Westminster Town Hall Forum: Recent Episodes
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In this special episode of the Forum podcast, we talk with Paul Neimann, one of the originators of the Forum. He and his wife Diane moved to Minneapolis in the 1970s and believed their new home deserved a great speaker series. That idea became the nationally renowned Westminster Town Hall Forum. Diane passed away in 2019. But Forum director Tane Danger sat down with Paul to learn more about the origins of the Forum. Where did the idea originally come from? Who was it intended for? Was the Forum always free? How did they find the first speakers? The Forum has now hosted hundreds of speakers and touched hundreds of thousands of hearts and minds. That's in no small part thanks to Paul and Diane Neimann's efforts more than four decades ago. Please, enjoy this short history of the Forum's earliest days. And join us in thanking Paul and Diane Neimann for helping get this treasured program started.
Dr. Keyu Jin speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum in Minneapolis. Born in China and educated in the U.S., she is a world-renowned economist at the London School of Economics. Her most recent book is "The New China Playbook: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism." In it and in this talk, she explains how China became the most successful economic story of our time as it has shifted from primarily state-owned enterprise to an economy that is thriving in entrepreneurship, and participation in the global economy. She also discusses how the U.S. and China might improve relations by better understanding one another's economic systems. This program was recorded in front a live audience at Westminster Presbyterian Church in downtown Minneapolis on April 18, 2024. It was moderated by Tane Danger. Learn more about the Westminster Town Hall Forum at our website: www.WestminsterForum.orgKeyu Jin is a tenured professor of economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science who has worked with the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. She is currently a global board member for Richemont. Born and raised in Beijing, she holds a BA, an MA, and a PhD in economics from Harvard University, and resides with her family in London and Beijing.
Legendary tech journalist Kara Swisher in conversation with Tane Danger at the Westminster Town Hall Forum in Minneapolis. Swisher's newest work is "Burn Book; a Tech Love Story." It’s part memoir, part history and, most of all, a necessary recounting of tech’s power players and influence. In it she shares how tech came to be at the center of global commerce and power, and the risks that poses to democracy and humanity. She'll be in conversation with Forum director Tane Danger and then take questions from the audience. This program was recorded in front a live audience at Westminster Presbyterian Church in downtown Minneapolis on March 19, 2024.Learn more about the Westminster Town Hall Forum at our website: www.WestminsterForum.orgKara Swisher is the host of the podcast On with Kara Swisher and the cohost of the Pivot podcast with Scott Galloway, both distributed by New York magazine. She was also the cofounder and editor-at-large of Recode, host of the Recode Decode podcast, and coexecutive producer of the Code conference. She is a former contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and host of its Sway podcast and has also worked for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
Award-winning journalist Michele Norris speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum in Minneapolis. She spoke about her best-selling book, "Our Hidden Conversation; What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity." For more than a decade, Norris asked people around the world to send in their stories. The prompt was simple: "Race. Your Story. Six Words. Please Send." She and the Race Card Team collected more than 500,000 stories, many of which are complied in and expanded in "Our Hidden Conversations." The results are shocking in their depth and candor, spanning the full spectrum of race, ethnicity, identity, and class. The program opened with a dramatic reading of some of those stories by a diverse cast of community leaders: The Honorable Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, Heidi Adelsman, Roxane Battle, Sheletta Brundidge, Bill Kiffmeyer, Patricia Lopez, Kerri Miller, R.T. Rybak, Jasmine Brett Stringer, Laysha Ward, Tom Weber, Lizz Winstead, Jai Winston and Boua Xiong.Afterwards, Norris sat down for an in-depth conversation with Forum director Tane Danger. She also answered audience questions.This program was recorded in front a live audience at Westminster Presbyterian Church in downtown Minneapolis on February 1, 2024.Learn more about the Westminster Town Hall Forum at our website: www.WestminsterForum.orgMinneapolis native Michele Norris is one of America’s most trusted voices in journalism, earning several honors over a long career, including Peabody, Emmy, Dupont, and Goldsmith awards. She is a columnist for The Washington Post Opinion Section, the host of the Audible Original Podcast, Your Mama’s Kitchen, and from and from 2002 to 2012 she was a cohost of NPR’s All Things Considered. Norris is also the founding director of The Race Card Project, a Peabody Award–winning narrative archive where people around the world share their reflections on identity—in just six words. Her first book, The Grace of Silence, was named one of the best books of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Kansas City Star. Before joining NPR, Norris spent almost ten years as a reporter for ABC News covering politics, policy, and the dynamics of social change. Early in her career, she also worked as a staff writer for The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times.
Transgender rights activist and author Raquel Willis speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum. Raquel Willis is an award-winning activist, author, and media strategist dedicated to Black transgender liberation. She is the co-founder of The Transgender Week of Visibility and Action. She spoke at the Forum about her work and her memoir, "The Risk it Takes to Bloom; On Life and Liberation." This talk was recorded in front of a live audience at Westminster Presbyterian in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota on December 8, 2023. Learn more at the Westminster Town Hall Forum website, www.WestminsterForum.org
Nancy Giles speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum in Minneapolis on November 9, 2023. Giles is a comedian, actress, and social commentator. Since 2002 she has been a regular contributor to the Peabody Award-winning program CBS News Sunday Morning. In that time, she has earned five Emmy Awards for her unique blend of common-sense wisdom, laugh-out-loud humor, commentary, and interviews.She’s a veteran of Chicago’s esteemed Second City improv troupe. She has appeared Off-Broadway in Nora & Delia Ephron’s Love Loss, and What I Wore, and won the Theatre World Award for the musical satire Mayor. She was one of the stars of the acclaimed series China Beach and the sitcom Delta.Her solo shows include Black Comedy: The Wacky Side of Racism, Notes of a Negro Neurotic, Things My Afro Taught Me, and The Further Adventures of the Accidental Pundette, which The New Yorker called “the surprise of (this) annual festival… a rocking standup comedy.”
Author and NPR host Steve Inskeep speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum.Inskeep's latest book is "Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America." It shares Lincoln’s lessons for bridging intense political divisions. He spoke at the Forum about what we can learn from Lincoln to help navigate our own divisive politics. Steve Inskeep is a cohost of NPR’s Morning Edition, the most widely heard radio program in the United States, and of NPR’s Up First, one of the nation’s most popular podcasts. His reporting has taken him across the United States, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Pakistan, and China. His search for the full story behind the news has led him to history; he is the author of multiple books including "Instant City," "Jacksonland," and "Imperfect Union."This program was recorded in front a live audience at Westminster Presbyterian Church in downtown Minneapolis on October 7, 2023.Learn more about the Westminster Town Hall Forum at our website: www.WestminsterForum.org
Senior correspondent for APM Reports Emily Hanford speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum.For more than a generation, schools across the U.S. embraced a specific methodology of teaching kids to read. The problem? Cognitive scientists had proven decades before it didn’t actually work. In her award-winning podcast "Sold a Story," Emily Hanford investigated the influential authors who promoted this idea and the company that sold it to schools across the country. She spoke at the Forum about what that has meant for millions of kids and what it says about education in the United States.Emily Hanford is a senior correspondent and producer for APM Reports, the documentary and investigative reporting group at American Public Media. Her work has appeared on NPR, in The New York Times and other publications. For the past several years, she has been reporting on reading instruction. Her 2018 podcast episode “Hard Words: Why aren’t kids being taught to read?” won the inaugural public service award from EWA.This program was recorded in front a live audience at Westminster Presbyterian Church in downtown Minneapolis on September 12, 2023. Learn more about the Westminster Town Hall Forum at our website: www.WestminsterForum.org
Samuel G. Freedman, author of "Into the Bright Sunshine: A Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights." He spoke with Forum director Tane Danger at a special Westminster Town Hall Forum recorded at the Minnesota State Fair.They discussed the former Vice President's upbringing in South Dakota, what Minneapolis was like in the early 1900s, and why Humphrey's speech at the 1948 Democratic National Convention on civil rights still matters today. The program was recorded in front of a live audience at the Minnesota State Fair on August 30, 2023. Learn more about the Westminster Town Hall Forum at our website: www.WestminsterForum.org
Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch speaking on life as a diplomat, the Russian war in Ukraine, and the political smear campaign against her by then-President Trump and his allies. She is the author of the best-selling memoir, "Lessons from the Edge."Yovanovitch served for more than 30 years in the US State Department under both Republican and Democratic presidents. She did tours in Somalia, Russia, and the U.K. She served as US Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, and eventually Ukraine from 2016–2019. Her service there was cut short by a politically-motivated campaign against her pushed by allies of then President Donald Trump and ultimately the President himself. These events contributed to President Trump's first impeachment, at which Ambassador Yavonovitch testified.This is a special podcast-only edition of the Westminster Town Hall Forum moderated by Forum Director Tane Danger. Ambassador Yavonovitch's visit to Minnesota was coordinated by Global Minnesota, who arranged for her conversation with the Forum. Learn more about Global Minnesota at www.GlobalMinnesota.orgLearn more about the Westminster Town Hall Forum and see more of our programs at www.WestminsterForum.org
Dr. Cornel West and Ms. Ifeoma Ike Esq. speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum's 2023 Arc Toward Justice program. Moderated by Angela Davis of Minnesota Public Radio News. The Arc Toward Justice series invites national racial justice leaders to reflect on a another year George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis and the international uprising that followed. We ask them to discuss where we have come on racial justice since then, and where they believe we still need to go. Dr. Cornel West, affectionately known to many as Brother West, is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary. He is the former Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He has written 20 books and has edited 13. He is best known for his classics, Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and for his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. Ifeoma Ike, Esq. is an award-winning advocate, writer and policy advisor focused on designing solutions to address disparities. She co-engineered Just Leadership USA and Mass Bail Out NYC. She also helped form three congressional caucuses: the Caucus on Black Men and Boys; the Caucus on Black Women and Girls; and the recently-launched Caucus on Black Innovation. Ike holds a LL.M. with highest honors from The George Washington School of Law and J.D. from CUNY School of Law, where she specialized in mediation and conflict resolution.The Forum was moderated by Angela Davis of Minnesota Public Radio News. It was recorded in front of a live audience of more than 1000 at Westminster Presbyterian in Downtown Minneapolis on May 20, 2023.
