Arena Civil Dialogues

Campaign Finance: Are campaign contributions a legalized bribery or a form of free speech?

Monday, April 20, 2020

LEE DRUTMAN is a senior fellow in the political reform program at New America. He is the author of Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America (Oxford University Press, 2020) and The Business of America is Lobbying (Oxford University Press, 2015), winner of the 2016 American Political Science Association's Robert A. Dahl Award, given for "scholarship of the highest quality on the subject of democracy.” He is also the co-host of the podcast Politics in Question, and writes for the New York Times, Vox and FiveThirtyEight, among other outlets. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.A. from Brown University.

MEREDITH MCGEHEE serves as the Executive Director at Issue One. McGehee devises Issue One’s education and advocacy strategy and oversees its implementation. She has a long-standing reputation in Washington and among the media across the country as an honest broker and veteran policy expert on politics, advocacy and political reform and political strategy. McGehee has testified before Congress, is frequently quoted in national media and is a sought-after expert and public speaker on politics, especially in Washington DC.

McGehee has been named by The Hill newspaper as one of Washington’s top public interest lobbyists in Washington every year for more than a decade, including the current year. McGehee worked on Capitol Hill, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Niger, West Africa and is a Phi Beta Kappa, cum laude graduate of Pomona College in California.

SCOTT WALTER is president of the Capital Research Center. He served in the George W. Bush administration as special assistant to the president for Domestic Policy and was vice president for publications and research at the Philanthropy Roundtable. There he edited Philanthropy magazine and produced donor guidebooks on public policy research, school choice and assistance to the poor. Walter writes regularly for PhilanthropyDaily.com, and previously served as a senior fellow at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and as senior editor of the American Enterprise Institute’s flagship publication. A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, he is a graduate of Georgetown University. He lives with his wife and children in Virginia.

Is less more? Can we find happiness in the pursuit of consumer goods? What are the alternatives?

Monday, March 2, 2020

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ROBERT ENGELMAN is a researcher and writer on environmental, demographic, reproductive health and gender-related topics. Currently affiliated as a senior fellow with the Population Institute in Washington, D.C., he is a former president of the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental think tank. He co-founded and chaired the board of the Center for a New American Dream (now New Dream), an organization working to transform consumption for human and environmental well-being. He is the main author of a chapter on consumption and population in Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves (Island Press, forthcoming in August 2020). A journalist for 15 years, Engelman reported for the Associated Press, daily newspapers in Kansas City and Denver, and Scripps Howard News Service in Washington. Covering science, health and the environment, as well as national politics from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, he was founding secretary of the Society of Environmental Journalists and reported from Mexico, Central America, and Haiti, as well as the United States. His book More (Island Press, 2008) explored the connections between population, the environment, and the lives and status of women. His writing includes numerous book chapters as well as peer-reviewed papers in nature, science and other journals. His general articles have appeared in Scientific American, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. He has been a visiting lecturer at Ohio University and Yale University, where over several years he co-taught classes on population issues.

LAURA J. MILLER is department chair and professor of sociology at Brandeis University. With primary interests in the sociology of culture and consumption studies, her research focuses on the intersection of cultural and economic factors within industries characterized by moral commitments to their products. She is the author of Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption (University of Chicago Press, 2006) and Building Nature's Market: The Business and Politics of Natural Foods (University of Chicago Press, 2017), which received the American Sociological Association Consumers & Consumption Section Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award in 2018.

MARIO PANDELAERE joined Virginia Tech as associate professor in marketing in 2015. His research interests include consumer judgment and decision making, and materialism and conspicuous consumption. Much of his research falls under the umbrella of transformative consumer research, which is aimed at improving consumer outcomes and well-being. His research has been published in top-tier journals in business and in psychology. He has reviewed for over 30 academic journals and currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Consumer Research and is a senior editor for the International Journal of Research in Marketing. He was on the program committee of ten major academic conferences and has served on over 20 dissertation committees. He serves as a panel member on two science committees: The Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) and The Australian Research Council (ARC). Professor Pandelaere has taught public relations, persuasive communication, marketing communication, advertising and currently teaches marketing, society and public interest to undergraduates, and experimental design and data analysis to graduate students.

CARL J. STRIKWERDA is professor of history emeritus and former president of Elizabethtown College in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, having served previously as dean of arts and sciences at the College of William and Mary and associate dean at the University of Kansas. He has published two co-edited volumes, Consumers Against Capitalism? Consumer Cooperation in Europe, North America, and Japan and The Politics of Immigrant Workers: Labor Activism and Migration in the World Economy Since 1830. He authored A House Divided: Catholics, Socialists, and Flemish Nationalists in Nineteenth Century Belgium; articles in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Huffington Post and Inside Higher Ed; and a book with Anne-Marie McCartan, Deans and Development: Making the Case for the Liberal Arts. He is writing a book on what the era of World War One teaches us about dealing with globalization. President Strikwerda has previously served as an historical consultant to the National World War One Museum and a member of the President’s Trust of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. He currently serves on the executive committee of the Council for European Studies, on the board of directors for the High Family Foundation, and as a senior fellow for religious pluralism for the Interfaith Youth Core and the Inclusive America Project of the Aspen Institute.

What is the proper role of government in our economic and social life?
Is the age of Big Government over – or does it need to return?

Monday, January 27, 2020

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HENRY AARON is currently the Bruce and Virginia MacLaury senior fellow in the economic studies program at the Brookings Institution. From 1990 through 1996 he was the director of the economic studies program. He is a member and vice-chair of the District of Columbia Health Benefits Exchange and is a member and former chair of the social security advisory board.

JUDY FEDER is a professor of public policy and, from 1999 to 2008, served as dean of what is now the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. A nationally recognized leader in health policy, Judy has made her mark on the nation’s health insurance system through both scholarship and public service. A widely published scholar, Judy’s health policy research began at the Brookings Institution, continued at the Urban Institute, and, since 1984, has flourished at Georgetown University. In the late 1980s, Judy moved from policy research to policy leadership, actively promoting effective health reform as staff director of the congressional Pepper Commission (chaired by Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV) in 1989-90; principal deputy assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services in former President Bill Clinton’s first term; senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (2008-2011); and, today, as institute fellow at the Urban Institute. Judy matches her own contributions to policy with her contributions to nurturing emerging policy leaders. As dean from 1999 to 2008, she built Georgetown’s Public Policy Institute into one of the nation’s leading public policy schools, whose graduates participate in policymaking, policy research, and policy politics, throughout Washington, the nation and the world. Judy is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Public Administration and the National Academy of Social Insurance; a former chair and board member of AcademyHealth; former board member of the National Academy of Social Insurance; member of the Center for American Progress Action Fund Board; and member of the Hamilton Project’s Advisory Council. In 2006 and 2008, Judy was the democratic nominee for Congress in Virginia’s 10th congressional district. Judy is a political scientist with a B.A. from Brandeis University and a master’s and Ph.D. from Harvard University.

ROGER PILON joined the Cato Institute in October 1988, serving as vice president for legal affairs until January 2019. Currently, he holds Cato’s B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies. He is the founding director emeritus of Cato's Center for Constitutional Studies and the founding publisher emeritus of the Cato Supreme Court Review. Prior to joining Cato, Pilon held five senior posts in the Reagan administration, at OPM, State and Justice, and was a national fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution. In 1989 the Bicentennial Commission presented him with its Benjamin Franklin Award for excellence in writing on the U.S. Constitution. In 2001 Columbia University's School of General Studies awarded him its Alumni Medal of Distinction. Pilon lectures at law schools across the country and abroad and testifies often before Congress. His writings have appeared in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere. He is a frequent guest on radio and TV.

DAVID AZERRAD is an assistant professor and research fellow at Hillsdale College’s Kirby Center in Washington, D.C. His research and writing focus on classical liberalism, conservative political thought and identity politics. Prior to joining Hillsdale, Azerrad was the director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics at The Heritage Foundation. He has taught previously at American University and the University of Dallas. His writings have appeared in various publications, including The Claremont Review of Books, The Weekly Standard, National Affairs, First Things, The Times (of London), Real Clear Politics, The Federalist, Public Discourse, The National Interest and Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy. He has also appeared on national television in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. A native of Montreal, Azerrad received his B.A. from Concordia University, his M.A. from Carleton University and his Ph.D. in politics from the University of Dallas.

Environment/Climate: techno optimists meet techno pessimists. Are new technologies part of the solution or the problem?

