Seay the Future Podcast: Recent Episodes
George Seay
Seay the Future is a podcast hosted by George Seay a nationally recognized businessman, philanthropist, and civic leader in Dallas, Texas. George interviews influential people in business, politics, academia, the military, and the media. Topics include national security, foreign policy, American history and politics, Texas history and politics, religion, society, and culture. Some of his guests include Admiral Bill McRaven (USA, retired), University of Texas president Jay Hartzell, author Rod Dreher, General Mike Hagee (USMC, retired), political strategist Brendan Steinhauser, former Defense Intelligence Agency officer David Springer, former National Security Council staffer Dr. Will Inboden, author and editor of The Washington Examiner Tim Carney, General T. Michael “Buzz” Moseley (USAF, retired), and Rice University professor Dr. Mark Jones, and many more.
Lyndsay M. Keith co-hosts "The News on Merit Street," a weeknight news program on Merit Street Media, the new network from Dr. Phil McGraw. Previously, she hosted news shows on Trinity Broadcasting Network and Newsmax.
David McCloskey is the author of spycraft thrillers "Damascus Station" and the recently released "Moscow X." He is a former CIA analyst and former consultant at McKinsey & Company, and now, a very accomplished author.
Jennifer Jehl is a life coach who helps high performers create next-level confidence by discovering a deeper identity, so they live a life of clarity and fulfillment. In particular, she assists men understand Biblical masculinity and how to apply the truth in their lives.
Jimmy Abegg is a musician, songwriter, writer, photographer, painter and artist based in Nashville. He was a significant contributor to American contemporary Christian music including being a key member of Rich Mullins' A Ragamuffin Band.
Dr. Lloyd B. Potter was appointed Texas State Demographer on May 5, 2010. He also serves as the director of the Texas Demographic Center housed at The University of Texas at San Antonio. The Texas Demographic Center program produces population estimates and projections for the State of Texas, serves as a data archive for Texas, and offers technical expertise in demographic and socioeconomic research. Dr. Potter holds a Ph.D. in Demography and Sociology from The University of Texas at Austin, a Master of Public Health Degree from Emory University, a Master of Science in Education from the University of Houston at Clear Lake and a Bachelor of Science from Texas A&M University.
Marc Eliot is the New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen books on popular culture, most recently "The Hag: The Life, Times, and Music of Merle Haggard." Other highly acclaimed biographies of Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart, the award-winning Walt Disney: Hollywood’s Dark Prince, Down 42nd Street, Take It from Me (with Erin Brockovich), Down Thunder Road: The Making of Bruce Springsteen, To the Limit: The Untold Story of the Eagles, American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood, and Death of a Rebel. He has written on the media and popular culture for numerous publications, including L.A. Weekly and California Magazine. He divides his time among New York City, Woodstock, New York, and Los Angeles.
Cindy is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter who has won thirteen Dove awards, is a two-time GRAMMY nominee, as well as a recipient of the prestigious Songwriter of the Year trophy. Ms. Morgan has twenty-one #1 CCM hits to her credit. She recently published "The Year of Jubilee," a lyrical coming-of-age novel set against the backdrop of the turbulent South in the early 1960s, her first work of fiction and her fourth book.
Justice Evan Young was appointed to the Supreme Court of Texas in November 2021 by Governor Greg Abbott; he subsequently was elected in November 2022 to a term that expires December 31, 2028. We spoke about the importance of the judiciary, international rule of law, elections, and much more.
Over the holiday season, I had the pleasure of speaking with Grayson Padrick, owner of Central Florida Trophy Hunts! Grayson is a patriotic Floridian with a great family, running a small business that rivals even the most interesting of day jobs. You won't want to miss this fun conversation.
On the most recent episode of Seay the Future, I welcomed Penny Guthrie, Franchisee SONIC Drive-In CEO. We discussed Penny's accomplished career from its early beginnings, the challenges and triumphs of balancing work and personal life, and much more.
Executive Director and William Powers, Jr. Chair, Clements Center for National Security; Associate Professor at the University of Texas, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
William Inboden joined the LBJ School faculty after many years of working as a policymaker in Washington, DC, and directing a foreign policy think tank overseas. He is the William Powers, Jr. executive director of the Clements Center for National Security and a distinguished scholar at the Strauss Center for International Security and Law. He is also a National Intelligence Council associate and serves on the CIA's Historical Advisory Panel and State Department's Historical Advisory Committee.
Dr. Inboden previously served as senior director for strategic planning on the National Security Council, worked on the State Department's Policy Planning Staff and served as a congressional staff member. His think-tank experience includes the American Enterprise Institute and running the London-based Legatum Institute. He is a Council on Foreign Relations life member and a contributing editor to Foreign Policy magazine, and his commentary has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Foreign Affairs, The Weekly Standard and USA Today, and on NPR, CNN and BBC. His classes, "Ethics & International Relations" and "Presidential Decision-Making in National Security," have been selected in recent years as the Best Class in the LBJ School. His most recent book, on the Reagan administration's national security policies, is The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan in the White House and the World (2022).
Governor Mike Dunleavy arrived in Alaska in 1983 as a young man looking for opportunity, and he found it. His first job was working in a logging camp in Southeast Alaska. Later on, Governor Dunleavy pursued his dream of becoming a teacher. He earned his teacher’s certificate, and then a master of education degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He spent nearly two decades in northwest Arctic communities working as a teacher, principal, and superintendent.
Governor Dunleavy’s wife Rose is from the Kobuk River Valley community of Noorvik. Together, they have three children – Maggie, Catherine, and Ceil – who were raised in both rural and urban Alaska.
Governor Dunleavy and his family moved to Wasilla in 2004, where he owned an educational consulting firm and worked on a number of educational projects statewide. Dunleavy served on the Mat-Su Borough School Board, with two years as Board President, and then as a state senator for five years.
On this episode of Seay the Future, I had the great pleasure of hosting The Barbara Thomas Lemmon Senior Curator of European Art for the Dallas Museum of Art, Dr. Nicole Myers, and Emma Ward, Co-Founder and CEO, Ward-Moretti. We discussed their esteemed careers, how their interest in art was sparked, and more. We even chatted about their perspective on the relationship millennials and Gen-Z have with art. A fun conversation. Don't miss their unique insight into the art world.
Mario Zandstra is President and CEO of Family Legacy and is the Keeper of the Vision, Culture, Talent, Work with the Board of Directors.
Prior to joining Family Legacy, he served as the President & CEO at Pine Cove Christian Camp, the President at East-West Ministries, and the Executive Vice President at Transwestern Commercial Services. Mario has a Bachelor of Science, Business Administration from the University of Southern California, 1979. He is a member of St Judes Oak Cliff Church.
Cappy McGarr is an Emmy-nominated author, a creator of the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize, the National Award for Humor, and The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize.
McGarr serves on the boards of The Foundation for the National Archives and The Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He serves on The Better Angels Board of Directors, filmmaker Ken Burns’ advisory board. McGarr has chaired a White House Fellows Regional Panel in 2012 and 2013 and has served as a panelist from 2009 to 2013.
McGarr was appointed by President Barack Obama to the board of trustees of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2011, and was previously appointed to the same post by President Bill Clinton, serving from 1996 to 2002. He is only one of two people that have been appointed to The Kennedy Center by two different Presidents. He is an executive producer and creator of The Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize, the nation’s highest honor for humor, now in its 16th year, which has been awarded to Billy Crystal, Will Ferrell, Steve Martin, and Richard Pryor, among others. He also is an executive producer and creator of The Library of Congress George Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the nation’s highest honor for popular song that is held each year, in the East Room of the White House which has been awarded to Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, and in 2013 Carole King. McGarr was nominated for a 2008-2009 Prime Time Emmy for The Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize Honoring George Carlin and nominated for a 2010 NAACP Image Award for The Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize Honoring Bill Cosby.
McGarr is married to Janie Strauss McGarr for 35 years, and has two daughters, Elizabeth McGarr McCue and Kathryn McGarr.
Becky Powell is an insurance agent. She and her three children live in Austin, TX. Her eldest, Madison, and Boone have graduated from Baylor University and her youngest, John Luke, is currently in college. Alongside her career, Becky remains active in her church and volunteer work, including the Helping Hand Home and Young Life.
Neil is married to Louise and they have four children. Together they have planted three churches in Scotland, the latest of which is Cornerstone, Edinburgh. Neil is also Director of Church Planting for the Free Church of Scotland which is an evangelical Presbyterian denomination. Neil and Louise both love live music, good food, movies, books, and being by the ocean. Their life ambition is to see hundreds of new, healthy, gospel centered churches planted in the deeply secular nation of Scotland.
David M. Rubenstein is Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest and most successful private investment firms. Established in 1987, Carlyle now manages $301 billion from 26 offices around the world.
Mr. Rubenstein is the host of The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations on Bloomberg TV and PBS and Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein on Bloomberg TV; and the author of The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians, a book published by Simon & Schuster in October 2019, How to Lead: Wisdom from the World's Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers, a book published by Simon & Schuster in September 2020, and The American Experiment: Dialogues on a Dream, a book published by Simon & Schuster in September 2021.
Mr. Rubenstein, a native of Baltimore, is a 1970 magna cum laude graduate of Duke University, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa. Mr. Rubenstein graduated in 1973 from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review.