Dr. Pooja Lakshmin, M.D. speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum on May 2, 2023. She is a women's mental health specialist, a board-certified physician psychiatrist, and a Clinical Assistant Professor at George Washington University. She is the author of "Real Self-Care: Crystals, Cleanses and Bubble Baths Not Included." In it, she argues women are largely targeted by a wellness industry designed to sell get-well-quick schemes. In their place, she focuses on tangible psychological tools to manage difficult emotions, set boundaries, make choices aligned with one’s values, and develop mental health literacy.You can listen for free to more than 40 years of Westminster Town Hall Forum programs on our website. They are all archived on our website: www.WestminsterForum.org
Veteran and author Elliot Ackerman speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He spoke on his most recent book, "The Fifth Act: America's End in Afghanistan." Elliot Ackerman is a writer, journalist, former White House Fellow, and decorated veteran. He served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart.He is the New York Times bestselling author of multiple novels. His books have been nominated for the National Book Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal in both fiction and nonfiction, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize among others. He spoke in front of a live audience at the Westminster Town Hall Forum in Downtown Minneapolis on April 18, 2023. You can listen for free to more than 40 years of Westminster Town Hall Forum programs on our website. They are all archived on our website: www.WestminsterForum.org
Ari Shapiro's talk at the Westminster Town Hall Forum, March 28 2023. He is the award-winning co-host of National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and the author of the new memoir "The Best Strangers in the World; Stories from a Life Spent Listening." Learn more at the Westminster Town Hall Forum website, www.WestminsterForum.org
Parker Palmer is a writer, teacher, activist, and founder of the Center for Courage & Renewal, a nonprofit organization committed to creating a more just and compassionate world by nurturing personal and professional integrity. His bestselling books include, among others, A Hidden Wholeness, Let Your Life Speak, The Courage to Teach, Healing the Heart of Democracy, and On the Brink of Everything. A graduate of Carleton College, he holds a PhD in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, and he is the recipient of 13 honorary doctorates and numerous awards for achievement and excellence. At the Forum, he will be in conversation with Sondra Samuels, president of the Northside Achievement Zone in North Minneapolis.
André Thomas is Professor of Choral Music Education, Director of Choral Activities, and the Owen F. Sellers Professor of Music at Florida State University. He is the conductor of a variety of choral organizations throughout the country and served as the artistic director for the Tallahassee Community Chorus. He is in demand as a choral adjudicator and clinician and has conducted 48 Honor and All-State Choirs, as well as the World Youth Choir. As a composer, his works have been published by seven publishing companies, and he is the author of the book "Way Over in Beulah Lan’: Understanding and Performing the Negro Spiritual." He earned a B.A. from Friends University, an M.M. from Northwestern University, and a D.M.A. from the University of Illinois.
Jim Sciutto is CNN’s chief national security correspondent and co-anchor of the weekday program CNN Newsroom. He reports and provides analysis on all aspects of U.S. national security, including the military, foreign policy, the intelligence community, and the ongoing Russia investigation. An award-winning journalist, he has received the Headliner Award for the documentary Targeting Terror: Inside the Intelligence War, a Citation for Excellence from the Overseas Press Club, and the Edward R. Murrow Award for his reporting from Iran. Prior to joining CNN, he served as ABC News’ senior foreign correspondent. His new book, The Shadow War, explores Russia and China’s clandestine efforts to undermine the U.S.
Kathleen Belew is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Chicago where her teaching and research focus on militarization, violence, racism, and identity in 20th-century America. Her recent book, Bring the War Home, explores white power activism from its roots in the Vietnam War to its collaboration with neo-Naxi, Ku Klux Klan, skinhead, and militia movements. She has been featured on Fresh Air, Weekend Edition, CBS, and the Frontline program Documenting Hate. A graduate of the University of Washington with a degree in the history of ideas, she earned an MPhil and PhD in American studies from Yale University. She is currently a research fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.
Barbara Brown Taylor is an Episcopal priest, teacher, and bestselling author of fourteen books on religion and spirituality, including Leaving Church, An Altar in the World and Learning to Walk in the Dark, named one of the best religion books of 2014 by Publisher’s Weekly. She has served on the faculties of Piedmont College, Columbia Theological Seminary, Candler School of Theology at Emory University, McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University, and on the Certificate in Theological Studies program at Arrendale State Prison for Women in Alto, Georgia. She has been recognized by Baylor University as one of the top twelve preachers in America, and in 2015, she was named Georgia Woman of the Year. Her latest book, Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others, was published in April 2019.
Jonathan Capehart is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and member of The Washington Post editorial board, focusing on politics, social issues, and cultural shifts nationally and globally. He is a regular contributor to the blog PostPartisan and hosts the podcast Cape Up. He is a periodic commentator on MSNBC and a moderator at the Aspen Ideas Festival, the Center for American Progress, the Atlantic Dialogues conference, and the Brussels Forum. Earlier in his career, he was an editorial page editor and editorial board member for the New York Daily News, and he served as a national affairs columnist for Bloomberg News. He is a recipient of the Esteem Award, which honors individuals for their ongoing efforts to support the African American and LGBT communities in entertainment, media, civil rights, business, and art. He grew up in Newark, New Jersey, attended St. Benedict’s Preparatory School, and is a graduate of Carleton College.
David Hogg is a survivor of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. He is among twenty Parkland students who founded Never Again MSD, a gun control advocacy group, and he is a founding member of March for Our Lives, one of the largest youth-led movements in the world. An advocate for ending gun violence in America, he has traveled the country calling for voter participation, civic engagement, and social activism. He and his younger sister, Lauren, are co-authors of the bestselling book "#NeverAgain: A New Generation Draws the Line" and contributors to the book "Glimmer of Hope: How Tragedy Sparked a Movement," a compilation of writings from the founders of March for Our Lives. A recent graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, he has received letters of acceptance from several universities but has chosen to take a year off to work on the 2018 midterm elections and to continue his activism on gun policy reform.
Art Cullen is editor and co-owner of The Storm Lake Times, a flourishing, family-owned, twice-weekly newspaper founded in 1990 in Northwest Iowa. In 2017, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for a series of columns indicting corporate agri-business for polluting the rivers and lakes in the most-intensively farmed land in the world. His recently published book, Storm Lake, chronicles his 40-year career in journalism and describes changes in politics, agriculture, climate, and immigration in his rural community. A graduate of the University of St. Thomas, he has been a reporter and editor with newspapers in Algona, Ames, Mason City, and Storm Lake, Iowa. His commentaries have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and the StarTribune. His brother John is publisher of The Storm Lake Times, his son, Tom, is a reporter, and his wife, Dolores, is a feature writer and photographer.
Michael Beschloss is an award-winning author of nine books on presidential history. He is the presidential historian for NBC News and a contributor to PBS NewsHour. A graduate of Williams College and Harvard Business School, he has served as a historian for the Smithsonian Institution, as a Senior Associate Member at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and as a Senior Fellow of the Annenberg Foundation. His books on the presidency include, among others, "The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960-1963;" "The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler’s Germany;" and "Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989." His most recent book is "Presidents of War." He is the recipient of the Harry S. Truman Public Service Award, the New York State Archives Award, and the Rutgers University Living History Award. He is a trustee of the White House Historical Association and the National Archives Foundation and a former trustee of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
Mona Hanna-Attisha is an associate professor of pediatrics at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and a pediatrician at Hurley Children’s Hospital in Flint, Michigan. She has been acclaimed internationally for her research that exposed elevated levels of lead in the blood of the children of Flint. She directs the Michigan State University and Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative, a public health program committed to researching, monitoring, and mitigating the impact of the Flint water crisis. The daughter of Iraqi immigrants, she is the author of What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City. She received her BS and Master of Public Health degrees from the University of Michigan and her medical degree from Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.
Clint Watts is a former FBI agent with expertise in electronic espionage operations, misinformation campaigns, fake news, and the manipulation of social media. In 2017 and 2018, he testified before four Senate committees on Russia’s information warfare campaign in advance of the 2016 presidential election. Currently, he is a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University. His research and writings focus on terrorism, counterterrorism, the influence of social media, and Russian disinformation. He has served as an Army infantry officer, an FBI special agent on a joint terrorism task force, an executive officer for the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, and a counterterrorism analyst for the U.S. Intelligence Community and the U.S. Special Operations Command.
Richard Stengel is a journalist, author, and former managing editor of Time. He has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, New Republic, Spy, and The New York Times, and he appears regularly on television as a political commentator. In 2013, he accepted the position of Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in the Obama administration. He served as the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, which was established by Congress to increase awareness and understanding of the Constitution. He collaborated with Nelson Mandela on Mandela’s autobiography, The Long Walk to Freedom, and he was a producer of the documentary film Mandela. He is the author of the book Mandela’s Way.
