Journalist Celeste Headlee speaks at ASU

ALBANY — Albany State University welcomed award-winning journalist Celeste Headlee on campus Monday. Headlee was the first to speak in ASU’s Community Speaker Series, and her segment was entitled “Through the Glass Ceiling: Women and Leadership.”

Headlee is the host of the Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) daily news talk show “On Second Thought.” She has also appeared on NPR, PBS World, CNN, BBC and other international networks. Headlee is author of the book “Heard Mentality: An A to Z Guide to Taking Your Radio Show or Podcast from Idea to Hit.”

In front of a packed auditorium in ASU’s James Pendergrast Memorial Library, Headlee had a very candid conversation with students about the importance of hard work, especially in the early stages of one’s career, as well as the harsh reality of gender equality in the work place.

Headlee is also a classically trained soprano and the granddaughter of notable black composer William Grant Still. She told the ASU audience that music was actually her first love but journalism pays the bills. Headlee has performed her grandfather’s music in concerts and recitals, across the country for more than 15 years and has given lectures on his music for high schools and universities.

She is also the editor of the second edition of the book “William Grant Still and the Fusion of Cultures in American Music,” for which she compiled the first complete thematic catalog of Still’s works.

While her fields may have changed, she said she’s always stuck to her mission, which was “reaching people and moving people through the power of my voice.”

After her address, Headlee spoke and took pictures with several students and faculty members. She said that giving back to the next generation has always been one of her priorities.

“It’s always been important to me,” she said. “I wouldn’t be where I was if people weren’t generous with their time and their knowledge. It’s never going to stop being important to me.”

Florence Lyons, coordinator of the ASU Speech and Theatre division and the community speaker series organizer, was thrilled at the turnout for Headlee’s address and said she hopes the series can continue to grow in the future.

“There is a thirst for this type of thing on our campus, and I am so proud that they came out and supported this first speaker in our series,” she said.

Lyons added that it is equally important and beneficial for both genders to see women in leadership positions, as many of the students head into the work force soon.

“I think it is so important,” she said. “So many times female leaders are overlooked in our society, and I just wanted to highlight the importance of it and make sure the female students at Albany State have a role model in addition to the role models they already have.”