Katie McGinty

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Katie McGinty

American politician

Kathleen Alana McGinty is a retired American politician and former state and federal environmental policy official. She served as an environmental advisor to Vice President al Gore and President Bill Clinton. Later, she served as Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in the cabinet of Governor Ed Rendell.

McGinty was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania in 2014. After Democrat Tom Wolf won Pennsylvania's 2014 gubernatorial election, he appointed McGinty as his Chief of Staff. On August 4, 2015, she officially announced her candidacy for the United States Senate in 2016. McGinty won the Democratic nomination on April 26, 2016, but lost in a close election, with 47.34% of the vote, to incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Pat Toomey, who garnered 48.77% in the general election. McGinty now serves as the Senior Vice President of the Oceans Program for the Environmental Defense Fund.

Mrs. McGinty was hosted by The Common Good in March of 2016; Meet & Greet: Katie McGinty.

Twitter: @McGintyCampaign

David Miliband

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David Miliband

President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee

David Miliband is President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), where he oversees the agency’s humanitarian relief operations in more than 30 war-affected countries and its refugee resettlement and assistance programs in 25 United States cities.

Under Miliband’s leadership, the IRC has expanded its ability to rapidly respond to humanitarian cries and meet the needs of an unprecedented number of people uprooted by conflict, war and disaster. The organization is implementing an ambitious global strategy to bring clear outcomes, strong evidence and systematic research to the humanitarian programs through collaborative partnerships with the public and private sectors.

From 2007 to 2010, Miliband was the 74th Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom, driving advancements in human rights and representing the U.K. throughout the world. In 2006, as Secretary of State for the Environment, he pioneered the world’s first legally binding emissions reduction requirements. He was Member of Parliament for South Shields from 2001 to 2013.

Miliband spoke at a Meet & Greet at The Common Good in 2016.

Twitter: @DMiliband

Norton Garfinkle

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Norton Garfinkle

Economist, businessman

Norton Garfinkle is chairman of Princeton Scientific Capital Management, a financial investment company. He is also chairman of Princeton SciTech, an investment company that specializes in building new internet based technology companies.

Garfinkle was the founder of Brand Rating Research Corporation, a public opinion research company that provided a syndicated service to many consumer product companies including Proctor & Gamble, Bristol Myers and Colgate, television networks, national magazines and newspapers. The company also created RADAR, the first national radio ratings service.

Garfinkle served as chairman of Electronic Retailing Systems International which provided technology solutions to supermarket chains including the widely used self checkout supermarket systems. The company was sold to IBM in 2003. He founded Advanced Retail Marketing Corporation, an in-store marketing company, which was sold to News Corporation in 1996.

Mr. Garfinkle was hosted by The Common Good in January of 2016: Creating a Great Economy: Lincoln’s Surprising Relevance Today.

Melanne Verveer

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Melanne Verveer

U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues

Ambassador Verveer is the Executive Director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. She also serves as the Special Representative on Gender Issues for the OSCE Chairmanship.

Amb. Verveer previously served as the first U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues, a position to which she was nominated by President Obama in 2009. She coordinated foreign policy issues and activities relating to the political, economic and social advancement of women, traveling to nearly sixty countries. She worked to ensure that women’s participation and rights are fully integrated into U.S. foreign policy, and she played a leadership role in the Administration’s development of the U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. President Obama also appointed her to serve as the U.S. Representative to the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

From 2000-2008, she was the Chair and Co-CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international NGO that she co-founded to invest in emerging women leaders. During the Clinton administration, she served as Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the First Lady. She also led the effort to establish the President’s Inter-Agency Council on Women, and was instrumental in the adoption of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. She is the co-author of Fast Forward: How Women Can Achieve Power and Purpose.

She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission, and she serves on the Boards of the National Endowment for Democracy, the Atlantic Council, as well as the World Bank Advisory Council on Gender and Development. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Secretary of State’s Award for Distinguished Service. In 2008, the President of Ukraine awarded her the Order of Princess Olga.

The Common Good hosted Melanne Verveer in Decemeber of 2015: Empowering Half the World.