Honey Thaljieh is known internationally for promoting the role of sports in empowering women and girls in the Arab world and beyond. She is a co-founder of women’s football (soccer) in Palestine, and she served as the first captain of the Palestinian national football team. Following her career in football, she joined FIFA, the International Federation of Association Football, where she leads its efforts to promote diversity, gender equality, integration, and peace-making in sports. She has been recognized as a Champion for Peace by the organization Peace and Sport, and she serves as an ambassador for the sports organizations Save the Dream, Homeless World Cup, and Football for Peace. This forum was the kick-off event for the weekend-long festival, Windows into Palestine: https://www.windowsintopalestine.org/
Steve Schmidt is a political strategist, public relations executive, and a political analyst on MSNBC. He was an advisor in the George W. Bush administration and served as the top strategist for the president’s re-election campaign. In 2008, he was the senior advisor to the John McCain presidential campaign. He is a vice president at Edelman, a global communications marketing firm, where he advises politicians and business executives on technology, financial services, energy, healthcare, and more. He serves on the board of the nonprofit research organization JUST Capital, which ranks companies on their commitment to fair pay, equal treatment of all workers, community-building, and sustainability. With David Plouffe, he founded the Center for Political Communication at the University of Delaware.
Nadine Burke Harris is a pediatrician and advocate for children’s health. She is the founder of the Center for Youth Wellness, which researches the impact of adverse childhood experiences on long-term health, behavior, and learning. She has shared her findings at the Mayo Clinic, American Academy of Pediatrics, Google Zeitgeist, and Dreamforce. An advisor to the Too Small to Fail initiative, which promotes the importance of early brain and language development in children, she is the author of the new book The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity. She is the recipient of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation’s Humanism in Medicine Award and the Heinz Award for the Human Condition.
Suzy Hansen is an American journalist and editor. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she moved to Istanbul in 2007 after receiving a journalism fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs to write on Turkish politics and foreign affairs. Since then, she has traveled to Libya, Greece, Egypt, Afghanistan, Kuwait, India, Kenya, and beyond to study and reflect on socio-political issues. She is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, London Review of Books, Vogue, Bloomberg, and Businessweek. Her first book, Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World, is a memoir exploring her assumptions about American beneficence abroad, America’s role in the Middle East. and its standing in the world.
Crime and Punishment in Black America. James Forman Jr. is a professor of law at Yale Law School, teaching and writing on criminal procedure, constitutional law, juvenile justice, and education law and policy. He is the author of the book "Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America." A graduate of Brown University and Yale Law School, he served as a law clerk for Judge William Norris of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the United States Supreme Court. After clerking, he worked for six years as a public defender in Washington, D.C., where he founded the Maya Angelou Public Charter School, an alternative school serving at-risk youth who have been incarcerated or have dropped out of school. The school now provides education for young people inside the District of Columbia’s juvenile prison.
Ari Melber is Chief Legal Correspondent for MSNBC, covering the U. S. Supreme Court, Justice Department, and FBI, and the host of the political news program The Beat. He has written on law and politics for The Nation, The Atlantic, Reuters, Salon, and Politico. Raised in Seattle, he earned a BA in political science from the University of Michigan and a JD from Cornell Law School where he was an editor of the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy. From 2009 to 2013, he practiced law at a major New York law firm, specializing in First Amendment, reporter’s privilege, and copyright litigation. During the 2008 presidential campaign, he traveled with the Obama campaign on special assignment for The Washington Independent. He was a national staff member for the 2004 John Kerry Campaign, and he worked as a legislative aide to Senator Maria Cantwell.
Carl Pope is the former executive director and chairman of the Sierra Club and a veteran leader in the environmental movement. He is now a senior climate advisor to former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and the principal advisor at Inside Straight Strategies, where he focuses on the links between sustainability and economic development. A graduate of Harvard College, he is the author of three books, including Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet, which he co-authored with Michael Bloomberg. He was a founder of the BlueGreen Alliance and America Votes, and he served on the boards of the California League of Conservation Voters, Public Voice, the National Clean Air Coalition, California Common Cause, and Zero Population Growth. He is currently serving on the advisory board of America India Foundation and on the board of directors of Ceres and As You Sow. He writes regularly for Bloomberg View and Huffington Post.
Richard Haass is president of the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent, nonpartisan think-tank and an educational institution seeking better understanding of global issues facing the U. S. and other countries. He was chair of the multiparty negotiations in Northern Ireland in 2013, and he served as a principal advisor and director of policy planning under Secretary of State Colin Powell. He was a special assistant to George H. W. Bush and the senior director for Near East and South Asian Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council. A Rhodes Scholar, he holds master and doctoral degrees from Oxford University. He is the author or editor of twelve books on American foreign policy, including A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order.
Otis Moss III is the senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, former church-home for then-Senator Barack Obama. Since coming to Trinity in 2008, Moss has focused his ministerial work on community advancement, civil rights advocacy, and social justice activism, calling attention to the problems of mass incarceration, environmental justice, and economic inequality. Committed to preaching a message of love and justice, he developed a curriculum for young people entitled My Life Matters in the aftermath of the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. A graduate of Morehouse College, he holds a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School and a Doctor of Ministry from Chicago Theological Seminary. His books include, among others, Blue Note Preaching in a Post-Soul World: Finding Hope in an Age of Despair.
Frank Bruni is an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. Since joining the paper in 1995, he has covered a broad range of topics, including American politics, higher education, travel, the arts, gay rights, and more. As a political columnist, he has focused on the nation’s divisiveness and what each citizen can do to seek common ground. He is the author of three bestselling books, including Ambling into History, a chronicle of George W. Bush’s first presidential campaign; his memoir Born Round; and his most recent book, Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of Journalism.
Irshad Manji is the founder of the Moral Courage Project, headquartered at the University of Southern California and committed to helping people identify, express, and act according to their values. In 2013, MCP launched its award-winning You-Tube channel, which features stories of people taking action in pursuit of the common good. MCP’s founder first came to prominence for her work as an Islamic reformer, and her book The Trouble with Islam was an international bestseller. A graduate of the University of British Columbia with a degree in the history of ideas, she describes herself as African by birth, Canadian by citizenship, and American by immersion. She is an advocate for human rights, social justice, diversity, and inclusion.
Thomas Friedman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning weekly columnist for The New York Times, focusing on foreign affairs, the Middle East, globalization, and environmental issues. He is the author of seven bestselling books, including The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization; The World Is Flat: A Brief History of theTwenty-first Century; and the winner of the National Book Award, From Beirut to Jerusalem. His latest book is Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations. Born and raised in St. Louis Park, MN, he graduated from Brandeis University with a degree in Mediterranean studies and earned an M.Phil degree in Middle Eastern Studies at Oxford University.
Timothy Naftali is associate clinical professor of history and public service at NYU. He was the founding director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum where he curated its nationally acclaimed exhibit on Watergate, and founding director of the Presidential Recording Project at the Miller Center of Public Affairs. An award-winning author, his writings focus on national security, intelligence policy, international history, and presidential history. His published works include, among others, One Hell of a Gamble: Krushchev, Castro, and Kennedy, 1958 – 1964 and Blind Spot: The Secret History of American Counterterrorism. He holds degrees from Yale University and Johns Hopkins University and a doctoral degree in history from Harvard University.
Gene Robinson is a retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. In 2003, he received national attention as the first priest in an openly gay relationship to be consecrated a bishop in a major Christian denomination. Since his retirement in 2013, he has served as a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, speaking and writing on the issues of race, poverty, immigration reform, LGBT rights, and the full inclusion of transgender people in the life of the Church and in American society. Recently, he has been speaking on behalf of the nonprofit organization Compassion & Choices, which advocates state-of-the-art care and a full range of options for people who are dying to ensure their comfort, dignity, and control at the end of life.
Glennon Doyle Melton is the founder of the online community Momastery, which draws hundreds of thousands of readers daily to her writings on marriage, motherhood, faith, addiction, and recovery. She is the author of The New York Times bestselling book Carry On, Warrior, and the newly released memoir, Love Warrior. In her books and blog posts, she shares poignant and candid observations about life’s challenges and the need to live authentically and without shame. A speaker in high demand, she has shared her insights with businesses, universities, faith communities, nonprofits, women’s groups, and parents’ organizations. She is a graduate of James Madison University in Virginia and currently lives in Naples, Florida, with her family.
Eddie Glaude Jr. is the William S. Tod Professor of Religion and African American Studies at Princeton University and Chair of the Department of African American Studies. He is the author of the award-winning book In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America and co-editor with Cornel West of African American Religious Thought: An Anthology. His latest book is Democracy in Black: How Race Still Governs the Soul of America. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Morehouse College, a master’s degree in African American studies from Temple University, and a PhD in religion from Princeton University. His scholarly pursuits and public service have been informed by his years growing up in the coastal town of Moss Point, Mississippi.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson is the Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication and Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The Annenberg Center runs FactCheck, which is committed to examining the accuracy of U. S. political campaign advertisements. She is the author or co-author of fifteen books, including Presidents Creating the Presidency and unSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation. Her areas of research include political communication, rhetorical theory and criticism, campaign communication, and the discourse of the presidency. She is a native of Minneapolis and a graduate of Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she earned her PhD in Communication Arts.
