Little more than a week before important presidential primaries in the neighboring battleground state of Ohio, National Public Radio (NPR) and Fox News political analyst Juan Williams will present "American Leadership: Stories of Inspiration and Power Behind Proven Leaders" at 7 p.m. Feb. 25 in Pruis Hall on the Ball State campus.

Williams' views are informed by more than three decades of almost constant contact with American political leaders from the president to members of Congress and the Supreme Court, first as a White House reporter and editorial writer for The Washington Post and later as host of NPR's national call-in show "Talk of the Nation" from 2000 to 2001. He currently is senior national correspondent for NPR, contributing monthly pieces to the radio network's popular programs "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" as well as "Talk of the Nation."

In 1997, Williams signed on as a political analyst and commentator with the Fox News Channel, where as the "resident liberal" he is a regular panelist on the Sunday morning public affairs broadcast Fox News Sunday.

Williams also has written several documentaries that aired on PBS. He received a national Emmy Award for 1989's "From Riot to Recovery," which he followed with "Politics - The New Black Power" (1990) and "A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom" (1996), a biography of the black labor leader and Socialist Party activist-candidate.

In addition to his many articles for national magazines such as Fortune, The Atlantic Monthly, Ebony and The New Republic, Williams is the author of six books, including "Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965" (the 1987 companion volume to the critically acclaimed PBS television series); "Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary" (1998); and "This Far by Faith: Stories of the African American Religious Experience" (2003).  His latest effort is "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America - and What We Can Do About It" (2006).

He is a 1976 graduate of Haverford College with a degree in philosophy.

Co-sponsored by Ball State's Excellence in Leadership program, the College of Communication, Information, and Media, the Office of Student Life's Week of Action and the National Association of Black Journalists, Williams' presentation is free and open to the public.