Over the holiday season, I had the great privilege of speaking with my friends from Cambridge, Helen and James Orr! We chatted about Helen's experience going from professional singer to priest and James' work as a Cambridge professor and free speech advocate.
Now published in 97 countries and more than 33 languages, Jeffrey Archer is firmly established as one of the world’s bestselling authors, with international sales passing 275 million copies. He is the only author ever to have been a number one bestseller in fiction (nineteen times), short stories (four times) and non-fiction (The Prison Diaries).
Jonathan Aitken's career has spanned the worlds of books, newspapers, television, business, politics, Parliament, prison, theology, charitable service, prison reform and offender rehabilitation. He was ordained on June 30, 2018 and is now a Priest and part-time prison chaplain at HMP Pentonville.
Sewell Chan is an American journalist who was named editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune effective October 2021. Prior to that he was the editorial page editor at the Los Angeles Times. In this role, he oversaw the editorial board and the Op-Ed and Sunday Opinion pages of the Los Angeles Times.
Tyler Goodspeed is the Kleinheinz Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. From 2020 to 2021 he served as Acting Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, having been appointed by the President as a Member of the Council in 2019. In that role he advised the Administration’s economic response to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as subsequent economic recovery packages. He resigned from the Council on 7th January 2021, having previously served as Chief Economist for Macroeconomic Policy and Senior Economist for tax, public finance, and macroeconomics, playing an instrumental role in designing the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Before joining the Council, Dr. Goodspeed was on the Faculty of Economics at the University of Oxford and was a lecturer in economics at King’s College London. He has published extensively on financial regulation, banking, and monetary economics, with particular attention to the role of access to credit in mitigating the effects of adverse aggregate shocks in historical contexts, especially exogenous environmental shocks. His research has appeared in three full-length monographs from academic presses, as well as numerous articles in peer-reviewed and edited journals. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Harvard University; and he received his M.Phil from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Scholar. He is currently a member of the American Economic Association and Economic History Association and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and was previously a member of the Economic History Society and Royal Economic Society.
Tim Heis has been named the next President and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Dallas. Most recently Heis was at Neiman Marcus Group, where he served as Vice President of Transformation. Prior to that, he led growth strategy at Bath and Body Works, part of L Brands, and helped the brand achieve multiple years of industry-leading growth and profitability. Heis began his career at Deloitte Consulting in the Strategy and Operations practice, where he specialized in retail and growth strategies.
Elliott Abrams served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House, and as Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela in the administration of Donald Trump.
Eric Edelman served in senior positions at the Departments of State and Defense as well as the White House, where he led organizations providing analysis, strategy, policy development, security services, trade advocacy, public outreach, citizen services, and congressional relations.
Luder G. Whitlock Jr. served as president of Reformed Theological Seminary from 1978-2001, where he had previously been a professor. Today he is the President of Excelsis and minister at large for the First Presbyterian Church of Orlando. He and his wife, Mary Lou, have three children and eleven grandchildren.
Growing up in a poor, single parent household in North Charleston, South Carolina, a young Tim Scott grew accustomed to moving every few years, as well as the long hours his mom worked to keep a roof over their heads. After failing four classes his freshman year of high school, Tim’s path forward was murky at best.
But thankfully, he had a mom who stuck with him, and met a mentor that showed him the wisdom of conservative principles. Through their belief and his own determination, Tim got his grades back on track, graduated from Charleston Southern University, and eventually built his own successful small business.
Through the lessons taught by his mentor, Tim developed his mission statement: to positively affect the lives of a billion people. That led him to public service, where he was elected to Charleston County Council, the South Carolina House of Representatives, the United States House of Representatives, and the United States Senate.
Since joining the Senate in 2013, Senator Scott has been a national leader on efforts to bring opportunity to every American family. His signature legislation creating Opportunity Zones was passed as part of the 2017 tax reform package, and has the potential to bring billions of dollars of private investment into distressed communities across the country.
As he continues to lead on the implementation of the Opportunity Zones initiative, Senator Scott also plays a critical role in issues regarding workforce development, education and diversity. Whether it’s tackling the skills gap, making sure children have access to the educational environment best suited for them, or working to bring everyone to the table to find solutions, Senator Scott will keep fighting for South Carolinians every single day he serves in the U.S. Senate.
Roger Crowley is a best-selling narrative historian with deep interests in the Mediterranean world and its surrounding area. At Emmanuel College, Cambridge he read English but has gone on to build a reputation for writing page-turning history based on original sources and careful scholarship.
He is the author of a loose trilogy of books on the Mediterranean: Constantinople: The Last Great Siege/1453 (2005), Empires of the Sea (2008) – a Sunday Times (UK) History Book of the Year in 2009 and a New York Times Bestseller – and City of Fortune on Venice (2011), as well as Conquerors (2015), a rare break out into the Atlantic with the Portuguese. His latest book Accursed Tower explores the end of the Holy Land crusades. His books have been translated into many languages.
He has talked to audiences as diverse as Melvin Bragg’s BBC programme In Our Time, the Center for Naval Analyses in Washington, NATO, the Hay Festival and the National Maritime Museum, appeared on TV programmes, written articles and reviews, and travelled as far as China to give lectures. He is married and lives in England in the Gloucestershire countryside.
Senator Joni Ernst, native of Red Oak, Iowa, has dedicated her life to her state and country, having served in the military for over 23 years and now in the United States Senate.
In November 2014, Joni was elected as the first woman to serve in federal elected office from the State of Iowa and also became the first female combat veteran elected to serve in the United States Senate. In Washington, Joni serves on four Senate committees of major importance to Iowans: Armed Services; Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; Environment and Public Works; and Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Joni is focused on growing a vibrant economy and ensuring the government runs effectively and efficiently which means cutting out-of-control spending, reducing taxes, eliminating harmful regulations and balancing the budget.
Born and raised on a farm in Montgomery County, Joni’s parents instilled in her the values important to Iowans: hard work, service and sacrifice. As a mother, soldier and independent voice, Joni is committed to bringing these values to Washington, D.C.
Joni received her undergraduate degree from Iowa State University where she joined the university’s ROTC program. After graduating, Joni joined the U.S. Army Reserves. In 2003, Joni served as a company commander in Kuwait and Iraq, leading 150 Iowa Army National Guardsmen during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Joni retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Iowa Army National Guard after 23 years of military service.
Known for her independent leadership and commitment to public service, Joni previously served as the Montgomery County Auditor where she worked to eliminate wasteful government spending and protect taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars. As a state senator, Joni fought to balance the state budget and helped turn Iowa’s $900 million budget deficit into a $1 billion surplus. In addition to her work to balance the budget, Joni worked tirelessly to grow jobs and the economy, cut taxes, improve education, and reduce the role of government in Iowans’ lives.
Dee and Adair Margo are an influential couple from El Paso, Texas.
Dee is an American businessman and politician who served as the 54th mayor of El Paso from 2017 to 2021, prior to that he served in the Texas House of Representatives for District 78.
Adair is an El Paso native who brought Dee home to El Paso after they married on August 21, 1976. They've lived and worked in El Paso together for over 40 years, where they raised their sons and their granddaughters are fifth-generation El Pasoans.
John Thune grew up in Murdo, South Dakota. His interest in politics was sparked at a young age after making five of six free throws during a freshman high school basketball game. He was later greeted by a spectator who said, “I noticed you missed one.” That spectator happened to be a well-known sports enthusiast and then-South Dakota U.S. Rep. Jim Abdnor. The introduction was the start of a friendship that ignited John’s career in public service.
John received his undergraduate degree at Biola University and his master’s degree in business administration from the University of South Dakota. Upon completion of his master’s degree in 1984, he married Kimberley Weems, a native of Doland, South Dakota.
John’s attraction to public service took him to Washington, D.C., to work for that sports enthusiast and then-U.S. Sen. Jim Abdnor. He then served at the Small Business Administration under an appointment from President Ronald Reagan.
In 1989, John and his family returned to South Dakota, where he served as the executive director of the South Dakota Republican Party. In 1991, then-Gov. George S. Mickelson appointed him to be state railroad director, a position he held until 1993, when he became executive director of the South Dakota Municipal League.
In 1996, with a shoestring budget and the support of family and friends, John won his first term as South Dakota’s lone member of the U.S. House of Representatives. John was re-elected to a second term by the largest margin in South Dakota history. He returned again to Washington in 2001 to serve his third term in the House.
John then honored his 1996 campaign pledge to serve only three terms in the House. After a narrow loss in a U.S. Senate race in 2002, he won his current Senate seat in 2004, when he made history by defeating a sitting Senate party leader for the first time in 52 years.
In 2010, John was elected to serve a second term in the Senate in a rare unopposed race. He was only the third Republican and the only South Dakotan to run unopposed for the Senate since direct elections were created in 1913. John was elected to a third term in 2016.
For the 117th Congress, John serves on the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee; the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee; and the Finance Committee. He serves as ranking member of the Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband and ranking member of the Finance Committee's Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight. He also serves as the Senate Republican whip, the number two position in Senate Republican leadership, and has previously served as chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee from 2009–2011 and chairman of the Senate Republican Conference from 2012-2018.
John and his wife Kimberley live in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and they have two grown daughters and five grandchildren. In his free time, John enjoys spending time with his family, pheasant hunting, and running.