Jacob Hacker is a professor of political science at Yale University and Director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies. He is co-author of the bestselling book Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class. He is a developer of the Economic Security Index (ESI), which measures the share of Americans who experience at least a 25 percent decline in their income from one year to the next, and his 2007 plan "Health Care for America" became a template for several presidential candidates' health care reform proposals. In his latest book, American Amnesia, written with Paul Pierson, he argues that the vital link between business and government has frayed, and along with it, the American record of social advancement and prosperity.
E.J. Dionne writes a twice-weekly column on politics for The Washington Post. He is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, a professor of government at Georgetown University, and a commentator on politics for NPR, PBS, ABC, NBC, and MSNBC. He is the author of six books, including Our Divided Political Heart and Why Americans Hate Politics, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was a nominee for the National Book Award. His latest book, Why the Right Went Wrong, explores the recent history of unrest and discontent in the Republican Party, tracing its beginning to Goldwater conservatism in the 1960s. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard University and holds a DPhil from Balliol College at Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
Senator Timothy Wirth was elected to the United States Senate from Colorado in 1986. Prior to that, he served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives where he led efforts that changed American telecommunications policy. He is the author of the major Senate legislation addressing the issue of global warming and has been a leading spokesman for stronger federal clean air laws. An avid outdoorsman, he has paid special attention to Colorado's conservation, public health, and environmental issues.
Studs Terkel is a prize-winning author and broadcast personality. He began his career in Chicago where he worked with the WPA Writers Project in the radio division. In his early years on the radio, he featured music ranging from folk to opera to jazz. Over the years, his programs evolved into an interview format, including his award-winning show, The Studs Terkel Program. His first book, Giants of Jazz, was published in 1956, and ten years later, his first book of oral-history interviews, Division Street: America, was released, followed by a succession of oral-history books on the Depression, World War II, race relations, working, and the American dream.
Ralph Mero & Joseph R. Stanton - Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides - 09/21/89 by westminsterforum
Lisbeth Schorr is a lecturer in Social Medicine and Health Policy at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Harvard University Working Group on Early Life. With her husband, journalist Daniel Schorr, she co-authored Within Our Reach, an analysis of effective social policies and programs aimed at breaking the cycle of inter-generational poverty, which threatens to create a permanent American underclass. In the Johnson and Carter administrations, she headed national efforts to improve the lives of disadvantaged children and families.
Leonard Silk is the economics columnist for The New York Times. Prior to joining the newspaper, he was the economics editor and editorial page editor for Business Week. He is a five-time recipient of the prestigious Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism. His 1978 book, Economics in Plain English, has been updated and revised for release again this year.
Joseph Rossillon - National Water Crisis: How It Affects The Individual - 08/23/87 by westminsterforum
Dr Martin E. Marty - The Larger Vision In American Religion - 05/29/82 by westminsterforum
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., is a distinguished historian and writer. His first-hand experience with world politics as Special Assistant to President John F. Kennedy has given him a rich perspective on the subject of world power. He currently holds the position of Albert Schweitzer Professor of Humanities at The City University of New York. He received the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1946 and for biography in 1966.
William Proxmire served as the U. S. Senator from Wisconsin from 1957 to 1989. He was chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and the ranking minority member of the Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Known for his war on government waste, he gained national recognition for his Golden Fleece Awards, which he bestowed on federal agencies that he judged to be overspending American tax dollars. He has written five books, including Uncle Sam: Last of the Big Time Spenders and The Fleecing of America.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr was born in Tehran and received his early education in Iran. He earned a B.S. degree in physics at M.I.T. and a Ph.D. in the history of Science and Philosophy at Harvard University. For 21 years, he was Professor of the History of Science and Philosophy at the University of Tehran. Since 1984, he has been Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University. He is the author of numerous books and the founder and first president of the Iranian Academy of Philosophy.
John Najarian is chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota and a widely recognized pioneer in transplant surgery. After graduating with honors from the University of California Medical School in 1952, he served as Division Surgeon of the 34th Air Division, USAF, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was professor of surgery at the University of California School of Medicine before he came to the University of Minnesota in 1967.
Dr Martin E. Marty - The Larger Vision In American Religion - 05/29/82 by westminsterforum
Attallah Shabazz is the eldest of the six daughters of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz. She has devoted much of her life to civil rights and overcoming racism and oppression. In her address, she will focus on her father's primary role as a loving husband and father. Through her speaking engagements, she hopes to motivate and inspire people to improve their self-concept by better understanding their own history, the world around them, and their place in it. With Yolanda King, the eldest daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., she founded Nucleus, Inc., a touring theater company whose productions encourage the audience to overcome obstacles and shape their own destinies.
Vladimir Zvyagin is the Bureau Chief for Soviet radio and television in New York City. Since being assigned to the U. S. in 1986, he has covered political, economic, social, and cultural events across the country.
amuel Thier is the president of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, which is a congressionally-chartered private sector organization that analyzes and recommends health services and health sciences policy. He has served as Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at Yale University's School of Medicine, President of the American Federation of Clinical Research, and Chairman of the American Board of Internal Medicine.
Rodion Shchedrin is a renowned Russian composer and president of the Soviet Composers Union. He has been described as a major figure in contemporary Russian composition and one of the principal successors of Prokofiev and Shostakovich. He lives in Moscow and will be participating in a three-day festival of his music by the Plymouth Music Series of Minnesota.
Olara Otunnu is an international statesman who is widely acclaimed for his diplomatic and negotiating skills. From 1980 to 1985, he was Uganda's permanent representative to the United Nations, serving as president of the Security Council and chairman of the U. N. Commission on Human Rights. While serving as Uganda's Minister of Foreign Affairs, he played a key role in the Uganda Peace Talks. He is currently president of the International Peace Academy, which conducts programs in peacekeeping and the settlement of international conflicts.
Neville Marriner has been Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra since 1979. He is the world's most recorded conductor and founder of the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London. A native of Lincolnshire, England, he studied violin at the Royal College of Music in London and at the Paris conservatory. He spent thirteen years as the principal second violin with the London Symphony Orchestra and has conducted most of the world's major symphony orchestras.
Lord Harold Wilson - The View From No. 10 Downing Street - 09/26/85 by westminsterforum
Leon Martel is the former Vice President of the Hudson Institute and an eminent futurist, author, and political scientist specializing in forecasting the future shape of our society.
Kurt Waldheim is a career diplomat, former Foreign Minister of Austria, and a University Research Professor of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. He served as Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1982.
John Roach is the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis and vice-president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. He is widely known for his leadership role on issues of peace and social justice.
J. Michael Quinlan is director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, overseeing the confinement of 44,000 offenders committed to the custody of the Attorney General. A career public administrator in the Department of Justice, he is the fifth director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons since it was established in 1930. He began his career with the Bureau as an attorney in the Central Office and served as executive assistant to the warden at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. He is currently co-vice chairman of the Committee on Prisons and Jail Problems for the American Bar Association.
Isaac Bashevis Singer began his literary career in his native Poland as a journalist for the Yiddish press. He published his first novel in 1935 and, in that same year, immigrated to the United States where his stories and novels have received high acclaim. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978 and is the recipient of two National Book Awards and a grant from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
Eugenia Zukerman is a flutist, recording artist, novelist, and arts critic. She is the music commentator on CBS News' Sunday Morning and appears regularly as a soloist with major orchestras around the world.
Edson Spencer is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at Honeywell, Inc. He is known for his strong convictions on corporate responsibility. He joined Honeywell in 1954 and served as Honeywell's Far East regional manager from 1959 to 1964. Before becoming the company's CEO, he served as corporate vice president in charge of international operations.
Ron Markman is a forensic psychiatrist who has worked with alleged killers to assess their state of mental health. He determines whether someone who has killed is sane or insane and then testifies in a court of law. An attorney as well as a psychiatrist, he has a unique perspective on the legal process and has worked for both the defense and the prosecution. He will explore the challenges of our legal system and explore the common societal belief that a person must be mentally ill to commit a crime.
Donna Shalala - A Conversation With Secretary Donna Shalala - 04/27/95 by westminsterforum
Deborah Prothrow-Stith is a nationally recognized expert on teen violence and the assistant dean for Government and Community Programs at Harvard University's School of Public Health. She is the author of the first violence-prevention curriculum for schools and of the critically-acclaimed book, Deadly Consequences: How Violence Is Destroying Our Teenage Population and a Plan to Begin Solving the Problem. Her interest in adolescent violence began with her work as a staff physician in Boston area hospitals. An alumna of Spelman College and Harvard Medical School, she was the first woman, and the youngest person, to serve as Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Health.
Dean Rusk is professor of International Law at the University of Georgia. He served as U. S. Secretary of State from 1961-1969 and is a former president of the Rockefeller Foundation. He now serves as an advisor to the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency at the State Department.
Curtis and Lisa Sliwa are the founders of New York City's Guardian Angels. For the Guardian Angels, citizen involvement is the key to controlling crime in any community. They challenge traditional law-enforcement tactics and advise citizens to learn to defend themselves. Today, more than 5,000 Guardian Angels volunteers patrol subways, city streets, and suburban shopping malls in a number of American cities. They also offer training in self-defense methods.
