Hudson County Community College Lecture Series to Feature Renowned ABC News Journalist Martha Raddatz, and Award-Winning Actor BD Wong
February 2, 2018
JERSEY CITY, N.J. / February 2, 2018 – The entire Hudson County community is invited to g et firsthand accounts of the careers of an acclaimed global reporter and an award-winning actor as Hudson County Community College (HCCC) concludes its 2017-2018 Lecture Series.
The featured speakers are: ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent and Co-Anchor of ABC’s This Week Martha Raddatz on Thursday, March 8, 2018; and actor BD Wong of HBO’s Oz on Thursday, April 5, 2018. Both events are open to the general public and begin at 6 p.m. Both will be held in the HCCC Culinary Conference Center, 161 Newkirk Street in Jersey City – just two blocks from the Journal Square Transportation Center.
A veteran foreign policy and conflict zone reporter, Martha Raddatz’s career features exclusive coverage – which is also detailed in her bestseller TheLong Road Home: A Story of War and Family – of the Sadr City, Iraq “Bloody Sunday” ambush in 2004 which turned the U.S. mission from peacekeeping to fighting insurgents. She was the only television reporter allowed to cover a 10-hour combat mission in an F-15 fighter jet over Afghanistan in 2004. Her other exclusives include reporting on the discovery of former al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s laptop in 2005, his killing during a U.S. air strike in 2006, and details of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011.
Ms. Raddatz served as ABC News’ Chief White House Correspondent during the second term of President George W. Bush’s administration. She earned Peabody and Emmy awards for her coverage of presidential campaigns and September 11 terrorist attacks. Ms. Raddatz has reported from the Pentagon, the State Department, the White House, as well as Africa, Europe, the former Soviet Union, the Philippines, Haiti, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iraq, and Southeast Asia.
A versatile film and television actor, BD Wong is likely best known as psychiatrist Dr. George Huang on Law & Order: SVU, and as prison priest Father Ray Mukada on HBO’s Oz. He has also appeared in Mr. Robot, Gotham, Jurassic Park, Jurassic World, Father of the Bride, and more than 20 films. In the ambitious one-man musical, Herringbone, he played the roles of nearly a dozen characters at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, McCarter Theatre, and La Jolla Playhouse. Mr. Wong earned Tony, Theatre World, Clarence Derwent, and Drama Desk awards for his work in the Broadway production of M. Butterfly. He produced and directed The Yellow Wood for the NYMF and Cindy Cheung’s “Speak Up for Connie” at the All for One festival. He is currently developing a new musical, Heading East.
Mr. Wong’s memoir, Following Foo: The Electronic Adventures of the Chestnut Man, recounts the highs and lows that he and his former partner endured on the road to parenthood, and the difficult days following the premature birth of his twin boys via surrogate mother. The White House invited him to participate in a conversation on fatherhood and male mentorship. An advocate for the Trevor Project’s “It Gets Better” campaign, Mr. Wong has been honored for his support of the LGBT community at the annual Marriage Equality Gala. He is a recipient of the GLAAD Davidson/Valenti Award.