Lee Bratcher is the Executive Director for the Institute of Global Engagement at Dallas Baptist University as well as a faculty member teaching international relations and blockchain courses. Lee received a blockchain instructors certification from IBM and researches blockchain solutions in land administration. He is a Captain in the US Army reserves working as an instructor for ROTC cadets at DBU and UT Dallas. Lee was awarded a master’s in International Relations from St. Mary’s University and is in his fifth year as a Ph.D. candidate at UT Dallas writing a dissertation on blockchain for land administration. Prior to his transition to academia, Lee served in the military and as a police officer in the DFW area.
He conducts the business operations of the Texas Blockchain Council and maintains strong relationships with members of the Texas Legislature and their staff. As the organization’s president, Lee serves as an ex-officio member of all policy and legislative committees within the Texas Blockchain Council.
Tom Cotton is a United States Senator from Arkansas. Tom’s committees include the Judiciary Committee, where he serves as the Ranking Member for the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism, the Intelligence Committee, and the Armed Services Committee, where he serves as the Ranking Member of the Air Land Power Subcommittee.
Tom grew up on his family’s cattle farm in Yell County. He graduated from Dardanelle High School, Harvard, and Harvard Law School. After a clerkship with the U.S. Court of Appeals and private law practice, Tom left the law because of the September 11th attacks. Tom served nearly five years on active duty in the United States Army as an Infantry Officer.
Tom served in Iraq with the 101st Airborne and in Afghanistan with a Provincial Reconstruction Team. Between his two combat tours, Tom served with The Old Guard at Arlington National Cemetery. Tom’s military decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, Combat Infantry Badge, and Ranger Tab.
Between the Army and the Senate, Tom worked for McKinsey & Co. and served one term in the House of Representatives.
Tom and his wife Anna have two sons, Gabriel and Daniel.
Read or Listen to his latest work, The Exotic, on Scribd here: https://www.scribd.com/author/563966787/Hampton-Sides
Narrative historian Hampton Sides is the New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers, Blood and Thunder, Hellhound on His Trail, In the Kingdom of Ice, and On Desperate Ground. He is a contributing editor to Outside magazine and a frequent contributor to National Geographic and other publications. His work has been collected in numerous anthologies, and he is a two-time finalist for the National Magazine Award for feature writing. Hellhound on His Trail, about the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. and the hunt for his killer, was the basis for the acclaimed PBS documentary Roads to Memphis. Sides lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Michael Eisenberg is co-founder and General Partner at Aleph, an early stage venture capital fund with over $500 million under management. Michael has been a venture capitalist for twenty-five years. Aleph focuses on partnering with great Israeli entrepreneurs to build large, meaningful companies and impactful global brands. Since its founding in 2013, Aleph has invested in more than forty companies, including Melio, Lemonade, Bringg, JoyTunes, Healthy.io, and Nexar.
Since 2006, Michael has been writing the blog Six Kids and a Full Time Job, on topics ranging from politics to technology, Judaism, and macroeconomics. He was a contributor to TheMarker, a Hebrew-language daily business newspaper, and is the author of the “The Hummus Manifesto,” the seminal piece on Israel’s innovation scene. Michael has also published five books in Hebrew: The Vanishing Jew, Ben Baruch, The Tree of Life and Prosperity, Everyone can be Moses, and Roaring Tribe. He lectures frequently on venture capital, Israel, and entrepreneurship. He serves on the board of the nonprofit organization Yeshivat Har Etzion and is the chairman of The Shomer Hachadash. Michael lives in Jerusalem with his wife and eight children.
We are back for Part Two with Avik Roy, President of FREOPP based in Austin, TX. In this episode, we dive into healthcare policy solutions, the future of healthcare, and more about his current work with the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP). Enjoy!
Avik Roy is the President of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP).
Avik was born to Indian immigrants in Rochester, Michigan, a place that instilled in him a lifelong fondness for the Michigan Wolverines and the Detroit Red Wings. He finished high school in San Antonio, Texas, where USA Today named him to its All-USA High School Academic First Team, honoring the top 20 seniors in the country.
After training as a scientist at MIT and as a physician at Yale Medical School, Avik moved to Boston to join a then-unknown investment firm called Bain Capital, where he focused on identifying biotechnology companies developing therapies for diseases that had heretofore gone untreated.
In 2009, as President Obama’s health reform bill was being debated in Congress, Avik started a blog about health care policy. “I couldn’t find anything to read that I agreed with, so I started writing it myself.” Avik’s blog, The Apothecary, was soon picked up by Reihan Salam at National Review, and Matt Herper at Forbes. In 2012, Avik joined Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign as a health care policy advisor. By 2014, Avik was Forbes’ Opinion Editor, and Meet the Press’ Chuck Todd was calling Avik “the go-to policy wonk critic of the health care law…the guru.”
In 2015, Avik moved to Austin, where he ran the foreign and domestic policy shops for Texas Governor Rick Perry’s presidential campaign. In that capacity, Avik was also the lead author of Gov. Perry’s major policy speeches. The Wall Street Journal called Perry’s address on intergenerational black poverty “the speech of the campaign so far.” Later in the primaries, Avik advised Florida Senator Marco Rubio.
Avik has been a central figure in the debate over how to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan he developed with his FREOPP colleagues for reopening the U.S. economy while COVID-19 endures changed the debate about whether partial reopenings were possible in the spring and summer of 2020. A second plan, focused on safely reopening schools and colleges, shaped policies around the country in the fall of that year. “A source close to the White House said officials were closely watching his recommendations for addressing the coronavirus pandemic,” noted Business Insider in 2020.
We are back for Part Two of our Special Edition Interview with George Seay. Tune in as Brendan Steinhauser and Julia Dvorak turn the tables on our host and ask George the tough questions. Stay tuned for some comic relief at the end of the episode!
For this special edition episode, our production team turned the tables and interviewed our host, George Seay! Tune in as Brendan Steinhauser and Julia Dvorak ask George the tough questions in this special, two-part episode.
Hampton Sides is best-known for his gripping non-fiction adventure stories set in war or depicting epic expeditions of discovery and exploration. He is the author of the bestselling histories Ghost Soldiers, Blood and Thunder, Hellhound On His Trail, and, most recently, In the Kingdom of Ice, which recounts the heroic polar voyage of the U.S.S. Jeannette during the Gilded Age.
Hampton is editor-at-large for Outside and a frequent contributor to National Geographic and other magazines. His journalistic work, collected in numerous published anthologies, has been twice nominated for National Magazine Awards for feature writing.
His book, Hellhound On His Trail (Doubleday, April 2010), is about the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. and the international manhunt for assassin James Earl Ray. The book was the basis for the acclaimed documentary, Roads to Memphis (on the PBS show, The American Experience), for which Hampton served as historical consultant.
Ghost Soldiers, a World War II narrative which has sold slightly over a million copies worldwide and has been translated into a dozen foreign languages, was the basis for the 2005 Miramax film, The Great Raid. Hampton’s Blood and Thunder, about the life and times of controversial frontiersman Kit Carson, was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2006 by Time magazine and is currently under development for the screen.
A native of Memphis and a Yale graduate, Hampton is the 2015 Miller Distinguished Scholar at the Santa Fe Institute and an advisory board member of the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference and the Author’s Guild. He is also a partner of Atalaya Productions, an independent film company that develops non-fiction and historical stories for the screen. A frequent lecturer, Hampton divides his time between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Colorado College, where he teaches narrative non-fiction and serves as Journalist in Residence.
Karen Tumulty is a columnist covering national politics for The Washington Post. In her previous role as a national political correspondent for the newspaper, she received the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting. She joined The Post in 2010 from Time magazine, where she had held the same title. During her more than 15 years at Time, Tumulty wrote or co-wrote more than three dozen cover stories. She also held positions with Time as congressional correspondent and White House correspondent.
Before joining Time in 1994, Tumulty spent 14 years at the Los Angeles Times, where she covered a wide variety of beats. During her time there, she reported on Congress, business, energy and economics from Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C. Tumulty is a native of San Antonio, where she began her career at the now-defunct San Antonio Light. Tumulty holds a bachelor of journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Jamie Fly is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Prior to this role, Fly served as a senior fellow, co-director of the Alliance for Security Democracy, and director of the Future of Geopolitics and Asia programs at The German Marshall Fund of the United States. He served as counselor for Foreign and National Security Affairs to Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) from 2013-17, serving as his foreign policy advisor during his presidential campaign. Prior to joining Senator Rubio’s staff in February 2013, he served as the executive director of the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) from its founding in early 2009. Prior to joining FPI, Fly served in the Bush administration at the National Security Council (2008-09) and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (2005-08). His articles and reviews have been published in a wide variety of outlets in the United States and Europe. For his work in the Department of Defense, he was awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service. Fly received a B.A. in international studies and political science from American University and an M.A. in German and European studies from Georgetown University.
Kelly Shackelford, Esq., is President and CEO of First Liberty Institute, the largest legal firm in the nation dedicated exclusively to protecting religious freedom for all Americans. He has served in this role since 1997, leading First Liberty’s efforts to defend religious freedom in the courts and in the public arena. Under his leadership, First Liberty’s legal team has participated in cases before the United States Supreme Court, federal courts of appeals, federal district courts and various state courts, where they have won more than 90 percent of their cases.
