Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House and Trinity Graduate, Featured in MSNBC Town Hall, Taped at Trinity, Hosted by Joy Reid

Watch the entire program online, any time – click here!

“The Speaker: Nancy Pelosi”, a special MSNBC Town Hall hosted by Joy Reid, was filmed on Trinity’s campus before a live audience of Trinity students, graduates, faculty and staff. The Town Hall was taped on Friday, January 4, 2019, in the morning, and broadcast that same evening. The MSNBC Town Hall was Trinity graduate Nancy Pelosi’s first major television interview after being sworn in as Speaker of the House on Thursday, January 3, 2019. She immediately made headlines in her interview: Read more. 

See Trinity’s own spectacular photo gallery of the event!

Speaker Pelosi is the first and only woman elected Speaker of the House, and the first Speaker re-elected in more than 50 years. She is the most politically powerful woman in U.S. history and revered as one of the most effective Speakers of the House. The interview featured questions from Trinity students on health care, the environment, women’s leadership and more. Speaker Pelosi fielded questions from Joy Reid about the government shutdown, dealing with President Donald Trump, and the hottest topic – impeachment. MSNBC political anlayst Joy Reid is the host of AM Joy on Saturdays, 10 am – 12 noon.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi graduated Trinity in 1962 and selected Trinity for the MSNBC Town Hall because she values her Trinity education and embraces the diverse student population that Trinity serves today.

Founded 122 years ago in 1897 as Trinity College in Washington, D.C. by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Trinity was the nation’s first Catholic liberal arts college for women. Trinity became Trinity Washington University in 2004, and today Trinity enrolls more than 2,000 students in five academic schools for liberal Arts, professional studies, business, nursing and health professions and education.

Trinity continues its historic women’s college, now known as the College of Arts and Sciences, enrolling 1,000 young women who hail largely from the District of Columbia and the Washington region. Trinity’s student body today is predominantly African American and Latina; about 80% of the undergraduate students are eligible for Pell Grants, and about 10% of the undergraduate women are Dreamers, undocumented students with DACA status. About 5% of Trinity students are men enrolled in coed programs in the graduate and professional schools.

Trinity has gained prominence in recent years for success in the education of low income students of color, and has received recognition for this work including the Carnegie Corporation Award for Academic Excellence, grants from the Mellon Foundation, and a major grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for the development of curricula and pedagogy to advance more women of color in the sciences. In 2016 Trinity opened the Payden Academic Center with state-of-the-art laboratories for the sciences and nursing, and pervasive technologies available to all disciplines.

In addition to Speaker Pelosi, well known graduates include Kathleen Sebelius, Class of 1970, who was Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Obama Administration and also elected twice as the governor of Kansas; Barbara Kennelly, Class of 1958, who served as a member of Congress when Nancy Pelosi was first elected to COngress. Both Secretary Sebelius and Congresswoman Kennelly were in the Town Hall audence. Other Trinity graduates inlcued Maggie Williams, Class of 1977, who was chief of staff to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and assistant to President Bill Clinton; Kellyanne Conway, Class of 1989, White House Counselor for the Trump Administration; Susan Flood Burk, Class of 1976, Ambassador for Nuclear Non-Proliferation during the Obama Administration; Rosemary M. Collyer, Class of 1968, presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court; and many other distinguished public leaders.

For more information, contact Ann Pauley, Media Relations, Trinity Washington University, 202-884-9725, pauleya@trinitydc.edu