The Trump Presidency and the Future of America
Speakers Condoleezza Rice, Madeleine Albright, Robert Reich, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Donna Brazile, David Gergen,
Bill Kristol and Chris Jennings to Join Secretary Leon E. Panetta at Sunset Cultural Center
Our reporter, Mike Clancy, will be there.
Panetta Institute chairman and former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is pleased to announce the speakers and dates for the twentieth anniversary season of the Leon Panetta Lecture Series. The program will focus on the theme The Trump Presidency and the Future of America. Each of the events will be held at the Sunset Cultural Center in Carmel beginning at 7:00 p.m.
The events are as follows:*
Monday, March 6, 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The Affordable Care Act – Repeal, Replace or Gridlock? with Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana (2008-2016) and 2016 candidate for president; and Chris Jennings, deputy assistant to the president for Health Policy (2013-2014) and senior health advisor to the president (1994-2001)
Monday, April 3, 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The Economy – Trade, Jobs, Taxes and Immigration with Carly Fiorina (invited), chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard (1999-2005) and 2016 candidate for president and Robert Reich, economic analyst, author and United States secretary of labor (1993-1997)
Monday, May 29, 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m
Our Democracy – Parties, Politics and Governing with Donna Brazile, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (2016 – 2017); David Gergen, senior political analyst for CNN and former presidential adviser; and Bill Kristol, founder and editor-at-large of The Weekly Standard and political analyst for ABC News
Monday, June 5, 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m
The World – Terrorism, Russia, China, Populism and Cyber with Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state (2005-2009) and Madeleine Albright (invited), secretary of state (1997-2001)
“As we enter the first year of this historic administration there is much that is unknown about what lies ahead,” reflected Institute chairman Leon E. Panetta. “Can we find a way to repeal or reform healthcare coverage in manner that improves patient care for all Americans? What will be the impact of new trade and immigration policies on our economy, employment and foreign relations? In the midst of continuing political gridlock, can our democracy function in a manner that protects the spirit of the founders and deals with the problems facing our nation? Finally, how will an “America First” policy impact on our role in the world and our historic alliances? I’ll pose these questions to a distinguished group of leaders and policy experts.”
Bobby Jindal was the first American of Indian-descent to run for president and is considered one of America’s boldest innovators in the healthcare and education sectors. In 1996, at twenty-four years of age, Governor Jindal was named head of Louisiana’s Department of Health and Hospitals. Two years later, he was appointed director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. In 2001, President George W. Bush selected him as assistant secretary for the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Governor Jindal first ran for public office in 2003. As a Republican candidate for governor of Louisiana, he led the open primary but lost the runoff. He was elected to Congress the following year and was re-elected in 2006 with almost 90 percent of the vote. In 2007, he launched a successful run for the gubernatorial position making him the youngest sitting governor in the nation. Governor Jindal won re-election handily in 2011. As governor, he worked to rebuild and diversify the state’s economy and financial footing in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and led the response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Among other reforms, he worked to implement a top-to-bottom overhaul and privatization of the state-run charity hospital and the state’s healthcare payer systems. In 2015, Governor Jindal announced his candidacy for president. Governor Jindal earned degrees in biology and public policy from Brown University. A Rhodes scholar, he also holds a Master of Letters degree in politics with an emphasis in health policy from Oxford.
Chris Jennings has a deep understanding of healthcare policy and is renowned for his communication skills and ability to work across Capitol Hill party lines. He has been involved in many of the nation’s political and policy debates involving healthcare in the past three decades. From 1983 to 1993, Mr. Jennings served in the United States Senate as chief health advisor for three senators and led major reform efforts in the areas of long-term care, prescription drug coverage/cost containment, and rural healthcare. From the mid-1990s to early 2001, Mr. Jennings served in the Clinton administration as senior healthcare adviser. In this capacity he was involved in the development, passage and implementation of bipartisan health reforms, such as the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the Prescription Drug User Fee Act of 1997 and major Medicare reforms in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Upon leaving the Clinton White House, he became a healthcare policy consultant, forming Jennings Policy Strategies in Washington, DC. In 2013, Mr. Jennings joined the Obama administration as deputy assistant to the president for health policy and coordinator of health reform, helping to implement the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Jennings has been a senior health policy advisor to six Democratic presidential campaigns. He also served as the healthcare policy advisor to the 2008 Democratic Platform Drafting Committee, as well as co-chair of the 2012 Obama campaign’s Health Care Advisory Committee. Mr. Jennings has a B.A. from Miami University of Ohio.