Monday, January 27, 2020

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CLAIRE BRUNEL is an assistant professor of economics at the American University’s School of International Service (SIS). Her work focuses on empirical investigations providing evidence of the links between environmental policies and international competitiveness, notably in terms of innovation, manufacturing production and international trade. Her current research also extends to big data projects on the effects of climate change on migration in Brazil. Prior to coming to SIS, Professor Brunel worked for the research department of the World Bank, the Peterson Institute for International Economics and at the Embassy of France as trade policy attaché. She obtained an M.Phil. in economics from the University of Oxford and a Ph.D. in economics from Georgetown University.

JOHN R. EHRENFELD retired in 2000 as the director of the MIT Program on Technology, Business and Environment. He retired again in June 2009 as executive director of the International Society for Industrial Ecology (ISIE) after guiding its development after the society was founded in 2000. He continues to be engaged in thinking, writing and teaching about flourishing. He is the author of “The Right Way to Flourish: Reconnecting with the Real World” (2019) and “Sustainability by Design: A Subversive Strategy for Transforming our Consumer Culture” (2008) and coauthored “Flourishing: A Frank Conversation about Sustainability” (2013) with Andrew Hoffman. In June 2009, the ISIE awarded him its Society Prize. In October 1999, the World Resources Institute (WRI) honored him with its first lifetime achievement award. He received the Founders Award for Distinguished Service from the Academy of Management’s Organization and Natural Environment Division in August 2000. He holds a B.S. and Sc.D. in chemical engineering from MIT and is author or co-author of over 200 papers and other publications.

JONATHAN SILVER is one of the nation’s leading clean economy investors and advisors. Named one of the country’s top-10 green-tech “influencers,” Mr. Silver led both the U.S. government’s $40 billion clean energy investment fund and its $20 billion advanced automotive technology fund during the Obama Administration. These were – and remain – the largest clean energy funds in the world and are among the most successful government investment efforts ever. Mr. Silver is the managing partner of Tax Equity Advisors LLC, which has invested in and managed over $400 million in solar power projects on behalf of its Fortune 500 client base. Mr. Silver is also a member of the boards of National Grid (NYSE: NGG); the British utility; Plug Power (PLUG: NASDAQ), the country’s leading manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cells; and Intellihot, a leading player in the tankless water heating space. He serves as a senior advisor to NextEra, one of the world’s largest utilities and the nation’s largest clean energy investor and operator. He has also held similar positions with ICF, the nation’s largest energy and environment-focused consulting firm, and Marathon Capital, the largest power industry-focused investment bank.Mr. Silver has served as Senior Advisor to four U.S. Cabinet Secretaries: energy, commerce, interior and treasury. An honors graduate of Harvard University, Mr. Silver did graduate work at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris and the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. He speaks French and Spanish and has received both Fulbright and Rotary Graduate Fellowships.

ANDREA C. SIMONELLI is an assistant professor of human security at Virginia Commonwealth University, author, advocate and the founder of Adaptation Strategies International (ASI). She holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in political science from Louisiana State University. Her book, “Governing Climate Induced Migration and Displacement,”is an intergovernmental evaluation of governance responses to climate migration. She also earned a diploma from the United Nations University Environment and Human Security Programme and Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre Summer School in forced migration. Andrea is a speaker for the Climate Voices Network, sits on the roster of experts for the Adaptation Fund and the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), is a member of the Human Rights and Climate Change Working Group (HRCCWG), an associate with Millennium Alliance for Humanity & the Biosphere (MAHB) and serves on the North American Board of Directors for Many Strong Voices. Dr. Simonelli was an NGO Observer at the 18th and 19th UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings in Doha, Qatar, and Warsaw, Poland, respectively, through her time as a research fellow with the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). Her current project, Saving Paradise? An Analysis of How Governance Affects Climate Resilience Through Human Security in the Pacific has taken her to Western Samoa, Fiji, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands and will continue to Kiribati and Vanuatu, culminating in more papers and a second book.

Have we privatized too much?
We have more private cops than police, profit-making prisons, etc. Is it time to reverse the trend?

Monday, October 21, 2019

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ANNA AMIRKHANYAN is an associate professor of public administration and policy in the School of Public Affairs at American University. Dr. Amirkhanyan has a Ph.D. in public administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Dr. Amirkhanyan’s research focuses on public and nonprofit management, organizational performance, privatization and citizen participation. She published over 20 articles in various peer-reviewed outlets, such as the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (J-PART), Public Administration Review, the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly and others. Her recent book “Citizen Participation in the Age of Contracting: When Service Delivery Trumps Democracy” describes the state of citizen participation in governance in the context of privatized health and human services based on nearly 100 interviews with public and private managers.

DAVID BOAZ is the executive vice president of the Cato Institute and has played a key role in the development of the Cato Institute and the libertarian movement. He is the author of “The Libertarian Mind: A Manifesto for Freedom” and the editor of “The Libertarian Reader”. Boaz is a provocative commentator and a leading authority on domestic issues such as education choice, drug legalization, the growth of government and the rise of libertarianism. Boaz is the former editor of New Guard magazine and was executive director of the Council for a Competitive Economy prior to joining Cato in 1981. His articles have been published in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, National Review and Slate and he wrote the entry on libertarianism for Encyclopedia Britannica.

DIANE KATZ is a research fellow in regulatory policy at The Heritage Foundation and has analyzed and written on public policy issues for more than two decades. A veteran journalist and policy analyst from Detroit, Katz joined Heritage’s Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies in August 2010. She previously was director of risk, environment and energy policy for three years at the Fraser Institute, an independent policy research and educational organization in Canada. Katz’s analyses and commentary have been published by The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, National Review, The Weekly Standard and Reason Magazine, in addition to dozens of regional and local newspapers. She holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Thomas Jefferson College and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Michigan.

AMIT NARANG is a regulatory policy advocate for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. He is an expert on the federal regulatory process and has testified before Congress on legislation and issues relating to Executive Branch administration of the rule-making process and Congressional oversight of federal agencies. He has been quoted in various media outlets including The New York Times, National Journal, NPR, The Hill, Bloomberg, Reuters and Huffington Post and has appeared on television and radio broadcasts, including NBC News and On Point with Tom Ashbrook. Amit earned his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from the American University-Washington College of Law where he was an editor of the Administrative Law Review and is currently a member of the Administrative Law Review’s Advisory Board.

What is wrong with nationalism?
Some see nationalism as leading to aggressive foreign policy; others see it as love of country — as patriotism. Still, others call for leaving it behind to build a global community. What say you?

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

DR. NORA BENSAHEL is a visiting professor of Strategic Studies and senior fellow of the Merrill Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She is also a contributing editor and columnist for War on the Rocks and an adjunct research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses. She serves as a member of the Secretary of Defense’s Reserve Forces Policy Board, and as a member of the Steering Committee of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security.

DAVID BROG is the president of the Edmund Burke Foundation which hosted its inaugural National Conservatism Conference in July 2019. Brog is also the executive director of the Maccabee Task Force, an organization launched in 2015 to combat the de-legitimization of Israel on college campuses and beyond. Brog is the author of “Reclaiming Israel’s History: Roots, Rights and the Struggle for Peace” (2017), “In Defense of Faith: the Judeo-Christian Idea and the Struggle for Humanity” (2010) and “Standing with Israel: Why Christians Support the Jewish State” (2006). He is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School.

RAHSAAN MAXWELL is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The central question for his research is how national boundaries operate, primarily in Western Europe. His recent work focuses on urban-rural divides, cultural diversity, globalization and national culture. His most recent book is “Ethnic Minority Migrants in Britain and France: Integration Trade-Offs,” published by Cambridge University Press in 2012.

R. R. RENO is the editor of First Things magazine and was formerly a professor of theology and ethics at Creighton University. He is the author of several books including “Fighting the Noonday Devil,” a theological commentary on the Book of Genesis in the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible series. His work ranges widely in systematic and moral theology, as well as in controverted questions of biblical interpretation.

Is China out to eat our lunch?
Does China pose a major threat to the United States, or might it become a major regional partner?

Monday, September 16, 2019

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WARREN I. COHEN is a University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), and at Michigan State University. He is also Senior Scholar with the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. He is a historian of America’s foreign relations, especially relations with East Asia. He has published 21 books, the best known of which is “America’s Response to China” (6th. ed. 2019). His most recent book was “A Nation Like All Others” (2018). His Reischauer Memorial Lectures at Harvard were published as The Asian American Century in March 2002. He was general editor of the “Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations” (1993) to which he contributed the 4th volume, “America in the Age of Soviet Power.” In addition to his scholarly publications, he has written for the Atlantic Monthly, Baltimore Sun, Christian Science Monitor, Dissent, Foreign Affairs, International Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Nation, National Interest, New York Times, Times Literary Supplement and Washington Post. He is an occasional commentator on National Public Radio, the Voice of America, BBC and CCTV. In past years he has served as editor of Diplomatic History, president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, chairman of the U.S. Department of State Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation and consultant on Chinese affairs to various government organizations.

