Mary Ann Akers is an adjunct professor of journalism with more than 25 years' worth of expertise as a print and broadcast reporter. She was a correspondent for The Washington Post and NPR, and a columnist for Roll Call newspaper. She is now a freelance writer. She has reported on landmark policy legislation, the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, major commercial aviation disasters and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Akers also covered the 2000 presidential recount in Florida, the first presidential inauguration of Barack Obama and the rise of neo-Confederates in the Trump era.