Oct. 16, 2014
For Immediate Release

By Joan C. McKinney, news and publications coordinator

CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. - Campbellsville University's Kentucky Heartland Institute for Public Policy (KHIPP) will present a forum on “Elections 2014 and 2015” at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28 in the Banquet Hall of the Badgett Academic Support Center at 110 University Drive, Campbellsville, Ky.

Speakers for the forum include Trey Grayson, president and chief executive officer of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce; Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based at the University of Kentucky, and Ronnie Ellis, state reporter for CNHI Newspapers in Kentucky.

Dr. John Chowning, vice president for church and external relations and executive assistant to the president who founded KHIPP, said, “The upcoming election cycles in 2014 and 2015 promise to be very interesting and important.

“On October 28, the CU Kentucky Heartland Institute on Public Policy is hosting three individuals who bring insight and knowledge of the politics of Kentucky and the United States. We are looking forward to their analysis of what may happen on Nov. 4 in Kentucky and the nation and then looking forward to Kentucky's race for governor and other state constitutional offices in 2015.”

Everyone is invited to the free event.

From 2011 to June 2014, Grayson served as the director of Harvard University's Institute of Politics. While at Harvard, Grayson was known as an expert on the political views of millennials and the role of technology in politics and government.

Prior to his time at Harvard, he was a two-term Secretary of State of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The youngest Secretary of State in the country at the time of his election, Grayson was recognized as a national leader in government innovation, business services, election administration and civic education and served as chair of the Republican Association of Secretaries of States and the president of the National Association of Secretaries of State.

Before entering politics, he was an attorney with the law firms of Greenebaum Doll & McDonald and Keating, Muething & Klekamp.

He received an A.B. in government from Harvard College in 1994 and a JD/MBA from the University of Kentucky in 1998. He lives in Boone County with his wife, Nancy, and his daughters, Alex and Kate.

Cross is also an assistant professor in UK's School of Journalism and Telecommunications. He reported for The Courier-Journal for 26 years, the last 15 1/2 years as chief political writer.

He continues to write a twice-monthly political column for The Courier-Journal.

He is a longtime panelist on Kentucky Education Television's “Comment on Kentucky” and has been a contributor to several books on Kentucky and politics.

He grew up in Albany, Ky., is a graduate of Western Kentucky University, and worked at newspapers in Monticello, Leitchfield and Russellville before establishing The Courier-Journal news bureau at Somerset, which later moved to Bardstown. He and his wife Pam have lived in Frankfort since 1987.

Ellis is state reporter for CNHI Newspapers in Kentucky. He graduated in 1975 from Western Kentucky University with a B.A. in English and journalism.

Ronnie Ellis

He has worked more than 20 years as photographer, reporter and columnist with a couple of stints outside news business working for the Untied Way.

Ellis' work with the Frankfort Bureau of CNHI News Service allows him to cover state government, the General Assembly, politics for Kentucky papers and produce a weekly column.

He was formerly a news reporter for the Glasgow Daily Times for more than 20 years, and he worked briefly for the Henderson Gleaner in the late 1980s. He has won several Kentucky Press association awards for photography, reporting, editorial writing and columns.

Ellis was born in Glasgow, Ky. He has two children, a daughter Scottie, and son Jack.

For more information, contact Chowning at (270) 789-5520 or jechowning@campbellsville.edu.

Campbellsville University is a widely acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university with more than 3,500 students offering 63 undergraduate options, 17 master's degrees, five postgraduate areas and eight pre-professional programs. The website for complete information is campbellsville.edu.