James Harmon

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James Harmon

Investment banker

James Harmon is Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Caravel Management LLC, the investment manager of the Caravel Fund (International) Ltd., an emerging and frontier markets fund that was launched in 2004. In 2004, Harmon was elected Chairman of the Board of the World Resources Institute (WRI), a global policy and research institution.

Harmon is the Chairman of the Egyptian American Enterprise Fund, a private corporation seeded by U.S. Government funds to promote the development of the Egyptian private sector with a particular focus on small-and medium-sized enterprises. Harmon served as the Chairman, President and CEO of the Export-Import Bank of the United States from 1997- 2001. Ex-Im Bank assists in financing the export of US goods and services to international markets. Prior to Ex-Im Bank, Harmon was Chairman and CEO of the investment bank Schroder Wertheim & Co. Harmon was the U.S. Representative on the High Level Panel for Infrastructure Investment 2011, a panel appointed by the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the G20. Harmon is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Trustee Emeritus of Brown University and Barnard College.

Harmon spoke at The Common Good Forum 2015 as part of the panel “Global Opportunities and Challenges: Charting Growth Around the Globe.”

Twitter: @james_A_Harmon

Chris Hayes

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Chris Hayes

American journalist

Christopher Hayes is an editor-at-large of The Nation and host of Up with Chris Hayes on MSNBC. From 2010 to 2011, he was a fellow at Harvard University’s Edmond J Safra Foundation Center for Ethics. From 2008-2010, he was a Bernard Schwartz fellow at the New America Foundation. From 2005 to 2006, Hayes was a Schumann Center Writing Fellow at In These Times.

Since 2002, he has written about political culture and political economy. His essays, articles and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Time, The Nation, The American Prospect, The New Republic, The Washington Monthly, The Guardian, and The Chicago Reader.

His book about the crisis of authority in American life, Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy, will be published by Crown in June 2012.

The Common Good hosted Hayes in July of 2012: Chris Hayes: Getting Past the “Fail Decade”.

Twitter: @chrislhayes

Stephen Cohen

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The Honorable Steve Cohen

Politician, Congressman for Tennessee's 9th district

Congressman Stephen “Steve” Cohen is a fourth-generation Memphian who has dedicated his life to public service. On issues ranging from civil rights to funding for the arts to women's rights to animal welfare, Cohen was a relentless advocate in the Tennessee State Senate. Congressman Cohen has made it a priority to provide Tennesseans with access to affordable, quality, post-secondary education. Notably, he is a champion of civil rights and justice.

Cohen currently serves on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Committee), and the House Committee on the Judiciary, where he serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.

The Common Good hosted Cohen on June 24th, 2019: Meet & Greet: Representative Steve Cohen.

Twitter: @RepCohen

Charles Myers

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Charles Myers

Chairman and Co-Founder Signum Global Advisors

Charles Myers is currently Chairman and Founder at Signum Global Advisors. He previously was the Vice Chairman of Evercore from 2002-2017, and Managing Director and Global Head of Equities at Fox-Pitt Kelton. Mr. Myers joined Fox-Pitt Kelton in 2004 and held a number of senior positions during his tenure. As Global Head of Equities, he was responsible for research, sales and trading of all equities products across the United States, Europe and Asia. He was also a Board member. Mr. Myers has 20 years experience in the global equities markets having worked previously at UBS and ING Barings.

Mr. Myers has a B. A. from Amherst College in Massachusetts and a post-graduate M. Phil degree from Cambridge University in England.

The Common Good is honored to have worked with Mr. Myers on many events, recently partnering with him to host a Meet & Greet: Representative Steve Cohen.

Twitter: @myers_nyc

Jane Hamsher

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Jane Hamsher

American film producer, author, blogger

Jane Hamsher is a U.S. film producer, author, and blogger, best known as the author of Killer Instinct, and as the founder and publisher of the politically progressive blog FireDogLake (2004 – the present). She also co-produced the subsequent films Apt Pupil (1998), Permanent Midnight (1998), and From Hell (2001). A contributor to The Huffington Post, she posts also in liberal Websites and political magazines, such as AlterNet and The American Prospect.