Christine Vladimiroff - Hunger In The Land Of Plenty: A Paradox - 02/25/93 by westminsterforum
Wilma Mankiller was the first woman elected Principal Chief by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma in a historic tribal election in 1987. She was re-elected in 1991. Her roots are deeply planted in the rural community of Rocky Mountain in Adair County, Oklahoma. She is committed to the empowerment of people at the local level, to rural development, and to the concept of community self-help. She is devoted to raising awareness of American Indian concerns and to strengthening intergovernmental relations.
Sanford Ungar is a journalist with long experience in sub-Saharan Africa and the author of The People and Politics of an Emerging Continent. Noting the cultural gap between the Arab north and the rest of the continent, he is an observer and interpreter of the multi-faceted changes within the African continent and the African nations' relationship to the United States.
Dr Martin E. Marty - The Larger Vision In American Religion - 05/29/82 by westminsterforum
Abraham Verghese was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and came to the U.S. in 1973. He attended medical school at East Tennessee State University, then accepted a position at Boston City Hospital conducting research. In 1985, he returned to Tennessee as an assistant professor at East Tennessee State University School of Medicine. In his role as an infectious disease specialist, he witnessed firsthand the rapid spread of AIDS. His book, My Own Country: A Doctor's Story, was selected by Time magazine as one of the top five books of 1994. In the book, he describes a community's reaction to AIDS, detailing one doctor's personal struggle to provide care to AIDS patients and their families. He currently serves as Professor of Medicine and Chief of Infectious Disease and Geriatrics at Texas Tech University in El Paso, Texas.
Jim Wallis is a public theologian, political activist, author and international commentator on ethics and public life. He is president and CEO of Sojourners, a network of people committed to spiritual renewal and social justice, and editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine. He teaches at Georgetown University and recently served on the White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. He currently serves on the Global Agenda Council on Values of the World Economic Forum. He is the bestselling author of twelve books, including The (Un)Common Good and Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery. His latest book, America's Original Sin, is a personal and prophetic challenge to overcome the racism that persists in American society.
Andrew Bacevich is an historian, expert on national security, and former professor of International Relations and History at Boston University. Before serving on the faculty at Boston University, he taught at Johns Hopkins University and his alma mater, West Point. He holds a Ph.D. in American Diplomatic History from Princeton University. After serving in the U. S. Army in Vietnam, Germany, and the Persian Gulf, he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel in the 1990s. He is the bestselling author of Washington Rules, an examination of America's foreign policy and military strategy; The Limits of Power, a look at our gridlocked government, overstretched military, and struggling economy; and Breach of Trust, an exploration of the gap between America's soldiers and the society that sends them to war.
Jennifer Lawless is a professor of government at American University where she also serves as the director of the Women and Politics Institute. An expert on electoral politics, she received her Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University. She is the author of several books, including Becoming a Candidate: Political Ambition and the Decision to Run for Office; It Still Takes a Candidate: Why Women Don't Run for Office, and her recently published book, Running from Office: Why Young Americans Are Turned Off to Politics. Her scholarly analysis and political commentary have been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, and on the CBS Evening News, ABC World News Tonight, CNN, and MSNBC.
Patrick Kennedy served in the U.S. House of Representatives for sixteen years and is the son of Senator Ted Kennedy. While serving in Congress, he authored dozens of bills aimed at increasing the understanding and treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders. In particular, he was the lead sponsor of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, which provided access to mental health treatment for tens of millions of Americans previously denied care. He is co-founder of One Mind for Research, a national coalition seeking new treatments for brain illness and injury, and founder of the Kennedy Forum on Community Mental Health, committed to increasing the availability and quality of care.
Dan Buettner is an explorer, educator, three-time world record holder for endurance bicycling, and the founder of Blue Zones, an organization committed to helping Americans live longer, healthier, and happier lives. He teamed with National Geographic and the world's best longevity researchers to identify lifestyle choices in specific parts of the globe where people live measurably longer lives. Their research has been published in his bestselling book The Blue Zones: Nine Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest and his recent book, Blue Zones Solution: Eating and Living Like the World's Healthiest People. In 2009, he brought his nine principles for longevity to the town of Albert Lea, MN, where participants in his program added an estimated 2.9 years to their average lifespan.
Tavis Smiley is an author, publisher, social justice advocate, and host of the late-night PBS television talk show, Tavis Smiley, and the public radio program, The Tavis Smiley Show. He has written or edited eighteen books, including The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto, co-authored with Cornel West; My Journey with Maya, a memoir of his friendship with Maya Angelou; Death of a King, an account of the final year of Dr. Martin Luther King's life, and Covenant with Black America, a collection of essays from a variety of authors addressing economic and social disparities. He is the founder of a nonprofit foundation committed to providing leadership training to young people and to alleviating endemic poverty across all sectors of our society.
Pete Docter is a film director, animator, screenwriter, and voice actor at Pixar Animation Studios. He contributed to the story and characters of Toy Story, Pixar's first full-length animated feature film, and served as the supervising animator for the film. He wrote story treatments for Toy Story 2 and Wall-E and directed Monsters, Inc., Up, and his latest release, Inside Out. He has been nominated for six Academy Awards and won Best Animated Feature Film for Up. Born and raised in Bloomington, MN, he graduated from the California Institute of the Arts where he received a Student Academy Award. In 1990, he was hired as Pixar Studio's third animator and began work on the day following his college graduation.
Pavel Litvinov is a leading Soviet intellectual, scientist, and dissident leader who was forced out of the Soviet Union for his activism on behalf of human rights and political prisoners. He is the grandson of Maxim Litvinov, Stalin's Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the United States.
C. Everett Koop began his appointment as Surgeon General of the U. S. Public Health Service in 1982. Previously, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services and as surgeon-in-chief at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. As surgeon general, he oversees the activities of the 7,200-member Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. In keeping with his responsibility to inform the public on major health hazards, he has become a national educator on AIDS.
Jean Kilborne - How Freed Is Our Press? The Truth About Censorship - 12/07/95 by westminsterforum
Craig Kielburger became aware of the problem of child labor and the exploitation of children after reading a newspaper article about the death of a 12-year-old boy from Pakistan. At age four, Iqbal Masih was sold into slavery and shackled to a loom to make carpets. When he was ten, he escaped, and at twelve, he was murdered. Shocked by the differences in their lives, Craig researched the issue of child labor, then organized his friends and classmates in Ontario, Canada, to form the children's organization Free The Children. Today, there are more than 100 chapters around the world, working with governmental leaders to make the education and protection of children a priority and raising funds to create alternatives for children who are abused and exploited.
Harold Kushner is the author of the bestselling book When Bad Things Happen to Good People. His current book, When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough, continues the effort to bring a theological perspective to modern life. The book was recently awarded the Christopher Medal for its "contributions to the exaltation of the human spirit." A native of Brooklyn, New York, and a graduate of Columbia University, he has been the rabbi of Temple Israel in Natick, Massachusetts, since 1966.
Garrison Keillor is a writer, story-teller, humorist, and host of the nationally-broadcast radio program A Prairie Home Companion.
Clay Jenkinson presents a characterization of the life and ideas of Thomas Jefferson. Created for a 1984 Chautauqua, Mr. Jenkinson's Thomas Jefferson has appeared at legislatures, judicial conferences, and colleges and universities in over 30 states. In 1989, Jenkinson was awarded the National Endowment for the Humanities' Charles Frankel Prize for exemplary work in the public humanities.
Eskil Hemberg And Philip Brunelle - Music And Government - 04/28/88 by westminsterforum
Kathleen Hall Jamieson is Professor of Communication and Dean of The Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Packaging the Presidency: A History and Criticism of Presidential Campaign Advertising and Eloquence in an Electronic Age: The Transformation of Political Speechmaking.
Harold Howe II served as Commissioner of Education under President Johnson and as vice president for Education and Public Policy at the Ford Foundation. He is currently Senior Lecturer on Educational Policy and Administration at Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Joseph Stanton, Ralph Nero & Walter Benjamin - Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides - 09/21/89 by westminsterforum
Sol Gordon is professor emeritus of Syracuse University's Institute for Family Research and Education, which he founded in 1970 and where he served as director until 1985. During his career as a clinical psychologist and sex educator, he has written over 100 articles and 15 books on adolescent sexuality, including Raising a Child Conservatively in a Sexually Permissive World. With a special sensitivity to the needs of young people, he maintains that promoting self-esteem is the key to responsible sexual decision making.
Lawrence Graham is a graduate of Princeton University and is now attending Harvard Law School. He is the author of several books, and he hosts a cable television show.
Ellen Goodman is an author and Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist who writes about the women's movement, politics, and the challenges of our times.
Lani Guinier is a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Formerly Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, she became a household name when her nomination as Assistant U.S. Attorney General was withdrawn by President Clinton. Her primary objective for the year ahead is developing support for a White House conference on civil rights that would be modeled on the White House Economic Summit. "I would like to see something where people come and testify to their own experiences, where the conversation is really a forum for telling the stories of discrimination, and for allowing people an opportunity to hear those whose perspective they don't share."
Douglas Edwards has been a broadcaster and journalist since 1948. He is an anchor for award-winning news programs on both radio and television.
Michael DeBakey - Ethical Issues In Cardiovascular Disease - 03/26/87 by westminsterforum
Jesse Allen - Women On The Front Lines- Meeting The Challenge Of An Aging America - 04/26/93 by westminsterforum
Jonathan Kozol has devoted nearly 25 years to issues of education and social justice. His book Death at an Early Age described his first year as a teacher in the Boston public schools and received the National Book Award in 1986. He later focused on adult literacy, and his subsequent book, Illiterate America, looked at the consequences of having nearly a quarter of the U. S. population unable to read. His most recent work, Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America, portrays the daily struggle of families living in New York City's welfare shelters.
