Planned Guest Speakers From NBC
Steve Capus, a veteran NBC News producer, is the President of NBC News. He has been the acting chief of the news division since September 2005.
From 2001 to 2005, Capus was executive producer of NBC’s top-rated “Nightly News.” Prior to that, Capus produced Williams’ nightly newscast on MSNBC.
His current job gives him authority over MSNBC. Capus was also briefly in the production ranks at “Today” during the mid-1990s, where he worked under then-executive producer Jeff Zucker. Zucker, president of the NBC Universal Television Group, continues as his boss.
Zucker has said Capus “has great journalistic judgment, the confidence of his colleagues, and a keen understanding of the importance of extending the NBC News brand across new platforms in this ever-evolving digital era.”
A Temple University graduate, Capus worked in local news in Philadelphia before joining NBC News in 1993 as a producer of its overnight news broadcast.
Hoda Kotb was named co-anchor of the fourth hour of “Today” in August 2007. She has also been a "Dateline NBC" correspondent since April 1998 and the host of the weekly syndicated series "Your Total Health" since September 2004.
In her nine years at NBC, Kotb has covered a wide variety of domestic and international stories. Most recently, she covered the aftermath and one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The story was very personal to Kotb who lived in New Orleans for six years. In addition, she has reported on the war in Iraq, the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and the War on Terror in Afghanistan. Kotb conducted an exclusive interview with Aung San Suu Kyi, an internationally recognized leader of Burma, marking the first time in 11 years that Suu Kyi was interviewed by an American television network.
Kotb traveled to Southeast Asia to cover the devastating effects of the 2004 Tsunami, and she traveled to war-torn Burma, led secretly by rebel soldiers, to report the complete story on 12-year-old twin warriors who were said to have magical powers. Kotb also co-anchored an MSNBC special on race, "Shades of Hope…Shadows of Hate," which was reported from Birmingham, Ala. at the former site of a Klan bombing.
Kotb has received numerous awards, including the 2008 Alfred I. duPont -Columbia University Award and the prestigious Peabody in 2006 for her "Dateline NBC" report "The Education of Ms. Groves." The four-time Emmy nominee also won the 2004 Headliner Award, 2003 Gracie Award and the 2002 Edward R. Murrow Award.
Previously, Kotb worked at WWL-TV, the CBS affiliate in New Orleans, La. where she served as an anchor and reporter for the 10 p.m. news broadcast (1992-98). She was a weekend anchor and reporter for WINK-TV in Fort Myers, Fla (1989-91). Prior to that, Kotb was a morning anchor and general assignment reporter for WQAD-TV, the ABC affiliate in Moline, Ill., and an anchor for WXVT-TV, the CBS affiliate in Greenville, Miss., (1986-89). Kotb began her broadcast career with CBS News as a news assistant in Cairo, Egypt (1986).
Kotb graduated from Virginia Tech University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in broadcast journalism. She resides in New York City.
NBC News Correspondent Bob Dotson has a unique approach. He searches the neglected corners of our country, seeking the extraordinary in ordinary lives.
“Stories only happen to people who are allowed to tell them,” says Dotson. "I look for the kind of guy who may never run for mayor, or go to the moon, or transplant a heart, but whose story may touch a viewer's heart."
His special reports, "American Story with Bob Dotson," are seen on the Today Show and other NBC News programs. He was also the writer and host of “Bob Dotson's America,” a series of half-hour programs on the Travel Channel and the author two books, one for aspiring journalists, "Make it Memorable," (Bonus Books, 2000); the other a memoir, "In Pursuit of the American Dream," (Athenaeum, NY, 1985.) His literary work won the George Washington Honor Medal for excellence.
He has received more than 100 awards for his work in broadcast journalism, including four National Emmys and eight nominations. The Society of Professional Journalists cited Dotson for the “Best Network Feature Reporting of 2004.” The Radio and Television News Directors Association also honored him for "Best Network News Writing.” Dotson’s work has won top journalism awards from the National Press Photographers, Dupont-Columbia and the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation.
His stories have taken him to every state, many times, and around the world. Dotson is an internationally acclaimed documentary producer. His film, El Capitan's Courageous Climbers (NBC Productions,) was the winner of seven International Film and Video Festivals and was awarded documentary's highest honor, the CINE Grand Prize.
Over the years Dotson saved more than six thousand original story tapes, whenever his bosses, looking to save space, tossed them out. He preserved not just the stories themselves, but every field cassette. For three decades, they were maintained at his own expense in air-conditioned rooms -- first in his basement then, as the collection grew, in warehouses.
NBC donated that archive to the Oklahoma Historical Society. All of Dotson’s stories are now available to scholars at the Society's new 64 million dollar museum next to the State Capitol.
Dotson began his broadcasting career at the NBC station in Oklahoma City, WKY-TV (now KFOR-TV,) where he was director of Special Projects. In that post, he produced and directed 19 documentary programs from 1969 until 1975. He joined NBC News in 1975 as a reporter at WKYC-TV, the NBC television station in Cleveland. Two years later, he opened NBC's first news bureau in Dallas from which he covered Central America. In 1979 he moved to the NBC News bureau in Atlanta. In addition to his Today and NBC Nightly News assignments, he also worked on several NBC News magazine programs.
Dotson was born in St. Louis, Mo. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism and political science from Kansas University (1968) and a Master of Science in television and film from Syracuse University (1969) where he was a Graduate Fellow and Outstanding Masters candidate. While attending college, he was a reporter and photographer for KMBC-TV in Kansas City, Missouri and was news director and reporter for KFKU-KANU-FM in Lawrence, Kansas.
Dotson lives in New York City, with his wife, the former Linda Puckett. They have one daughter, Amy.