FireDogLake (abbreviated FDL) is a US collaborative blog which primarily specializes in covering news from a left-progressive/left-liberal stance. Firedoglake won a 2005 Koufax Award for “Best Series” for its detailed coverage of the Plame affair, while being in close contention for “Best New Blog” and “Best Group Blog”. In late 2005, Hamsher expanded FDL into a group blog.

The Common Good hosted Hamsher in 2010: Election Insurrection: The Mid-Term Elections 2010.

Twitter: @janehamsher

Mark Halperin

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Mark Halperin

Co-managing editor of Bloomberg Politics

Mark Halperin is co-managing editor of Bloomberg Politics, which leads Bloomberg’s political and policy coverage, including news, analysis, commentary, narrative, data analytics across all platforms. He is also a regular contributor to MSNBC’s Morning Joe and a frequent guest on Charlie Rose.

Prior to joining Bloomberg in 2014, Halperin served as editor-at-large and senior political analyst for TIME, covering politics, elections and government for the magazine and TIME.com. He was also the creator and author of TIME.com’s The Page, a news and analysis tip sheet reporting on current political stories, campaign ads, TV clips, videos and campaign reactions from every news source, along with Halperin’s own analysis. Prior to joining TIME in April 2007, Halperin worked at ABC News for nearly 20 years, where he covered five presidential elections and served as political director from November 1997 to April 2007. In that role, he was responsible for political reporting and planning for the network’s television, radio and Internet political coverage. He also appeared regularly on ABC News TV and radio as a correspondent and analyst, contributing commentary and reporting during election night coverage, presidential inaugurations and State of the Union speeches. Additionally, Halperin founded and edited the online publication The Note on abcnews.com, which was characterized as the most influential daily tip sheet in American politics by publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Vanity Fair.

He is the co-author of New York Times bestsellers Double Down: Game Change 2012 (2013) and Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime (2010); author of The Undecided Voter’s Guide to the Next President (2007); and co-author of The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008 (2006).

Amidst multiple allegations of workplace sexual harassment and misconduct at his prior job at ABC News, Halperin was fired by both Showtime Networks and NBC News at the end of October 2017. Since then, he has attempted to make amends publicly.

Twitter: @MarkHalperin

Senator Chuck Hagel

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Senator Chuck Hagel

Former United States Senator from Nebraska

Charles Timothy “Chuck” Hagel is a former United States Senator from Nebraska.  A member of the Republican Party, he was first elected in 1996 and was reelected in 2002. In 2009, he was elected as Chairman of the Atlantic Council.

Hagel is a Vietnam War veteran, having served in the United States Army infantry, attaining the rank of Sergeant (E-5) from 1967-1968. While serving during the Vietnam War, he received the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, two Purple Hearts, an Army Commendation Medal, and the Combat Infantryman Badge.

Hagel was a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations; Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; and Intelligence Committees. He Chaired the Foreign Relations International Economic Policy, Export, and Trade Promotion Subcommittee, the Banking Committee’s International Trade and Finance, and Securities Subcommittees. Hagel also served as the Chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the Senate Climate Change Observer Group. Hagel is also the author of the recently published America: Our Next Chapter, a straight forward examination of the current state of our nation.

Hagel spoke at a Meet & Greet hosted by The Common Good in 2007.

Robert Greenwald

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Robert Greenwald

Producer, director, political activist

Robert Greenwald is a producer, director and political activist, and the founder and president of Brave New Films. Under Greenwald’s direction, Brave New Films has produced a series of short political videos, including the Fox Attacks and Real McCain campaigns. In total, Brave New Film’s short videos have been viewed over 56 million times in the past two years, inspired hundreds of thousands of people to take action and forced pressing issues into the mainstream media.

In addition, Greenwald is the director/producer of several documentaries: Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (2006), Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (2005), and Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism (2004). Greenwald also executive produced a trilogy of political documentaries: Unprecedented: The 2000 Election (2002), Uncovered: The War on Iraq (2003), and Unconstitutional (2004).

