PHOENIX (AP) -- Arizona State University is awarding its 2019 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism to Lester Holt, news anchor for NBC.

Holt has anchored NBC's flagship "Nightly News" broadcast since 2015, following eight years as anchor of the newscast's weekend edition and 12 years as co-anchor of "Weekend Today."

The university's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication announced Tuesday that Holt will receive the award Nov. 4 in Phoenix.

Cronkite Dean Christopher Callahan called Holt "a fantastic role model for our students and all journalists for his insightful, caring, fact-based journalism and stories that focus on the impact of major news events on everyday Americans."

The school was named in Cronkite's honor in 1984. The famed CBS News anchor died in 2009.