THOMAS X. HAMMES, Ph.D. (Colonel, United States Marine Corps (Ret)) served 30 years in the Marine Corps. He served at all levels in the operating forces to include command of an intelligence battalion, an infantry battalion and the Chemical Biological Incident Response Force. He participated in stabilization operations in Somalia and Iraq, as well as training insurgents in various places. Hammes has a masters of Historical Research and a doctorate in Modern History from Oxford University. He is currently a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies with the National Defense University. He is the author of three books, 17 book chapters and over 160 articles. He lectures extensively on the future of conflict, strategy and insurgency in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

JAMES A. MILLWARD is a professor of Intersocietal History at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, teaching Chinese, Central Asian and world history. He is also an affiliated professor in the Máster Oficial en Estudios de Asia Oriental at the University of Granada, Spain. His specialties include Qing Empire; the Silk Road; Eurasian Lutes and music in history; and historical and contemporary Xinjiang. He follows and comments on current issues regarding the Uyghurs and PRC ethnicity policy. Millward has served on the boards of the Association for Asian Studies (China and Inner Asia Council) and the Central Eurasian Studies Society and was president of the Central Eurasian Studies Society in 2010. He is series editor for the Silk Roads book series published by Chicago University Press. His publications include The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction (2013), Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang (2007), New Qing Imperial History: The Making of Inner Asian Empire at Qing Chengde (2004), and Beyond the Pass: Economy, Ethnicity and Empire in Qing Central Asia (1998). His most recent album, recorded with the band By & By, is Songs for this Old Heart. His articles and op-eds on contemporary China appear in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The New York Review of Books and other media.

CASIMIR A. YOST (senior fellow, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy) returned to Georgetown University in 2013 after four years of government service. He is a senior fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and teaches at the Walsh School of Foreign Service. His current courses are a graduate seminar, “Forecasting Global Trends: Implications for Grand Strategy” and an undergraduate seminar, “War and Presidential Decision Making.” He is scheduled to teach a new graduate seminar in the fall of 2019 entitled “U.S. and China: Decisions on War and Peace.” Yost was also an adjunct at the RAND Corporation from 2015-2017, where he wrote on strategic surprise. In 2018 the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy produced his monograph, “Grand Strategy and Strategic Surprise.” His other research interests include: U.S. foreign and national security policies with particular emphasis on the Middle East and East Asia, energy futures and the relationship(s) of intelligence to policy.

Should free speech be denied to hate mongers, cultural appropriators, news fakers and traumatizers?
The first amendment has long been considered the most important of all our rights; however, certain voices are causing harm and pain. Should these voices be protected?

Sunday, May 26, 2019

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Marvin Kalb is a nonresident senior fellow with the Foreign Policy program at Brookings and senior advisor at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. He focuses on the impact of media on public policy and politics. He is also an expert in national security, with a focus on U.S. relations with Russia, Europe and the Middle East. His new book, Enemy of the People was published in September 2018. His other books include The Year I Was Peter the Great: 1956—Khruschev, Stalin's Ghost, and a Young American in Russia(Brookings Institution Press, 2017), Imperial Gamble: Putin, Ukraine and the New Cold War (Brookings Institution Press, 2015), The Road to War: Presidential Commitments Honored and Betrayed (Brookings Institution Press, 2013), wherein he looks at how presidential commitments can lead to the use of American military force and Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama (Brookings Institution Press, 2011), co-written with Deborah Kalb, which examines the Vietnam War’s extraordinary impact on presidential decision making over the past four decades. Kalb’s distinguished journalism career spans more than 30 years and includes award-winning reporting for both CBS and NBC News as chief diplomatic correspondent, Moscow bureau chief and anchor of NBC’s Meet the Press. Kalb went on to become founding director of Harvard University’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. Kalb is the Murrow professor emeritus at Harvard and hosts The Kalb Report at the National Press Club.

Naysan Mojgani holds a PhD in Theater and Drama from UC San Diego, specializing in the adaptation of Shakespeare, and a BA from Carleton College. He is the literary manager for Arena Stage and an esteemed dramaturg. As literary manager, Naysan is instrumental in Arena’s mission of producing and commissioning work by American artists that explores the many stories and experiences of America, in all their forms. Prior to joining Arena, he worked at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego and also worked as a freelance dramaturg, including on The Great Society at Arena in winter 2018. Naysan is involved in local organizing efforts around the JUBILEE Season, a nationwide movement among theaters to produce more work by traditionally under-represented artists. As a theater scholar, director and dramaturg, Naysan has worked on new and classic work with theaters in San Diego and Minnesota, including MOXIE, Theatre de la Jeune Lune and Malashock Dance, and has taught at UC San Diego and George Mason University.

Professor Louis Michael Seidman is a Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown Law School. He served as a law clerk for J. Skelly Wright of the D.C. Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1971. He then was a staff attorney with the D.C. Public Defender Service until joining the Law Center faculty in 1976. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, The University of Chicago Law School, New York University Law School and the University of Virginia Law School. He teaches a variety of courses in the fields of constitutional and criminal law. He is co-author of a constitutional law casebook and the author of many articles concerning criminal justice and constitutional law. His most recent books are On Constitutional Disobedience (Oxford, 2012); Silence and Freedom (Stanford 2007); Equal Protection of the Laws (Foundation 2002); and Our Unsettled Constitution: A New Defense of Constitutionalism and Judicial Review (Yale 2001). In 2011, Seidman was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Professor Nadine Strossen is the John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law at New York Law School. She has written, taught and advocated extensively in the areas of constitutional law and civil liberties, including through frequent media interviews. From 1991 through 2008, she served as President of the American Civil Liberties Union, the first woman to head the nation’s largest and oldest civil liberties organization. Professor Strossen is currently a member of the ACLU’s National Advisory Council, as well as the Advisory Boards of EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center), FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) and Heterodox Academy. When she stepped down as ACLU President in 2008, three Supreme Court Justices (Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, and David Souter) participated in her farewell and tribute luncheon.

Reforms or Revolution?
To achieve a “more perfect union,” will electoral politics do, or do we need more profound social changes?

Sunday, April 14, 2019

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Paul Butler is the Albert Brick Professor in Law at Georgetown University Law Center and a legal analyst on MSNBC. During the 2017-18 academic year he was the Bennett Boskey Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. He holds an honorary Doctor of Law Degree from City University of New York. Professor Butler is one of the nation’s most frequently consulted scholars on issues of race and criminal justice. His work has been profiled on 60 Minutes, Nightline and the ABC, CBS and NBC Evening News. He lectures regularly for the American Bar Association and the NAACP, and at colleges, law schools and community organizations throughout the United States. He serves on the District of Columbia Code Revision Commission as an appointee of the D.C. City Council. Professor Butler’s scholarship has been published in many leading scholarly journals, including the Georgetown Law Journal, Yale Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review and the UCLA Law Review. He was named the Professor of the Year award three times by the GW graduating class. He was elected to the American Law Institute in 2003. Professor Butler’s book Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice received the Harry Chapin Media award. His book Chokehold: Policing Black Men was published in July 2017. The Washington Post named it one of the 50 best non-fiction books of 2017. Chokehold was also named one of the best books of the year by Kirkus Reviews and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The New York Times described Chokehold as the best book on criminal justice reform since The New Jim Crow. It was a finalist for the 2018 NAACP Image Award for best non-fiction. Professor Butler served as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, where his specialty was public corruption. His prosecutions included a United States Senator, three FBI agents and several other law enforcement officials. Professor Butler is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School.

Jonathan Cowan has co-founded and run three high-impact national advocacy organizations, served as Chief of Staff of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under then-Secretary Andrew Cuomo and worked as a Democratic press secretary and legislative aide in Congress. For the past decade, he has led Third Way and built it into a prominent voice in center-left debates, with Prospect Magazine naming Third Way the 2013 North American Think Tank of the Year and The Washington Post dubbing it “the best source of new ideas in public policy.” Previously, he co-founded and ran America’s then-largest Generation X advocacy group, Lead…or Leave and battled the NRA for sensible gun policy as the head of Americans for Gun Safety, which The Atlantic said was responsible for “fundamentally changing the debate” on firearm policy. Additionally, Cowan has served as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, authored a book titled Revolution X and is frequently cited as a policy and political expert in national outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Politico and NPR.