Twitter: @MelanneVerveer

Jason Kander

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Jason Kander

Former Missouri Secretary of State

Jason David Kander is an American attorney, author, veteran, and politician. He served as the 39th Secretary of State of Missouri, from 2013 to 2017. He had previously served as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives from 2009 to 2013. Before entering politics, he was an intelligence officer in the Army National Guard, achieving the rank of captain.

He was the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate for Missouri in 2016, narrowly losing the election to Republican incumbent Roy Blunt. After the election, Kander founded an organization called Let America Vote, a campaign dedicated to ending voter suppression. He declared himself a candidate in the 2019 Kansas City mayoral election, but dropped out on October 2, 2018, after revealing that he suffered from PTSD and depression.

The Common Good hosted Kander in November of 2015: Meet & Greet: Jason Kander.

Twitter: @JasonKander

Paul Beirne

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Paul Beirne

National Managing Director with AllianceBernstein

Paul Beirne is a National Managing Director with AllianceBernstein, a global investment management firm based in New York that manages over $500 billion for individuals, families, pension plans, unions, foundations, public funds and other entities.

Beirne has been active on several charitable boards including the Municipal Art Society, World Monuments Fund, Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, PS 1 for Contempory Art (MOMA), God’s Love We Deliver, Santa Clara University and the Alliance for the Arts (Chairman 2000-2005). .

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

Mark Mellman

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Mark Mellman

Political strategist

Mark Mellman is one of the nation’s leading public opinion researchers and communication strategists. He is President of the American Association of Political Consultants and CEO of The Mellman Group, a polling and consulting firm whose clients include leading political figures, Fortune 500 companies, and some of the nation’s most important public interest groups. Mellman, who counts among his clients Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and House Whip Steny Hoyer, has helped guide the campaigns of twenty-nine U.S. Senators, ten Governors, over two dozen Members of Congress, and numerous state and local officials.

Internationally, Mellman was chief strategist and pollster for Yair Lapid’s stunning rise from zero seats in the Israeli parliament to the country’s second largest party in just one year. Earlier he helped Cesar Gavira become President of Colombia and Luli Basha defeat the international Mayor of the Year in Albania. He has been honored twice for running the Best Campaign outside the U.S. The New York Times’ Nate Silver cited The Mellman Group as the most accurate campaign pollster in the country. As a consultant to the Democratic Leadership, Mellman plays a central role in developing strategies on a variety of issues.

He served as a consultant to CBS News and as a presidential debate analyst for PBS and The Wall Street Journal. Mellman’s op-eds have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal among others, and he writes an influential weekly column for The Hill.

The Common Good hosted Mr. Mellman in October of 2015: “The Campaign 2016: What the Numbers Reveal”.

Twitter: @MarkMellman

Ari Berman

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Ari Berman

Writer

Ari Berman is a former senior contributing writer for The Nation magazine and a Fellow at The Nation Institute. His book, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America, was published in August 2015 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. He has written extensively about American politics, civil rights, and the intersection of money and politics. His stories have also appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and The Guardian, and he is a frequent guest and commentator on MSNBC and NPR. His first book, Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics, was published in 2010 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Berman was hosted by The Common Good in 2015: “Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America” - October 7, 2015.

Twitter: @AriBerman

Davis Guggenheim

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Davis Guggenheim

Film director

Philip Davis Guggenheim is an American film and television director and producer. His credits include NYPD Blue, ER, 24, Alias, The Shield, Deadwood, and the documentaries An Inconvenient Truth, The Road We've Traveled, Waiting for 'Superman' and He Named Me Malala. (1)

Guggenheim was hosted by The Common Good in 2015 for a Special Screening of "He Named Me Malala" - September 23, 2015.

(1) Material from Wikipedia.

