Shippensburg University presents lecturer John Quinones, Thursday, February 21, 2013, 8 p.m.

SHIPPENSBURG, PA (January 25, 2013) - Shippensburg University presents accomplished journalist and lecturer, JOHN QUIÑONES for AN EVENING WITH JOHN QUIÑONES, February 21, 2013 at 8 p.m.  Quin᷉ones will speak on the topic of "A 20/20 Vision of Hispanic America," as part of the Shippensburg University H.O.P.E. (Helping Our People Excel) Diversity Scholarship Program.  Reserved tickets are $20 and can be purchased by calling the Luhrs Center Box Office at 717.477.SHOW (7469) or online at luhrscenter.com.

A reception and dinner are offered preceding the lecture.  The reception begins at 4:45 p.m. and takes place in the Orrstown Bank lobby of the Luhrs Center.  The dinner begins at 6 p.m. and takes place in the Tuscarora Room, Reisner Dining Hall, adjacent to the Luhrs Center.  The reception is $80 and includes the dinner and lecture.  The dinner is $55 and includes the lecture.  For tickets to the reception or dinner, call 717.477.1738.  The deadline for the reception and dinner reservations is Monday, February 11.

Quiñones is the Emmy Award-winning co-anchor of ABC's Primetime and has been with the network for nearly 25 years. During his tenure he has reported extensively for ABC News, predominantly serving as a correspondent for Primetime and 20/20.

Quiñones' recent work includes a series of reports entitled What Would You Do? The reports test human nature through hidden camera scenarios. He has also extensively covered a religious sect in northern Arizona that forces its young female members to take part in polygamous marriages. Other recent reports include going undercover with a hidden camera to reveal how clinics were performing unnecessary surgical procedures as part of a major nationwide insurance scam.

Quiñones has won many journalistic awards including an ALMA Award from the National Council of La Raza for his critically acclaimed ABC News special, Latin Beat; a Gabriel Award for his report following a young man to Colombia in his search for his birth mother; a National Emmy Award for his work on the ABC documentary Burning Questions: The Poisoning of America; a World Hunger Media Award and a Citation from the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards for To Save the Children; and seven National Emmy Awards for his Primetime Live, Burning Questions, and 20/20 work. He also contributed reports to ABC News' unprecedented, 24-hour, live, global millennial broadcast, which won the George Foster Peabody Award. Among his other prestigious awards were the First Prize in International Reporting and the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for his piece on Modern Slavery: Children Sugar Cane Cutters in the Dominican Republic.

Quiñones joined ABC News in June 1982 as a general assignment correspondent based in Miami, providing reports for World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and other ABC News broadcasts. He was one of the few American journalists reporting from Panama City during the US invasion in December 1989. Before joining ABC News, Quiñones was a reporter with WBBM-TV in Chicago. He won two Emmy Awards for his 1980 reporting on the plight of illegal aliens from Mexico. From 1975 to 1978, Quiñones was a news editor at KTRH radio in Houston, Texas. During that period, he also was an anchor-reporter for KPRC-TV.

Quiñones is also author of the book Heroes Among Us: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Choices, chronicling the bravery of ordinary people who perform heroic acts of humanity.

Quiñones received a Bachelor of Arts degree in speech communications from St. Mary's University, San Antonio, Texas. He received a master's degree from the Columbia School of Journalism.

For lecture tickets and information, call the Luhrs Center Box Office at 717.477.SHOW (7469) or visit the Luhrs Center website at luhrscenter.com. For reception and dinner tickets call 717.477.1738.

About the H.O.P.E. Scholarship

The Shippensburg University Helping Our People Excel (H.O.P.E.) Scholarship provides academically talented and financially deserving students with the opportunity to receive the high-quality education synonymous with Shippensburg University.  The scholarship fund was established in March 1983 as the Gifted Minority Student Scholarship Fund.  It is through the generosity of alumni, faculty, staff, and friends and investments made by the Shippensburg University Foundation that this endowment has steadily grown over the last 30 years, providing scholarship support to 20 student scholars.

About the H. Ric Luhrs Performing Arts Center at Shippensburg University

The mission of the H. Ric Luhrs Performing Arts Center at Shippensburg University is to support and enhance the University's role in academic and cultural enrichment for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Luhrs Center's 1,500-seat state-of-the-art Grove Theatre is where programs to educate, enlighten and entertain are presented. Benefits of the Center to the region include expanding opportunities to participate in a wide range of cultural programming including full-scale Broadway companies, musical groups, symphonies, dance troupes and internationally known speakers. In addition, it adds options for professional training programs, youth programs and senior citizen programs; attracts regional and national business conferences, professional meetings and planning sessions; and additional visitors to the area which will result in a positive impact on the local and regional economy.