David Duhalde is a D.C.-based political and socialist activist. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and East Asian studies from Bowdoin College and master’s degrees in public policy and nonprofit business administration from The Heller School at Brandeis University. Duhalde is the current political director of Our Revolution – a progressive political action organization inspired by Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign to continue his campaign’s legacy. Currently, Our Revolution has over 200,000 members and 600 groups across the country (and a few in Europe). Under Duhalde’s tenure, Our Revolution won over 70 races in the 2018 general election cycle, including electing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Deb Haaland to the U.S. House of Representatives. Prior to joining Our Revolution, Duhalde worked for Democratic Socialists of America as their deputy director. During his time at DSA, Duhalde created and supervised DSA’s electoral strategy and oversaw the organization’s rapid expansion to 150 local chapters and 100 campus groups. In his DSA capacity, Duhalde has represented the organization at Socialist International and International Union of Socialist Youth function. David’s past global work also includes helping SSU 2008 visit to the United States and a speech at the European Parliament by the European United Left about “The Erosion of Social Equality and Workers” in 2017.

A’shanti F. Gholar serves as the political director for Emerge America, the only organization dedicated to recruiting and training Democratic women to run for office. In this role, she focuses on strengthening national partnerships and working closely with state affiliates to strategically recruit for key seats, as well as directing the organization’s overall political strategy. For 15 years, A’shanti has been a grassroots organizer and activist for women, communities of color and progressive causes. She has experience in building coalitions, program development and community and political engagement. Prior to coming to Emerge America, A’shanti served as the National Deputy Director of Community Engagement and Director of African American Engagement for the Democratic National Committee. A’shanti has also served as the Manager of National Partnerships for United Way Worldwide, as a political appointee in the Obama Administration at the U.S. Department of Labor and as the Director of Public Engagement for the 2012 Democratic National Convention Committee in Charlotte, NC. A’shanti serves as an Advisory Board Member for First Ask, an Expert Advisor for Forward Majority Action, 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center Leader, and as a Sisters on the Planet Ambassador for OxFam America. She is also the founder of the Brown Girls Guide to Politics.

Elaine C. Kamarck is a senior fellow in the Governance Studies program as well as the director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution. She is an expert on American electoral politics and government innovation and reform in the United States, OECD nations and developing countries. She focuses her research on the presidential nomination system and American politics and has worked in many American presidential campaigns. Kamarck is the author of Primary Politics: Everything You Need to Know about How America Nominates Its Presidential Candidates and Why Presidents Fail And How They Can Succeed Again. She is also the author of How Change Happens—or Doesn’t: The Politics of US Public Policy and The End of Government...As We Know It: Making Public Policy Work. Kamarck is also a lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She started at the Kennedy School in 1997 after a career in politics and government. She has been a member of the Democratic National Committee and the DNC’s Rules Committee since 1997. She has participated actively in four presidential campaigns and in 10 nominating conventions—including two Republican conventions—and has served as a superdelegate to five Democratic conventions. In the 1980s, she was one of the founders of the New Democrat movement that helped elect Bill Clinton president. She served in the White House from 1993 to 1997, where she created and managed the Clinton Administration's National Performance Review, also known as the “reinventing government initiative.” At the Kennedy School, she served as director of Visions of Governance for the Twenty-First Century and as faculty advisor to the Innovations in American Government Awards Program. In 2000, she took a leave of absence to work as senior policy advisor to the Gore campaign. Kamarck conducts research on 21st century government, the role of the Internet in political campaigns, homeland defense, intelligence reorganization and governmental reform and innovation. Kamarck makes regular appearances in the media, including segments on: ABC, CBS, NBC, the BBC, CNN, Fox News Now, New England Cable News and National Public Radio. Kamarck received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.

No Designer Babies?
How to deal with the coming bioengineering revolution.

Sunday, March 24, 2019

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Vence Bonham received his bachelor of arts from James Madison College at Michigan State University and his juris doctor degree from the Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University. Mr. Bonham was a tenured faculty member at Michigan State University in the College of Human Medicine and adjunct professor in the Michigan State University College of Law. Since 2003, Mr. Bonham has served as an investigator in the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) within the Division of Intramural Research’s Social and Behavioral Research Branch. He leads the Health Disparities Genomics Unit, which conducts research that evaluates approaches to integrating new genomic knowledge and precision medicine into clinical settings without exacerbating inequities in healthcare delivery. His research focuses primarily on the social influences of new genomic knowledge, particularly in communities of color. He studies how genomics influences the use of the constructs of race and ethnicity in biomedical research and clinical care and the role of genomics in health inequities. Mr. Bonham also serves as the senior advisor to the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute on genomics and health disparities. 

Shawneequa Callier, J.D., M.A., is an associate professor in the Department of Clinical Research and Leadership and director of doctoral research in the Translational Health Sciences Ph.D. program at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS). Professor Callier teaches courses in bioethics and health care law in a variety of programs at SMHS and serves as a special volunteer at the Center for Research on Genomics and Global Health, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health. She has also taught Genetics and the Law as a professorial lecturer in Law at the George Washington University Law School. Professor Callier's research focuses on issues at the intersection of bioethics, law and genomics. Prior to joining the GWU faculty, Professor Callier completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Center for Genetic Research Ethics and Law, an interdisciplinary center for excellence funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute and located in the Bioethics Department of Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine. Earlier in her career, Professor Callier practiced health care law as an attorney in Washington, D.C. She also interned at the World Health Organization and the Nuffield Council on Bioethics where she examined human genetics laws and guidelines and international research ethics policies.

Debra JH Mathews, PhD, MA, is the assistant director for Science Programs for the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. As the assistant director for Science Programs, Dr. Mathews is responsible for overseeing the Stem Cell Policy and Ethics Program and the Program in Ethics and Brain Sciences, as well as other bench research-related endeavors in the Berman Institute. She is also a member of the steering committee of The Hinxton Group, an international collective of scientists, ethicists, policymakers and others interested in ethical and well-regulated science, and whose work focuses primarily on stem cell research. Dr. Mathews has been an active member of the International Neuroethics Society since 2006 and has served on the Society’s Board of Directors since 2015. Dr. Mathews’s academic work focuses on ethics and policy issues raised by emerging biotechnologies, with particular focus on genetics, stem cell science, neuroscience and synthetic biology. In CRISPR: A path through the thicket, a paper in Nature, Dr. Mathews and colleagues discuss the ethical questions of genome editing and present recommended actions for continued research.

Maxwell J. Mehlman is a distinguished university professor, Arthur E. Petersilge professor of law and director of the Law-Medicine Center at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law and professor of Biomedical Ethics, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1975, and holds bachelors degrees from Reed College and Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. Prior to joining CWRU, Professor Mehlman practiced law with Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C. He is the co-author of Access to the Genome: The Challenge to Equality; co-editor, with Tom Murray, of the Encyclopedia of Ethical, Legal and Policy Issues in Biotechnology; co-author of Genetics: Ethics, Law and Policy, the first casebook on genetics and law, now in its fourth edition; and author of Wondergenes: Genetic Enhancement and the Future of Society(Indiana University Press 2003), The Price of Perfection: Individualism and Society in the Era of Biomedical Enhancement (Johns Hopkins University Press 2009) and Transhumanist Dreams and Dystopian Nightmares: The Promise and Peril of Genetic Engineering (Johns Hopkins University Press 2012). Profession Mehlman is a member of the Genetics and Society Working Group at NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute, a core member of the NIH Societal and Ethical Issues in Research (SEIR) study section and a bioethics consultant for a pilot study on the introduction of whole exome sequencing into clinical practice in the U.S. military.

Democracies are challenged from Poland to Venezuela; from Israel to the U.S. What undermines them and how can they be shored up?

Sunday, February 17, 2019

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Thomas Carothers is senior vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In that capacity, he oversees all of the research programs at Carnegie. He also directs the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program and carries out research and writing on democracy-related issues. Carothers is a leading authority on international support for democracy, human rights, governance, the rule of law and civil society. He has worked on democracy assistance projects for many organizations and carried out extensive field research on aid efforts around the world. He is the author of six critically acclaimed books and many articles in prominent journals and newspapers. He is a distinguished visiting professor at the Central European University in Budapest and was previously a visiting faculty member at Nuffield College, Oxford University and Johns Hopkins SAIS. Prior to joining the Endowment, Carothers practiced international and financial law at Arnold & Porter and served as an attorney adviser in the office of the legal adviser of the U.S. Department of State.

Ambassador James Dobbins is a senior fellow and distinguished chair in Diplomacy and Security at the RAND Corporation. He has held State Department and White House posts including assistant secretary of state for Europe, special assistant to the president for the Western Hemisphere, special adviser to the president, secretary of state for the Balkans and ambassador to the European Community. Dobbins has served on numerous crisis management and diplomatic troubleshooting assignments as special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Kosovo, Bosnia, Haiti and Somalia for the administrations of Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. In 2013 he returned to the State Department to become the Obama administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, returning to RAND in 2014. Dobbins is author of the memoir Foreign Service: Five Decades on the Frontlines of American Diplomacy.

