Friday Luncheon Keynote Speaker
12:00 – 1:30 PM
Wade Goodwyn, NPR National Desk Correspondent
“The Art of Storytelling”
Wade Goodwyn is a NPR National Desk Correspondent covering Texas and surrounding states.
Working for NPR since 1991, Goodwyn has reported on many of the nation’s top stories. He’s covered the implosion of Enron, the trials of Jeff Skilling and Kenneth Lay, and the prosecution of polygamist Warren Jeffs. Goodwyn’s reporting has included the siege of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, and the trials of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols in Denver. He covered the Olympic Games in Atlanta and the school shootings in Paducah, KY, Jonesboro, AR, and Columbine High School in Littleton, CO.
Among his most recent work has been treatment of the wrongful prosecution and conviction of black and Hispanic citizens in Texas and Louisiana. With American and Southwest Airlines headquartered in his backyard, the airline industry is also a subject Goodwyn regularly addresses.
As Texas has moved to the vanguard in national Republican politics, Goodwyn has been at the front line. He has covered the state’s politicians dominating the national stage, including George W. Bush, Tom Delay, and Texas Governor Rick Perry.
In 2013, Goodwyn has done in-depth reporting of the fertilizer explosion in West, Texas, and the impact of the tornado that swept through Moore, Oklahoma, just south of Oklahoma City.
Goodwyn graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in history. His father is well-known historian Lawrence Goodwyn, co-founder of the Duke Oral History Program, and a keynote speaker at the 1990 annual meeting of the Oral History Association.
