CNN Expert to Discuss Africa during IUPUI Visit

INDIANAPOLIS – Close on the heels of the G8 summit and the naming of Bono and Bill and Melinda Gates as people of the year by Time magazine for their work in Africa, IUPUI will welcome Salih Booker, executive director of Africa Action, to campus on Feb. 15. Booker is a regular guest on CNN International, contributor to The Washington Post, New York Times and other print media, and consultant to the United Nations.

The talk will be held from noon to 1 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2006, in Cavanaugh Hall, Room 508, 425 University Blvd.

Africa Action is the oldest organization in the United States working on African affairs. Based in Washington D.C., the organization educates and mobilizes Americans and others to build positive U.S. and international policies toward Africa and supports African struggles for human rights and democracy, peace, security and development.

Booker has served as a professional staff member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the U.S. Congress and as a program officer for the Ford Foundation in Eastern and Southern Africa. He was also an associate director for the Catholic Relief Services' Southern Africa Office and a legislative assistant for TransAfrica.

He was educated at Wesleyan University, the University of Ghana, and the London School of Economics and Political Science.  During the past 22 years, Booker has traveled to and worked in almost half of Africa 's 54 countries. He lived in Ghana, Kenya and Zimbabwe during 10 of those years.

Booker's visit is sponsored by the IUPUI Committee on African-American and African Studies, the IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI, Giving Back Africa, RESULTS, African Studies Program, IU Student Groups, Department of Political Science, Office of International Programs, Office of Institutional Development & Student Affairs, and Workshop on Political Theory & Analysis.

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Note to editors, reporters, photographers : For additional information, or to schedule an interview, contact Una Okonkwo Osili, uosili@iupui.edu, (317) 278-7129.