Speaker series to include Jeff Corwin, Jehan Sadat

 EDINBURG - Television show host and environmental speaker Jeff Corwin and Egypt's former first lady Jehan Sadat are slated to be among the University of Texas-Pan American's Distinguished Speakers for the 2008-2009 school year.

Corwin, producer and host of Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin Experience and Corwin's Quest, will discuss his passion for environmental conservation at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 30, at the university's fine arts auditorium.

The Emmy winner has been working for the conservation of endangered species and ecosystems around the world since he was a teenager. Corwin also lectures on wildlife, ecology and conservation to audiences across the United States. He also established an interactive museum and environmental education center called the EcoZone, according to Animal Planet's biography of him.

Sadat, who was Egypt's first lady from 1970 to 1981 when her husband, Anwar Sadat, was president of that country, will give the series' second speech Nov. 17.

She was the first wife of a Muslim leader to have her picture taken in a newspaper, travel outside her country and take up causes, according to her biography on her Web site.

Today Sadat continues to be an advocate for peace in the Middle East and is involved in women's movements throughout the world. She also is an international studies professor and a senior fellow with the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland.

Speakers are chosen by a student committee who compile a list of possible speakers and seek feedback from the student body.

Students chose Corwin and Sadat because they wanted a wide diversity of speakers that would represent a cross section of student interests, said Van Reidhead, dean of the university's college of social and behavioral sciences.

The students picked Corwin to speak because he would appeal to students interested in the natural sciences, as well as younger, school-aged children who might never have been on a college campus before, Reidhead said.

They chose Sadat because of her first-hand experience with working for peace around the world, he said.

"The students' thinking was very sophisticated," Reidhead said.

The series, in its fifth year, is funded by student activities fees, but the events are free and open to the public. Previous speakers include Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, former CBS Anchorman Dan Rather and screenwriter Antwone Fisher.

For more information, call (956) 316-7989.

 Jennifer L. Berghom covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4462.