Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times Iraq war correspondent and television news commentator, will deliver a free public lecture on Monday, Oct. 25, at 4:45 p.m. in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium, Kennedy Hall at Cornell University. Gettleman's lecture, titled "From Ithaca to Baghdad," will trace his career as a journalist focusing primarily on his recent experiences in Iraq.

Initially embedded with the U.S. Army during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Gettleman, a 1994 graduate of Cornell, has provided ongoing coverage of the war as part of the New York Times Iraq team and as a commentator for CNN, PBS, NPR and ABC. In April of this year, Gettleman and a freelance photographer were abducted by armed gunmen near Fallujah and held hostage for several hours before being released. He provided continuing coverage of the growing Iraqi resistance to the U.S.-led invasion.

Gettleman graduated from Cornell with a B.A. in philosophy in 1994. He went on to earn a master's degree in social anthropology at Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar. Prior to his work as a war reporter, he was affiliated with the Los Angeles Times , the St. Petersburg Times , and the Financial Times in London.

The lecture is sponsored by the Program on Ethics and Public Life at Cornell. For more information, contact Margaret Nichols in the EPL office at (607) 255-8515.