Prior to his documentary work, Greenwald produced and/or directed more than 55 television movies, miniseries and feature films. Greenwald’s films have garnered 25 Emmy nominations, two Golden Globe nominations, the Peabody Award and the Robert Wood Johnson Award. He was awarded the 2002 Producer of the Year Award by the American Film Institute. He has been honored for his activism by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California; the Liberty Hill Foundation; the Los Angeles chapter of the National Lawyers Guild; Physicians for Social Responsibility; Consumer Attorney’s Association of Los Angeles; Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy and the Office of the Americas.

The Common Good hosted Greenwald in September of 2009: Screening and Discussion with: Robert Greenwald and Jim Miller.

Twitter: @robertgreenwald

Vice President Al Gore

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Vice President Al Gore

45th Vice President of the United States

Former Vice President Al Gore is co-founder and chairman of Generation Investment Management. He is a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and a member of Apple, Inc.’s board of directors. Gore spends the majority of his time as chairman of The Climate Reality Project, a non-profit devoted to solving the climate crisis.

Gore was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976, 1978, 1980 and 1982 and the U.S. Senate in 1984 and 1990. He was inaugurated as the 45th Vice President of the United States on January 20, 1993, and served eight years.

He is the author of the bestsellers Earth in the Balance, An Inconvenient Truth, The Assault on Reason, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, and most recently, The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change. He is the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary and is the co-recipient, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for “informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change.”

Twitter: @algore

Alex Gibney

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Alex Gibney

Writer, producer, director

Alex Gibney has been called “the most important documentarian of our time” by Esquire Magazine and “one of America’s most successful and prolific documentary filmmakers” by The New York Times.

Gibney has won an Academy Award, multiple Emmy Awards, the Grammy Award, several Peabody Awards, the DuPont-Columbia, The Independent Spirit, The Writers Guild of America Awards, and others. Gibney was honored with the International Documentary Association’s Career Achievement Award in 2013 and the first ever Christopher Hitchens Prize in 2015.

Gibney has made many films, including Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Taxi to the Dark Side, and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. He has also made several shows, including Parched and Dirty Money. He executive produced The Looming Tower, a drama series based on Lawrence Wright’s bestseller The Looming Tower that premiered on Hulu in February 2018.

The Common Good hosted Mr. Gibney in November of 2010: Screening of Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer.

Twitter: @alexgibneyfilm

William Galston

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William Galston

Author, Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program

William A. Galston holds the Ezra Zilkha Chair in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program, where he serves as a Senior Fellow. He is also College Park Professor at the University of Maryland.

A participant in six presidential campaigns, he served from 1993 to 1995 as Deputy Assistant to President Clinton for Domestic Policy. Galston is the author of eight books and more than 100 articles in the fields of political theory, public policy, and American politics. His most recent books are Liberal Pluralism (Cambridge, 2002), The Practice of Liberal Pluralism (Cambridge, 2004), and Public Matters (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005). A winner of the American Political Science Association’s Hubert H. Humphrey Award, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004. Galston has appeared on all the principal television networks and is a frequent commentator on NPR. He also writes a weekly column for The Wall Street Journal.

Galston spoke at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards 2016.

Twitter: @BillGalston

Professor Uzi Rabi

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Professor Uzi Rabi

Director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies

Professor Uzi Rabi is the Director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies and Chair of the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel Aviv University. His most recent publication is the edited volume International Intervention in Local Conflicts (I.B. Tauris 2010).

He is the director of the annual Tel Aviv University Workshop in which scholars from around the world visit Israel for a ten-day seminar on the geopolitics of Israel and its neighbors, and the history of the region and its significance in contemporary world affairs. Rabi is also the author of numerous publications, academic articles, and book reviews including: The Emergence of States in a Tribal Society: Oman Under Sa’id bin Taymur, 1932- 1970 (Sussex Academic Press 2006); Saudi Arabia, An Oil Kingdom in the Labyrinth of Religion and Politics (The Open University, 2007) in Hebrew; and Iran’s Time (HaKibbutz HaMeuchad, 2008) in Hebrew.

Previously, Dr. Rabi served as the vice-director of the S. Daniel Abraham for Regional and International Studies at TAU. In addition, he participated in the Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University as a senior researcher. Dr. Rabi is regularly invited by the Israeli Knesset to deliver updates and briefs on current developments in the Middle East.

