Past Speakers

Raymond Kelly

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Raymond Kelly

Former NYPD Commissioner

Raymond Walter Kelly was the longest serving Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the first person to hold the post for two non-consecutive tenures.

Kelly has spent 47 years in the NYPD, serving in 25 different commands and as Police Commissioner from 1992 to 1994 and 2002–2013. He was promoted directly from Two-Star Chief to First Deputy Commissioner in 1990. After his handling of the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, he was mentioned for the first time as a possible candidate for FBI Director. After Kelly turned down the position, Louis Freeh was appointed.

Kelly spoke at The Common Good in 2009: Lunch and Discussion with: NY Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Gwen Ifill ✝

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Gwen Ifill ✝

American journalist, television newscaster, author

Gwen Ifill was a moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and senior correspondent for PBS NewsHour. She was also the best-selling author of The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.

Before arriving at PBS in 1999, Ifill was chief congressional and political correspondent for NBC News, White House correspondent for The New York Times, and a local and national political reporter for The Washington Post. She also reported for the Baltimore Evening Sun and the Boston Herald American. Ifill reported on a wide range of issues from foreign affairs to U.S. politics and policies interviewing national and international news-makers.  She covered six Presidential campaigns and moderated two vice presidential debates—in 2004 the debate between Republican Dick Cheney and Democrat John Edwards and in 2008 the debate between Democratic Senator Joe Biden and Republican Governor Sarah Palin. Her work as a journalist has been honored by the Radio and Television News Directors Association, Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center, Ebony Magazine, and Boston’s Ford Hall Forum.

Ifill has received more than 20 honorary doctorates and served on the boards of the News Literacy Project, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and she is a fellow with the American Academy of Sciences.

Gwen Ifill passed away on November 14, 2016 at the age of 61.

Ifill spoke at The Common Good in 2009: The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.

Robert Kennedy Jr.

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Robert Kennedy Jr.

American radio host, activist, attorney

Robert Kennedy, Jr., is an American radio host, activist, and attorney specializing in environmental law. He is the nephew of John F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy. Kennedy co-hosts Ring of Fire, a nationally syndicated American radio program.

In 1998, Kennedy, Chris Bartle, and John Hoving created a bottled water company that donates all of its profits to Waterkeeper Alliance. They named their Manhattan-based company Tear of the Clouds LLC., after the lake of the same name. Their product is bottled under the name Keeper Springs.

Kennedy has written two books and several articles on environmental issues. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, The Nation, Outside magazine, and The Village Voice. Since May 2005, he’s been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.

The Common Good hosted Kennedy in 2008: Our Environmental Destinies.

Twitter: @RobertKennedyJr

Faye Wattleton

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Faye Wattleton

Activist

Faye Wattleton is the first African-American and youngest President ever elected to Planned Parenthood (1978–1992). Currently, she is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal and Heads the board governance advisory practice in New York. Prior to that, she served as the President of the Center for the Advancement of Women, and also served on the board of trustees at Columbia University. She is best known for her contributions to family planning and reproductive health, as well as the pro-choice movement.

In 1986, the American Humanist Association named her Humanist of the Year. In 1990, Wattleton, along with 15 other African American women and men, formed the African-American Women for Reproductive Freedom. She was a 1993 inductee into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

Wattleton was hosted by The Common Good in 2008: 2008 Democratic National Convention Panel.

Twitter: @FayeWattleton

Representative Harold Ford Jr.

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Representative Harold Ford Jr.

Former U.S. House Representative from Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District

Representative Harold Ford Jr. is an American politician and was the last chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). He was a Democratic Party member of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee’s 9th congressional district, centered in Memphis, from 1997 to 2007.  Ford did not seek re-election to his House seat in 2006 when he unsuccessfully sought the Senate seat vacated by retiring Bill Frist.

Between 2011 and 2017, Ford worked for Morgan Stanley as a managing director. He also regularly appeared on television on political-related programs, such as NBC's Meet the Press, MSNBC, CNN, and CNBC. He wrote the book, More Davids Than Goliaths: A Political Education, published in 2010.

Ford spoke at The Common Good as part of the 2008 Democratic National Convention Panel.

Twitter: @HFord2

Richard Wolffe

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Richard Wolffe

Journalist, political analyst

Richard Wolffe is an award-winning journalist and political analyst. He covered the entire length of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign for Newsweek magazine, traveling with the candidate and his inner circle from his announcement through election day, Wolffe is currently a columnist at The Guardian.

Wolffe began writing about American politics as a senior journalist at the Financial Times, serving as its deputy bureau chief and U.S. diplomatic correspondent in Washington D.C. In that capacity, he managed coverage of business and political affairs in the nation’s capital, and reported on U.S. foreign policy at the State Department and National Security Council. He first started reporting on George W. Bush and his Texas team in 1999, at the start of the presidential campaign. He traveled with then-Governor Bush for more than a year. Wolffe spent eight years with the Financial Times including four years in the United Kingdom. He joined Newsweek magazine in November 2002 as diplomatic correspondent, covering foreign policy and international affairs. In the 2004 presidential election, he covered the chaotic Howard Dean campaign before switching to John Kerry’s campaign.

