Author Greg Mortenson to Speak at Samford

Greg Mortenson, co-author of the New York Times best-seller “Three Cups of Tea” and a founder of Central Asia Institute and Pennies for Peace educational charity, will speak at Samford University on April 11 as the inaugural speaker in the Thomas and Marla Corts Distinguished Author Series.

The 7 p.m. event in Wright Center Concert Hall will benefit Samford’s Orlean Bullard Beeson School of Education and Professional Studies. The author will hold a book signing after the lecture. Mortenson has established or supports 171 schools in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. They provide education to more than 68,000 children, including 54,000 girls, where few educational opportunities existed before.

“Three Cups of Tea” has sold more than 4 million copies in 45 countries and has been a Times best seller for more than 186 weeks. In the book, Mortenson and journalist David Oliver Relin recount the journey that led Mortenson to successfully bring education and hope to remote communities in Central Asia.

The new lecture series honors the late Thomas Corts, who was president of Samford for 23 years, and his wife, Marla, who has supported a Christian school in Africa that bears her name for almost two decades.

For tickets, go to www.samford.edu/wrightcenter or call 205-726-4343.