Dr. Rabi was hosted by The Common Good in 2011: The Changing Face of the Middle East with Professor Uzi Rabi.

Twitter: @uzi_rabi

Suzanne Ehlers

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Suzanne Ehlers

President and CEO of Population Action International

Suzanne Ehlers, President & CEO of Population Action International, has worked for the last 15 years to promote women’s health, rights and empowerment across the globe. She has been with PAI for over seven years, most recently leading the strategic direction of campaigns as Vice President of International Advocacy. Suzanne’s work focused largely on building and supporting advocacy capacity among indigenous NGOs; strengthening reproductive health and HIV integration; leveraging new monies for reproductive health supplies; and fostering innovative approaches to coalition building.

Under Suzanne’s leadership as President, PAI is leading U.S. and global advocacy for family planning; providing key technical and financial resources to partners in Africa, South Asia and Latin America; and building the case for women’s health as the connective tissue that holds together a host of other development concerns, from the environment to state stability to food security.

For the last two years, Suzanne has served on the U.S. government delegation to United Nations Commission meetings. She also sits on the Steering Committee of the Bangkok-based Asia Pacific Alliance; until recently, she chaired the board of the Janelia Family Foundation. She is an Environmental Leadership Liaison for Rachel’s Network, a network of women leaders “dedicated to the stewardship of the earth.”

Twitter: @SuzannePAI

Lisa Edelstein

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Lisa Edelstein

American actress, playwright

Lisa Edelstein is an American actress and playwright. She wrote, composed and starred in an original musical called Positive Me in response to the growing AIDS crisis of the 1980s, and has held many roles in television

From 2004 to 2011, she played Dr. Lisa Cuddy, the Dean of Medicine at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital on Fox’s TV series House, M.D. In June 2011, it was revealed that she would join the cast of The Good Wife, on which she plays Celeste Serano. In 2011, she won the People’s Choice Award for Best Drama Actress in a TV Series for her portrayal of Dr. Lisa Cuddy on House, M.D.

Twitter: @LisaEdelstein

Mitch Draizin

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Mitch Draizin

Founder and President of Longview Capital Advisors

Mitch Draizin is the founder and President of Longview Capital Advisors, which serves as investment and mortgage bankers to New York Metro based real estate developers, owners and owner-occupiers.  

Draizin serves on multiple national boards focused on Education, LGBT and Progressive issues, and is actively engaged in identifying and mentoring future leaders primarily in the Progressive and LGBT communities. He is a member of the Board of the Congressional Award Foundation and the Truman National Security Project-CNP where he sponsors the Mitchell Draizin/Philippe Brugere-Trelat Truman/CNP Political Fellowship.

Matthew Dowd

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Matthew Dowd

American Political Consultant

Matthew John Dowd is an American political consultant who was the chief strategist for the Bush-Cheney 2004 presidential campaign. In December 2007, he was introduced on ABC’s Good Morning America as its new political contributor. He also appears on the same network’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

Dowd began his political career as a Democrat, working for, among others, Texas Lt. Governor Bob Bullock. In 1999, he switched parties to become a Republican. During the 2002 election, Dowd was a senior adviser to the Republican National Committee. During the 2004 Presidential election, Dowd was chief strategist for George W. Bush’s re-election campaign, but he would later leave the Bush administration due to frustrations regarding the Iraq War.

The Common Good hosted Dowd in 2010: Election Insurrection: The Mid-Term Elections 2010.

Twitter: @matthewjdowd

Fats Domino

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Fats Domino ✝

Musician

Fats Domino was part of many of the early touring rock ‘n’ roll package shows that “barnstormed” the country and popularized the new music.

No other veteran R&B artist of his era would come close to equaling his long-term impact on rock ‘n’ roll, as evidenced by the wide variety of artists covering his songs, from Bobby Darin, Ella Fitzgerald, Ricky Nelson and Ike & Tina Turner to John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Sheryl Crow, T-Rex, Los Lobos, and Cheap Trick. A prominent figure in the musical world, Fats Domino secured his legacy as an irreplaceable rock ‘n’ roll pioneer of the 1950’s.

