Join alumna and former Vice DC Bureau Chief and Correspondent Shawna Thomas ’06 for a preshow discussion of the VP debate focused on the importance of debates during an election, especially this current one. Thomas will highlight the impact of Senator Kamala Harris’s nomination, the first woman of color ever to be nominated by a major political party, and how that could play a role in the vice presidential debate.

Shawna Thomas is a content development executive for Quibi, primarily developing short-form news programming with NBC News, CBS News and BBC News for the new mobile platform, which launched in April of 2020. She is also a political contributor for NBC News and MSNBC.

Previously she was the Washington, DC bureau chief for VICE News and oversaw politics and DC-based policy coverage for VICE News Tonight on HBO. Thomas spearheaded the show’s major political stories including groundbreaking coverage of the Alabama special election and the 2018 midterms. She won an Emmy for the show’s coverage of the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearing where Christine Blasey Ford testified. Thomas was also a senior producer on VICE News Tonight’s “Charlottesville: Race and Terror.”

Presented by USC Annenberg this Fall as we continue our #BALLOT2020 series, presented in partnership with the USC Center for the Political Future (CPF) and Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy (CCLP).

RSVP