Shackelford is a constitutional scholar who has argued before the United States Supreme Court, testified before the U.S. House and Senate, and has won a number of landmark First Amendment and religious liberty cases including a recent watershed, precedent-changing victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in The American Legion v. American Humanist Association.
He was recently named one of the 25 greatest Texas lawyers of the past quarter-century by Texas Lawyer and is the recipient of the prestigious William Bentley Ball Award for Life and Religious Freedom Defense for pioneering work protecting religious freedom.
Shackelford is a highly sought-after speaker and frequent guest on national news and talk shows including Good Morning America, The Today Show, CNN, Fox and Friends, MSNBC, and Hannity. He also has been featured in the National Law Journal, Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Times, The Washington Post, and The L.A. Times, and many others.
Shackelford is on the Board of Trustees of the United States Supreme Court Historical Society and earned his law degree from Baylor University.
Peb Jackson was the Founder of Jackson Consulting Group. Mr. Jackson served as the Vice President of Public Affairs at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church and Purpose Driven Ministries in Lake Forest, California. He was also a vice president at Focus on the Family for more than thirteen years, vice president of Young Life, Generous Giving, and Spartan Oil. He lived with his wife, Sharon, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he was an avid adventurer.
Mr. Jackson passed away on May 3, 2022, after a courageous battle with cancer. He was a one-of-a-kind, extraordinary disciple, leader and Christian inspirer of others. He leaves a huge void. Rest In Peace, good and faithful servant. Our thoughts and prayers are with his beloved wife Sharon.
Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, actress, producer, writer and activist Noa Tishby got her start in the Israeli entertainment industry as a teen in the original musical David. She received a drama scholarship from the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and went on to appear in Israel’s leading TV shows, films, theater and ad campaigns, becoming a household name in her homeland. She recently appeared in the Showtime drama The Affair, and completed shooting the third season of her talk show Life By Noa Tishby.
As a producer, Tishby made history with the sale of In Treatmentto HBO: the first Israeli television show to become an American series. She co-produced the 12 Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated, and Peabody Award-winning In Treatment alongside Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson. In Treatment is currently in production for its forth season. With that first sale, Tishby created a market that did not exist before: the sale of Israeli TV formats in the U.S. Following In Treatment, Tishby formed and headed a Joint Venture between ITV Studios US and Israel’s major network, “Reshet”, to develop, create and produce TV content made in Israel for the international market. The company was the first to bring a U.S. production to film in Israel with a game show for CBS. Tishby sold numerous TV projects to major TV networks in the US among them HBO, Showtime, ABC, CBS, Comedy Central and MTV. Her U.S. acting credits includes The Island, The Ghost of Girlfriends Past, Star Trek, Big Love, CSI, Dig and The Affair.
Socially and politically passionate, in 2011 Tishby founded the first Israel-focused online advocacy and rapid response organization, Act For Israel, and became a powerful voice for Israel and the Middle East. In 2014 Tishby initiated a partnership between The Schusterman Foundation and Summit Series and co-created Reality Israel, a series of leadership trips to Israel for Jews and non-Jews alike. Reality is now responsible for bringing over 1500 professionals in tech, music, food, sports and the arts and sciences to Israel. She was recognized as one of the 50 Most Powerful Jews in the World and was on Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Power list of international executives.
Presently, Tishby is a keynote speaker and panelist at events around the world and has appeared in such venues as the United Nations General Assembly raising awareness against BDS in 2016, and the UN Salutes Israeli Innovation in 2019. She is a contributor to publications such as The Huffington Post, Jerusalem Post, The Jewish Journal, Tablet and Ynet, where she writes about policy, culture and international relations.
After years of speaking and writing about Israel, both publicly and privately, Tishby has deciphered how to explain Israel in a clear and relatable way. Her first book “Israel: a Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth”, is forthcoming on April 6th 2021 from Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
Tishby served in the Israeli army for two and a half years and can, when needed and if pushed to do it, kick some serious ass. She divides her time between Los Angeles and Tel Aviv, and is a proud Jewish momma to her son, Ari.
Karl Rove served as Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush from 2000–2007 and Deputy Chief of Staff from 2004–2007. At the White House he oversaw the Offices of Strategic Initiatives, Political Affairs, Public Liaison, and Intergovernmental Affairs and was Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, coordinating the White House policy-making process.
Karl has been described by respected author and columnist Michael Barone in U.S. News & World Report as “…unique…no Presidential appointee has ever had such a strong influence on politics and policy, and none is likely to do so again anytime soon.” Washington Post columnist David Broder has called Karl a master political strategist whose “game has always been long term…and he plays it with an intensity and attention to detail that few can match.” Fred Barnes, executive editor of The Weekly Standard, has called Karl “the greatest political mind of his generation and probably of any generation. He knows history, understands the moods of the public, and is a visionary on matters of public policy.”
Before Karl became known as “The Architect” of President Bush’s 2000 and 2004 campaigns, he was president of Karl Rove + Company, an Austin-based public affairs firm that worked for Republican candidates, non-partisan causes, and non-profit groups. His clients included over 75 Republican U.S. Senate, Congressional, and gubernatorial candidates in 24 states, as well as the Moderate Party of Sweden.
As a Fox News contributor, Karl provides a “genuine feel of inside knowledge,” says David Zurawik, Baltimore Sun television critic. Megan Garber, of the Columbia Journalism Review, says Karl has “focused his punditry on what he knows best: strategy.” Even the New York Times acclaims that “Rove’s substantive contributions may now inspire a little work ethic among the celebrity talking heads who may be forced to bring to the news a little more data and a little less opinion, a recalibration that would be welcome to its devoted viewers.”
Karl writes a weekly op-ed for the Wall Street Journal and is the author of the New York Times Bestseller, "Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight." He has written for various publications, including The Daily Beast, Financial Times, Forbes, FoxNews.com, HumanEvents.com, Newsweek, The Times, Washington Post, and The Weekly Standard.
A Colorado native, he attended the University of Utah, the University of Maryland-College Park, George Mason University, and the University of Texas at Austin.
Karl has taught graduate students at UT Austin’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and undergraduates in a joint appointment from the Journalism and Government departments at the university. He was also a faculty member at the Salzburg Seminar.
He was previously a member of the Board of International Broadcasting, which oversaw the operations of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, and served on the White House Fellows regional selection panel. He was also a member of the Boards of Regents at Texas Women's University and East Texas State University.
Karl now serves on the University of Texas Chancellor’s Council Executive Committee and on the Board of Trustees for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation and the Texas State History Museum Foundation. He is a member of the McDonald Observatory Board of Visitors and the Texas Philosophical Society. He was inducted into the Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame in 2009 and the American Association of Political Consultants Hall of Fame in 2012.
A fifth-generation Montanan, Steve Daines brings 28 years of private-sector business experience to Washington, D.C. as he serves the people of Montana in the U.S. Senate.
Steve is a lifelong sportsman and grew up in Bozeman, Montana. After attending public schools (K-12) in Bozeman, Steve worked his way through college at Montana State University and graduated with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. He spent thirteen years in a management role for Procter & Gamble, and then returned to Bozeman in 1997 to work in a family construction business.
In 2000, Steve took on the role of VP at RightNow Technologies, a Bozeman-based cloud computing start-up company. The company grew rapidly and became a publicly traded software company with 17 offices around the world, and products in over 30 languages. The company was acquired by Oracle in 2012 and remains one of Montana's largest commercial employers. Steve was elected to serve as Montana’s United States Representative in 2012. During his time in the House, Daines championed legislation to expand responsible development of Montana’s energy resources, move forward meaningful forest management reform, increase transparency and accountability in government, and require members of Congress to balance the budget – or see their pay terminated. Additionally, he passed the most significant public lands bill for Montana in over 30 years. He was ranked the most effective first-term House member in 2013 and again in 2014.
In the U.S. Senate, Daines is working on issues of critical importance to growing good-paying Montana jobs, developing our state’s energy resources, managing and protecting our public lands, and supporting the needs of Montana’s veterans and tribes. He serves on the Senate Committees on Finance, Banking Housing and Urban Affairs, Energy and Natural Resources, and Indian Affairs.
Steve has been married to his wife, Cindy, for 34 years. They are the parents of four children and proud grandparents of two. Steve and his family are actively involved in their church and community volunteer organizations and enjoy backpacking, hunting, skiing, and fishing.
Rick Scott was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018 and is currently serving his first term representing the state of Florida. Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, Rick Scott served two terms as the 45th Governor of Florida, working every day to turn around Florida’s economy and secure the state’s future as the best place for families and businesses to succeed. Scott grew up in public housing in the Midwest as his adoptive father, a World War II veteran and truck driver, and his mother, a store clerk, struggled to financially support their family. After marrying his high school sweetheart, Ann, Scott joined the Navy, where he served active duty as a radar man aboard the USS Glover. He used the G.I. Bill to attend the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and eventually opened his first business – a donut shop. Scott went on to run the world’s largest healthcare company and continues to fight every day so families across the state can have the same opportunities he had to live the American dream.
Rick Scott knows firsthand that a good paying job is one of the most important things for a family, and following Florida’s economic collapse ten years ago, he made the decision to run for governor as a businessman with no political experience. During his term as Governor, he successfully championed more than $10 billion in tax cuts and cut thousands of burdensome regulations that led Florida businesses to create nearly 1.7 million new jobs. Under his leadership, the unemployment rate dropped from 11 percent to 3.3 percent, Florida paid down $10 billion in state debt, and record investments were made in what matters most to Floridians – education, the environment, and public safety.
