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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
SENATOR GEORGE MITCHELL In 2009, President Obama appointed Sen. Mitchell as Special Envoy for the Middle East, a post he held for more than 2 years. At the request of President Clinton, Prime Minister Barak, and Chairman Arafat, Senator Mitchell served as chairman of an International Fact Finding Committee on violence in the Middle East. The committee's recommendation, widely known as The Mitchell Report, was endorsed by the Bush administration, the European Union, and by many other governments.
Senator Mitchell also served as chairman of the Peace Negotiations in Northern Ireland. Under his leadership, the governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom and the political parties of Northern Ireland agreed to the historic Good Friday peace accord.
In 1980, he was appointed to the United States Senate from Maine to complete the un-expired term of Senator Edmund S. Muskie, who resigned to become Secretary of State. He was elected to a full term in the Senate in 1982, and reelected in 1988. He left the Senate in 1995 as the Senate Majority Leader, a position he had held since January 1989.
Senator George J. Mitchell was born and raised in Waterville, Maine and graduated from Waterville High School, Bowdoin College, and Georgetown University Law Center. He served as United States Attorney for Maine, and as United States District Court Judge for Maine.
RENEE MONTAGNE Renee Montagne is co-host of NPR's Morning Edition, the most widely heard radio news program in the U.S. Montagne is a familiar voice on NPR, having reported and hosted various programs since the mid-1980s. She hosted All Things Considered with Robert Siegel for two years in the late 1980s, and previously worked for NPR's Science, National and Foreign desks. In addition to the duPont Columbia Award, Montagne has been honored by the Overseas Press Club for her coverage of Afghanistan, and by the National Association of Black Journalists for a series on Black musicians going to war in the 20th century. Montagne graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, as a Phi Beta Kappa. Her career includes serving as a fellow at the University of Southern California with the National Arts Journalism Program, and teaching broadcast writing at New York University's Graduate Department of Journalism.