Norman Ornstein is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies politics, elections and the U.S. Congress. He is a cohost of AEI’s Election Watch series, a contributing editor and columnist for National Journal and The Atlantic, a BBC News election analyst and the chairman of the Campaign Legal Center. Dr. Ornstein previously served as co-director of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project and senior counselor to the Continuity of Government Commission. A longtime observer and analyst of American politics and the U.S. Congress, he has been involved in political reform for decades, particularly campaign finance reform and the reform of Senate committees. He has also played a part in creating the Congressional Office of Compliance and the House Office of Congressional Ethics. Dr. Ornstein was elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004. His many interviews have been aired on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CBS, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, NPR and PBS NewsHour, among others. His articles and opinion pieces have been published widely, including in Politico, The New York Times, NY Daily News, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Dr. Ornstein’s books include the bestsellers One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet Deported with E.J. Dionne and Thomas E. Mann (St. Martin’s Press, 2017); It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism; The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track, with Thomas E. Mann (Oxford University Press, 2006); and The Permanent Campaign and Its Future (AEI Press, 2000). Dr. Ornstein has a Ph.D. and a master’s in political science from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from the University of Minnesota.

Must we be tribal? The role of community in our personal and collective future.

Monday, January 14, 2019

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Amitai Etzioni (curator and moderator) is a university professor and professor of International Relations at The George Washington University. He served as a senior advisor at the Carter White House; taught at Columbia University, Harvard University, and University of California at Berkeley; and served as president of the American Sociological Association (ASA). A study by Richard Posner ranked him among the top 100 American intellectuals. Etzioni is the author of many books, including The Limits of Privacy (1999) and Privacy in a Cyber Age (2015). His most recent book, Happiness is the Wrong Metric: A Liberal Communitarian Response to Populism, was published by Springer in January 2018.

William A. Galston is the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair and senior fellow in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program. Prior to January 2006, he was the Saul Stern professor and acting dean at the School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, director of the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, and founding director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE). Galston was deputy assistant to President Clinton for Domestic Policy from 1993 to 1995. Galston is a winner of the American Political Science Association’s Hubert H. Humphrey Award and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the co-chair of The New Center with Bill Kristol. His most recent book is Anti-Pluralism: The Populist Threat to Liberal Democracy (Yale, 2018).

Xolela Mangcu (moderator) is a professor of Sociology at the University of Cape Town, Oppenheimer Fellow at the Hutchins Centre for African and African American Research at Harvard University and professor of Sociology at The George Washington University. He is the author and co-author of nine books, and more than two dozen journal articles and book chapters, including Biko: A Biography (Tafelberg 2012), which was subsequently published in London and New York by one of Europe’s leading academic publishers I.B. Tauris (2013). His book on race in contemporary South Africa, The Colour of Our Future, was published by Wits University Press in 2015. The Sunday Times has described Mangcu as possibly the most prolific public intellectual in South Africa. The academic Peter Vale has described him as the most interesting, certainly the most engaging voice amongst the new generation of public intellectuals in South Africa.

Isabel V. Sawhill is a senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. She served as vice president and director of the Economic Studies program from 2003 to 2006. She has been a co-director with Ron Haskins of the Center on Children and Families. Prior to joining Brookings, Dr. Sawhill was a senior fellow at The Urban Institute. She served in the Clinton Administration as an associate director of OMB, where her responsibilities included all of the human resource programs of the federal government, accounting for one third of the federal budget. She has authored or edited numerous books and articles including Generation Unbound: Drifting Into Sex and Parenthood Without Marriage; Creating an Opportunity Society with Ron Haskins Restoring Fiscal Sanity 2005: Meeting the Long-Run Challenge and Restoring Fiscal Sanity: How to Balance the Budget, both with Alice Rivlin; and One Percent for the Kids: New Policies, Brighter Futures for America’s Children. Her most recent book is The Forgotten Americans, An Economic Agenda for a Divided Nation.

What Makes a Great America?

Sunday, November 11, 2018

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Ayad Akhtar is the author of Junk (Lincoln Center, Broadway; 2018 Kennedy Prize for American Drama, Tony nomination); Disgraced (Lincoln Center, Broadway; Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tony nomination); The Who & The What (Lincoln Center); and The Invisible Hand (Obie Award, Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award, Olivier and Evening Standard nominations). As a novelist, he is the author of American Dervish (Little, Brown & Co.) published in over 20 languages. Recipient of an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the 2017 Steinberg Playwriting Award, as well as fellowships from the American Academy in Rome, MacDowell, the Sundance Institute, and Yaddo, where he serves as a Board Director. Board Trustee at PEN/America and New York Theatre Workshop.

Yoni Appelbaum is a senior editor at The Atlantic, where he oversees the Ideas section. Appelbaum is a social and cultural historian of the United States. Before joining The Atlantic, he was a lecturer on history and literature at Harvard University. He previously taught at Babson College and at Brandeis University, where received his Ph.D. in American history.

Amitai Etzioni (curator and moderator) is a university professor and professor of International Relations at The George Washington University. He served as a senior advisor at the Carter White House; taught at Columbia University, Harvard University, and University of California at Berkeley; and served as president of the American Sociological Association (ASA). A study by Richard Posner ranked him among the top 100 American intellectuals.  Etzioni is the author of many books, including The Limits of Privacy (1999) and Privacy in a Cyber Age (2015). His most recent book, Happiness is the Wrong Metric: A Liberal Communitarian Response to Populism, was published by Springer in January 2018.

Caroline Fredrickson is president of the American Constitution Society. During her tenure, Frederickson has helped grow ACS, which now has lawyer chapters across the country, student chapters in nearly every law school in the United States, and thousands of members throughout the nation. She is an eloquent spokesperson for ACS and the progressive movement on issues such as civil and human rights, judicial nominations and the importance of the courts in America, marriage equality, voting rights, the role of money in politics, labor law and anti-discrimination efforts, among others. Fredrickson has published works on many legal and constitutional issues and is a frequent guest on television and radio, including noteworthy appearances on All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC in 2018 discussing the Russia investigation and The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News in 2012 defending the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. She is author of Under The Bus: How Working Women Are Being Run Over. Before joining ACS, Frederickson served as the director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office and as general counsel and legal director of NARAL Pro-Choice America. In addition, she served as the chief of staff to Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, and deputy chief of staff to then-Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota. During the Clinton Administration, she served as special assistant to the president for Legislative Affairs. Fredrickson is currently a member of If/When/How’s Advisory Board. She is a co-chair of the National Constitution Center's Coalition of Freedom Advisory Board. In 2015 Fredrickson was appointed a member of the Yale Les Aspin Fellowship Committee. Fredrickson received her J.D. from Columbia Law School and her B.A. from Yale University in Russian and East European Studies summa cum laude. She clerked for the Hon. James L. Oakes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Tod Lindberg is a senior fellow at The Hudson Institute specializing in national security issues and the role of U.S. leadership. He is the author most recently of The Heroic Heart: Greatness Ancient and Modern (Encounter Books, 2015). From 1999 until 2013, he was editor of Policy Review. He is a contributing editor to the Weekly Standard and has written for scholarly and popular publications from Telos and the Review of Metaphysics to Foreign Affairs and Commentary to the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. He is an adjunct associate professor at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, where he teaches a graduate seminar on ethics. He is co-chair (with Raymond Brown) of the ABA’s Atrocity Prevention and Response Project and a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee on Conscience.

Exploring Well-Being in a Digital World

Sunday, October 14, 2018

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Amitai Etzioni (curator and moderator) is a university professor and professor of International Relations at The George Washington University. He served as a senior advisor at the Carter White House; taught at Columbia University, Harvard University, and University of California at Berkeley; and served as president of the American Sociological Association (ASA). A study by Richard Posner ranked him among the top 100 American intellectuals.  Etzioni is the author of many books, including The Limits of Privacy (1999) and Privacy in a Cyber Age (2015). His most recent book, Happiness is the Wrong Metric: A Liberal Communitarian Response to Populism, was published by Springer in January 2018.

Ellen P. Goodman is a professor of law at Rutgers Law School. Sheco-directs and co-founded the Rutgers Institute for Information Policy & Law and launched the News Law Project. She has published widely on media models, spectrum policy, smart cities, the Internet of Things, First Amendment, public interest models in communications, and advertising law. Goodman’s current project deals with public access to information about government deployment of big data predictive algorithms. She served in the Obama administration as a distinguished visiting scholar with the Federal Communications Commission, and has been a visiting scholar at the London School of Economics and the University of Pennsylvania. She has been the recipient of Ford Foundation and Geraldine R. Dodge grants for work on advancing new public media models and public interest journalism. Prior to joining the Rutgers faculty, Goodman was a partner at the law firm of Covington & Burling LLP, where she practiced in the information technology area. She is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, clerked for Judge Norma Shapiro on the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and has three children. She also writes periodically for the Guardian and Slate on information policy.