Carly Fiorina (invited) is one of the most high profile business leaders in the nation and was the first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company. Ms. Fiorina started out as a secretary for a small real estate business. In 1999, she was recruited by Hewlett-Packard where she would eventually become chairman and CEO. In that post, Ms. Fiorina led the reinvention of the legendary company, successfully steering it through the dot-com bust and saving jobs and fostering growth. In March 2008, Ms. Fiorina joined the Republican National Committee’s get-out-the-vote effort. She traveled the country speaking on behalf of Republican presidential nominee John McCain and his economic principles. That same year she joined Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to found the One Woman Initiative, which later merged with Opportunity International. To date the organization has created or sustained nearly sixteen million jobs by giving entrepreneurs the tools they need to thrive. In 2010, Ms. Fiorina challenged incumbent United States senator for California, Barbara Boxer. Called “The Most Powerful Woman in Business” by FORTUNE magazine, Ms. Fiorina chronicles her achievements and struggles in her best-selling memoir, Tough Choices. In 2015, she announced she would seek the Republican nomination for president of the United States. In this effort she captured national attention as a non-establishment candidate with private sector experience with a platform of citizen government. Ms. Fiorina received her undergraduate degree from Stanford, her MBA from the University of Maryland and her Masters of Science from MIT.
Robert Reich, former United States Secretary of Labor and a past member of President Barack Obama’s economic transition advisory board, has served under three national administrations and is one of the nation’s leading thinkers about the economy. Secretary Reich is the author of fifteen books and has a reputation for seeing where politics and the economy are going before they get there. His 2007 book, Supercapitalism, warned of the perils of an under-regulated and over-leveraged financial system. In his 2010 best seller, Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future, Secretary Reich predicted the slow recovery and its consequences. His 2012 book, Beyond Outrage, talks about “what has gone wrong with our economy and our democracy and how to fix it.” In his most recent book, also a national best seller, Saving Capitalism, he anticipated a widening political divide not between Democrats and Republicans but between establishment elites and anti-establishment populists in both parties. Secretary Reich is also the co-creator and host of the acclaimed 2013 documentary, Inequality for All, in which he explains the underlying forces shaping the economy and lays out pragmatic solutions for a broader prosperity. Secretary Reich is a past recipient of the prestigious Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent for his original contributions to economic thinking. In 2008, he was named by The Wall Street Journal as one of the nation’s top ten “thought” leaders. Secretary Reich received a B.A. from Dartmouth College, an M.S. from Oxford University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Donna Brazile has more than thirty years experience in politics and has worked on every presidential campaign from 1976 to 2000. Ms. Brazile worked for Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign in 1984. In 1988, she went on to serve as field director for Dick Gephardt’s presidential primary run before moving on to a job in Michael Dukakis’ general election campaign. From 1990 to 1993, she served as chief of staff and press secretary for United States Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton. In 1999, she was named campaign manager for the Gore-Lieberman presidential campaign, becoming the first African-American to manage a presidential campaign. Ms. Brazile is former vice chair for civic engagement and voter participation at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the former chair of the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute. She assumed the role of interim chair of the Democratic National Committee shortly before the start of the 2016 Democratic National Convention. The author of the bestselling memoir Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics, Ms. Brazile has appeared on CNN’s Inside Politics and Crossfire. She has been a regular contributor for ABC’s This Week, a columnist for Roll Call, and a contributing writer for Ms. Magazine. Among her many honors, in 2009, O, The Oprah Magazine, chose Ms. Brazile as one of its twenty “remarkable visionaries.” In addition, she was named among the “100 Most Powerful Women” by Washingtonian magazine, “Top 50 Women in America” by Essence magazine, and received the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s highest award for political achievement. In 2016, Ms. Brazile was awarded Wonk of the Year from the Kennedy Political Union at American University. Ms. Brazile earned her undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
David Gergen has been a trusted advisor to four presidents and to both political parties. A United States Navy veteran, Mr. Gergen’s political career began in the early 1970s, when he joined the Nixon administration first as an assistant speechwriter and later as chief speechwriter. He served in the Ford administration as director of communications and was later a member of the Reagan administration’s communications team where he was eventually named assistant to the president for communications. In 1993, Mr. Gergen agreed to serve as a counselor to President Clinton on both domestic and foreign affairs, eventually becoming a special international advisor to the president and to Secretary of State Warren Christopher. He wrote about those experiences in his 2001 New York Times best seller, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton. In the 1980s, Mr. Gergen began a career in journalism. Starting with The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour in 1984, he has been a regular commentator on public affairs for more than thirty years. He has twice been a