Ernest Boyer is the president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He is the former U.S. Commissioner of Education and a former Chancellor of the State University of New York. He is the author of two books, High School and College: The Undergraduate Experience. He is currently working on a policy study on education in children's early years.
Helen Caldicott is the national president of Physicians for Social Responsibility. She is a pediatrician at the Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at Boston Children's Hospital and a former faculty member at Harvard Medical School. She is the author of Nuclear Madness: What You Can Do, and one of the foremost leaders in the anti-nuclear movement.
Isabel Allende is one of Latin America's most celebrated writers and the author of three international bestsellers, The House of Spirits, Of Love and Shadows, and Eva Luna. Born in Lima, Peru, and raised in Chile, she is the niece and goddaughter of Salvador Allende who was the president of Chile until a bloody coup in 1973 took his life. Forced to flee her homeland, Ms. Allende resettled in Venezuela with her family. In 1981, she learned that her beloved grandfather in Chile was dying, and she began a long letter to him, reassuring him that he would always remain in her memories. The letter, which was never sent, grew to become her first novel, The House of Spirits, the saga of three generations of the Trueba family in Chile.
James Comer is a psychiatrist, social scientist, activist and educator. He is a Professor of Child Psychiatry and Director of the School Development Program at Yale University's Child Study Center. Identified as one of the key leaders at the forefront of reforming troubled urban schools, he has gained national prominence for his success in improving the academic performance of high-risk children in the New Haven public schools. In 1990, his work was recognized by the Rockefeller Foundation with an award of $15 million to encourage the widespread adoption of his pioneering method for educating at-risk students.
Jill Conway is a scholar, author, and professor in the fields of history, education, and women's studies. Born in New South Wales, Australia, she received a B. A. from the University of Sydney and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. She was president of Smith College from 1975 to 1985, and since 1985, she has been a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition to numerous articles, she has published two books, including The First Generation of American Women Graduates.
Joyce Brothers is widely-known for helping Americans understand how their emotions influence their lives. She brings her message to America through broadcasts on NBC Radio's program Newsline and as a regular columnist for Good Housekeeping magazine. Her daily column appears in more than 350 newspapers, and her books have been translated into 26 languages.
Maya Angelou is a poet, dancer, historian, and one of America's leading performing artists. She is the author of the book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Philip Boffey is the science policy correspondent for The New York Times. He recently visited relief camps in Ethiopia and examined the medical effects of the chemical accident in Bhopal, India. He is President of the National Association of Science Writers.
Ramon Cortines has served as chancellor of the New York public school system since 1993. Before accepting this position, he had been Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs in the U.S. Department of Education during the Clinton Administration. In a career spanning more than 30 years, he has taught and held administrative positions in virtually all levels of the public school system. He served as Superintendent of Schools for the Pasadena Unified School District, for the San Jose Unified School District, and for the San Francisco Unified School District. Before joining the Clinton Administration, he was a consultant professor at Stanford University, serving as Associate Director of the Pew Charitable Trust Forum on School Reform.
Reeve Lindbergh Brown - The Lindbergh Heritage, What Do We Do With It Now? - 05/22/85 by westminsterforum
Robert Ballard is the director of the Center for Marine Exploration at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and director and founder of the JASON Foundation for Education. He is a marine scientist and oceanographic explorer, researching advanced deep-water exploration technology to study the ocean floor. He is the author or co-author of over fifty journal articles and scientific papers and is the recipient of numerous scientific awards. He has led or participated in nearly 100 deep-sea expeditions, including the expeditions that discovered the R.M.S. Titanic and the German battleship Bismarck.
Robert Coles is professor of Psychiatry and Medical Humanities at Harvard Medical School and an award-winning author and editor. He is acclaimed for his ongoing research on how children obtain their political convictions and moral values.
Robert McAfee Brown is professor of Theology and Ethics at the Graduate Theological Union's Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. He has taught at Amherst College, Union Theological Seminary, Macalester College, and Stanford University. In his presentation, he will respond to the issues raised by the Moral Majority and similar movements in America today.
Rollo May is a psychoanalyst, a leader in the existential school of psychoanalysis, and the author of Love and Will, The Courage to Create, and The Meaning of Anxiety , among others. Born in Ohio, he was educated at Oberlin College, Union Theological Seminary, and Columbia University.
Shirley Chisholm has made history throughout her long career of public service. She was elected to Congress in 1969, and for thirteen years, she served on key congressional committees as the first woman and first African American to hold those positions. In 1972, she was the first Black woman to seek the Presidential nomination. She is the author of two books, Unbought and Unbossed, her autobiography, and The Good Fight, the story of her presidential bid.
William Blair Jr - The Global Environment And The Extinction Crisis - 02/25/88 by westminsterforum
Clive Barnes decided at the age of 14 to become a critic, and four years later, he chose dance as his specialty. In 1967, he replaced Walter Kerr as The New York Times' drama critic while continuing to cover the world of dance. He describes the role of the critic as a "stimulator of thought and opinion, a catalyst or bridge between the artist and the audience." In addition to his work as a critic, he is an author, lecturer, and professor of journalism and critical writing at New York University.
Christine Cassel joined Mount Sinai Medical Center in 1995 as Chairman of the Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development. Her previous position was Chief of General Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago where she earned a national reputation for her work in bringing together biomedical, ethical, and policy issues in general internal medicine and geriatrics. She is the author of several books, including A Practical Guide to Aging and Ethical Dimensions in the Health Professions. She will explore the changing paradigms of aging, the state of medical care and the impact of future technology on the aging process, and the ability to maintain control of one's life.
Anne Cohn is executive director of the National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse. In this role, she oversees the organization's 50-state network of chapters, its nationwide public service media campaign, a national research center, and the organization's wide-ranging advocacy efforts. In the 1970s, she designed and directed the first national evaluation study of child abuse and neglect treatment programs.
Alberta Arthurs is an educator and noted writer on higher education, humanities, and women in society. She is the former president of Chatham College and is currently director for Arts and Humanities at The Rockefeller Foundation.
David Brooks is a columnist for The New York Times and a regular contributor to The NewsHour on PBS and All Things Considered on NPR. His columns and books, including Bobos in Paradise and The Social Animal, offer sharp insight into American culture, politics, and foreign affairs. He has served as senior editor at The Weekly Standard, as a contributing editor at Newsweek and the Atlantic Monthly, and as op-ed editor for The Wall Street Journal. In his forthcoming book, The Road to Character, he explores the importance of character development in building a meaningful life.
Carl Bernstein is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who, along with Bob Woodward, broke the Watergate story for The Washington Post, leading to the resignation of President Richard Nixon and setting the standard for modern investigative reporting. For more than forty years, his writings and commentary have shed light on the inner-workings of government and politics, including the increasing dysfunction of our nation's governmental institutions, an economy tilted against middle-class citizens, and a media landscape characterized by misinformation and disinformation. Former MPR host Gary Eichten will interview Mr. Bernstein.
Amy-Jill Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School and College of Arts and Sciences. She has held office in the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association, and the Association for Jewish Studies. She is the author, co-author, or editor of numerous books, including The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus; The Historical Jesus in Context; the Jewish Annotated New Testament; and The Meaning of the Bible: What The Jewish Scriptures and the Christian Old Testament Can Teach Us.
Andrew Zimmern is a chef, food writer, teacher, and television host. As creator, executive producer, and host of the popular series Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, he travels the globe, exploring the ways that food shapes and reflects the lives and culture of people around the world. He is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Babson College's Lewis Institute and serves on the board of directors for Services for the Underserved in New York City and The National Youth Recovery Foundation. He is honorary chair of Minnesota FoodShare's annual campaign to raise awareness of the food needs of people throughout the state.
Frances Moore Lappe directs the Center for Living Democracy in Brattleboro, Vermont, with her husband Paul Martin Du Bois. They are also co-authors of the book The Quickening of America: Rebuilding Our Nation, Remaking Our Lives. In 1971, Ms. Lappe awakened an entire generation to the human-made causes of hunger in her book Diet for a Small Planet, a bestseller that has sold more than three million copies. In 1975, she co-founded the Institute for Food and Development Policy, described by The New York Times as one of the nation's "most respected food think tanks." She has received numerous awards for her work, including ten honorary doctoral degrees. Her eleven books have been translated into 22 languages and used in a broad array of courses in hundreds of U.S. colleges and universities.
John O'Sullivan has served as editor of The National Review since 1988, the most important conservative journal of the post-World War II era. His previous posts have included Special Advisor to the British Prime Minister, associate editor of the London Times, assistant editor of the London Daily Telegraph, and editor of Policy Review. He has published articles in Encounter, Commentary, Policy Review, The New York Times, The American Spectator and The London Spectator. He lectures on British and American politics and serves on the executive advisory board of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation. Born in Great Britain, he was educated at London University and stood for Parliament as a Conservative in the 1970 general election.
Gordon Parks is a photographer, writer, poet, filmmaker, and composer. In 1949, he joined the staff of Life magazine where he worked as a photojournalist for twenty years, completing over 300 assignments and articles on a broad range of subjects. His career in film began in 1961 when he wrote and directed a documentary based on the life of a boy from a Brazilian slum. He is the director of Shaft, Shaft's Big Score, Super Cops, and Leadbelly, and he wrote the screenplay and musical score and produced and directed the film The Learning Tree, adapted from his bestselling autobiography. In 1989, he directed the film of his classic ballet, Martin, based on the libretto and music he composed to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He is the author of four volumes of poetry and photographs including Gordon Parks: A Poet and His Camera.
