Baldwin City ? Cokie Roberts, an ABC News political commentator and a senior news analyst for National Public Radio, will deliver the keynote address at Baker University’s 150th Convocation at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Rice Auditorium.

“She seemed like a perfect fit for Baker’s convocation because of her journalism background, and Baker has an award-winning journalism program,” said Steve Rottinghaus, public relations director at the university.

Rottinghaus said Roberts is a great choice because she can talk about many different topics, including women’s issues, health and politics.

“She should appeal to a wide audience,” he said.

Roberts also is speaking as part of the Loreine Collins Dietrich Distinguished Lecture Series.

“There’s money set aside to bring in distinguished speakers,” Rottinghaus said.

Past speakers brought to campus as part of the lecture series include President Gerald Ford, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Vice President Dick Cheney, United Nations Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick and newspaper columnists William J. Buckley Jr. and George Will.

Tuesday’s event is free and open to the public.

From 1996 to 2002, Roberts was co-anchor of “This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts” on ABC News. She reported for “World News Tonight” and other ABC News broadcasts covering politics, Congress and public policy.

Roberts has been in broadcasting for more than 30 years and has won numerous honors and awards, including two Emmy Awards. She is in the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and cited by the American Women in Radio and Television as one of the 50 greatest women in the history of broadcasting. She won the William Allen White Foundation’s national citation at Kansas University in 2002.

She and her husband, Steven V. Roberts, write a weekly newspaper column and are contributing editors to USA Magazine. Their book, “From This Day Forward,” is a New York Times bestseller that discusses their more than 35-year marriage and other marriages in American history. She is also the author of the bestseller “We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters” and “Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised the Nation.”

Roberts spoke at the commencement of her alma mater, Wellesley College, in 1994.