member of election coverage teams that won Peabody awards, and he has contributed to two Emmy award-winning political analysis teams. Mr. Gergen is a professor of public service and co-director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. In addition, he serves as a senior political analyst for CNN. Mr. Gergen has a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Bill Kristol is political analyst for ABC News and editor of the influential Washington-based political magazine The Weekly Standard. He is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading political analysts and one of the most influential conservatives in Washington. From 1979 to 1983, Mr. Kristol worked in the department of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1983, he joined the faculty of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Mr. Kristol came to Washington in 1985 to join the Reagan administration first as chief of staff to Education Secretary William J. Bennett and then as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle. A savy political strategist, he chaired the Project for the Republican Future where he helped shape the 1994 Republican congressional victory. Mr. Kristol has also played a major role in the debate on American foreign policy since September 11th, and was the co-author of The New York Times best seller The War Over Iraq: Saddam’s Tyranny and America’s Mission. Mr. Kristol is a regular on ABC’s This Week and on ABC’s special events and election coverage, and also appears frequently on other leading political commentary programs including CNN’s Crossfire, MSNBC’s Morning Joe and FOX’s Special Report. Mr. Kristol is a recipient of the 2009 Bradley Prize, given in recognition of outstanding achievements that are consistent with The Bradley Foundation’s mission to strengthen American democratic capitalism and the institutions, principles and values that sustain and nurture the tradition of free representative government and enterprise. Mr. Kristol received both his A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Condoleezza Rice has unparalleled expertise on diplomacy and national security and is a pioneer in foreign policy and global affairs. From 1989 through March 1991, Secretary Rice served on President George H.W. Bush’s National Security Council staff. In that administration she held several positions including director; senior director of Soviet and East European Affairs; and, special assistant to the president for national security affairs. In 1986, while an international affairs fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, Secretary Rice also served as special assistant to the director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Secretary Rice first joined the administration of President George W. Bush in 2001 as assistant to the president for national security affairs (national security advisor). The first woman to hold the position, she served in that capacity until 2005 when she was confirmed as the sixty-sixth Secretary of State of the United States. Secretary Rice was the second woman and first African American woman to hold the post. As secretary of state and national security advisor, Secretary Rice pioneered a policy of transformational diplomacy and heralded the formation of new global governments based on democratic principles. Secretary Rice has proven to be a significant leader during a time of unprecedented and tumultuous world affairs, recognized for her courageous efforts to foster worldwide freedoms for all people. Secretary Rice has authored and co-authored numerous books, including two best sellers, Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family and No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington. She is also a contributor to CBS News. Secretary Rice earned her B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. all from the University of Denver.
Madeleine Albright (invited), America’s sixty-fourth Secretary of State, is a highly respected voice on foreign policy, diplomacy and defense policy. From 1993 to 1997, Secretary Albright served as the United States permanent representative to the United Nations and as a member of the President’s Cabinet. In 1997, she was named the first female Secretary of State and became, at that time, the highest ranking woman in the history of the United States government. Serving in the Clinton administration, Secretary Albright reinforced America’s alliances, advocated democracy and human rights and promoted American trade and business, labor and environmental standards abroad. Secretary Albright is the author of five New York Times best sellers: Madam Secretary; The Mighty and the Almighty; Memo to the President; and Read My Pins. In her most recent book, Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948, Secretary Albright recounts her own experiences and those of her family during this time. In 2009, Albright was asked by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to chair a group of experts focused on developing NATO’s New Strategic Concept. On May 29, 2012, President Obama awarded Secretary Albright the United States Medal of Freedom – the nation’s highest civilian honor. Presently, Secretary Albright chairs both the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and the Pew Global Attitudes Project. She also serves on the Defense Policy Board of the United States Department of Defense, a group tasked with providing the secretary of defense with independent, informed advice and opinion concerning matters of defense policy.
Each of the Leon Panetta Lecture Series programs will be broadcast live throughout California by Comcast, Comcast Hometown Network, the California Channel and other cable networks. C-SPAN periodically broadcasts these lectures nationally. The lectures are also available for viewing via live web-streaming at www.panettainstitute.org/lecture_series/lecture_webcast.htm, on the Leon Panetta Lecture Series YouTube channel, and are broadcast live on public radio.
For additional information on subscriptions or the lecture broadcast schedule, please call the Panetta Institute at 831-582-4200 or visit www.panettainstitute.org.
* All dates and speakers are subject to change.e.
