96-08-13 Reynolds to Address Summer Graduates at Ohio State

BARBARA REYNOLDS TO ADDRESS SUMMER GRADUATES AT OHIO STATE

     COLUMBUS --  Nationally known journalist and commentator 
Barbara Reynolds will be the commencement speaker for summer 
quarter graduates of The Ohio State University Aug. 29 in St. 
John Arena.  Some 1,900 degrees will be awarded in the 
ceremonies, which begin at 9:30 a.m.

     A native of Columbus, Reynolds was a start-up editor of USA 
Today's Op-Ed page and columnist for eight years.  She is now 
president of Reynolds News Services, which supplies columns and 
commentaries to news organizations including National Public 
Radio, Pacific News Service and various national newspapers.

     A 1967 graduate of Ohio State with a Bachelor of Arts degree 
in journalism, Reynolds worked briefly for the Columbus Call and 
Post before becoming a police reporter for the Cleveland Press in 
1968.  Reynolds became an assistant editor at Ebony magazine 
later that same year.  She joined the staff of the Chicago 
Tribune in 1969, becoming an urban affairs reporter and later the 
newspaper's Washington correspondent, covering the Carter 
Administration's urban policies.

     While at the Tribune, Reynolds began airing regular radio 
commentaries for WBBM-Radio and writing freelance articles for 
such magazines as Essence, Playboy, The New Republic, and Black 
Family.  She cofounded Dollars and Sense, a magazine for African 
American professionals.  As the magazine's international editor, 
Reynolds covered the drought and famine in Ethiopia, the rise of 
the Japanese business class in Tokyo, and the women's liberation 
movement in Italy.

     Four months after the founding of USA Today in 1983, 
Reynolds joined its editorial board and helped launch the Inquiry 
Page, of which she was the editor.  She became a columnist for 
the paper in 1988, writing some 450 columns on subjects including 
the Gulf War, affirmative action, pay equity for women, school 
prayer, and the Supreme Court's decision to knock down majority-
black voting districts.  She left the paper in July.

     A frequent guest on CNN, Reynolds is the author of And Still 
We Rise, 50 Black Role Models, and The Man, the Movement and the 
Myth, which was updated in 1985 under the title Jesse Jackson: 
America's David.  

     As the second black woman to receive a Nieman Foundation 
Fellowship, Reynolds studied constitutional law at Harvard 
University in 1976.  She graduated from Howard University's 
School of Divinity in 1991 and is an ordained minister.  She is 
working on her doctorate at the United Theological Seminary in 
Dayton, Ohio.

     Reynolds is the recipient of the Drum Major Justice Award 
from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the 
President's Award from the National Association of Negro Business 
and Professional Women, Media Women's Award for Outstanding 
Journalism, Ohio State's Office of Minority Affairs Distinguished 
Alumna Award and the University of Missouri's Distinguished 
Service Award in Journalism.

                             #

Contact: Tracy Turner, University Communications, (614) 688-3682.


[Submitted by: Von Reid-Vargas (ereid@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)
               
Tue, 13 Aug 1996 15:20:22 -0400]
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