Independent Women’s Luncheon October 30, 2008

Organizer: Independence Institute. Kathleen Parker has contributed to more than a dozen newspapers and magazines during her 20 years as a journalist. She began her twice-weekly commentary column in 1987 as a staff writer for The Orlando Sentinel. After entering into syndication in 1995, her column rocketed in popularity and now appears in more than 300 papers nationwide.

Parker’s many awards for her incisive commentary include Best Columnist from the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, and First Place, Division 3 in the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors’ Ninth Annual Writing Awards competition, both in 1997. In 1993, she won the H. L. Mencken Writing Award issued by The Baltimore Sun. The judges praised Parker for “singing another note on the subject of family values and following the tradition of H. L. Mencken in attacking ignorance and stupidity with vividness and originality.”

In addition to her syndicated column, Parker is director of the School of Written Expression at the Buckley School of Public Speaking and Persuasion in Camden, South Carolina. She previously ran her own public relations company and is a past instructor of editorial writing and advanced feature writing at the University of South Carolina College of Journalism and Mass Communications. She is a member of USA Today’s Board of Contributors, writing regularly for the paper’s op-ed page.

Parker’s column focuses on social issues related to family, children and gender. Having grown up in Florida with four stepmothers and a variety of siblings – half-, step- and whole – Parker says, “I know of what I speak.” She lives in Camden, South Carolina with her husband, son and a variety of pets.

Official Website: http://www.i2i.org/main/event.php?event_id=54