Paul Stekler is a nationally recognized documentary filmmaker whose critically praised and award-winning work includes George Wallace: Settin’ the Woods on Fire; Last Man Standing: Politics, Texas Style; Vote for Me: Politics in America, a four-hour PBS special about grassroots electoral politics; two segments of the Eyes on the Prize II series on the history of civil rights; Last Stand at Little […]
Nov 03, 20200
Keisha N. Blain is an American historian and writer. She is an Associate professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh and President of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS). She is “one of the most innovative and influential young historians of her generation.”Blain is one of the nation’s leading scholars of African American […]
Oct 27, 20200
Sukyi manages the Square One Project’s Roundtable on the Future of Justice Policy, and draws together academics, advocates, community leaders, and practitioners in three-day convenings to drive understanding and innovation in criminal justice reform. Sukyi hails from Austin, Texas, where she serves as the Board Chair at Austin Justice Coalition, a black-led grassroots organization focused on local […]
Oct 20, 20200
Ron Kirk is Senior Of Counsel in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Dallas and Washington, D.C. offices. He is Co-Chair of the International Trade Practice Group and a member of the Sports Law, Public Policy, Crisis Management, and Private Equity Practice Groups. Ambassador Kirk focuses on providing strategic advice to companies with global interests. Prior to joining the firm in April […]
Oct 13, 20200
Mark K. Updegrove is the president and CEO of the LBJ Foundation. From 2009 to 2017, he was the director of the LBJ Presidential Library where, he hosted the Civil Rights Summit in 2014, which included Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter, and oversaw a major renovation of the Library’s core […]
Oct 05, 20200
Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is a scholar who speaks to the black and blue in America. His most well-known books, Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul, and In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America, take a wide look at black communities and reveal complexities, vulnerabilities, and opportunities for […]
Sep 29, 20200
Sonya Douglass Horsford currently serves as Associate Professor of Education Leadership in the Department of Organization and Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research focuses on the politics of race in education leadership, policy, and reform. She is the Founding Director of the Black Education Research Collective (BERC) and Co-Director of the Urban Education […]
Sep 21, 20200
Rebecca Campbell has served as chief executive of the Austin Film Society since 1998. Prior to joining AFS, she spent 12 years in the nonprofit sector, serving as Executive Director of two statewide California organizations, following which she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Video and Film Production from the University of Texas […]
Sep 13, 20200
Laurence Ralph is a Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University. He earned both a Ph.D. and also a Master of Arts degree in Anthropology from the University of Chicago, and a Bachelor of Science degree from Georgia Institute of Technology where he majored in History, Technology, and Society. Laurence has published articles on these topics […]
Sep 07, 20200
A prominent leader in the national movement to build positive, inclusive, and inspiring humanist communities, Greg M. Epstein has served the country’s rapidly growing population of non-religious people for nearly two decades. Described as a “godfather to the [humanist] movement” by The New York Times Magazine in recognition of his efforts, Epstein was also named […]
Aug 31, 20200
Mark Whitaker spent three decades as a reporter, writer, and editor for Newsweek Magazine and in 1999 became the first African-American to lead a national newsweekly. In 2007, he joined NBC News and the following year replaced the late Tim Russert as Washington Bureau Chief. In 2011, Mark was appointed Managing Editor of CNN Worldwide, […]
Aug 24, 20200
Van Lathan is an established host and media personality from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He can be heard weekly on “The Red Pill” podcast, which garners over 50,000 listeners per episode, as well as on the podcast Higher Learning with Rachel Lindsay. Van’s passion for sports, entertainment, and news comes across in his reporting and insightful […]
Aug 18, 20200
Julian Zelizer is a professor in political history at Princeton University, frequent political commentator, and author of over 900 op-eds and books covering American political history. After obtaining his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, Zelizer went on to write for The Atlantic and work as a weekly columnist at CNN. He has twice won the […]
Aug 06, 20200
Trymaine Lee is a Pulitzer Prize and Emmy award-winning journalist. Having reported for both The New York Times and Huffington Post, Trymaine currently works as a national reporter for the digital arm of MSNBC. He has been recognized for his work covering social justice issues, including the case of Trayvon Martin in 2012, for which […]
Aug 03, 20200
Dr. Eric Cervini is an award-winning historian of LGBTQ+ politics and culture. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Scholar. As an authority on 1960s gay activism, Cervini serves on the Board of Directors of the Harvard Gender and […]
