Jamie Margolin

gh.jpg

Jamie Margolin

Climate activist

Jamie Margolin is a Colombian-American writer, community organizer, activist, and public speaker living in Seattle, Washington. Margolin is the founder of Zero Hour, an international youth climate justice movement. Zero Hour led the very first Youth Climate March in Washington DC and 25 other cities all around the world during the summer of 2018. Margolin’s writing has appeared on CNN, Refinery29, The Seattle Times, TeenInk, Writer’s Digest, The Guardian, and Huffington Post. Youth To Power, her debut book, is the ultimate guide to being a young activist and will hit bookstores worldwide in 2020. (1)

Margolin attended The Common Good Forum and American Spirit Awards, May 1oth, 2019, and received the Changemaker Scholarship.

Twitter: @Jamie_Margolin

(1) Material from The International Congress of Youth Voices website.

Rick Tyler

op.jpg

Rick Tyler

Political analyst

Rick Tyler is a conservative Political Analyst for the MSNBC Cable News Network. His firm, Foundry Strategies, specializes in helping political and corporate clients reach their leadership potential by honing their communications skills. Tyler served as spokesperson for Newt Gingrich and presidential candidate Ted Cruz.

As former lead trainer for GOPAC and current international and media trainer for the Leadership Institute, Tyler has prepared hundreds of candidates for the rigors of campaigning for public office. Rick has trained candidates in the United States and in countries around the world including Canada, Italy, Greece, Japan and Israel to lead successful campaigns for elected office.

Tyler has been invited to speak about his political and policy insights by many Conservative, non-partisan and professional associations, and state legislative caucuses. He has been a guest lecturer at the Institute for Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, the Robert J. Dole Institute for Politics at the University of Kansas and is currently a guest lecturer at the Global Center for Political Engagement at The George Washington University. He been heard on numerous national radio shows and has appeared hundreds of times on national television programs including NBC News; ABC News; CBS News; PBS; MSNBC; CNBC; the Fox News Channel; Fox Business Channel; CNN; HBO; CBN; Bloomberg News; BBC; CBC; RTE and Al Jazeera.

Tyler participated at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards on May 10th, 2019. He spoke on “The Road to 2020: Leaders & Ideas” panel alongside former Senator Claire McCaskill, former Congressman Steve Israel, Matt Bennett, and Margaret Hoover moderated by Errol Louis.

Twitter: @rickwtyler

Preet Bharara

preet-bharara_09-19-18_20_5ba25b096d4ae.jpg

Preet Bharara

American lawyer, former United States Attorney

Preet Bharara served as a US Attorney for the Southern District of New York between 2009 and 2017, and led investigations into corruption and insider trading, earning him a “hardliner” reputation. His notable cases include the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme, the investigation into Galleon Group, and imposed the largest criminal penalty against a car company. He also gained notoriety in putting away Osama Bin Laden’s son-in-law and Faisal Shahzad, the attempted Times Square bomber. In 2011, he was awarded Columbia Law School’s Lawrence A. Wien Prize for Social Responsibility. Bharara was dismissed in March 2017 in light of the election of Donald Trump. 

Bharara serves as a CNN Senior Legal Analyst, as well as the host of a podcast called “Stay Tuned with Preet” about the justice system. He is the author of Doing Justice: A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law, and is a Distinguished Scholar in Residence and Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University.

Bharara spoke on the panel “Rule of Law, Corruption, and Abuse of Power” alongside Bill Browder, moderated by John Avlon, and was presented with the American Spirit Award for Distinguished Public Service at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019.

Twitter: @PreetBharara

Claire McCaskill

gg.jpg

The Honorable Claire McCaskill

Former Senator of Missouri, political analyst

Claire McCaskill is an American Democratic politician who represented Missouri in the Senate from 2007 to 2019. She was the first woman to be elected senator for that state. She was previously the Auditor of Missouri from 1999 to 2007, and she joined MSNBC as a political analyst after her tenure in the Senate.

One of McCaskill’s first major bills to be passed in the Senate established a modern day Truman Committee called the Wartime Contracting Commission, charged with investigating wasteful, fraudulent and abusive contracts in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. McCaskill sat on many Senate Committees, including Armed Services, Commerce, HSGAC and Aging. In 2009, McCaskill was named chairman of a new subcommittee that investigates contracting abuses throughout the federal government. The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight strives to root out government waste by focusing on contracts and the means by which the federal government provides accountability to those contracts.

