Knox College announced today that Emmy Award-winning journalist and 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker will be the speaker at the 2015 Commencement exercises to be held in June. During his 30-year career with CBS News, Whitaker has covered nearly all of the country's major news stories, including three presidential campaigns; turned out feature stories and profiles on compelling national figures, including First Lady Michelle Obama; and served as a foreign correspondent, covering Japan's Fukishima nuclear disaster among other notable stories.

Bill Whitaker began his career at CBS News in 1984 as a reporter based in Atlanta where he covered the 1988 presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis and received an Emmy for his reports on the collapse of Jim and Tammy Bakker's television ministry. He then spent three years as a CBS News Tokyo correspondent, developing an impressive portfolio as a foreign correspondent. His coverage included stories throughout Asia, including the pro-democracy uprising in Tiananmen Square. He was also in Baghdad for the build-up to Desert Storm.

In 1992, Whitaker's career took him to Los Angeles, where he reported regularly for the CBS Evening News and other CBS News broadcasts, including Sunday Morning, turning out feature stories and thoughtful profiles. His most notable profiles included Barbra Streisand, Norman Lear, Gladys Knight, and Mike Tyson. Highlights of his career include interviews with First Lady Michelle Obama and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and international coverage of the funeral of Nelson Mandela, the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, the Haiti earthquake, and the early stages of the war in Afghanistan. In addition, he was the lead reporter covering the 2000 George W. Bush presidential campaign, and he covered Mitt Romney's presidential campaign in 2008. In spring 2014, he joined 60 Minutes, television's most watched news program, as a correspondent.

Whitaker graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges with a bachelor's degree in American history and from Boston University with a master's degree in African-American studies. He also attended the Master of Journalism program at the University of California, Berkeley.

The 2015 Knox College Commencement will be held on Sunday, June 7, at 10:00 a.m. on the South Lawn of Old Main on the Knox College campus. It is free and open to the public.