Georgie Anne Geyer writes a syndicated columnist who writes on foreign policy and international affairs for 120 American and Latin American papers, including the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Times. She is a regular commentator on PBS's Washington Week in Review and Frontline. Fluent in five languages, her career has been a whirlwind of ground-breaking journalism. She is the only American to interview Argentine president Juan Peron, one of the first journalists to interview Ayatollah Khomeini, and the only person to interview Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia when all American reporters were forbidden to enter the country. She is the author of six books, including Buying the Night Flight, an autobiography of her odyssey as one of the first women foreign correspondents.
David McCullough is an historian, lecturer, and teacher. He is the author of six books, including Truman, which was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. He is perhaps best known as the host of the PBS series The American Experience and as narrator of Ken Burns' documentary The Civil War. He received the Charles Frankel Prize from President Clinton and was recognized by the National Endowment for the Humanities for his contributions to the humanities. He is a recipient of the National Book Foundation Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Award, and he received an Emmy for his work in public television. Born in Pittsburgh, he graduated from Yale University with a degree in English literature. A gifted and popular public speaker, he has been a part of the White House presidential lecture series.
Juan Williams is a political reporter for The Washington Post, commentator on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, and author of the highly-acclaimed history of the civil rights movement, Eyes on the Prize, which is a companion volume to the PBS series. He is currently under commission to write the authorized biography of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. His expertise on Washington politics has earned him the respect of conservatives and liberals alike, and his articles appear regularly in magazines that cover the spectrum of political thought, including Ebony Magazine, The Atlantic, Fortune, and The New Republic. As a guest commentator on National Public Radio, CNN, The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, and Nightline, he has proven his ability to distill complex problems and uncover the real issues behind the rhetoric.
Iris Chang is an historian and author of the book The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. More than fifty years after the end of that war, the horrors of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust remain etched in our memories, but most Americans are unaware of the atrocities committed by Japanese armies in the Far East. In her book, she documents the destruction of the city of Nanking in 1937. She has written for The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and the Associated Press, and she is the author of another book, Thread of the Silkworm. A recipient of a MacArthur Foundation award, she has also received grants from the National Science Foundation and the Harry Truman Library.
Betty Williams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her work in organizing marches for peace in Northern Ireland, bringing together Protestants and Catholics to hear the message that violence cannot bring social justice. With Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, she founded Community of Peace People. In 1981, she moved to the United States and has continued her work for peace. She has been honored with the Schweitzer Medallion for Courage, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Award, and the Eleanor Roosevelt Award. Her vision to create safe havens for children where they can be fed, sheltered, nurtured, and encouraged to grow to their full potential has become a reality through her nonprofit, World Centers of Compassion for Children.
Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins is committed to the practice of civil discourse as a means to strengthening democracy. She believes that it is important to acknowledge the words, traditions, and stereotypes that exist today in individuals and communities as a first step toward understanding. She is the fifteenth president of the League of Women Voters of the United States and the first African-American to head the organization. She is the author of several works, including The Road to Suffrage and One Man One Vote. She has worked in education for more than twenty years, serving as adjunct professor at Colorado Christian University and as a teacher and principal in the Cleveland school system.
Joseph Stanton, Ralph Nero & Walter Benjamin - Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides - 09/21/89 by westminsterforum
E. J. Dionne is a columnist for The Washington Post, specializing in politics and public policy. From 1977 to 1990, he worked for The New York Times, reporting on local, state, and national politics. In 1990, he joined The Post as a national political reporter. His articles have appeared in a variety of publications, including The New Republic and Commonwealth. His book Why Americans Hate Politics was published in 1991. His latest book is They Only Look Dead: Why Progressives Will Dominate the Next Political Era. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University and attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar where he earned a doctorate in sociology.
Harold Hodgkinson is Director of the Center for Demographic Policy and a Fellow of the American Council on Education. Widely known as a lecturer and analyst of demographic and educational issues, he has profiled 28 states and numerous metropolitan areas. His recent studies include All One System: Demographics of Education, Kindergarten Through Graduate School; The Demographics of American Indians: One Percent of the Population, Fifty Percent of the Diversity; Immigration to America: The Asian Experience; and Hispanic Americans: A Look Back, a Look Ahead. He is the author of 12 books, three of which have won national awards, and over 200 articles for which he has been honored by the American Education Press Association.
Gustav Niebuhr is the senior religion writer at The New York Times, reporting on major trends in religion and news-breaking stories throughout the United States. Before joining The New York Times, he wrote for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. He has covered the mass suicide of members of the Heaven's Gate cult, the growth of mega-churches in American cities, the development of Islam as a major American religious presence, and the rise of religious conservatives as a national political force. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Religion Newswriters Association prize, the Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year Award, and the Supple Memorial Award.
Andrei Codrescu is a professor of English at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, a commentator on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and the editor of the literary journal Exquisite Corpse. Born in Sibiu, Romania, he immigrated to the United States in 1966 and became a citizen in 1981. His experience as a foreigner lends his writing its fresh, unorthodox perspective and voice, reflected in such titles as The Dog With the Chip in His Neck and The Muse Is Always Half-Dressed in New Orleans. His many honors include the Peabody Award and the General Electric Foundation Poetry Prize. He appears regularly on a variety of television programs, including Nightline and The David Letterman Show.
Michael Lerner is a political activist, rabbi, and editor of Tikkun, a progressive Jewish interfaith magazine. He is recognized as one of the most influential thinkers shaping the direction of the Clinton presidency. With Cornel West, he co-authored the book Blacks and Jews: A Dialogue Between Cornel West and Michael Lerner in which the two friends grapple with volatile and personal issues in an honest dialogue. In his work as a therapist in the 1970s, he developed the concept of "The Politics of Meaning." He discovered that there was a psychological and ethical crisis among American working people who want to transcend the individualism and selfishness of society and move their lives and their communities toward a higher spiritual and ethical framework.
Jeremy Rifkin has devoted nearly two decades to examining the impact of technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment. He has written thirteen books, including his most recent, The End of Work, the result of a three-year study of the changing nature of work in the Information Age. The founder and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, D.C., he has shaped public policy in the United States and around the world and has consistently worked to ensure responsible government policies on environmental and technology issues. His unique perspective and social commentary have made him a frequent guest on a variety of television programs, including Face the Nation, Nightline, The MacNeil/Lehrer Report, and The Today Show.
Joycelyn Elders became the first African-American and the second woman to hold the post of Surgeon General of the United States. A pediatric endocrinologist, she initiated programs to combat smoking and teen pregnancy and to encourage childhood immunizations. She worked to change America's thinking about health by putting prevention first, and she was committed to being a voice for the poor and the powerless. She believes that violence, sexually-transmitted diseases, poverty, and substance-abuse are major threats to the health and well-being of our children. She continues her career today at the University of Arkansas School of Medicine and lobbies for the welfare of children and the powerless.
Crystal Kuykendall is a human relations and education expert who has gained national recognition for her efforts to promote problem-resolution. The president of Kreative and Innovative Resources for Kids, she produces audio and video tapes, publications, workbooks, and learning tools for educators, counselors, administrators, and parents. She is a former school teacher and guidance counselor for minority undergraduates and potential high school dropouts, and she was executive director of the National Alliance of Black School Educators. She is the author of two books, Improving Black Student Achievement through Enhancing Self-Image and From Rage to Hope: Strategies for Reclaiming Black and Hispanic Students. A recipient of numerous awards and citations, she has been a consultant to city and school officials and to civic, community, and parent groups in more than 40 states.
Rita Dove is one of the most honored poets of the late twentieth century. In 1993, she was appointed Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant on Poetry at the Library of Congress. She was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her collection of poems, Thomas and Beulah, and she has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. Her poem UMOJA: Each One of Us Counts was the centerpiece of the Cultural Olympiad at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she is a Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia.
Ruby Bridges crossed the threshold of William Frantz Elementary School on November 14, 1960, when she was six-years-old and single-handedly initiated the desegregation of New Orleans' public schools. Each day that she trudged up the stairs of the school praying, "Please God, try to forgive those people, because even if they say those bad things, they don't know what they're doing." The book The Story of Ruby Bridges by child psychiatrist Robert Coles tells the story of Ruby's strength and courage in the face of prejudice, anger, and rejection. She graduated from Francis T. Nicholls High School in New Orleans, and today she heads the Ruby Bridges Foundation, a non-profit that provides funding to schools for supplies and resources for children and parents.
Robin Karr-Morse is co-author of the groundbreaking book Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence. In her book, she utilizes case histories of violent children, and the latest in brain development research, to argue that for many children the proclivity toward violence begins in the womb where drugs, alcohol and the mother's stress-hormones can have a damaging effect on fetal brain development. She believes that abuse and neglect, especially in the first two years of life, can hardwire a child's predisposition toward violence and violent behavior. She is a veteran of the Oregon child welfare and public education systems, and she is currently a family therapist in private practice in Portland, Oregon.