Rick Scott and his wife, Ann, have been married for 48 years and have two daughters, Allison and Jordan, six grandsons, Auguste, Quinton, Sebastian, Eli, Louie and Jude, and one granddaughter, Zelda Ann.
In 2020, Texans overwhelmingly re-elected Senator John Cornyn to represent them for a fourth term in the U.S. Senate. Since he was first elected in 2002, Sen. Cornyn has earned a national reputation as an articulate and powerful voice for Texas and conservative values in Washington. Sen. Cornyn, a San Antonio native, strongly believes that we need more Texas solutions in Washington, which is why he consistently fights to bring the Lone Star State’s commonsense solutions to the federal level.
He has committed himself to strengthening our national defense, securing our borders, repairing our broken immigration system, and strengthening the economy by keeping taxes low, reducing federal spending, and fighting job-killing regulations from Washington bureaucrats. Sen. Cornyn has also been a tireless advocate for Texas military personnel, veterans, and their families, and he has fought to provide these brave Americans with the best possible support, care, and benefits.
Sen. Cornyn serves on the Senate Finance, Intelligence, and Judiciary Committees, where he helps craft legislation on behalf of 29 million Texans. From 2013 until 2018 Sen. Cornyn was chosen by his colleagues to serve as the Whip, the second-highest ranking position in the Senate Republican Conference. Sen. Cornyn has served the people of Texas for nearly four decades, first as a district judge and later as a member of the Texas Supreme Court and Texas Attorney General. He received his undergraduate degree from Trinity University, his law degree from St. Mary’s School of Law, and his LLM from the University of Virginia
Law School.
Sen. Cornyn married his wife Sandy in 1979, and they have two grown daughters.
Shelley Moore Capito was elected by the people of West Virginia to the United States Senate in 2014, and re-elected in 2020. She is the first female U.S. senator in West Virginia’s history and was elected with the largest margin of victory for a Republican in state history—winning more than 70 percent of the vote and all 55 counties, surpassing the previous mark she set in 2014 when she won more than 62 percent of the vote and all 55 counties.
After serving West Virginia’s Second Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for 14 years, and as a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates for four years prior, Senator Capito decided to run for Senate to be an even stronger voice for the Mountain State. She also saw an opportunity to restore order to a Senate stuck in gridlock for far too long. She believes that today's challenges demand bipartisan solutions and cooperation across the aisle to advance legislation that benefits West Virginia and the country as a whole.
Senator Capito serves on the Appropriations Committee; the Commerce, Science, and
Transportation Committee; the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee; and the Rules and Administration Committee.
A lifelong West Virginian herself, Senator Capito was born in Glen Dale in the Northern
Panhandle. She holds a B.S. in Zoology from Duke University and a M.Ed. from the University of Virginia. She and her husband Charles L. Capito Jr. reside in Charleston. They have three adult children: two sons, Charles (wife Laura) and Moore, and one daughter, Shelley (husband Colin Macleod). They have also been blessed with seven grandchildren: Celia, Charlie, Eliza, Rose, Arch, Macaulay, and Lewis.
David Ignatius is a prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post and has been covering the Middle East and the CIA for nearly four decades. Ignatius has written 11 spy novels: “The Paladin” (2020), “The Quantum Spy,” (2017), “The Director,” (2014), “Bloodmoney” (2011), “The Increment” (2009), “Body of Lies” (2007), “The Sun King” (1999), “A Firing Offense” (1997), “The Bank of Fear” (1994), “SIRO” (1991), and “Agents of Innocence” (1987). “Body of Lies” was made into a 2008 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.
Ignatius joined The Post in 1986 as editor of its Sunday Outlook section. In 1990 he became foreign editor, and in 1993, assistant managing editor for business news. He began writing his column in 1998 and continued even during a three-year stint as executive editor of the International Herald Tribune in Paris. Earlier in his career, Ignatius was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, covering at various times the steel industry, the Departments of State and Justice, the CIA, the Senate, and the Middle East.
Ignatius grew up in Washington, D.C., and studied political theory at Harvard College and economics at Kings College, Cambridge. He lives in Washington with his wife and has three daughters.
First elected in 2016, Congressman Mike Gallagher represents Wisconsin’s 8th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mike is a 7th generation Wisconsin native, born and raised in Green Bay.
Mike joined the United States Marine Corps the day he graduated from college and served for seven years on active duty as a Counterintelligence/Human Intelligence Officer and Regional Affairs Officer for the Middle East/North Africa, eventually earning the rank of Captain. He deployed twice to Al Anbar Province, Iraq as a commander of intelligence teams, served on General Petraeus’s Central Command Assessment Team in the Middle East, and worked for three years in the intelligence community, including tours at the National Counterterrorism Center and the Drug Enforcement Agency. Mike also served as the lead Republican staffer for Middle East, North Africa and Counterterrorism on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Prior to taking office, Mike worked in the private sector at a global energy and supply chain management company in Green Bay.
After earning his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, Mike went on to earn a master’s degree in Security Studies from Georgetown University, a second in Strategic Intelligence from National Intelligence University, and his PhD in International Relations from Georgetown.
Mike currently serves on the House Armed Services, and Transportation and Infrastructure Committees.
Eric Johnson was elected as Mayor of Dallas in June 2019. He was born in Dallas, Texas in 1975 to working-class parents and raised in West Dallas and Oak Cliff. He attended Dallas Independent School District schools through the first grade before earning a scholarship to Greenhill School through the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas.
After graduating high school, Mayor Johnson earned his undergraduate degree with honors from Harvard University before earning a graduate degree from Princeton University and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Mayor Johnson and his wife, Nikki, have two sons, William and George. He is a member of the Mountain View Church of Christ.
Mayor Johnson has been a practicing lawyer in Dallas for over fifteen years. He is a former member of the Texas House of Representatives, where he represented Dallas from 2010 to 2019. During his tenure in the Texas House of Representatives, Mayor Johnson served on twenty prominent legislative committees and as the Chairman of the Dallas Area Legislative Delegation.
Linda accepted God’s call to Sky Ranch in 2007 – a call that she still describes as one of those “no option, no dialogue, obedience driven calls.” After serving 20 years in corporate America, the last 5 years as the President and CEO for Snelling Staffing, one of the nation’s largest staffing services, Linda’s passion goes far beyond business. Her love for Christ and passion for youth and families to know Christ is the catalyst that fuels her calling to Sky Ranch. In 14 years, her desire has grown deeper for the camping ministry and creating an environment where youth and families can come to know and follow Christ. Linda is a recognized leader in the Christian camping industry and has served on many non-profit and for-profit boards that focus on evangelism and the well-being of youth. She was featured in Texas Women – recognizing women who have blazed trails in their respective fields. Linda is married to her high school sweetheart, Bob, a retired Captain in the U.S. Navy and currently Chief Operating Officer of Pogue Construction, and they are blessed with two grown children and five grandchildren. Their daughter Ashleigh is married to Ben Pogue and they have four children, Presley, Jackson, Hayden, and Charlotte. Their son Bobby is married to Megan and they have one daughter, Georgia.
Joe Scarlett spent nearly thirty years in leadership roles with Tractor Supply Company most of it as President and Chairman. Today Joe is engaged in teaching and writing about leadership, working in the family foundation, and striving to improve Tennessee.
In 1982 Scarlett played a key role in the initiative to return the company to profitability through improved customer service and focused product selection as part of a classic leveraged buyout. He was instrumental in developing the company culture which today is admired and often copied. In 1994 Joe led the successful effort to take the company public.
Tractor Supply Company was honored by Forbes as one of the “Best Managed Companies in America” and Scarlett was recognized as Ernst & Young’s Southeast Entrepreneur of the Year. Joe also served twenty years on the board of the nation’s largest retail trade organization, including four as its chairman.
Dr. Tara O is a Fellow at the Institute for Corean-American Studies (ICAS). She is the author of The Collapse of North Korea: Challenges, Planning and Geopolitics of Unification. A retired U.S. Air Force officer, she worked on numerous assignments in Asia, Europe, and the U.S., including the Pentagon and U.S.-Republic of Korea Combined Forces Command. She also taught at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Her research areas include the Korean contingency and unification, U.S. alliance, human rights in North Korea, North Korean defectors, and South Korean politics. Prior to the military, she also worked in the public, private, and non-profit sectors, in Africa, Asia, and the U.S. She holds degrees from the University of Texas-Austin (Ph.D.), Princeton University (MPA), and University of California-Davis (BA).
As pastor of Highland Park Presbyterian Church, Bryan is passionate about helping people of every generation find and follow Jesus, for the flourishing of Dallas. Bryan grew up in Texas and attended Stanford University, where he played lacrosse and discovered his love for the outdoors. He holds graduate degrees from Regent College in Vancouver and Fuller Seminary in Southern California. Prior to his role at Highland Park, Bryan served as the teaching pastor of Atlanta’s Peachtree Church.
Bryan serves on the advisory boards of Fuller Seminary Texas and Advocates for Community Transformation. In his spare time, he can be found running a double-wide jogger with his twins Ann and Wheeler, or cycling with his wife Ali (with baby Collier Jane in tow).
Howard Rich founded U.S. Term Limits in 1991 and currently serves as Chairman. Under his leadership, USTL played a key role in enacting term limits on 15 state legislatures as well as enacting and protecting term limits in municipalities and counties all around the country. He resides in Philadelphia, PA.
