CNN Journalist Anderson Cooper, Red Sox Manager Bobby Valentine to Appear at 2012 Speaker Series

On April 24, investigative journalist, author and CNN television host Anderson Cooper, above left, will speak at the

O'Keefe Center, followed on Nov. 8 by Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine, above right. Cooper has earned America's trust

as a journalist whose reports reveal the depth of his research and capture both the humanity—and inhumanity—of man.

Valentine, who replaced Terry Francona in Dec. 2011, is the 45th manager of the Red Sox and has distinguished himself by

leading the New York Mets to a 97-66 record, as well as with a World Series appearance in 1999. Valentine eventually

turned his sights to sports journalism, making his broadcast debut as a baseball analyst for ESPN during the 2009 American

and National League Championship Series and World Series. He'll be joined on stage by noted sportswriter and baseball

journalist Peter Gammons, a three-time recipient of the National Sportswriter of the Year Award, voted annually by the

National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.