McCaskill participated at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards on May 10th, 2019. She spoke on “The Road to 2020: Leaders & Ideas” panel alongside former Congressman Steve Israel, Matt Bennett, Margaret Hoover and Rick Tyler, moderated by Errol Louis. She was previously hosted by The Common Good as part of the TCG Leadership Series on November 14th, 2014.

Twitter: @clairecmc

Michael Waldman

Michael-Waldman_4958_Guest-640x360.jpg

Michael waldman

Constitutional lawyer, writer, President of the Brennan Center for Justice

Michael Waldman is President of the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law. He is a constitutional lawyer and writer, and is an expert on the presidency and American democracy. The Brennan Center is a leading national voice on voting rights, money in politics, criminal justice reform and constitutional law. Waldman has led the Center since 2005.

Waldman was Director of Speechwriting for President Bill Clinton from 1995-99, serving as Assistant to the President. He was responsible for writing or editing nearly 2,000 speeches, including four State of the Union and two Inaugural Addresses. He was Special Assistant to the President for Policy Coordination from 1993-95.

His books include The Fight to Vote (2016), The Second Amendment: A Biography (2014). My Fellow Americans: The Most Important Speeches of America’s Presidents from George Washington to Barack Obama (2003, 2010); A Return to Common Sense (2007); POTUS Speaks (2000); and Who Robbed America? A Citizens' Guide to the S&L Scandal (1990).

He appearances on television and radio include Good Morning America; The Colbert Report; Morning Joe; PBS Newshour, CBS Evening News; Meet the Press Daily; All In with Chris Hayes; the O'Reilly Factor; Nightline; 60 Minutes; Tavis Smiley; Hardball with Chris Matthews; The Rachel Maddow Show; NPR’s Morning Edition; All Things Considered; Fresh Air; and Diane Rehm. He writes for publications including The New York Times, Politico, The Washington Post, Daily Beast, Slate, Democracy, Reuters.com and Bloomberg.com.  

On May 26 2021, Michael Waldman participated in Voting Rights and American Democracy with Michael Waldman.

Twitter: @mawaldman

Tom Brokaw

19028-tom-brokaw-mtp-cs-128p_eb41dba67b4b27bea083703ce983a3a6.fit-760w.jpg

Tom Brokaw

American television journalist, author

Tom Brokaw served as Managing Editor and Anchor of NBC Nightly News from 1983 to 2004. Mr. Brokaw remained at NBC, where he continued to report and provide expertise as well as produce documentaries. He has covered every presidential election since 1968 and was NBC’s White House correspondent during Watergate. He began his journalism career in 1962 at KMTV in Omaha, Nebraska. He anchored the late evening news on Atlanta’s WSB-TV in 1965 before being hired by NBC News in 1966. Mr. Brokaw currently serves as Vice Chair of the Robin Hood Foundation and as Director of the Council on Foreign Relations, Inc.

Brokaw spoke on the panel “Journalism and Democracy” alongside Lesley Stahl and Sir Harry Evans at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019.

Twitter: @tombrokaw

Stephanie Ruhle

zZPnSnd0.jpg

Stephanie Ruhle

Correspondent

Stephanie Ruhle anchors MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle at 9 a.m. ET and MSNBC Live with Velshi & Ruhle at 1 p.m. ET on weekdays. Ruhle also appears across all NBC News and MSNBC platforms, including NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, TODAY, and NBCNews.com. Since joining MSNBC, Ruhle has interviewed numerous high-profile newsmakers and influential politicians.

 Previously, Ruhle served as anchor and managing editor for Bloomberg Television and editor-at-large for Bloomberg News, where she co-hosted Bloomberg , Bloomberg TV’s flagship morning show featuring global thought leaders across business, tech and media.

In 2015, Ruhle produced and hosted the documentary Haiti: Open For Business?, which sheds light on the country five years after it was hit by a devastating earthquake and explores its viability as the next emerging market. Ruhle also participated in a short-form documentary, Sharkland: A Mission Blue & Fusion Expedition, which brings attention to the plight of sharks and the urgent needs to conserve our oceans.

Ruhle plays an active role in women’s leadership development, having founded the Corporate Investment Bank Women’s Network and co-chaired Women on Wall Street. Ruhle is a member of the board of trustees for Girls Inc. NYC and in 2016 was honored as one of their Women of the Year. Ruhle currently sits on the board and advises for React To Film, an issue-based documentary film series, and formerly served on the corporate councils of iMentor and The White House Project.