Rex Gore is a social and business entrepreneur who creates jobs for thousands of Texas workers. In 1985, he co-founded CleanCut, a fast-growing landscaping firm later acquired by Trugreen; at CleanCut, Rex was a finalist for E&Y’s Austin Entrepreneur of the Year award 3 times. Since 2001, Rex has grown PJS of Texas, a commercial janitorial company serving Class A office space in Austin, El Paso and San Antonio, into the premier regional firm known for industry leadership in training, safety & quality programs and loyal customers. PJS empowers employees through connections to scholarships, ESL classes and workshops that engage parents in their children’s education.
Rex returned to commercial landscaping in 2005 by co-founding Clean Scapes, which within 3 years was named Central Texas’s fastest growing firm. Clean Scapes is now a $55M/yr business ranked in the US’s 40 largest landscaping firms. In recent years, Rex has also co-founded or acquired other service companies including Exterior Cleaning Solutions of Texas (commercial pressure-washing & window cleaning), Top Choice Lawn Care (residential landscaping) and Pure Basin Services (stormwater basin management).
Rex also promotes nonprofit & education policy. In 2013, he co-founded PelotonU, which enables working, at-risk students to earn college degrees with little debt. He is a Regional Board Member of IDEA Public Schools, a K-12 network that sends 99% of 45,000+ mostly low-income & minority students to college, where they out-perform peers. He is Board Chair of Charter Schools Now, the Texas Charter School Association’s 501(c)(4) arm. Rex has also served on the board or played an active role in numerous other regional nonprofit or civic groups.
Richard Keith Armey is an American economist and politician. He was a U.S. Representative from Texas's 26th congressional district (1985–2003) and House Majority Leader (1995–2003). He was one of the engineers of the "Republican Revolution" of the 1990s, in which Republicans were elected to majorities of both houses of Congress for the first time in four decades. Armey was one of the chief authors of the Contract with America. Armey is also an author and former economics professor. After his retirement from Congress, he has worked as a consultant, advisor, and lobbyist.
General Moseley received baccalaureate and master degrees in Political Science.
An accomplished fighter pilot, he served as an instructor, flight lead, and mission commander, amassing over 2,800 hours.
In 2001, General Moseley assumed command of the U.S. Central Command Air Forces, overseeing all air combat operations in the Central Command Area of Operations, subsequently becoming Vice Chief of Staff for the Air Force.
He was named the 20th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force in July 2005. Military decorations include the rare Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, and many others.
Gabrielle "Ellie" Rubenstein is Co-founder and CEO of the private equity firm Manna Tree. Manna Tree makes growth equity investments in companies that improve human health through nutrition. Ellie works with global family offices and research partners to connect Manna Tree's mission of improving human health to capital while ensuring the firm is an innovator in a rapidly evolving investment category.
A member of Manna Tree's investment committee, Ellie co-leads fundraising and is on the board of the firm's philanthropic research arm, VIGR, which supports industry R&D around consumer health and behavior and the application of ESG+Health impact reporting. Ellie ensures the firm's investments meet the criteria of improving human health through advancements in scientific research. Manna Tree's five investee companies range from producers of eggs, beef, and plant-based foodtech ingredients to indoor farming.
In addition to her role at Manna Tree, Ellie is a philanthropist through her family office, Mission Ingredients. With a focus on improving population health, Ellie supports organizations and initiatives that create positive change. This includes local food production, ingredient research, outdoor wilderness youth education, and military health and recovery programs. The combination of Ellie's investment and philanthropy activity has attracted other families and institutions to impact investing that creates health and wealth.
Ellie earned her MS in Agriculture Economics from Purdue University, her MBA from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business where she was a Tobias Fellow, and her BA in Sociology from Harvard University where she was a Varsity ski racer. Ellie earned a graduate certificate in Mind-Body Wellness from UCLA's Center for East-West Medicine and the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.
Ellie is an avid hunter and angler and spends her free time on the shores or in the woods of Alaska and Colorado.
Margaret Spellings serves as President and CEOof Texas 2036, bringing with her knowledge and experience developed over an exceptional career in public service at both the state and national level.
Most recently, Spellings served as the president of the 17-institution University of North Carolina System, leading the state’s public university into a new period of performance, affordability, and growth with a focus on improving economic mobility, ensuring accountability, and advancing the public good.
Prior to that, Spellings served as president of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas, where she oversaw programs on economic opportunity, education reform, global health, and special initiatives on women’s leadership and military service.
From 2005 to 2009, Spellings served as U.S. Secretary of Education, leading the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, a bipartisan initiative to provide greater accountability for the education of 50 million U.S. public school students. As secretary, she also launched the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, a plan to address challenges of access, affordability, quality, and accountability in our nation’s colleges and universities. Prior to serving as Secretary, Spellings served as White House domestic policy advisor from 2001 to 2005, overseeing the administration’s agenda on education, transportation, health, justice, housing, and labor.
Spellings experience also includes serving as senior advisor to then-Governor George W. Bush of Texas, president and CEO of Margaret Spellings and Company, a Washington, DC, consulting firm that provided strategic guidance on a variety of domestic policy matters, and as a president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, advocating for more effective education and workforce training.
Spellings was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but spent much of her childhood in Houston. She is a graduate of the University of Houston, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science. She also received an honorary doctorate and Distinguished Alumni Award from the university in 2006. Spellings has two adult daughters and resides in Dallas.
General Joseph L. Lengyel serves as the 28th Chief of the National Guard Bureau and as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In this capacity, he serves as a military adviser to the President, Secretary of Defense, National Security Council and is the Department of Defense’s official channel of communication to the Governors and State Adjutants General on all matters pertaining to the National Guard. He is responsible for ensuring that the more than 453,000 Army and Air National Guard personnel are accessible, capable and ready to protect the homeland and to provide combat ready resources to the Army and Air Force.
Prior to his current assignment, General Lengyel served as the Vice Chief, National Guard Bureau.
General Lengyel was commissioned in 1981 through the Reserve Officer Training Corps program at University of North Texas. He served in various operational and staff assignments, primarily as an F-16 Instructor Pilot and Weapons Officer. His experience in the F-16 includes tours in Air Combat Command, Pacific Air Forces, United States Air Forces in Europe and the Texas Air National Guard. He has commanded a fighter squadron, operations group, air expeditionary group and the Air National Guard Readiness Center. General Lengyel is a command pilot with more than 3,000 flying hours primarily in the F-16. Additionally, General Lengyel served as the Senior United States Defense Official; Chief, Office of Military Cooperation; and Defense Attaché, Cairo, United States Central Command, Cairo, Egypt.
Francisco Gonzalez is the Director of Philanthropy at National Review Institute, responsible for managing relationships with NRI friends and supporters in Florida, Texas, and the Southeast. Born and raised in South Florida, Francisco earned his B.A. in History from Florida Atlantic University, and an M.A. in History from the University of Maryland.
Prior to joining NRI, Francisco was the Vice President of Advancement for The James Madison Institute, Florida’s premier free-market think tank, where he worked from 2008-2017. He served in campus leadership and development roles for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute from 2004-2007.
Francisco is the host of the Agents of Innovation podcast, where he interviews entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and artists. He currently serves on the board of trustees for The Philadelphia Society and for AMIkids Orlando. Francisco is on the Advisory Council for Turning Point USA and is a member of Class VII of Connect Florida, a program for emerging leaders in the Sunshine State. He previously served on the boards of Project Veritas (2010-2014) and Rock By The Sea (2010-2016).
An adventurous traveler, Francisco has visited 47 U.S. states and 21 countries. However, he currently resides in the happiest place on earth, Orlando, Florida.
Adm. Bobby R. Inman became an adjunct professor at The University of Texas at Austin in 1987. He was appointed a tenured professor holding the Lyndon B. Johnson Centennial Chair in National Policy in August 2001. He served as interim dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs in 2005 and again from January 2009 to March 2010. Inman served in the U.S. Navy from November 1951 to July 1982, retiring with the permanent rank of admiral. On active duty he served as director of the National Security Agency and as deputy director of Central Intelligence.
After retirement from the Navy, Inman was chairman and CEO of the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) in Austin, Texas, for four years and chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Westmark Systems Inc., a privately owned electronics industry holding company, for three years. Inman also served as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas from 1987 through 1990.
His primary business activity since 1990 has been investing in startup technology companies, serving as managing director of Gefinor Ventures and Limestone Capital Advisors. He serves as a trustee of the American Assembly and the California Institute of Technology. Inman is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.
Dr. Phil Schubert, a 1991 graduate of Abilene Christian University, became its 11th president in June 2010.
During his tenure as president of one of the largest private universities in the Southwest, ACU has experienced remarkable growth in facilities, enrollment, and financial strength. Abilene Christian is the highest-ranking university in Texas in a U.S. News & World Report benchmark focused on student success. It achieved Top 20 status in three of eight high-impact categories among 1,500 universities in the nation and was the only one in Texas recognized in five of the categories.
Prior to becoming president, Schubert served as executive vice president at ACU and was responsible for university-wide strategic planning as well as the oversight of operational areas. He received his B.B.A. in accounting from ACU, an MBA from Duke University, and an Ed.D. in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania.