George Mitchell

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The Honorable George Mitchell

Former Senator for Maine, politician, businessman

George Mitchell is an American politician and businessman. Mitchell was appointed to the United States Senate in 1980 to complete the unexpired term of Senator Edmund S. Muskie who had resigned to become Secretary of State. Mitchell was elected to a full term in the Senate in 1982. In 1986, he chaired the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, and was instrumental in his party regaining a majority in the Senate. Mitchell himself was reelected in 1988 with 81 percent of the vote, the largest margin in the history of the state of Maine. At the opening of the next session, he was elected Senate Majority Leader, the second most powerful elected official in the United States, a position he held for the next six years. For six consecutive years he was voted “the most respected member” of the Senate by a bipartisan group of senior congressional aides. In 1994, George Mitchell declined an appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States in order to remain in the Senate and pursue the struggle for universal national health care. 

Since retiring from the Senate, Mitchell has taken up a variety of positions in politics and business. He has taken a leading role in negotiations for peace in Northern Ireland and the Middle East, being specifically appointed United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland (1995-2001) by President Clinton and as United States Special Envoy for Middle East Peace (2009-2011) by President Obama. He was a primary architect of the 1996 Mitchell Principles and the 1998 Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, and was the main investigator in two “Mitchell Reports”, one on the Arab–Israeli conflict (2001) and one on the use of performance enhancing drugs in baseball (2007).

Mitchell served as chairman of The Walt Disney Company from March 2004 until January 2007, and later as chairman of the international law firm DLA Piper. Mitchell currently serves as a co-chair of the Housing Commission at the Bipartisan Policy Center. In addition to the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Senator Mitchell has received awards and honors including the Philadelphia Liberty Medal, the Truman Institute Peace Prize, the German Peace Prize and the United Nations (UNESCO) Peace Prize.

Mitchel was hosted by The Common Good in 2015 for a Meet & Greet.

Philipp Mißfelder ✝

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philipp Missfelder ✝

German politician

Philipp Mißfelder was a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and had been called an up-and-comer in European and international politics. He served as the leader of the largest German youth organization, the Junge Union (JU), of which he had been a member since 1993.

Mißfelder was elected to the Bundestag in 2005 and re-elected in 2009. He served as a center-right member of the Executive Board of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) and the foreign policy representative for the largest group of Ministers. Mißfelder focused on policy issues including health care, social security and fiscal responsibility, the economy and the environment, the Middle East, European security and the expansion of the German military as well as its foreign affairs.

Mißfelder died unexpectedly on 13 July 2015 of a pulmonary embolism. The Philipp-Mißfelder Forest in the Negev desert, Israel, was named in his honor.

Mißfelder was hosted by The Common Good in 2011 for a Meet & Greet.

Dick Cavett

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Dick Cavett

Author and Host of “The Dick Cavett Show”

The host of The Dick Cavett Show (which aired on ABC from 1968 to 1975 and on public television from 1977 to 1982), Dick Cavett is the author of Brief Encounters: Conversations, Magic Moments and Assorted Hijinks (2014). He is also the co-author of Cavett (1974) and Eye on Cavett (1983) and author of Talk Show: Confrontations, Pointed Commentary, and Off-Screen Secrets (2011).

Dick Cavett was born in Gibbon, Nebraska in 1936. Growing up in Lincoln, Nebraska, Cavett won local fame as a teenage magician. In 1954, he earned a scholarship to Yale University where he majored in English and drama. At Yale he appeared in numerous radio and stage productions- while spending his summers working at the Oregon and Stratford, (Connecticut), Shakespeare Festivals.

In 1968 ABC signed Cavett as the host of a morning talk show, which eventually lead ABC to give Cavett his own late night program opposite The Tonight Show. The Dick Cavett Show ran on ABC until 1975. From 1977 until 1982, The Dick Cavett Show appeared five times a week on Public Television. In 1986, he hosted the first two seasons of Faces of Japan, a thirteen part series for PBS. The Dick Cavett Show was aired for six seasons on CNBC. 

He made his Broadway debut in 1977 playing the leading role in Otherwise Engaged, a British comedy by Simon Gray. During the summer of 1988, Dick Cavett returned to Broadway in the role of the narrator in Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. From October 2000 through January of 2002 Cavett appeared as the narrator in the Broadway production of The Rocky Horror Show. He has made guest appearances on television programs as Cheers, The Edge of Night, and The Simpsons, as well as in Beetlejuice and Forest Gump.

