Bridgewater College to welcome lecture by NPR journalist Celeste Headlee

Award-winning journalist and public radio host Celeste Headlee will present an endowed lecture at Bridgewater College on Wednesday, Nov. 13, at 7:30 p.m. in Cole Hall.

Headlee’s lecture will provide 10 science-based communication lessons on how to have better conversations, particularly in the wake of the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

Headlee is best known for her 20 years in public radio, including as host of NPR programs “Tell Me More,” “Talk of the Nation,” “Here & Now,” “All Things Considered” and “Weekend Edition.” She continues to appear on “Here & Now” as a guest host.

The endowed lecture is based on Headlee’s 2015 TED Talk “10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation,” which has since garnered more than 36 million views and ranks as one of the top 25 most popular TED Talks. Headlee continued encouraging better conversational skills in her book “We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter,” winner of the 2017 Silver Nautilus Award in Relationships & Communication and was ranked as one of NPR’s Best Books of 2017.

Headlee is president and lead trainer of the non-profit Headway DEI, which offers training on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. She also serves on the board of directors for the National Center for Race Amity, a non-profit that promotes interracial connections and partnerships.

Headlee earned a bachelor’s degree from Northern Arizona University and a master’s degree from the University of Michigan. She was named a fellow of the USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalist Program in 2011, and her journalistic work has been recognized with multiple awards, including from the Associated Press and the Society of Professional Journalists.

The endowed lecture is sponsored by the Anna B. Mow Symposium on Comparative Religious Ethics, the W. Harold Row Symposium on Reconciliation and the Harry W. and Ina Mason Shank Peace Studies Endowment, and is co-presented by BC’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and the event begins at 7:30 p.m. The format for the event is a traditional lecture with a Q&A. The event is free and open to the public.

Founded in 1880, Bridgewater College is a private, four-year liberal arts college in the Central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Bridgewater College is home to approximately 1,450 students pursuing degrees in more than 60 undergraduate majors and minors and four graduate programs housed within three distinct schools.