Gretchen Seay is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Clearsight Advisors, Inc. Gretchen’s experience includes sell-side, buy-side and recapitalization transactions for private and public companies and she leads the firm’s activity in the Big Data Analytics and Public Sector Technology markets. Prior to joining Clearsight, Gretchen served as a senior member of the M&A teams at Agility Advisors and Updata Capital where she executed over 35 M&A and financing transactions for software and information technology services clients.
During the financial crisis, Gretchen worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in assisting the federal government with divestitures of assets acquired through bank failures across the US. Gretchen led the Federal Transaction team at PwC and created the process through which billions of dollars of assets were sold back into the private sector. Gretchen began her career with Arthur Andersen where she spent four years in the Global Emerging Markets group working in Russia, Uzbekistan and Egypt on privatization and public–private partnership programs.
Gretchen’s personal background includes honing her skills by negotiating with her three children on a daily basis and volunteering in school programs such as Girl Scouts and Co-Chair of the MadScience and Foreign Language programs. Gretchen was also appointed to serve on The Advisory Council for the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. She is also a member of the TeXchange Board.
Gretchen earned a B.A. in International Studies from the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington and later earned an MBA in finance from the Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business.
Mark P. Jones, Ph.D., is the fellow in political science at the Baker Institute, the Joseph D. Jamail Chair in Latin American Studies and a professor in the Department of Political Science at Rice University.
Jones also serves as the faculty director of Rice’s Master of Global Affairs program. His research focuses on the effect of electoral laws and other political institutions on governance, representation and voting. He has received substantial financial support for this research, including grants from the National Science Foundation. His research has been published in journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, Electoral Studies and the Journal of Politics, as well as in edited volumes published by Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press and Penn State University Press, among others. He is a frequent contributor to Texas media outlets, and his research on the Texas Legislature has been widely cited in the media as well as by numerous political campaigns.
Jones regularly advises U.S. government institutions on economic and political affairs in Argentina and has conducted research on public policy issues in Latin America and Texas for numerous international, national and local organizations, including the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the U.S. Department of Defense, the Texas Department of Agriculture and the city of Houston.
He is a frequent commentator in local, state, national and international media on government, politics and public policy. He is currently working on two principal research agendas, one that examines the impact of political institutions on politics and public policy in Latin America, and the other that analyzes the evolution of partisan politics in Texas over the past 50 years. Jones received his doctorate from the University of Michigan and his bachelor’s degree from Tulane University.
Jones leads the Baker Institute's Argentina Program and helps direct the Presidential Elections Program.
Stacy Hock is a philanthropist, public policy activist, and private investor. Stacy serves as Chair of the Board of Texans for Education Opportunity, President of Texans First, and on the boards of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Aminex Therapeutics, the Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas McCombs School of Business, and The African Dream Initiative. Ms. Hock is a gubernatorial appointee, serving as Vice Chair of the Texas Commission on Next Generation Assessment and Accountability, serves on Lt. Governor Patrick’s Education Advisory Council, and on TEA Commissioner Morath’s Philanthropic Council.
Previously, Ms. Hock served as the Texas GOP 2020 Victory Chairwoman. Additionally, she served on the boards of City Harvest and The Bowery Mission in New York City. Also, Ms. Hock held senior management positions in the software industry, including running IBM’s WebSphere Software Services business for the Wall Street territory.
Ms. Hock received her B.S. in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from M.I.T., and her M.B.A. from the University of Texas.
Stacy and her husband, Joel, have been married for seventeen years, have four boys, and reside in Austin, TX. Stacy is a 6th generation Texan.
Informed by decades of public policy experience at the local, state, and national level, Tom Luce founded Texas 2036 amid growing concern that without careful consideration, planning and decision-making for the next generation, the tremendous opportunities Texas offers may not exist for future generations. In addition to Texas 2036, Tom has founded and led numerous other nonprofit organizations, including Just for the Kids, the National Math and Science Initiative, and most recently the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute. Since beginning his career as a lawyer and founding partner of the Hughes and Luce law firm, Tom’s career has been distinguished by gubernatorial and legislative appointments to major state and national positions, including Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court pro tempore, the Library of Congress Board and as Assistant Secretary of Education where he served alongside Secretary Spellings.
Ray was previously the Executive Director and a Portfolio Manager at Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney, & Strauss, LLC, where he spent 25 years. Barrow Hanley is one of the largest value- oriented managers of institutional assets in the U.S. with over $75 billion in assets. Ray is currently serving as Chair of the Texas Health Resources Investment Committee which oversees $5.0 billion and he is also a member of the UTIMCO board of directors, a $45 billion endowment for the University of Texas and Texas A&M University.
A Dallas, Texas, native, Ross Perot Jr. serves as Chairman of The Perot Group, which manages the various Perot family interests that include real estate, oil and gas, and financial investments. Additionally, Mr. Perot is Chairman of Hillwood, a Texas-based, leading global real estate development company he founded in 1988.
Mr. Perot also is a founder of Perot Systems Corporation and served in various roles within the company including CEO, Chairman of the Board, and as a member of its Board of Directors. Perot Systems was acquired by Dell Inc. in 2009 at which time Mr. Perot joined the Dell Inc. Board of Directors where he served until 2013.
An aviation enthusiast, Mr. Perot completed the first helicopter flight around the world in less than 30 days in 1982 and served as a pilot in the United States Air Force for over eight years. Perot then served as chairman of the Air Force Memorial Foundation, leading the 14-year effort to build the United States Air Force Memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring the men and women of the United States Air Force. The Memorial was dedicated to the nation in October 2006.
Mr. Perot is the recipient of numerous awards throughout his life and career including the Gold Medal Award for Extraordinary Service from President Ronald Reagan, the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship, and the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service. He also was inducted into Junior Achievement's 2017 Dallas Business Hall of Fame, was named one of the Most Powerful Business Leaders in Dallas-Fort Worth as a member of the 'Dallas 500' by D Magazine, and was co-awarded, alongside his father, the inaugural Vision Award from the Urban Land Institute North Texas District Council. In 2020, he received the J. Erik Jonsson Ethics Award from Southern Methodist University and was honored with the National Business Aviation Association’s highest honor, the Meritorious Service to Aviation Award.
Alexandra DeSanctis writes on abortion policy and the pro-life movement, as well as on other key topics at the intersection of politics, culture, and religion. She is a staff writer for National Review and a visiting fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. She was previously a William F. Buckley Fellow in Political Journalism with the National Review Institute and is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.
Senator William Frist, M.D. is a nationally-acclaimed heart and lung transplant surgeon, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, founding partner of Frist Cressey Ventures, and chairman of the Executives Council of the health service investment firm Cressey & Company. He is actively engaged in the business as well as the medical, humanitarian, and philanthropic communities. He is chairman of both Hope Through Healing Hands, which focuses on maternal and child health and global poverty, and SCORE, a statewide collaborative education reform organization that has helped propel Tennessee to prominence as a K-12 education reform state.
As a U.S. Senator representing Tennessee from 1994 -2006 (the first practicing physician elected to the Senate since 1928), Senator Frist served on both the Health (HELP) and the Finance Committees responsible for writing all health legislation. He was elected Majority Leader of the Senate, having served fewer total years in Congress than any person chosen to lead that body in history. His leadership was instrumental in the passage of the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act and the historic PEPFAR legislation that provided life-saving treatment globally to over 12 million people and reversed the spread of HIV/AIDS worldwide. He also held seats on the Foreign Relations Committee where he chaired the Subcommittee on Africa, the Commerce Committee, and the Banking Committee. He served six years with President Clinton and six years with President Bush. Honoring his pledge to serve just two terms, he left the Senate and his position as Majority Leader in 2006.
Currently, Senator Frist serves as an adjunct professor of Cardiac Surgery at Vanderbilt University. As a leading authority on healthcare, Senator Frist speaks nationally on health reform, government policy, global health, education reform, and volunteerism. In 2019 he launched “A Second Opinion” podcast, which addresses challenging healthcare issues of today from three distinct vantage points: policy, medicine, and innovation.
He is Co-Chair of the Health Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, and co-founder of Aspire Health. His current board service includes the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, and five publicly-traded companies: Select Medical, Teladoc Health, Smile Direct Club, Accolade, and GS Acquisitions Holdings Corp II.
Josh Good is the director of Ethics & Public Policy Center's Faith Angle Forum, which aims to strengthen reporting and commentary on how religious believers, religious convictions, and religiously grounded moral arguments affect American politics and public life.
Tim Schultz is the President of the 1st Amendment Partnership. In this role, he directs all aspects of the organization’s work, building faith alliances, guiding public policy, and educating key influencers on religious freedom issues.
Together, they have a conversation with our host, George Seay, about religion, politics, and much more!
Jay Hartzell is the President of The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to serving as President, Hartzell served as the 12th dean of the McCombs School of Business at UT Austin, one of the largest and most distinguished business schools in the country. As dean for over four years, Hartzell launched the Goff Real Estate Labs, elevated the Canfield Business Honors program and opened Rowling Hall, the home of UT’s MBA program. He helped create many significant partnerships with colleges and schools across campus including the Dell Medical School, the College of Fine Arts, the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Natural Sciences and the Moody College of Communication. He also established the position of Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion at the McCombs School and the McCombs Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
Hartzell joined UT in 2001 after teaching at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Prior to his time as dean, he held several key administrative roles at the McCombs School of Business. His most notable positions include his service as the senior associate dean for Academic Affairs, chair of the Finance Department and executive director of the McCombs School’s Real Estate Finance and Investment Center.
