CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien will provide the keynote address at the 2009 NCAA Convention in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, January 14, at noon in the Gaylord National.

O’Brien has covered a variety of stories since joining CNN and was part of the groundbreaking “CNN Presents: Black in America,” investigating the life for black America 40 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. She also covered Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami in Phuket, Thailand.

She has received many awards honoring her work, including the NAACP President’s Award, the Hispanic Heritage Vision Award and the National Urban League Women of Power award. She won an Emmy for co-hosting The Know Zone on Discovery Channel.

A graduate of Harvard, O’Brien worked in television news in Boston and San Francisco before joining MSNBC. She stayed with the NBC family until she moved to CNN in July 2003.