Steve Inskeep will serve as UMN Morris commencement speaker

Sue Dieter

National Public Radio’s Steve Inskeep has accepted the invitation to serve as the commencement speaker for the University of Minnesota Morris on Saturday, May 13. 

Host of NPR's Morning Edition, as well as NPR's morning news podcast Up First, Inskeep has a passion for stories of the less famous: Pennsylvania truck drivers, Kentucky coal miners, U.S.-Mexico border detainees, Yemeni refugees, California firefighters, American soldiers.

 

A white man with greying hair, smiling, wearing a black suit coat and blue shirt

About the speaker

A native of Carmel, Indiana, Inskeep is a graduate of Morehead State University in Kentucky. He was hired by NPR in 1996. His first full-time assignment was the 1996 presidential primary in New Hampshire. He went on to cover the Pentagon, the Senate, and the 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush. After the Sept. 11 attacks, he covered the war in Afghanistan, turmoil in Pakistan, and the war in Iraq. In 2003, he received a National Headliner Award for investigating a military raid gone wrong in Afghanistan. He has twice been part of NPR News teams awarded the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for coverage of Iraq.  Inskeep is the author of three books: Instant City: Life and Death in Karachi (2011), Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab (2015), and Imperfect Union: How Jessie and John Fremont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity, and Helped Cause the Civil War (2020)

About commencement

Commencement will be held on Saturday, May 13, at 1:30 p.m. on the campus mall. In the event of inclement weather, the ceremony will be held in the Cougar Sports Center. The public is invited to attend the ceremony or to watch it streamed online. Learn more