Jul 28, 20200
Dr. Karma Chávez is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies. Her scholarship is informed by queer of color theory and women of color feminism and analyzes social movement building, activist rhetoric, and coalitional politics. Dr. Chávez’s research explores the rhetorical practices and coalitions of […]
Jul 20, 20200
Robert Martin Seda-Schreiber is a chief activist of the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice. Robert forged New Jersey’s first middle school gay-straight alliance, was honored as New Jersey’s State Champion of Equality, served as a Fulbright Memorial Fund Scholar to Japan, received two Senate proclamations recognizing his service to the community, and was named […]
Jul 13, 20200
James G. Basker is President of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and The Richard Gilder Professor of Literary History at Barnard College, Columbia University. Educated at Harvard College, Cambridge University, and (as a Rhodes Scholar) at Oxford University, Basker taught at Harvard for seven years before coming to Barnard. His scholarly work spans […]
Jul 06, 20200
Mark Atwood Lawrence is Associate Professor of History, Distinguished Fellow at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law, and Director of Graduate Studies at the Clements Center for National Security at The University of Texas at Austin. He received his B.A. from Stanford University in 1988 and his doctorate from Yale in […]
Jun 29, 20200
Dr. Marc Lamont Hill is one of the leading intellectual voices in the country. He is currently the host of BET News and a political contributor for CNN. An award-winning journalist, Dr. Hill has received numerous prestigious awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. […]
Jun 23, 20200
Michael Eric Dyson is a renowned scholar, ordained Baptist minister, and public intellectual born in Detroit, Michigan. His innovative scholarship, combining cultural criticism and biography, focuses on race, religion, popular culture, and contemporary issues in the African American community. Dyson’s most recent book is April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Death and How It […]
Jun 08, 20200
Brencia Berry is a San Antonio native who recently served on the Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign as the Deputy Director of Public Engagement as well as the National Deputy Advance Director. During her time on the campaign trail she had the opportunity to work as a national advance associate for Secretary Clinton, former […]
May 25, 20200
Named as one of the “100 Most Connected Men” by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world’s best known and controversial commentators on the digital revolution. He has written five books including the best-selling Cult of the Amateur, The Internet Is Not The Answer and How To Fix The Future. He directed and wrote the […]
May 18, 20200
Dr. Cherise Smith is a professor of art history specializing in American art after 1945, especially as it intersects with the politics of identity, race, and gender. She is the Chair of the Department of African & African Diaspora Studies and is the founding Executive Director of the Art Galleries at Black Studies, which consist […]
Apr 27, 20200
K. Sabeel Rahman is the President of Demos, a dynamic think-and-do tank that powers the movement for a just, inclusive, multiracial democracy. Through cutting-edge policy research, inspiring litigation, and deep relationships with grassroots organizations, Demos champions solutions that will create a democracy and economy rooted in racial equity. Rahman is also an Associate Professor of […]
Apr 20, 20200
Michele Deitch holds a joint appointment as a senior lecturer at the LBJ School and the Law School, and is an attorney with over 30 years of experience working on criminal justice and juvenile justice policy issues with state and local government officials, corrections administrators, judges and advocates. She specializes in independent oversight of correctional […]
Apr 06, 20200
Gordon Abner is a public management scholar whose research focuses on improving citizens’ perceptions of public employees and government service, and on improving the morale and performance of public employees — which he is particularly interested in within the sphere of social policy. Professor Abner has employed a variety of methods in his research including […]
Mar 30, 20200
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Professor Gates has authored or co-authored twenty-one books and created fifteen documentary films, including Wonders of the African World, […]
Mar 09, 20200
Sherrilyn Ifill is the President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), the nation’s premier civil rights law organization fighting for racial justice and equality. LDF was founded in 1940 by legendary civil rights lawyer (and later Supreme Court justice) Thurgood Marshall, and became a separate organization from the NAACP […]
Mar 02, 20200
Edwin Dorn teaches defense policy and courses about the relationship between race and immigration policy. He was dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs from 1997 to 2005. Prior to that, Dr. Dorn spent 20 years in Washington, DC. He worked on civil rights and education policy in the Carter administration and served as […]
Feb 13, 20200
