Rehema Ellis, education correspondent for NBC News, will be the keynote speaker for the 25th annual Celebration for Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., at Bentley University on Tuesday, January 25, 2011, from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m., in the Executive Dining Room in the LaCava Center.

Rehema Ellis joined NBC NEWS in 1994 as a general assignment correspondent. In 2010, she was named education correspondent and was an integral part of NBC's first annual Education Nation summit that focused on the strengths and weaknesses of America's education system. Her reports appear on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, Today, and MSNBC. She is also a digital journalist. In addition to tweeting, Ellis shoots, blogs, writes for NBC online.

Ellis was part of the NBC Emmy award-winning coverage of the plane crash in the Hudson River called, Miracle on the Hudson.  She also won an Emmy for her reporting on the 2008 Presidential Election of Barack Obama and his historic inauguration.

Ellis has been part of other headliner stories including the attacks on the World Trade Center.  She was the first person on the air to identify the attack as "Nine-Eleven." She has reported on Hurricane Katrina, the death of Michael of Jackson and the Haiti earthquake.

As a correspondent for NBC, Ellis traveled to Zaire to report on the mass killings that left an estimated one million people dead in Rwanda.  A few years later, she spent a month in Greece covering the summer Olympics.

Ellis began her broadcast career at KDKA Radio and TV in Pittsburgh.  Later, she worked in Boston at WHDH-TV as a reporter and weekend anchor. She has distinguished herself as a lead correspondent and received numerous awards including local and national Emmys, Edward R. Murrow Awards, Associated Press awards and awards from the National Association of Black Journalists.  She is also a recipient of an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Journalism.

Space is limited for this event and admission is by reservation only.  Register by January 20 to 781.891.3475 or jleccese@bentley.edu.  The event is sponsored by the President's Office, Multicultural Center, Spiritual Life Center, and Alumni Relations.