“CBS Evening News” executive producer Pat Shevlin is the subject of a lengthy profile in the quarterly magazine of her alma mater, Wellesley College. Shevlin talks about her first glimmer of interest in the news business (after the assassination of John F. Kennedy), how she was hired at CBS (persistence helped) and her goal of being more accessible than previous “Evening News” EPs. The piece also details her relationship with the program’s anchor, Scott Pelley:

In the world of network evening news programs, all of which carry the name of the anchor, Scott Pelley and Pat Shevlin are twinned. CBS News chairman Jeff Fager named Scott Pelley anchor and paired Pat Shevlin with him. For Pelley, it’s a match made in collegial heaven. “We have just meshed perfectly. We share the same values, the same ideals,” he says. “I just cannot imagine a better partner to run this broadcast with. I really wouldn’t want to do this with anybody else.”

Shevlin has also helped him develop his anchoring skills. “She’s my coach,” he says. This is a new role for Pelley. He continues, “I’ve been a correspondent, but I never anchored a local newscast. She taught me how to do it.” More importantly, he says, “In the heat of battle, she’s a cool breeze; she calms everybody down, and calms me down.”

[Photo credit: Richard Howard/Wellesley magazine]

• Former CNBC producer Lulu Chiang has landed at CBS News. Chiang, who had been Maria Bartiromo‘s producer, is joining the “CBS Evening News” as a senior producer/senior booker. Pat Shevlin‘s note to staff announcing the hire is after the jump.

• Anderson Cooper‘s daytime talk show “Anderson” has announced some of the guest-hosts for the new season. Kristen Chenowith will be the first guest co-host, with others including D.L. Hughley, Howie Mandel and Goldie Hawn. THR has more details.

• FBN partnered with NYSE Euronext on this year’s CEO report. As part of the deal, Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer will be on FBN at 6 PM to talk about the report, which compiles data culled from interviews with top CEOs about the global economy.

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Longtime CBS News executive Lane Venardos was fondly remembered Wednesday in a moving service at the Paley Center in New York City.

Venardos who died August 19 at his home in Maui, spent 30 years at CBS News producing live news, special events and documentaries. He would go on to produce the “Survivor” live finales for Mark Burnett on CBS.

More than 200 luminaries from across the television industry attended the memorial, including CBS News chairman Jeff Fager, News president David Rhodes; Charles Osgood, Scott Pelley, Bob Schieffer, Lesley Stahl, and Rita Braver; current “CBS Evening News” EP Pat Shevlin, CBS News VP Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews (who currently has the job Venardos once held) and “Sunday Morning” EP Rand Morrison.

Also Diane Sawyer, now with ABC News, who worked with Venardos during her time at CBS and from NBC: Brian Williams, News president Steve Capus and former CBSer, now EP of “Rock Center” Rome Hartman, were there, as was former CBS News president Andrew Heyward. ABC’s “This Week” EP Rick Kaplan, and former “GMA” boss Jim Murphy, both former CBS Newsers, attended.

Former CBS News and CBS, Inc. president Howard Stringer, who worked closely with Venardos during his years at CBS and who is now CEO of Sony, spoke via video. Other speakers included Pelley, Stahl, Williams and Venardos’s daughter Kelly who is a producer for “NBC Nightly News.” CBS News “48 Hours” EP Susan Zirinsky presented a video tribute (after the jump). The service concluded with a vocal solo performed by Venardos’s son, Kevin.

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Tonight at 6:30 PM ET, Scott Pelley will make his debut as the anchor of the “CBS Evening News.”

It is only fitting that on the same day that the last anchor of the “CBS Evening News” made her next move official, a new era for the program begins.

Behind the Scenes however, there are some other changes coming to the newscast–changes that reflect the current state of network news divisions–but also ones that viewers at home probably won’t notice.

The new executive producer of the newscast, Pat Shevlin, raised some eyebrows during a staff meeting in late May. Shevlin–who had been EP of the weekend edition of the program, told staffers that she wants to have more pieces for the weekday newscast shot by producers.

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