Ruhle was hosted by The Common Good in 2019: Screening and Discussion of The Panama Papers. She also spoke alongside Alan Schwartz in “Growing a Fair Economy” at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019 on May 10th, 2019.

Twitter: @SRuhle

Sir Harold Evans

Sir+Harry+Evans.jpg

Sir Harold Evans

Editor, award-winning journalist

Sir Harold Evans was the editor of The Sunday Times and The Times (and earlier of The Northern Echo and assistant editor of The Manchester Evening News) and has written a number of best selling books. During his 14-year career with The Sunday Times, Evans helped bring public attention to many stories and scandals that were officially denied or ignored, including: the British Thalidomide children who were never compensated for severe birth defects; the exposure of Kim Philby as a Soviet spy; and the publication of the diaries of former Labour Minister Richard Crossman. In 1984 he moved to the United States, where he had leading positions in journalism with U.S. News & World Report, The Atlantic Monthly, and the New York Daily News, and founded Condé Nast Traveler in 1986. He holds the British Press Awards’ Gold Award for Lifetime Achievement of Journalists. In 2001, British journalists voted him the all-time greatest British newspaper editor. and he was knighted in 2004. In 2011, Evans was appointed editor-at-large of Reuters news agency.

Evans was presented with the American Spirit Award for Courage in Journalism at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019, followed by a panel discussion titled “Journalism and Democracy” alongside Tom Brokaw and Lesley Stahl.

Twitter: @sirharryevans

Matt Bennett

MattBennett-website-full.jpg

Matt Bennett

Third Way political activist

Matt Bennett is a Third Way political activist whose pursuit of center-left politics has taken him from the campaign trail to the White House, and from the pages of the New York Times to appearances on Meet the Press and 60 Minutes.

He worked on both of the presidential campaigns of Bill Clinton and served as Deputy Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs in the Clinton White House, where he was the principal White House liaison to governors and covered issues ranging from disaster response to Medicaid to immigration. Prior to that, Matt traveled with Vice President Al Gore on his White House staff. He was Director of Communications for Wesley Clark's presidential campaign in 2004, and from 2001-2004 he was Director of Public Affairs for Americans for Gun Safety.

In 2005, Matt joined his three fellow co-founders in establishing Third Way, believing that there is a tremendous need for fresh thinking and moderate ideas in a time of extreme political immoderation. He considers helping to extend marriage equality to gays and lesbians one of Third Way's proudest achievements so far.

Bennett participated at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards on May 10th, 2019. He spoke on “The Road to 2020: Leaders & Ideas” panel alongside former Senator Claire McCaskill, former Congressman Steve Israel, Margaret Hoover and Rick Tyler, moderated by Errol Louis.

Twitter: @ThirdWayMattB

Alessandra Stanley

sd.jpg

Alessandra Stanley

Journalist, editor

Alessandra Stanley is the co-editor of Air Mail, a digital weekly publication created by Graydon Carter. Previously, Alessandra was a foreign correspondent and television critic at The New York Times. In 1993, she received the Matrix Award from Women in Communications, and in 1998, she received the Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting.

Stanley participated in The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019 on May 10, 2019. She spoke on the “Women & Power” panel alongside former Congresswoman Mia Love, Sally Quinn, and Kay Koplovitz, moderated by Juju Chang.

Cohen Curtis

3670980.jpg

Cohen Curtis

Advocate for criminal justice reform

Ellis Cohen Curtis was incarcerated for 25 years for involvement in the murder of Richard Harper. Having grown up in Sacramento with exposure to violence and crime from a young age, Curtis became embroiled in gangs as a young teenager. He was sentenced to life without parole as a juvenile - aged 17. Initially resentful, he found a path to reform while incarcerated. The Human Rights Watch took up his case and ultimately helped him to be released on parole.

Today, Curtis speaks out in favor of criminal justice reform and draws from his own personal experiences to evaluate the ways the system needs to change, and how we can prevent cases from his like occurring - both to prevent young individuals from joining gangs, and to allow them a chance to change. Curtis designs programs and processes for through networking in the south Los Angeles area to create dynamic resources for returning citizens.

Curtis detailed his experiences at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019 on May 10, 2019, on the “Renewing Democracy” panel with Nicole Austin-Hillery, Max Boot, and Michael Waldman, moderated by Ari Melber.