Cavett spoke at The Common Good alongside Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville, with moderator Alex Witt, in 2015: Screening and Discussion on "Best of Enemies" - July 13, 2015.

Twitter: @TheDickCavett

Robert Gordon

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Robert Gordon

Author, producer, director

Robert Gordon is the author of Can’t Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters. He produced and directed “Best of Enemies” with filmmaker Morgan Neville, a documentary based on the televised debates of William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal.

Gordon is the writer and Associate Producer of “The Road To Memphis”, an episode in Martin Scorsese’s 7-part series The Blues. His other filmmaking credits include the 1990 documentary “All Day and All Night”, featuring B. B. King and Rufus Thomas, and music videos that have aired on MTV, BET, and CMT. Gordon is also the author of It Came From Memphis, a book about Memphis music and culture. He produced the book’s two companion CD’s. His other two books are Elvis: The King on the Road (St. Martin’s), and The Elvis Treasures (Random House). Among his awards is a Grammy nomination for his liner notes to the Al Green box set, Anthology, which he produced.

Gordon spoke at a Screening and Discussion on "Best of Enemies" alongside Morgan Neville and Dick Cavett, moderated by Alex Witt, at The Common Good in 2015.

Morgan Neville

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Morgan Neville

Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker

Morgan Neville is an American film producer, director and writer. Neville’s directorial debut was the documentary “Shotgun Freeway: Drives thru Lost L.A.” (1995), and he went on to produce documentaries on various musicians. He has been nominated for three Grammys, for his films “Muddy Waters: Can’t Be Satisfied”, “Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story”, and “Johnny Cash’s America”. He also directed the award-winning film, “The Cool School”, and his acclaimed film “Twenty Feet from Stardom” won him the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2014 as well as a Grammy Award for Best Music Film. Neville is also know for his film “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

He runs the Academy-Award winning documentary company Tremolo Productions, which focuses on culture, including music, art and politics.

Neville spoke at a Screening and Discussion on "Best of Enemies" alongside Robert Gordon and Dick Cavett, moderated by Alex Witt, at The Common Good in 2015.

Twitter: @TremoloDocs


Robert Zimmerman

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Robert Zimmerman

Zimmerman/Edelson Inc.

Co-founder and partner of Zimmerman/Edelson, Inc., Robert Zimmerman has extensive experience in national and international media relations, branding communications and crisis management. Robert oversees all of the agency’s public relations, crisis management and branding communications activities, while personally leading account teams servicing some of the agency’s largest clients.

Most recently, Robert was appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo to the New York State SAGE Commission, charged with the most extensive restructuring of state government since the 1920’s. He served as member of the Board of the American Museum of Natural History representing Speaker of the New York City Council Christine Quinn, and was recently appointed to the Board of Directors of the Center for an Urban Future located in New York City. In 1995, Robert was appointed by President Clinton to serve on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Presidential Commission on the Arts. He held that position through June of 2001. A Democratic National Committeeman from New York, Robert appears regularly on CNN, Fox News Channel, Fox Business News, and MSNBC discussing a wide range of public policy issues. In 2013, he was the recipient of the lifetime achievement award by the Public Relations Professionals of Long Island.

Zimmerman participated in The Common Good Forum 2015 on May 14th, 2015, on the “Lead Up to 2016 and Beyond: US Politics Now” panel alongside Jim McLaughlin and Margaret Hoover, moderated by Dana Bash.

Richard E. Farley

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Richard E. Farley

Writer

Richard E. Farley is a partner in the leveraged finance group of the law firm of Paul Hastings. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and many other publications. He is the 2012 recipient of Bloomberg BNA’s Burton Award for Legal Achievement for best law firm writers. (1)

Farley co-hosted Rethinking the Afghanistan War with Erik Prince - October 3, 2017, Citizen Action Sweeping the Country: INDIVISIBLE, and a discussion on Hurricanes, Climate, and Responsible Energy Policies for the Future in 2017 at The Common Good. He also presented the American Spirit Award for Public Service to Judge Jed Rakoff at The Common Good’s American Spirit Awards 2015.

