UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter who has also been part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning local reporting team will present a free public lecture and participate in a question-and-answer session on Oct. 7 at part of the Foster-Foreman Conference of Distinguished Writers.
The session begins at 6 p.m. in 162 Willard Building at Penn State University Park.
M.L. Elrick is the “On Guard” government watchdog columnist at the Detroit Free Press, who hosts a weekly podcast and teaches investigative reporting at Michigan State University.
Elrick was one of the lead reporters in the effort that led to the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in local reporting. The award was for the “uncovering of a pattern of lies by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick that included denial of a sexual relationship with his female chief of staff, prompting an investigation of perjury that eventually led to jail terms for the two officials.”
A former TV news contributor to the Fox affiliate in Detroit, Elrick is a co-author of "The Kwame Sutra: Musings on Lust, Life and Leadership from Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.” He is also the founder and director of the independent nonprofit student investigative reporting program “Eye On Michigan.”
Elrick’s public session in part of a three-day visit to Penn State, when he’ll be working with faculty members and students in smaller settings as well.
The Foster-Foreman Conference was designed to bring students together with standout journalists who could serve as role models in the profession.
Made possible by a gift from Penn State alumni Larry and Ellen Foster, the conference was initially named in their honor and then renamed in 2011 to honor Gene Foreman, the Penn State faculty member who directed the event from its inception in 1999 until his retirement in 2006.
Larry Foster, who died in October 2013, was a Penn State Distinguished Alumnus and Lion’s Paw Medal recipient who retired in 1990 as vice president of public relations at Johnson & Johnson.
An author himself, he published “Robert Wood Johnson: The Gentleman Rebel” in 1999. Foster served on the Penn State Board of Trustees from 1980 to 1989 and was president of the Alumni Association and the Penn State Fund Council. Before joining Johnson & Johnson, he was a reporter, bureau chief and night editor of the Newark News in New Jersey. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Penn State in 1948. Ellen (Miller) Foster has, along with her late husband, been committed for many years to philanthropy at Penn State. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University in 1949.
Foreman joined Penn State in 1998 after retiring from the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he managed newsroom operations for more than 25 years under various titles — managing editor, executive editor and deputy editor. During his tenure, the Inquirer won 18 Pulitzer Prizes.
At Penn State, he was the Larry and Ellen Foster Professor from 1999 until his retirement from full-time teaching in December 2006. He taught courses in news editing, news media ethics and newspaper management. In 2003, Foreman received two awards for excellence in teaching in the Bellisario College — the Alumni Society Award and the Deans' Excellence Award. In 2013, the Alumni Society gave him the first Douglas A. Anderson Contributor Award in recognition of his work on behalf of the Bellisario College.