James Garbarino is a leading psychologist and author of the pioneering book Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them. He points to the socially toxic environment in which many boys live and the lack of strong adult supervision as primary contributors to violent behavior. He has been honored by the American Psychological Association, the American Humane Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics for his work on behalf of abused and neglected children. He is currently Director of the Cornell University Family Life Development Center and is the author or editor of sixteen books.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1984 for his years of commitment to South Africa's long struggle against apartheid. In 1995, President Nelson Mandela appointed him chairman of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In October 1998, the Commission's report was submitted to President Mandela, and it had a significant impact on the healing of the nation. Born in Johannesburg, Tutu graduated from the University of South Africa. He taught high school in Johannesburg and Munsieville before entering the ministry. As General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches, he gained national and international stature for his vigorous commitment to social justice.
Bryan Stevenson is a public-interest lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, which is committed to eliminating bias against the poor and people of color in the criminal justice system. A professor at New York University Law School and a graduate of Harvard Law School, he argued for and won the historic ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for children 17 or younger are unconstitutional. His new book, Just Mercy, profiles the lives of men, women, and children who are at the mercy of a broken criminal justice system.
Simone Campbell is executive director of NETWORK, a Washington-based public policy research organization lobbying for immigration reform, healthcare and economic justice, and peace-building. An attorney and member of the Sisters of Social Service, she was one of the Nuns on the Bus who traveled the country to offer support to people living in poverty. She served as executive director of JERICHO, an interfaith public policy organization in California, and founded the Community Law Center, which provides family law and probate support to the working poor.
Bob Herbert is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos, a public policy think tank in New York City. For nearly 20 years, he wrote an op-ed column for The New York Times, focusing on issues of race, poverty, and social justice. He is the recipient of numerous awards for journalism, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors award for distinguished newspaper writing. His new book, Losing Our Way, presents stories of struggling Americans and challenges the shift in political influence from the working population of the 1960s to the corporate and financial elite today.
Afsheen John Radsan is a professor at William Mitchell College of Law in Saint Paul where he teaches comparative counterterrorism, constitutional law, criminal law, and national security. He served as a federal prosecutor and as assistant general counsel at the CIA and is founder of the National Security Forum, which pursues the balance between liberty and security in American counterterrorism policies. Between assignments with the Justice Department and the CIA, he managed the Iran Commercial Initiative for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and served as a consultant for the American-Iranian Council and Search for Common Ground. He is a graduate of Duke University and Harvard Law School.
Reza Aslan is the author of the bestselling books No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam and Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. He is an associate professor of creative writing at the University of California and a research associate at the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy. He holds a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and a Ph.D. in the history of religion from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Morris Dees - Responding To Hate: Voices Of Hope And Tolerance - 02/28/01 by westminsterforum
Sylvia Earle - Sustainable Seas: The Vision, The Reality - 03/30/00 by westminsterforum
Tom Diaz - Making A Killing: The Gun Industry And Violence In America - 11/15/01 by westminsterforum
Millard Fuller - Habitat For Humanity: Safe, Affordable Housing - 05/17/01 by westminsterforum
Steve McCormick - The Map Of Hope: Conservation For The Real World - 04/25/02 by westminsterforum
Kathy Halbreich - Expanding The Picture: The Missing Pieces In Arts And Culture Reporting - 11/18/04 by westminsterforum
Peter Wallensteen - Peacemaking: Lessons From Dag Hammarskjold - 10/27/05 by westminsterforum
Robert Putnam - Community Engagement In A Changing America - 05/05/05 by westminsterforum
Julian Bond - Civil Rights Then And Now: The Quest For Meaningful Equality - 03/10/05 by westminsterforum
Mary Pipher - The Middle Of Everywhere- The World's Refugees Come To Our Town - 02/17/05 by westminsterforum
Bernice Johnson Reagon - The Arts, Creativity & The Common Good - 10/20/05 by westminsterforum
Michael Brune is executive director of the Sierra Club. Under his leadership, the organization has grown to more than two million supporters, and its Beyond Coal campaign has been recognized as one of the most effective in environmental history. Before joining the Sierra Club, he served as executive director of the Rainforest Action Network. He holds degrees in economics and finance from West Chester University in Pennsylvania. His critically acclaimed book, Coming Clean: Breaking America's Addiction to Oil and Coal, provides a detailed plan for building a green economy.
Sue Monk Kidd is a novelist, essayist, and author of the bestselling books The Secret Life of Bees,The Mermaid Chair, and Traveling with Pomegranates, the memoir she co-authored with her daughter. Her latest novel, The Invention of Wings, is being released in January. She has received wide acclaim for her books on feminine spirituality and theology, including God's Joyful Surprise, When the Heart Waits, and Dance of the Dissident Daughter. Her inspiring lectures explore the intersection of writing, creativity, and soul.
Eben Alexander is a neurosurgeon who has served on the medical staff at Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital, and Massachusetts General Hospital, and on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School, Duke University Medical Center, and the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is the author of the bestseller Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife, which recounts his near-death experience and his subsequent decision to research the nature of human consciousness. After decades as an academician and practicing neurosurgeon, he is now committed to reconciling his spiritual experience with contemporary physics and cosmology.
Elliot Richardson - The UN: After 50 Years, What Have We Learned? - 11/09/95 by westminsterforum
Barry Commoner - The Environment and the Economy: What Works - 10/22/92 by westminsterforum
Sylvia Ann Hewitt - When the Bough Breaks: The Cost of Neglecting Our Children - 05/28/92 by westminsterforum
Harrison Salisbury - From Pearl Harbor to the New World Order - 12/05/91 by westminsterforum
Robert Shaw - Music and Worship: A Tribute to Bach on His Birthday - 3/21/85 by westminsterforum
Michael Mandelbaum - How America Acts as the World's Government - 10/19/06 by westminsterforum
Michael Oppenheimer - The Effects of Global Climate Change - 05/10/07 by westminsterforum
Keith Ellison - The Generosity of Inclusion: Everybody Counts, Everybody Matters - 02/24/11 by westminsterforum
Joan Chittister - The New Violence and Its Unexpected Victims - 11/01/12 by westminsterforum
Michael Feinstein - The Gershwins: Preserving an American Cultural Legacy - 10/25/12 by westminsterforum
Randall Balmer - God in the White House: How Faith Shapes the Presidency - 02/28/08 by westminsterforum
Kerry Kennedy - Speaking Truth to Power: Heroes in Our Midst - 10/11/07 by westminsterforum
Larkin McPhee - The Documentary Filmmaker: In Search of Truth - 03/10/11 by westminsterforum
Mark McKinnon - Stop Fighting, Start Fixing: Making Government Work - 09/26/13 by westminsterforum
Os Guinness - The Case for Civility: Living Up to Our American Ideals - 04/10/08 by westminsterforum
Elliot Richardson - The UN: After 50 Years, What Have We Learned? - 11/09/95 by westminsterforum
Robin Wright - The New Middle East: Building a Culture of Change - 10/16/08 by westminsterforum
William McKibben - A Durable Future: Local Enterprise and the Environment - 03/29/07 by westminsterforum
Johan von Schreeb - Doctors without Borders: Bringing Hope to Haiti - 06/24/10 by westminsterforum
Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer - Building a Movement to Rescue a Nation and Save the Earth - 09/25/08 by westminsterforum
Jim Wallis - Rediscovering Values: A Moral Compass for the New Economy - 02/11/10 by westminsterforum
Jan Egeland - From the Frontlines of Humanity: Global Crises and Conflicts - 03/13/08 by westminsterforum
Hector Tobar - Latinos in America: Reinventing the American Dream - 10/30/08 by westminsterforum
Hanan Ashrawi - Peace in the Middle East: A Palestinian Perspective - 05/6/10 by westminsterforum
Sylvia Ann Hewitt - When the Bough Breaks: The Cost of Neglecting Our Children - 05/28/92 by westminsterforum
Studs Terkel - America's Two Faces: Issues of Greed in America - 04/20/89 by westminsterforum
Robert Shaw - Music and Worship: A Tribute to Bach on His Birthday - 03/21/85 by westminsterforum
Harrison Salisbury - From Pearl Harbor to the New World Order - 12/05/91 by westminsterforum
Barry Commoner - The Environment and the Economy: What Works - 10/22/92 by westminsterforum
Michael Duffy - The Presidents Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity - 09/27/12 by westminsterforum
Rachel Simmons - The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls - 03/08/12 by westminsterforum
Mark Tercek - Why Saving Nature Is the Smartest Investment We Can Make - 04/18/13 by westminsterforum
Tom Brokaw - The Time of Our Lives: Past, Present, Promise - 11/08/11 by westminsterforum
Jeffrey Sachs - Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity - 10/20/11 by westminsterforum
Norm Ornstein - Broken Government: Where Do We Go from Here? - 09/15/11 by westminsterforum
Mary McDonagh Murphy - The Legacy of Scout, Atticus, and Boo - 09/30/10 by westminsterforum
Candy Crowley - The Midterm Elections: What They Mean for America - 11/04/10 by westminsterforum
David Eisenhower - Dwight David Eisenhower: Going Home to Glory - 11/18/10 by westminsterforum
David Brooks - The Social Animal: Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement - 03/31/11 by westminsterforum
Hanan Ashrawi - Peace in the Middle East: A Palestinian Perspective - 05/06/10 by westminsterforum
Jim Wallis - Rediscovering Values: A Moral Compass for the New Economy - 02/21/08 by westminsterforum
Nicholas Kristof - Women Worldwide: From Oppression to Opportunity - 10/08/09 by westminsterforum
Tom Gjelten - National Security Challenges Facing the Obama Administration - 03/19/09 by westminsterforum