerous journalism awards and media fellowships from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the University of Michigan. He is a trustee at the College of St Scholastica, in Duluth, MN, his alma mater. He serves on the board of Minnpost, an online non-profit Minnesota based news service and also has served on the boards of the Asian American Journalists Association and the Children's Law Center of Minnesota. Fred was born in Bangalore, India and lives in St. Paul. He is married and has three children.