Award-winning former CNN journalist and news executive Parisa Khosravi will speak at 7 p.m. March 25, as part of the Berry College Cecil B. Wright III Integrity in Leadership lecture series.

Her lecture “Compassion and Integrity in Leadership,” will be in the Krannert Ballroom and is free and open to the public.

Khosravi has more than three decades of experience as a member of the CNN team. She served as CNN’s senior vice president of international newsgathering, national news gathering, global relations and the first ever ambassador for CNN Worldwide. She played a vital role in historic coverage of countless award-winning news stories including Tiananmen Square, the live coverage of both Iraq Wars, the Fall of the Eastern Bloc and 9/11.

Her perspective has evolved throughout the years as an immigrant, a journalist and a mother. She didn’t just cover revolutions, she lived through one personally and experienced her own life change dramatically after the 1979 revolution in Iran. She leads with compassion and integrity earning the nickname of “Mother Parisa” to many of her colleagues. She lives by the motto: you never know what is inside someone until you give them a chance.

In addition, Khosravi oversaw The CNN Freedom Project, an award-winning, multi-platform initiative that aimed to expose the horrors of modern-day slavery and push for change, as well as numerous other CNN global initiatives such as girls’ education. She directed CNN’s largest investment in international newsgathering in its history and strategically increased the number of bureaus around the world helping to place new operations in emerging global centers and in the Middle East.

Khosravi has won a duPont and been nominated for an Emmy. She also led the network’s Peabody and Emmy Award-winning coverage of the conflicts through the Middle East and North Africa. Her bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism is from Columbia College in Chicago and she studied French at the Université de Sorbonne in Paris. 

The Cecil B. Wright III Integrity in Leadership Lecture Series is named for Berry alumnus and trustee Cecil B. "Buster" Wright III in honor of his role as a force behind the Berry Center for Integrity in Leadership and its mentoring program, his financial commitments and his personal character.