Twitter: @REFarley

(1) Material from Amazon’s author description.

Jim McLaughlin

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Jim McLaughlin

Public opinion expert, strategic consultant, political strategist.

Jim McLaughlin is a nationally recognized public opinion expert, strategic consultant and political strategist. He has worked for over 60 members of Congress, 12 U.S. Senators, 10 Governors, numerous Mayors and scores of other elected officials. He also serves as a consultant and research strategist to Fortune 500 companies and has worked on several presidential campaigns.

McLaughlin was one of only two Republican pollsters named as a part of Roll Callnewspapers’ Fabulous Fifty for his work and was also profiled as a “Mover and Shaker” by Campaigns and Elections Magazine. He is sought after as a commentator on national television and radio programs and has appeared on CBS News, NBC News, Fox News Channel, Fox Morning News, CNN and C-SPAN. He also is frequently quoted in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Times, The New York Post, The Weekly Standard, Politico, and National Review.

McLaughlin participated at The Common Good Forum 2015 on May 14th, 2015 and spoke on the Midterm Elections Panel alongside Patrick Caddell, Carol E. Lee, Steve Kornacki, Jim McLaughlin, and Jefrey Pollock, moderated by John Harwood, at The Common Good in 2014.

Twitter: @JMcLaughlinSTK

J.R. Martinez

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J.R. Martinez

Actor

J.R. Martinez is a burn survivor Army veteran, a New York Times best-selling author, and a keynote speaker at events all over the world. He stars in the television series All My Children. (1)

Martinez joined the U.S. Army in 2002. On April 5, 2003, the Humvee that he was driving hit a roadside bomb. In the years following the accident, Martinez had over 34 different surgeries including multiple skin grafts and cosmetic surgeries. During his recovery, he found solace in helping other wounded survivors. Since then, he has traveled the world as a motivational speaker. His book, Full of Heart: My Story of Survival, Strength and Spirit, was released in 2012 and quickly reached the New York Times Bestsellers list. (1)

Martinez awarded Bob Woodruff the American Spirit Award for Citizen Activism at The Common Good’s American Spirit Awards 2015.

Twitter: @iamjrmartinez

(1) Material from J.R. Martinez’s website.

Dr. Naomi Wolf

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dr. Naomi Wolf

Author

Naomi R. Wolf is an American liberal progressive feminist author, journalist, and former political advisor to Al Gore and Bill Clinton. (1)

Dr. Wolf first came to prominence in 1991 as the author of The Beauty Myth. She has since written other books, including the bestseller The End of America and Vagina: A New Biography. Her journalism career began in 1995 and has included topics such as abortion, the Occupy Wall Street movement, Edward Snowden and ISIS. She has written for media outlets such as The Nation, The New Republic, The Guardian and The Huffington Post. (1)

Dr. Wolf presented the American Spirit Award for Citizen Activism to Andrea Pino and Annie Clark at The Common Good’s American Spirit Awards 2015.

Twitter: @naomirwolf

(1) Material from Wikipedia.

Kenneth Rogoff

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Kenneth Rogoff

Economist, academic

Kenneth Rogoff is an economist at the International Monetary Fund. His widely-cited 2009 book with Carmen Reinhart, This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, shows the remarkable quantitative similarities across time and countries in the run-up and aftermath of severe financial crises. Rogoff is also known for his seminal work on exchange rates and central bank independence. Together with Maurice Obstfeld, he is co-author of Foundations of International Macroeconomics, a treatise that has also become a widely-used graduate text in the field worldwide. Rogoff’s 2016 book The Curse of Cash looks at the past, present and future of currency from standardized coinage to crypto-currencies. His monthly syndicated column on global economic issues is published in over 50 countries.

Rogoff is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Group of Thirty. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Rogoff is among the top ten on RePEc’s ranking of economists by scholarly citations. He is also an international Grandmaster of chess.

The Common Good hosted Rogoff in May of 2015: The Common Good Forum 2015.

Twitter: @krogoff