Our Friday afternoon, September 27, 2013, the NAFUSA conference will feature Michael Isikoff as the luncheon speaker at the JW Marriott in Washington, DC.

Isikoff is the national investigative correspondent for NBC News,  specializing in in national security and law enforcement issues. He has been a lead reporter for the network on the Boston Marathon bombing, the Newtown shooting massacre, the Penn State sex abuse scandal, and other major national stories. He has appeared frequently on NBC Nightly News, the Today show, Morning Joe, the Rachel Maddow Show, and many other MSNBC shows.

Isikoff is the author of two New York Times best-selling books: “Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War,” co-written with David Corn, and “Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter’s Story,” which chronicled his own reporting of the Monica Lewinsky story. A one hour MSNBC documentary  based on Hubris aired in Feb. 2012 and was the highest rated documentary on the network in a decade.

Prior to joining NBC News, Isikoff was  a national investigative correspondent for Newsweek magazine where his work earned multiple awards, including two National Magazine Awards. In  2009, Isikoff was named on a list of the 50 “Best and Most Influential Journalists” in the nation’s capital by Washingtonian magazine.

Isikoff came to Newsweek from The Washington Post, where he had been a reporter since September 1981. Isikoff graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a B.A. in 1974 and received a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in 1976.

This year’s NAFUSA conference will be held at the JW Marriott in Washington, DC, September 26-28, 2013. Click on the “Conferences” link above for more information and for a list of speakers and their bios and a list of this year’s sponsors.

NAFUSA had a block of rooms available at the JW Marriott at a special conference rate or $264 a night. The conference rate, however, was only available until September 9, 2013. You can, however, call the hotel to check on availability.

NAFUSA members from the Reagan and Bush I administrations attending this year’s NAFUSA conference in Washington will gather on Friday evening, September 27, for a reunion dinner at the United States Supreme Court. This very special event was put together by Past President Bill Lutz, who made the arrangements through the office of Justice Alito, shown right, who has promised to try to attend at least a portion of the dinner. Justice Alito is a member of this reunion class, having served as the Reagan appointed United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey 1987-1990

Lutz has sent out an invitation to members of the Reagan-Bush I class. If you are a member and did not receive an invitation, contact Lutz at 575-526-2448 or wlutz@questoffice.net. The Friday night reunion dinners have become a NAFUSA tradition and it is expected that other classes will also be announcing plans soon.

Pete Williams has joined Ted Olson on the NAFUSA panel on the Supreme Court to be held on Saturday morning, September 27, 2013. Williams is an NBC News correspondent based in Washington. He has been covering the Justice Department and the U.S. Supreme Court since March 1993.

Prior to joining NBC, Williams served as a press official on Capitol Hill for many years. In 1986 he joined the Washington staff of then Congressman Dick Cheney as press secretary and a legislative assistant. In 1989, when Cheney was named assistant secretary of defense, Williams was appointed assistant secretary of defense for public affairs. While in that position, Williams was named Government Communicator of the Year in 1991 by the National Association of Government Communicators.

A native of Casper, Wyoming and a graduate of Stanford University, Williams was a reporter and news director at KTWO-TV and Radio in Casper from 1974 to 1985. Working with the Radio-Television News Directors Association, for which he served as a member of its board of directors, he successfully lobbied the Wyoming Supreme Court to permit broadcast coverage of its proceedings and twice sued Wyoming judges over pre-trial exclusion of reporters from the courtroom. For these efforts, he received a First Amendment Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, shown left, is reportedly resigning to become the president of the University of California university system.

Napolitano has led DHS from the beginning of the Obama administration. She has also served as the United States Attorney for the District of Arizona and the governor of the state. She was the keynote speaker at NAFUSA’s Santa Fe conference in 2011.