Neema Singh Guliani is a legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union Washington Legislative Office, focusing on surveillance, privacy, and national security issues. Prior to joining the ACLU, she worked in the chief of staff’s office at DHS, concentrating on national security and civil rights issues. She has also worked as an adjudicator in the office of the assistant secretary for civil rights in the Department of Agriculture and was an investigative counsel with House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, where she conducted investigations related to the BP oil spill, contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Recovery Act. Neema is a graduate of Brown University where she earned a BA in international relations with a focus on global security and received her JD from Harvard Law School in 2008.

Maggie Jackson is an award-winning author and former Boston Globe contributing columnist best-known for her writings on technology’s impact on humanity. Her articles, books, and commentary have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, on National Public Radio, and in media worldwide. Newly released in an updated edition, her acclaimed book Distracted: Reclaiming Our Focus in a World of Lost Attention sounded a prophetic warning of our current crisis of inattention. Hailed as “influential” by The New Yorker and compared by Fast Company.com to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Distractedoffers a harrowing yet hopeful account of the fate of our highest human capacity. Jackson’s essays also appear in numerous anthologies, including State of the American Mind: Sixteen Leading Critics on the New Anti-Intellectualism (Templeton, 2015) and The Digital Divide: Arguments For and Against Facebook, Google, Texting and the Age of Social Networking (Penguin, 2011). The recipient of many grants, awards, and fellowships, she has served as a 2016 Bard Graduate Center visiting fellow; a journalism fellow in Child and Family Policy at the University of Maryland; and a finalist for the Hillman Prize, one of journalism’s highest honors for social justice reporting. A graduate of Yale University and the London School of Economics with highest honors, Jackson lives in New York City and Rhode Island. Currently, she is working on a new book about uncertainty as the gateway to good thinking in an age of snap judgment. Follow her work or reach her at www.maggie-jackson.com.

Maurice Turner is a senior technologist at the Center for Democracy & Technology, a Washington D.C.-based non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring the internet remains open, innovative and free. Supporting work across all of CDT’s programmatic areas, Turner focuses on the Election Security and Privacy Project identifying and updating election cybersecurity practices and infrastructure, and working through potential remedies. Turner brings a unique mix of formal education and practical work experience in technology and local, regional and national policymaking to the Internet Architecture project. After receiving a bachelor’s in political science from Cal State Fullerton, he went on to earn a master’s in public administration from the University of Southern California focusing on emerging communication technologies, privacy and civic engagement. In addition, he holds a graduate certificate in cybersecurity strategy from Georgetown University. As a TechCongress Congressional Innovation Fellow in 2017, he served the Republican staff of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (reporting to Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson) supporting on cybersecurity issues. His previous employers include the City of Newport Beach, EarthLink Municipal Networks, Center for Democracy and Technology, Coro Foundation, United Medical Center Hospital, U.S. Department of Transportation and Apple. Turner has been a technology enthusiast for over 30 years and is committed to leveraging new technologies to increase government effectiveness and community engagement.

No deplorables here; how to understand each other
A dialogue of President Trump supporters and opponents.

Sunday, September 16, 2018

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Frank Buckley is a foundation professor at George Mason University’s Scalia School of Law. He is a frequent media guest and has appeared on Morning Joe, CNN, Rush Limbaugh, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, China’s CGTN, Newsmax, Radio France, the CBC, NPR and many others. He is a senior editor at The American Spectator, a columnist for the New York Post, and has written for the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, US News, National Review, the American Conservative, the New Criterion, Real Clear Politics, the National Post and the Telegraph, amongst many others. His most recent books are The Republic of Virtue: How We Tried to Ban Corruption, Failed, and What we Can Do About It (Encounter Books, 2017); The Way Back: Restoring the Promise of America (Encounter Books, April 2016); The Once and Future King(Encounter Books, 2015);The American Illness (ed., Yale 2013); Fair Governance (Oxford 2009); Just Exchange (Routledge 2005); The Morality of Laughter (Michigan 2003); and The Fall and Rise of Freedom of Contract (ed. Duke 1999). His current project is a book on the themes of the 2016 election. He has been a visiting fellow at the University of Chicago Law School and has also taught at McGill Law School in Montreal, the Sorbonne (Paris II) and Sciences Po in Paris. He is a citizen of Canada and became an American citizen on Tax Day, April 15, 2014. He lives in Alexandria, VA with his wife, Esther, two German Shepherds and two cats (the good one and the evil one). His daughter, Sarah, and her husband Nick Mark, are fellows at the University of Washington Medical Center.

Annalisa Dias is a citizen artist, community organizer, and award-winning theatre maker working at the intersection of racial justice and care for the earth. She is a producing playwright with The Welders, a D.C. playwright's collective; and is co-founder of the D.C. Coalition for Theatre & Social Justice. Annalisa frequently teaches theatre of the oppressed and decolonization workshops nationally and internationally and speaks about race, identity, and performance. She is a TCG Rising Leader of Color and also works toward diversity and inclusion full time at the American Political Science Association. Recent original work includes 4380 Nights, a world premiere new play about detainees at Guantanamo and the historical legacy of global colonialism, which opened in January 2018 at D.C.'s Signature Theatre as part of the 2nd Women's Voices Theatre Festival. Upcoming work includes The Earth, That Is Sufficient, a world premiere new play about environmental history and hope for the future, to be produced by The Welders in Washington, D.C. More information at: http://annalisadias.weebly.com.

Amitai Etzioni (curator and moderator) is a university professor and professor of International Relations at The George Washington University. He served as a senior advisor at the Carter White House; taught at Columbia University, Harvard University, and University of California at Berkeley; and served as president of the American Sociological Association (ASA). A study by Richard Posner ranked him among the top 100 American intellectuals. Etzioni is the author of many books, including The Limits of Privacy (1999) and Privacy in a Cyber Age (2015). His most recent book, Happiness is the Wrong Metric: A Liberal Communitarian Response to Populism, was published by Springer in January 2018.

D. Mike Hill currently lives with his wife of 6 years, Melissa and their newborn son, Basil, in Arlington. He works in information technology sales supporting the DoD and Federal agencies. He moved to Virginia in 2003 following ten years of military service in the U.S. Marine Corps as a helicopter pilot deployed in support of peace operations in the middle east. He holds an MBA from Cornell University 2003 and a BS in Astronomy and Physics from the University of Florida, 1992. He is a lifelong conservative, GOP, Republican voter, including presidential votes for all candidates from George H. W. Bush to Donald Trump. Active in local Arlington civics including two years on civic association board, he conducted a multicandidate forum that lead to John Vihstadt (Independent) winning a seat of the Arlington County Board. He believes strongly in individual liberty, personal freedom, and community security and that the Second Amendment is the bedrock of First Amendment and all other Constitutional protections. He strongly supports President Trump’s policy in Iran, N. Korea, NATO, support of Israel, corporate tax cuts, individual income tax cuts, border security, deregulation and his appointments of Supreme Court Justices, along with the Reagan GOP emphasis on peace through strength.

Michael Kazin is professor of history at Georgetown University and co-editor of Dissent magazine, www.dissentmagazine.org. His latest book is War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914-1918 (2017). He is also the author American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation (2011), A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan (2006), America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s (with Maurice Isserman), 5th edition, 2015, The Populist Persuasion: An American History (revised editions, 1998, 2017) and Barons of Labor: The San Francisco Building Trades and Union Power in the Progressive Era. (1987). In addition, he is editor-in-chief of The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History (2010) and co-editor (with Joseph McCartin) of the anthology Americanism: New Perspectives on the History of an Ideal (2006). He has contributed to The Washington Post, The American Prospect, The Nation, The New Republic, Democracy, The New York Times Book, The New York Review of Books, Foreign Affairs and many other publications and websites. He is currently working on a history of the Democratic Party, under contract with Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kazin has been awarded many fellowships, including ones from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.

Robert Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect and the Kirstein Chair at Brandeis University’s Heller School. He was a founder of the Economic Policy Institute and serves on its executive committee. Kuttner is the author of eleven books on politics and economics, most recently Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? He has written articles for every major US national magazine, including the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, the Atlantic, Harpers, Foreign Affairs, as well as the New Statesman, and has served as national policy correspondent for the New England Journal of Medicine. He is a featured weekly columnist for Huffington Post. His other positions have included national staff writer and syndicated columnist on The Washington Post, where he was on the Watergate team; chief investigator for the U.S. Senate Banking Committee; economics editor of The New Republic; and columnist for Business Week and for the Boston Globe. Robert Kuttner was educated at Oberlin, The London School of Economics, and the University of California at Berkeley. He holds honorary doctorates from Oberlin and Swarthmore. He has also taught at Boston University, the University of Oregon, University of Massachusetts and Harvard’s Institute of Politics.

