Rowan to welcome 'New York Times' columnist and author Gail Collins

New York Times columnist and best-selling author Gail Collins will discuss her work as a pioneering journalist in a talk at Rowan University on Tuesday, April 27, at 11 a.m. in the Eynon Ballroom of the Chamberlain Student Center.

The lecture, which is part of the President's Lecture Series, is free and open to the public. Her talk is sponsored by Rowan's Women's & Gender Studies Program.

The first woman ever appointed editor of the editorial page of The New York Times, Collins is the author of four books, including When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to Present. The book examines a time of cataclysmic change in the lives of American women.

Her other books include: America's Women, Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity and American Politics, and The Millennium Book, which she co-authored with her husband, writer Dan Collins.

Known for her "sly wit and unfussy style," Collins was appointed editor of the editorial page of the Times in 2001 after joining the newspaper's editorial board in 1995. She has been a Times columnist since 2007.

Before joining the Times, Collins worked for New York Newsday, the New York Daily News and United Press International. She founded the Connecticut State News Bureau (CSNB), which provided coverage of Connecticut politics and the state capitol. When she sold the news service in 1977, the CSNB was the largest news service of its kind, with more than 30 daily and weekly newspaper chains.

The Presidential Lecture Series brings prominent speakers to campus for talks on topics ranging from education and science to history and politics. Past speakers have included, among others, Cornel West, Stephen Jay Gould, Jonathan Kozol, Scott Sagan, Sergei Khrushchev, and Dan Rather.

For information on the lecture series, visit http://www.rowan.edu/events/lectureseries.