His book about the Obama campaign, entitled Renegade: The Making of a President, was published by Crown in June 2009 and became an instant New York Times bestseller. On NBC, he has been featured as a political commentator on Meet The Press and TODAY.

Wolffe spoke at The Common Good as part of the 2008 Democratic National Convention Panel.

Twitter: @richardwolffedc

Governor Mark Warner

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Mark Warner

American politician

Mark Robert Warner is an American politician and businessman, currently serving as the junior United States Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Warner was the 69th governor of Virginia from 2002 to 2006 and is the honorary chairman of the Forward Together PAC. Warner delivered the keynote address before the nation at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Mark Warner’s experience as a congressional staffer and Democratic Party fundraiser in the 1980s prompted his involvement in telecommunications venture capital; he founded the firm Columbia Capital.

In 2006 he was widely expected to pursue the Democratic nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential elections; however, he announced in October 2006 that he would not run, citing a desire not to disrupt his family life. Warner was considered to be a potential vice presidential candidate, but upon receiving the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, he announced that he “will not accept any other opportunity.”

Warner was hosted by The Common Good in 2008: Meet & Greet: Governor Mark Warner.

Twitter: @MarkWarner

Paul Glastris

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Paul Glastris

Editor-in-chief of The Washington Monthly

Paul Glastris is the editor-in-chief of The Washington Monthly and a senior fellow at the Western Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

From September 1998 to January, 2001, he was a special assistant and senior speechwriter to President Bill Clinton. He co-wrote the President’s address to the Democratic convention in Los Angeles in August, 2000, and contributed to his 1999 and 2000 State of the Union addresses. Glastris created the President’s “DC Reads this Summer” program, which has put over 1000 federal employees as volunteer reading tutors in Washington, D.C. public schools.

Before joining the White House, Glastris spent ten years as a correspondent and editor at U.S. News & World Report. There, he conceived of and edited two end-of-the-year issues consisting of “solution-oriented” journalism in 1997 and 1998. As Bureau Chief in Berlin, Germany (1995/1996), he covered former Yugoslavia during the final months of the Bosnian War. Prior to that, he covered the Midwest from the magazine’s Chicago bureau during two presidential campaigns, the Mississippi floods of 1993, and the rise of the Michigan Militia. He produced profiles of Midwest mayors, governors and other personalities, from Jesse Jackson to then-Presidential candidate Bill Clinton.

Glastris moderated a talk on The Role of Religion in the 2008 Campaign at The Common Good with Jon Meacham, Amy Sullivan, and Steven Waldman, introduced by Richard Feigen.

Twitter: @glastris

Arianna Huffington

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Arianna Huffington

Author, businesswoman

Arianna Huffington is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, a nationally syndicated columnist, and the author of thirteen books. She is also co-host of Left, Right & Center, public radio’s popular political roundtable program, as well as Both Sides Now, a weekly syndicated radio show with Mary Matalin, moderated by Mark Green.

In May 2005, she launched The Huffington Post, a news and blog site that has quickly become one of the most widely-read, linked to, and frequently-cited media brands on the Internet. In 2006, she was named to the Time’s 100, Time Magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people. She serves on several boards that promote community solutions to social problems, including A Place Called Home, which works with at-risk children in South Central Los Angeles. She also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Archer School for Girls.

In 2011 AOL announced it would acquire The Huffington Post for $315 million. As part of the deal, Arianna Huffington became president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group.

The Common Good hosted Huffington in July of 2007: The Impact of the Internet.

Twitter: @ariannahuff

Ambassador Dan Gillerman

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Ambassador Dan Gillerman

Israel’s 13th Permanent Representative to the United Nations

Dan Gillerman was Israel’s 13th Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He was appointed in July 2002 and assumed his post on January 1, 2003, serving through 2008. On June 14, 2005, he was elected to the position of Vice-President of the 60th UN General Assembly. In this position, Gillerman played a central role during the initial negotiation stages of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.

Gillerman served as the CEO of several Israeli companies, Chairman of the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce, member of the board of the First International Bank of Israel and Director of Bank Leumi and the Bank of Israel. He also served on the Prime Minister’s National Economic and Social Council, the President’s Committee of the Coordinating Council of Israel’s Economic Organizations, as Chairman of the Israel-British Business Council, and as member of the executive board of the International Chamber of Commerce of the World Business Organization.

Gillerman has played a prominent role in helping steer Israel towards economic liberalization and a free market economy. He is actively engaged in the economic aspects of the peace process and has engaged Palestinian and other Arab leaders in an attempt to further economic cooperation within the region.

The Common Good hosted Mr. Gillerman in June of 2006: Middle East Policy with Ambassador Dan Gillerman.

Twitter: @DanGillerman