Hartzell holds a B.S. in business administration and economics (cum laude) from Trinity University and a Ph.D. in finance from The University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on real estate finance, corporate finance and corporate governance. His articles have been published in leading journals in the field, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Real Estate Economics and The Review of Financial Studies.
Hartzell currently serves on the boards of directors for MGIC Investment Corporation (NYSE: MTG), the Texas Exes and Austin Habitat for Humanity. He previously served as a member of the board of directors of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association. In addition to his academic experience, he previously worked as a consultant with Hewitt Associates.
Kevin Roberts, Ph.D., is executive director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. A lifelong educator, Roberts earned his Ph.D. in American history from The University of Texas, thereafter serving as a history professor, and ultimately starting his own K-12 school, John Paul the Great Academy in Louisiana. He was then hired as president of Wyoming Catholic College, which the New York Times described as being full of “cowboy Catholics” for refusing federal student loans and grants. Both schools led by Roberts have earned regular recognition for being among the top Catholic schools in the nation.
As a scholar of America’s Founding, Roberts approaches every public policy issue with the desire to increase self-governance and decrease government overreach. Naturally, though he oversees all the Foundation’s policy efforts, he gravitates to initiatives on education reform, improving history and civics instruction, and transparency in government.
An avid outdoorsman, Roberts and his wife have four children and share a deep love for the Texas Hill Country. They are parishioners at St. William Catholic Church in Round Rock.
Timothy P. Carney is the senior political columnist at the Washington Examiner and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Mr. Carney’s latest book, “Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse” (HarperCollins), was published in February 2019. His previous books include “Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses” (Regnery Publishing, 2009) and “The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money” (John Wiley & Sons, 2006), which was awarded the 2008 Culture of Enterprise award by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
In addition to his Washington Examiner columns, Mr. Carney’s work has been published in a variety of magazines, websites, and newspapers, including The Atlantic, New York Post, The New York Times, Reason Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal. His television appearances include CNBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and the “PBS NewsHour.”
Mr. Carney has a bachelor’s degree from St. John’s College in Annapolis.
William Inboden is Executive Director and William Powers, Jr. Chair at the William P. Clements, Jr. Center for National Security at the University of Texas-Austin. He also serves as Associate Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, Distinguished Scholar at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law, and Editor-in-Chief of the Texas National Security Review. Inboden’s other current roles include Associate with the National Intelligence Council, Member of the CIA’s Historical Review Panel, Member of the State Department’s Historical Advisory Council, and Non-Resident Fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Previously he served as Senior Director for Strategic Planning on the National Security Council at the White House, where he worked on a range of foreign policy issues including the National Security Strategy, strategic forecasting, democracy and governance, contingency planning, counter-radicalization, and multilateral institutions and initiatives. Inboden also worked at the Department of State as a Member of the Policy Planning Staff and a Special Advisor in the Office of International Religious Freedom, and has worked as a staff member in both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives.
Inboden has also served as Senior Vice President of the London-based Legatum Institute, and as a Civitas Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a contributing editor to Foreign Policy magazine, and his commentary has appeared in numerous outlets including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Politico, Weekly Standard, NPR, CNN, BBC, and Sky News. He has lectured widely in academic and policy settings, testified before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, and received numerous research and professional development fellowships. Inboden is the author of Religion and American Foreign Policy, 1945-1960: The Soul of Containment (Cambridge University Press), co-editor of The Last Card: Inside George W. Bush’s Decision to Surge in Iraq (Cornell University Press), and has published numerous articles and book chapters on national security, American foreign policy, and American history. Professor Inboden has received multiple teaching awards including recognition as a “Texas 10” by the Texas Exes Alumni Association, and his classes Presidential Decision-making in National Security and Ethics & International Relations have been selected in recent years as the "Best Class in the LBJ School" and “Class Most Likely to Challenge Your Assumptions.” His current research includes a book on the Reagan Administration’s national security strategy and policy, titled The Peacemaker: The Reagan Presidency from War to Peace. Inboden received his Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in history from Yale University, and his A.B. in history from Stanford University.
Todd Olsen has extensive experience in strategic communications and political consulting gained from more than two decades at the highest levels of government, politics, and business. His clients have spanned the gamut: from local non-profit start-ups, to providing strategic and creative communications skills to business leaders, to implementing highly personalized communications strategies for four presidential campaigns.
Olsen is President and founding partner of Upstream, an award winning, Austin-based digital and social media company. An industry leader in digital communications, Upstream’s work and groundbreaking accuracy in audience building and message targeting and placement was the subject of case studies mentioned in The Washington Post and The New York Times. Upstream earned recognition as the winner of the first-ever American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) Pollie Award recognizing the effective use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technology in American political campaigns.
Prior to forming Upstream, he managed political and public policy campaigns and served as Executive Vice President of Karl Rove + Company. Todd received a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.
Vance Ginn, Ph.D., is the Chief Economist at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Previously, Dr. Ginn served as the Associate Director for Economic Policy of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) at the Executive Office of the President during the Trump Administration.
Dr. Ginn earned his doctorate in economics at Texas Tech University and has an accomplished career as a policy director and university lecturer with experience in public policy, academia, and government. He gives keynote speeches, appears in major media outlets, publishes papers in top-ranked academic journals, conducts policy research on critical issues, and works to turn papers into policy. Dr. Ginn is committed to preserving Texas as a place where Texans can build their careers, raise their families, and live their lives freely.
Admiral William McRaven is a retired U.S. Navy four-star admiral and the former University of Texas System chancellor. Adm. McRaven oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. His book Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice, published in several languages, is considered a fundamental text on special operations strategy.
As the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, Adm. McRaven led a force of 69,000 men and women and was responsible for conducting counter-terrorism operations worldwide. He is a recognized national authority on U.S. foreign policy and has advised presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and other U.S. leaders on defense issues.
As chancellor of the University of Texas System, he oversaw 14 institutions that educate 221,000 students and employ 20,000 faculty and more than 80,000 health care professionals, researchers, and staff.
Admiral McRaven has received the Republic of France's Legion d'Honneur, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association's National Award, and the National Intelligence Award. In 2016, he was named the recipient of the Ambassador Richard M. Helms Award by the Central Intelligence Agency Officers Memorial Foundation.
Brendan Steinhauser is a Partner with Steinhauser Strategies, a public affairs firm based in Austin, Texas. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Government from The University of Texas in 2004 and earned his M.A. in Statecraft and International Affairs from The Institute of World Politics in 2013. He is an adjunct professor of Political Science and Global Studies at St. Edward's University in Austin, where he teaches courses on Global Issues and State & Local Government. Brendan serves in the Texas State Guard, the premier state defense force in America.
Brendan has led campaigns for candidates and causes in more than 40 states, including for Senator John Cornyn and Congressman Dan Crenshaw. TIME magazine named Brendan as one of "40 Under 40" rising stars in American politics. Campaigns & Elections magazine awarded him a "Rising Star" award in 2012. Former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey called working with Brendan one of the highlights of his career.
Brendan is the author of The Conservative Revolution: How to Win the Battle for College Campuses and continues to write on his personal website: www.brendansteinhauser.com. He is an avid reader, especially when it comes to European and American history, and enjoys traveling to archaeological sites around the world.
Brendan lives in Austin with his wife and business partner Randan, and his three beautiful daughters: Bonnie Joyce, Rose Marie, and Ella Mae. He is originally from Flatonia, a small town in Fayette County, Texas.
David Springer is a former DIA agent, a former counterterrorism specialist at the National Counterterrorism Center in Washington, a cybersecurity expert, an attorney, and a former law clerk for Texas Supreme Court Justice Jeff Brown.
David is an Austin native that attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C. for his B.A., earned an M.A. in Communication from Johns Hopkins University, and obtained his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law.
David spent time in Afghanistan as a Defense Intelligence Agency officer. He later spent time working at the National Counterterrorism Center in Washington, DC. He now works as an attorney with Bracewell in Austin with his wife and their two young children.
Toba Hellerstein is the CEO of the Texas-Israel Alliance, an economic diplomacy organization that creates strategic relationships between the U.S. and Israel. Prior, she had a career in global business development and foreign market advisory, with a special focus on the Middle East and North Africa.
In this episode of Seay the Future podcast, Toba and George discuss her experience working in the Middle East, her current projects and perspective, and her predictions for the future.
General Hagee served as the 33rd Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. His military career took him to innumerable foreign countries in combat and peace. He now serves as the President and CEO of the National Museum of the Pacific War in his hometown of Fredricksburg, Texas.
In this episode of Seay the Future, George and General Hagee discuss his background, how the military shaped his life, foreign relations with China, and much more! Subscribe to Seay the Future podcast and listen to his episode today!
Rod Dreher is a senior editor and blogger at The American Conservative andone of the most influential conservative opinion-makers in the U.S.
In this episode of Seay the Future podcast, George and Dreher discuss his perspective on current topics, his background, his writing career, and much more.
Seay the Future is a podcast hosted by George Seay, a nationally recognized businessman, philanthropist, and civic leader in Dallas, Texas.
George interviews influential people in business, politics, academia, the military, and the media. Topics include national security, foreign policy, American history and politics, Texas history and politics, religion, society, and culture.