MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Fox News Channel personality Steve Doocy will be the featured guest Oct. 12 for a department of food science, nutrition and health promotion fundraiser at Mississippi State.

Taking place at the Barnes & Noble at Mississippi State Bookstore, the 11 a.m.-2 p.m. program begins with a reception featuring various creative appetizers by Chef Roland Parny, university coordinator of culinary research and development. The attendance fee is $75.

In addition to Parny's culinary handiworks, the midday program includes a reading by Doocy from his new book, "Tales from the Dad Side: Misadventures in Fatherhood." Participants will receive free copies.

The Emmy Award-winning host of "Fox & Friends"--cable television's No. 1 morning news program--then will take questions from the audience and conclude by signing copies of the 224-page HarperCollins publication.

All proceeds from the MSU event will help support attendance by departmental majors at various academic conferences and seminars throughout the school year.

A University of Kansas journalism graduate, Doocy worked in the news and entertainment divisions of the ABC, CBS and NBC networks before joining Fox. For four years, he was the Times Square reporter on ABC's "Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve" program and, in 2004, helped co-host Fox's "All American New Year."

Over his professional career, Doocy has been honored by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Associated Press and Sigma Delta Chi, the Society of Professional Journalists.

In "Tales from the Dad Side," the father of three provides an intimate glimpse of funny, moving and frustrating experiences he's had as a parent. He also includes personal recollections of his own father and family while growing up in rural Kansas.

Doocy's first book in 2006, "The Mr. and Mrs. Happy Handbook" (William Morrow), became a New York Times best-seller.

Advance registration to the Sunday fundraising event may be completed online at www.fsnhp.msstate.edu/events/stevedoocy.