Barbara Walters to Headline 2014 NACDS Foundation Dinner

PRESS RELEASE

August 4, 2014, Arlington, Va. — Known best for her exclusive interviews with world leaders, primetime specials and daytime television, renowned news correspondent, host and producer Barbara Walters will serve as the keynote speaker for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) Foundation Dinner, which will be held on December 3 in New York City.

In its 16th year, the NACDS Foundation Dinner and contributions from the Foundation’s benefactors help support evidence-based research that advances patient care, pharmacy education, student scholarships, and charitable organizations that improve patient outcomes. “Throughout her career, Barbara Walters has given viewers new perspectives on the fascinating leaders and luminaries she has interviewed,” said NACDS Foundation President Kathleen Jaeger. “Her ability to bring a truly personal approach to the news helped her to emerge as one of the most highly-respected journalists in television history. We are deeply honored that Ms. Walters will serve as the keynote speaker for the NACDS Foundation Dinner this year.”

A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Walters’ television career spans more than five decades. She has interviewed every American President and First Lady since Richard Nixon. Walters made news history by arranging the first joint interview with Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin in November 1977. Another of her “firsts” was an hour-long primetime conversation with Cuban President Fidel Castro -- an interview which has been printed in half a dozen languages and broadcast all over the world.

Walters appeared on NBC’s “Today Show” for 15 years. She began as a writer on the “Today Show,” and within a year became a reporter-at-large, developing, writing and editing her own reports and interviews. In 1963 she became a co-host of the program without the official title, but in 1974 NBC officially designated her as the program’s first female co-host. During this time, Walters was a member of the NBC News team that went to the People’s Republic of China to cover the visits of President Richard Nixon in 1972 and President Gerald Ford in 1975.

In 1976, Walters joined ABC News as the first woman to co-host the network news. Likely most well-known for her career with the ABC network, Walters served as co-host and chief correspondent of ABC News’ “20/20” for 25 years, and today is creator, co-owner, executive producer and co-host of the network’s “The View.”

Walters is also known for her primetime specials, including “The Barbara Walters Specials,” which are still top-rated specials and have included such legends as Sir Laurence Olivier, Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, as well as celebrities such as Betty White, David and Victoria Beckham, and George Clooney.

Her “The 10 Most Fascinating People” special broadcast, launched in 1993, offers a year-end review of the most prominent newsmakers of the year, as well as the selection of the “most fascinating” person.

Through the years she has interviewed such world figures as Russia’s Boris Yeltsin, Chinese Premier Jiang Zemin, Great Britain’s former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Libya’s Moammar Qadaffi and Iraq’s President Sadaam Hussein. She was also the first American journalist to interview Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, and she conducted the first interview with President George W. Bush and the First Lady following the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Walters has received countless awards, distinctions and accolades, including Induction into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame in 1990 “for being acknowledged worldwide as one of television’s most respected interviewers and journalists;” the 2009 Daytime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Talk Show Host” for the View; and receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Walters is also a New York Times best-selling author for her very personal and revealing memoir “Audition,” released in 2008.

For more information, please visit the NACDS Foundation website.