Eileen J. O’Connor is an attorney and business consultant. A CPA early in her career, she is a member of the bars of the Tax Court, District of Columbia Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court, and has presented oral argument in the United States Circuit Courts of Appeals and in the United States Supreme Court. Ms. O’Connor is Vice-Chairman of the Board, and Chairman of the Legal Committee of the Board, of Americans United for Life.  She is also Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Administrative Law Practice Group of the Federalist Society. Ms. O’Connor devoted many years to tax practice with national accounting and law firms. In 2001, the Senate confirmed President George W. Bush’s appointment of Ms. O’Connor to be Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division of the United States Department of Justice, where she served for six years. More recently, she served as a member of the Treasury Department Transition Landing Team for then President-elect Trump. http://www.ejoconnor.com/

The Robots Are Coming

Sunday, August 12, 2018

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Jared Bernstein joined the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in May 2011 as a Senior Fellow. From 2009 to 2011, Bernstein was the Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, Executive Director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class and a member of President Obama’s economic team. Prior to joining the Obama administration, Bernstein was a senior economist and the director of the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute, and between 1995 and 1996, he held the post of Deputy Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor. Bernstein holds a PhD in Social Welfare from Columbia University and is the author and coauthor of numerous books including The Reconnection Agenda: Reuniting Growth and Prosperity. Bernstein has published extensively in various venues, including The New York Times, Washington Post and The American Prospect. He is an on-air commentator for the cable station CNBC and a contributor to The Washington Post’s PostEverything blog.

Amitai Etzioni is a University Professor and Professor of International Relations at The George Washington University. He served as a Senior Advisor at the Carter White House; taught at Columbia University, Harvard University, and University of California at Berkeley; and served as president of the American Sociological Association (ASA). A study by Richard Posner ranked him among the top 100 American intellectuals. Etzioni is the author of many books, including The Limits of Privacy (1999)and Privacy in a Cyber Age (2015). His most recent book, Happiness is the Wrong Metric: A Liberal Communitarian Response to Populism, was published by Springer in January 2018.

Molly Kinder is a Senior Adviser on Work, Workers and Technology at New America. She is also a research fellow and adjunct faculty at Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy, where she teaches a graduate policy seminar on the social, policy and economic implications of artificial intelligence. Previously, Kinder was co-founder and vice president of a $200 million social impact fund and served in the Obama administration as a director in a new innovation program. She directed a Pakistan initiative at the Center for Global Development and co-authored the center's best-selling book. Kinder worked overseas in Liberia, India and Pakistan and holds a master's degree in public administration in international development from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Ben Shneiderman is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Computer Science, Founding Director (1983-2000) of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory and a Member of the UM Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) at the University of Maryland. He is a Fellow of the AAAS, ACM, IEEE and NAI, and a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, in recognition of his pioneering contributions to human-computer interaction and information visualization. His widely-used contributions include the clickable highlighted weblinks, high-precision touchscreen keyboards for mobile devices and tagging for photos. Shneiderman’s advanced work on information visualization includes dynamic query sliders for Spotfire, development of treemaps for hierarchical data, novel network visualizations for NodeXL and event sequence analysis for electronic health records. Ben wrote The New ABCs of Research: Achieving Breakthrough Collaborations, Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction, and his Leonardo’s Laptop: Human Needs the New Computing Technologies won the IEEE book award for Distinguished Literary Contribution.

Mary Wareham is advocacy director of the Arms Division, where she leads Human Rights Watch’s advocacy against particularly problematic weapons that pose a significant threat to civilians. She is also serving as the global coordinator of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. From 2006 to 2008, Wareham served as advocacy director for Oxfam New Zealand, leading its efforts to secure an arms trade treaty and the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. From 1998 to 2006, Wareham was senior advocate for the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch and was responsible for global coordination of the Landmine Monitor research initiative, which verifies compliance and implementation of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. From 1996 to 1997, Wareham worked for the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, assisting Jody Williams in coordinating the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), co-laureate of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize together with Williams. Wareham worked as a researcher for the New Zealand parliament from 1995 to 1996 after receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from Victoria University of Wellington.

Dr. Roman V. Yampolskiy is a Tenured Associate Professor in the department of Computer Engineering and Computer Science at the Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville. He is the founding and current director of the Cyber Security Lab.During his tenure at UofL, Dr. Yampolskiy has been recognized as Distinguished Teaching Professor, Professor of the Year, Faculty Favorite, Top 4 Faculty, Leader in Engineering Education, Top 10 of Online College Professor of the Year and Outstanding Early Career in Education award winner. He is a Senior member of IEEE and AGI, Member of Kentucky Academy of Science and Research Advisor for MIRI and Associate of GCRI. Yampolskiy holds a PhD from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo. He was a recipient of a four year National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship fellowship. Before beginning his doctoral studies Dr. Yampolskiy received a BS/MS (High Honors) combined degree in Computer Science from Rochester Institute of Technology. After completing his PhD dissertation, he held a position of an Affiliate Academic at the Center for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University of London, College of London. He had previously conducted research at the Laboratory for Applied Computing at the Rochester Institute of Technology and at the Center for Unified Biometrics and Sensors at the University at Buffalo. Dr. Yampolskiy is an alumnus of Singularity University and a Visiting Fellow of the Singularity Institute (Machine Intelligence Research Institute). Dr. Yampolskiy is an author of over 100 publications including multiple journal articles and books, including Artificial Superintelligence: A Futuristic Approach.

Exploring the thesis that surveillance is excessive and privacy is endangered both by the government and by private corporations

Monday, March 26, 2018

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Matthew Olsen has worked for over two decades as a leading government official on national security, intelligence and law enforcement issues. He is the co-founder of IronNet Cybersecurity, a technology firm based in Washington, D.C. Most recently, Matthew served for three years as the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Created by Congress in response to the attacks of September 11, NCTC is responsible for the integration and analysis of terrorism information and strategic operational planning of counterterrorism activities. Prior to joining NCTC, Matthew was the General Counsel for the National Security Agency, serving as NSA’s chief legal officer and focusing on surveillance law and cyber operations. Matthew also served in leadership positions at the Department of Justice, where he managed national security and criminal cases and helped establish the National Security Division. Matthew also was Special Counsel to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For over a decade, Matthew worked as a federal prosecutor, and he began his public service career as a trial attorney in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. In addition to his work with IronNet Cybersecurity, Matthew teaches at Harvard Law School and is a national security analyst for ABC News. He is an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and serves on the board of Human Rights First and several government advisory boards. He also is affiliated with the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard, where he helps lead a project on cybersecurity. Matthew graduated from Harvard Law School and the University of Virginia.

Gabe Rottman is the director of the Reporters Committee’s Technology and Press Freedom Project, which integrates legal, policy and public education efforts to protect newsgathering and First Amendment freedoms as they intersect with emerging technological challenges and opportunities. Gabe comes to RCFP from PEN America, where he opened the organization’s Washington, D.C., office and served as its first Washington director. He also was the deputy director for the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Freedom, Security and Technology Project. At CDT, he led efforts on cybersecurity policy and worked extensively on electronic surveillance and the rights of security researchers. From 2012 to 2015, Gabe served as the lead federal legislative and regulatory counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union on open government, press freedom and the First Amendment. Following law school, Gabe was a litigation associate in the D.C. office of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP with a focus on antitrust matters and national security foreign investment review. He has been published in, among other outlets, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, CNN and Roll Call, and has testified before Congress. Gabe is a 2017 cyber fellow in the Fellowship in Advanced Cyber Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has a joint honors B.A. from McGill University in political science and history, and a law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he was notes editor on the Georgetown Law Journal.

Jeffrey Rosen is the author of five books, most recently Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet. His new biography of William Howard Taft was published in March 2018. He is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a law professor at George Washington University, and a contributing editor for The Atlantic. He was previously the legal affairs editor of The New Republic and a staff writer for The New Yorker. Jeffrey is a graduate of Harvard College, Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar, and Yale Law School.

Peter Swire is the Holder Chair of Law and Ethics at the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business. He is Senior Fellow with the Future of Privacy Forum, a member of the National Academy of Sciences Forum on Cyber-Resiliency, and Senior Counsel with Alston & Bird, LLP. In 2015, the International Association of Privacy Professionals, among its over 20,000 members, awarded him its Privacy Leadership Award. In 2013, he served as one of five members of President Obama’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology. Under President Clinton, Peter was Chief Counselor for Privacy in the Clinton Administration, the first person to have U.S. government-wide responsibility for privacy policy. His activities in that role included being White House coordinator for the HIPAA Privacy Rule, chairing a White House Working Group on encryption and helping negotiate the Safe Harbor agreement with the E.U.

