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Alumna's 9/11 story featured in worldwide media

By Amy Lohmann '14
September 9, 2011

Retired New York firefighter Brenda Berkman '73 will share her experiences from September 11, 2001, in a number of newspaper and television stories.

She is featured in the CNN special Beyond Bravery: The Women of 9/11 hosted by Soledad O'Brien, in a "Reporter's Notebook" story about that special, and in an online CNN Money story.

Berkman will also be part of a BBC television special titled Our World: That September Day, and she will be interviewed on BBC radio. She's also been interviewed by daily newspapers in France, Finland, Germany, Sweden, as well as by Euronews.

Her story will also be featured on the Spanish-language network Telemundo and in a book published by Zagat titled 9-11: Stories of Courage, Heroism, and Generosity. Her story is also recounted in a book titled Women at Ground Zero: Stories of Courage and Compassion, and on the website Women You Should Know. Closer to campus, the Richfield, Minnesota, native is featured in a Star Tribune story.

Berkman, the first female firefighter to serve in the New York City Fire Department, lost 343 of her colleagues on 9/11. She now volunteers as a guide at the 9-11 Families Tribute Center and uses art to heal the pain created by the attacks. Some of her work is in The 9-11 Decade: Fourteen Artists Remember and Reflect, an exhibit in lower Manhattan to honor the fallen. The exhibit also includes the work of St. Olaf Associate Professor of Art John Saurer and Technical Supervisor of Art Christie Hawkins.

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.