MUNCIE, Ind.-Emmy-winning television journalist Linda Ellerbee and "The Laramie Project" playwright Moises Kaufman have been added to the list of renowned speakers for UniverCity 2002 at Ball State University.

Also newly confirmed for the weeklong festival Sept. 22-27 are leadership entrepreneur Stedman Graham, U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, award-winning actor and arts educator Eric Booth, international political economist Majid Tehranian and Indianapolis disability access attorney Gregory S. Fehribach.

These keynoters will be featured in events around Muncie during UniverCity 2002. The "Celebrate Community" theme explores cooperation, collaboration and connection in society.

"Through community partnerships, we hope to bring the vision of 'Celebrate Community' to all residents and visitors to Muncie," said UniverCity co-director Lorraine Sinclair. "The theme is broad, but we intend to focus on what is common in all communities-from Muncie to Indiana, the USA, North America and the world."

Other keynoters for UniverCity 2002 include actor Danny Glover and former astronaut Sally Ride, with more world-class scholars, innovators and leaders to be announced this spring.

Details on the latest confirmed speakers:
 

• Linda Ellerbee is an outspoken television journalist who produces, writes and hosts Nickelodeon's "Nick News," the most popular children's TV news program and winner of three Peabody Awards and two Emmys. A breast cancer survivor, she heads Lucky Duck Productions and wrote the best-selling books "And So It Goes" and "Move On" for adults and "Get Real" for middle schoolers.
• Moises Kaufman is founder and artistic director of New York City's Tectonic Theater Project, for which he wrote and directed the award-winning play "Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde." His latest work, "The Laramie Project," focuses on the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard and is being adapted for film. He has earned national honors as an artist in his native Venezuela.
• Stedman Graham is a corporate training and leadership development entrepreneur whose New York Times best sellers "You Can Make It Happen: A Nine-Step Plan for Success" and "Teens Can Make It Happen" explore personal and professional growth. The Ball State alumnus is committed to youth and community, and he founded Athletes Against Drugs and The Leadership Institute of Chicago.
• Billy Collins, U.S. poet laureate for 2001-02, combines high critical acclaim with broad popular appeal unlike any poet since Robert Frost. His work appears in The New Yorker, The Paris Review and The American Scholar, and his last three collections of poems have broken sales records for poetry. People of all ages and backgrounds enjoy him at readings and on National Public Radio.
• Eric Booth is an award-winning actor, artist and teacher whose 20-year career in the theater included Broadway plays such as "Whose Life Is It Anyway?" with Mary Tyler Moore. He wrote "The Everyday Work of Art" and founded the Arts-in-Education Program at the Juilliard School. He also has written books and appeared in major media as a leading analyst of trends among Americans.
• Majid Tehranian is an internationally recognized political economist specializing in Middle Eastern and Asia-Pacific affairs plus issues of culture, communication, development, democracy and peace. He is a professor of international communication at the University of Hawaii and director of the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research. He has written more than 10 books.
• Gregory S. Fehribach is an Indianapolis attorney and a national expert on Americans With Disabilities Act compliance. As an inclusive design and access consultant, the Ball State alumnus' projects include the Conseco Fieldhouse, RCA Dome, Children's Museum of Indianapolis, U.S. Capitol Visitors Center, Fort Wayne's Allen County Memorial Coliseum and Ball State's Emens Auditorium.

For more on UniverCity 2002, visit www.bsu.edu/univercity, call (765) 285-3546 or e-mail univercity@bsu.edu.