Frank Torres is the Senior Director of Consumer Affairs for the Microsoft Corporation. He leads the company’s engagement strategy with consumer and privacy advocates, civil rights organizations and other non-profit organizations, including managing federal and advocacy outreach with product and services teams across Microsoft. Frank also directs federal policy activity and strategy on privacy and Internet safety issues related to consumers and represents Microsoft’s interests on those issues in Congress and before federal agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission. He helps to coordinate the company’s healthcare and health IT policy at the federal level. Frank was invited by the US House of Representatives Financial Services Committee to provide expert advice on the role of analysts in providing investment advice to consumers. He was a leading consumer advocate during the consideration of legislation on digital signatures, online privacy, financial services modernization and investor protections. Frank received his doctor of jurisprudence degree from George Washington University and his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University.

Exploring the future of race relations in America

Tuesday, May 29, 2018 

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Dr. Niambi M. Carter is a proud member of the Department of Political Science at Howard University. She earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from Duke University (2007) working primarily in the area of American Politics with a specific focus on Race and Ethnic Politics. She is the recipient of a number of fellowships and awards from organizations such as the Ford Foundation, the Consortium for Faculty Diversity, and the Western Political Science Association. Her book manuscript focuses on African American public opinion on immigration. Her most recent, co-authored work is entitled “Policy Symmetry and Cross-Racial Linked Fate in the Early Years of the Obama Presidency,” appears in the most recent issue of Politics, Groups, and Identities. Niambi is also actively involved in other work that examines lynching and race in American politics, “back to Africa” movements and African American immigration at the turn of the 20th century, and the political ideology of African American Republicans. Her work has appeared in a host of publication, such as the Journal of Politics; Political Psychology; the Journal of Women, Politics, and Policy; the DuBois Review; Politics and Gender; and the Journal of African American Studies.

Clarissa Martínez De Castro is the Deputy Vice President of the Office of Research, Advocacy, and Legislation for UnidosUS (formerly known as the National Council of La Raza), which is the largest Latino nonprofit advocacy organization in the country. She has discussed race relations and Hispanic-American issues in forums in the past. A frequent commentator on the Latino electorate and immigration issues on television, radio and print media, she received her undergraduate degree from Occidental College and her master’s degree from Harvard University. In 2007, Clarissa served as manager of the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, a multi-sector network of national, state, and local organizations committed to advancing policy solutions on immigration. She also served as Public Policy Coordinator for the Southwest Voter Research Institute, Assistant Director of the California-Mexico Project at the University of Southern California, Organizer for the Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, and Union Representative for the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) Local 11. She currently serves as an Advisory Board member of the U.S. Vote Foundation and is a member of the inaugural class of the Presidential Leadership Scholars program.

Richard D. Kahlenberg is a senior fellow at The Century Foundation with expertise in education, civil rights and equal opportunity. Richard has been called “the intellectual father of the economic integration movement” in K-12 schooling and “arguably the nation’s chief proponent of class-based affirmative action in higher education admissions.” He is the author or editor of sixteen books, including Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles Over Schools, Unions, Race and Democracy (Columbia University Press, 2007); and The Remedy: Class, Race, and Affirmative Action (Basic Books, 1996). Previously, Kahlenberg was a Fellow at the Center for National Policy, a visiting associate professor of constitutional law at George Washington University, and a legislative assistant to Senator Charles S. Robb (D-VA). He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

Lisa Rice, in her capacity as Executive Vice President with the National Fair Housing Alliance, oversees the resource development, public policy, communication and enforcement divisions of the agency. She is responsible for helping to achieve the organization’s goal of addressing the crisis of segregation in America and the ultimate objective of achieving equal housing opportunities for all Americans. Lisa joined NFHA after serving as CEO of the Toledo Fair Housing Center and the Northwest Ohio Development Agency (NODA). While serving at the organizations, Lisa developed and implemented the state of Ohio’s first anti-predatory lending remediation program. Throughout her career, she has worked to pass legislation and promote policies that expand access to quality credit and equal housing opportunities. Lisa served on the state of Ohio’s Housing Trust Fund Advisory Board, and the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council and is a current member of the JPMorgan Chase Consumer Advisory Council, the Mortgage Bankers Association's Consumer Advisory Council and the America’s Homeowner Alliance Advisory Board.

Janelle Wong received her PhD from the Department of Political Science at Yale University. She is Professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland. Wong is author of Democracy’s Promise: Immigrants and American Civic Institutions (2006, University of Michigan Press) and co-author of two books on Asian American politics. The most recent is Asian American Political Participation: Emerging Constituents and their Political Identities (2011, Russell Sage Foundation), based on the first nationally representative survey of Asian Americans’ political attitudes and behavior. Jannelle’s research is on race, immigration, and political mobilization. Her latest book is Immigrants, Evangelicals, and Politics in an Era of Demographic Change, published in May 2018 by the Russell Sage Foundation Press. The study is based on qualitative interviews, participant observation in Los Angeles and Houston, and analysis of survey data. As a scholar and teacher, Janelle has worked closely with social service, labor, civil rights, and media organizations that serve the Asian American population.

Exploring what we owe other people

Monday, April 23, 2018

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John B. Bellinger III is a partner in the international and national security law practices of Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C., and an Adjunct Senior Fellow in International and National Security Law at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as the Legal Adviser for the Department of State from 2005–2009 under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and previously as Senior Associate Counsel to the President and Legal Adviser to the National Security Council at the White House from 2001–2005. He previously served as Counsel for National Security Matters in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice and as Special Assistant to Director of Central Intelligence William Webster. He has a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.A. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia and an A.B. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University.

Dr. Esther Brimmer is the Executive Director and CEO of NAFSA: Association of International Educators. She has been the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. She served in the Department of State three times, including as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs. Earlier in her career she was Deputy Director and Director of Research at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. She has published numerous articles and edited eight books on transatlantic relations. Her work has been translated into five languages. She is a member of the Department of Defense National Security Education Board and the Executive Board of the Atlantic Council. She received her doctorate and master’s degrees in international relations from Oxford University and her bachelor’s degree from Pomona College.

Elisa Massimino is the President and CEO of Human Rights First, one of the nation’s leading human rights advocacy organizations with offices in Washington, New York City, Houston and Los Angeles. Established in 1978, Human Rights First’s mission is to ensure that the United States is a global leader on human rights. The organization works in the United States and abroad to promote respect for human rights and the rule of law. Elisa joined Human Rights First as a staff attorney in 1991 to help establish the D.C. office. Previously, Elisa was a litigator at the law firm of Hogan & Hartson, where she was pro bono counsel in many human rights cases. Elisa is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Supreme Court Bar. She holds a law degree from the University of Michigan, a Master of Arts in philosophy from Johns Hopkins University and is a graduate of Trinity University.

Christopher Preble is the Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. He is the author of three books including The Power Problem: How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous and Less Free (Cornell, 2009) and has co-edited several other books and monographs, including most recently Our Foreign Policy Choices: Rethinking America’s Global Role (Cato, 2016) with Emma Ashford and Travis Evans. His work has appeared in major publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Foreign Policy and he is a frequent guest on television and radio. Christopher also teaches the U.S. Foreign Policy elective at the University of California, Washington Center. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Temple University and is a former commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy.

Wai Wai Nu is the director and founder of Women Peace Network. Wai Wai was a political prisoner for seven years under the Burmese military government, and emerged to serve as a national – and international – voice for Burma’s human rights and democracy movement. Wai Wai was deeply moved by the escalated violence she encountered upon her release from prison. As a result, she formed the Women’s Peace Network, as a platform to build peace and mutual understanding between Myanmar’s different ethnicities, and to empower and advocate for the rights of marginalized women in Arakan and Myanmar. Through the Women’s Peace Network she has been campaigning for women’s rights, an end to impunity. Wai Wai has been working to reduce discrimination and hatred among Buddhist and Muslim communities and improve human rights situation of her people Rohingya. In 2014, after completion of her law degree she founded Justice for Women, which operates as a network of female lawyers providing legal consultation and education for the women of Burma. In 2016, Wai Wai has founded a Yangon Youth Leadership Center where young people can learn and explore their ideas and promote leadership in social, political and peace-building. She was awarded N-Peace award (peace generation) and selected as a "100 Top Woman" by the BBC in 2014. She was listed as one of the Next Generation Leader in the world by Time Magazine in March 2017. Wai Wai was recently awarded the 2017 Hillary Rodham Clinton Award for Advancing Women.