Honorable Mia Love

Mia+Love.jpg

the Honorable Mia Love

Former U.S. House Representative for the 4th Congressional District of Utah

Ludmya "Mia" Love served as House Representative for the 4th congressional district of Utah from 2015 to early 2019. Prior to her election as House Representative, she was the Mayor of Saratoga Springs from 2010 to 2014. She graduated college with a degree in musical theater but became a community spokesperson due to her desire to make a change in the neighborhood she lived in. Love went on to continue her political career by winning a seat in the Saratoga Springs council and then went on to become mayor. She is the first black female Republican elected to Congress, and is currently a contributor at CNN.

Love participated in The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019 on May 10, 2019. She spoke on the “Women & Power” panel alongside former Alessandra Stanley, Sally Quinn, and Kay Koplovitz, moderated by Juju Chang.

Twitter: @MiaBLove

Errol Louis

ny1_1920x1080_38of100jpg.jpg

Errol Louis

Broadcast journalist, television show host

Errol Louis is the Political Anchor of Spectrum News NY1, where he hosts Inside City Hall, a nightly primetime show about New York City politics. As part of the show, he interviews top political and cultural leaders, including an exclusive weekly one-on-one conversation with Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Louis has also conducted interviews with ex-mayors David Dinkins, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg; Gov. Andrew Cuomo and ex-governors George Pataki, Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson; dozens of city, state and federal officials, and presidential candidates including John Kasich, Jill Stein, Gary Johnson, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Louis has moderated more than two dozen debates between candidates for mayor, public advocate, city and state comptroller, state Attorney General and U.S. Senate. In addition to political leaders, Louis has interviewed iconic cultural figures including filmmaker Ken Burns and activist Gloria Steinem.

Louis was recently ranked #40 on the list of the 100 most powerful people in New York City politics. He is an adjunct professor of Urban Reporting at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, where he has taught political and investigative reporting to more than 100 graduate students.

Louis participated at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards on May 10th, 2019. He moderated the “The Road to 2020: Leaders & Ideas” panel featuring former Senator Claire McCaskill, former Congressman Steve Israel, Matt Bennett, Margaret Hoover and Rick Tyler.

Twitter: @errollouis

Margaret Hoover

hrz_margarethoover44757v2.jpg

Margaret Hoover

Political commentator, political strategist, media personality, author

Margaret Hoover is the host of PBS’ Firing Line with Margaret Hoover a revival of the television series hosted by William F. Buckley Jr. for 33 years. A CNN political commentator, Hoover has served in The White House under President George W. Bush, in the Department of Homeland Security, on Capitol Hill and in two presidential campaigns. She is the President of American Unity Fund, a political organization focused on achieving full freedom and equality for LGBT Americans, as well as the bestselling author of American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party in 2011. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News, The Daily Beast, CNN and FoxNews. Hoover serves on the boards of Stanford University's Hoover Institution, the Hoover Presidential Foundation, and the Belgian American Educational Foundation.

Hoover participated at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019, on May 10th, 2019. She spoke on “The Road to 2020: Leaders & Ideas” panel alongside former Senator Claire McCaskill, former Congressman Steve Israel, Matt Bennett and Rick Tyler, moderated by Errol Louis. She also participated at The Common Good Forum 2015, on the “Lead Up to 2016 and Beyond: US Politics Now” panel alongside Jim McLaughlin and Robert Zimmerman, moderated by Dana Bash.

Twitter: @MargaretHoover

Major General Dr. Robert Latiff

Major%2BGeneral%2BDr.%2BRobert%2BLatiff.jpg

Major General Dr. Robert Latiff

Retired Air Force Major General

Dr. Robert H. Latiff retired from the U.S. Air Force as a Major General in 2006. He is an Adjunct Faculty Member with the John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values at the University of Notre Dame, and is a Research Professor at George Mason University. Major General Latiff is also a member of the Committee on International Security and Arms Control of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the Intelligence Community Studies Board.

Dr. Latiff spoke on “Artificial Intelligence & Warfare” at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019.

Edward Luce

Luceshot+%281%29.jpg

Edward Luce

Journalist, author

Edward Luce was made the Financial Time's chief US commentator in September 2011 with a weekly column and regular editorials on the US economy and politics. Prior to that he was the FT’s Washington Bureau Chief from 2006 until 2011, managing a team of ten DC-based reporters and leading the paper’s coverage of US politics and economy. Previously, he was the FT’s South Asia bureau chief, based in New Delhi, appointed in 2001. Between December 1999 and January 2001, Edward was the speechwriter to Larry Summers, Treasury Secretary in the Clinton administration.

He is the author of three highly acclaimed books: In Spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern India (2006), Time to Start Thinking: The Spectre of American Decline (2012) and The Retreat of Western Liberalism (2017), which was listed on the best non-fiction reading lists for 2017 at Amazon, The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the Washington Post.

Luce participated at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019 on May 10th, 2019, moderating the “World View: Security Challenges & Opportunities” panel featuring Ambassador Bill Burns, Ambassador Nicholas Burns, and Congresswoman Jane Harman.

Twitter: @EdwardGLuce

Ambassador Bill Burns

Bill+Burns.jpg

Ambassador Bill Burns

President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, former career Foreign Service Officer

Ambassador (ret.) William “Bill” Burns is currently president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the oldest international affairs think tank in the United States, after a thirty-three-year diplomatic career. He holds the highest rank in the Foreign Service, career ambassador, and is only the second serving career diplomat in history to become Deputy Secretary of State. Prior to his tenure as Deputy Secretary, Ambassador Burns was ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs from 2001 to 2005, and ambassador to Jordan from 1998 to 2001. Ambassador Burns speaks Russian, Arabic, and French, and he has been the recipient of numerous awards. His memoir, The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal, was released in 2019.

Burns participated at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019 on May 10th, 2019, on the “World View: Security Challenges & Opportunities” panel alongside Ambassador Nicholas Burns and Congresswoman Jane Harman, moderated by Edward Luce.

Senator Doug Jones

uk.jpg

Senator Doug Jones

U.S. Senator

Senator Doug Jones served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama beginning in 1997. It was while serving in this position that Senator Jones successfully prosecuted two of the four men responsible for the 16th street church bombings. Along with taking on the Ku Klux Klan, he prosecuted terrorists like Eric Rudolph, and many others who sought to use fear, hatred, and violence to inhibit the rights of others. Since his historic election, Senator Jones has brought that lifelong passion for justice and commitment to service to his role in the Senate.

Senator Jones gave a talk at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019 entitled “Can’t We All Just Get Along? How Washington Can Best Serve the Nation,” emphasizing the importance of bipartisanship and consensus building.

Twitter: @SenDougJones

Congressman Steve Israel

image.jpg

The Honorable Steve Israel

Politician, former Congressman for New York’s 2nd and 3rd districts, writer

Former Congressman Steve Israel left Capitol Hill in 2017 to pursue a career as a writer. Israel was a member of Congress for sixteen years and served as House Democrats chief political strategist between 2011-2015 and as Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

As chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for four years, Israel was the chief architect of House campaign strategies. He was responsible for overall development of competitive House campaigns across America. Israel was lauded for recruiting and electing the most diverse and entrepreneurial freshman congressional class in history. He developed a vast network of local, state and federal officials throughout the nation and is considered a leading expert in congressional dynamics.

Israel is a regular political commentator on MSNBC. His insights appear regularly in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs and on 60 Minutes, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, FoxNews, and elsewhere. His 2017 NY Times op-ed, “Nothing Will Change After The Las Vegas Shooting” went viral; his Mic.Com video on gun violence received nearly 3.5 million views. Israel is currently the Director of the new Institute of Politics and Global Affairs at Cornell University, the only academically-based institute of politics in the New York City metropolitan area. He also served as a Tisch College Visiting Fellow at Tufts University.

Israel participated at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019 on May 10th, 2019. He spoke on “The Road to 2020: Leaders & Ideas” panel alongside former Senator Claire McCaskill, Matt Bennett, Margaret Hoover and Rick Tyler, moderated by Errol Louis.

Twitter: @RepSteveIsrael ‏

Former Ambassador Martin Indyk

indykm.jpg

Martin Indyk

Diplomat, academic

Martin S. Indyk is distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, he was the John C. Whitehead Distinguished Fellow in International Diplomacy in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. Indyk served as the U.S. special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations from July 2013 to June 2014. Prior to his time as special envoy, he was vice president and director of the Foreign Policy program and a senior fellow and the founding director of the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings.

Indyk was hosted by The Common Good in 2019: Discussion with Ambassador Martin Indyk.

Twitter: @Martin_Indyk