Domino became missing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation. His home was one of the epicenters of Katrina’s wrath, but he was eventually rescued from his flooded home.

Mr. Domino was hosted by The Common Good in 2007: Hurricane Katrina Relief and Music.

Senator Bob Dole

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the honorable Bob Dole

Former Kansas Senator, attorney

Bob Dole is an attorney and retired Kansas Senator from 1969–1996, serving part of that time as Senate Majority Leader, where he set a record as the longest-serving Republican leader. He was the Republican nominee in the 1996 U.S. Presidential election, but lost the election to Bill Clinton. 

In 2007, President George W. Bush appointed Dole as a co-chair of the commission to investigate problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, along with Donna Shalala. Although Dole has since retired from public service, he still remains active in public life. Dole currently is on special counsel of Alston & Bird. He is also a member of the advisory counsel of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. In January of 2018, he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. In 2019, the U.S. Congress unanimously passed a bill promoting Dole from Captain to Colonel for his service in the U.S. Army during World War II.

Dole has released multiple books since 1988. Most recently of his releases are in 2001, Great Presidential Wit: A Collection of Humorous Anecdotes and Quotations, as well as in 2005, One Soldier's Story: A Memoir.

Twitter: @SenatorDole

Senator Chris Dodd

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the honorable Chris Dodd

American lawyer, lobbyist, Democratic Party politician

Christopher Dodd is an American lawyer, lobbyist, and Democratic Party politician who served as a United States Senator from Connecticut for a thirty-year period ending with the 111th United States Congress.

Dodd won election in 1974 to the United States House of Representatives from Connecticut’s 2nd congressional district and was reelected in 1976 and 1978. He was elected United States Senator in the elections of 1980, and was the longest-serving senator in Connecticut’s history.

Dodd served as general chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1995 to 1997. He served as Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee until his retirement. On March 1, 2011, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) announced that Dodd will head the organization. In 2017, Dodd stepped down as chairman of the MPAA. In 2018, Dodd joined the law firm of Arnold & Porter.

The Common Good hosted Mr. Dodd in April of 2007: The Road to the White House: Chris Dodd.

Twitter: @SenChrisDodd

Representative Tom DeLay

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Representative Tom DeLay

Former House Representative for Texas’s 22nd Congressional District

Thomas Dale “Tom” DeLay is a former member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Texas’s 22nd congressional district from 1984 until 2006. He was Republican Party (GOP) House Majority Leader from 2003 to 2005, when he resigned because of criminal money laundering charges in connection with a campaign finance investigation.

Tom DeLay began his career as a politician in 1978 when he was elected to the Texas House of Representatives. In 1985, he became a born-again Christian. In 1988, after just a few years in the U.S. House, Tom DeLay was appointed Deputy Minority Whip. In 1994 he helped Newt Gingrich effect the Republican Revolution, which gave the Republicans the victory in the 1994 midterm election and swept Democrats from power in both houses of Congress, putting Republicans in control of the House of Representatives for the first time in forty years. In 1995, he was elected House Majority Whip.

With the Republicans in control of both chambers in Congress, Tom DeLay, along with Gingrich and conservative activist Grover Norquist, helped start the K Street Project, an effort to advance Republican ideals. Tom DeLay was elected House Majority Leader after the 2002 midterm elections. In the eyes of some Democrats, he was renowned for his enforcement of party discipline and retribution against those who did not support the legislative agenda of President George W. Bush. On policy issues, not just political strategy and tactics, DeLay was known as one of Capitol Hill’s fiercest, staunchest conservatives during his years in Congress, earning very high marks from conservative interest groups (e.g., business, gun rights, pro-life) and very low marks from liberal ones (e.g., civil liberties, labor unions, environmental protection).

Since leaving Congress, DeLay has co-authored (with Stephen Mansfield) a political memoir, No Retreat, No Surrender: One American’s Fight, founded a strategic conservative political consulting firm, First Principles, LLC, and competed on the ninth season of Dancing with the Stars, until stress fractures in his feet caused him to withdraw.

The Common Good hosted Mr. DeLay in March of 2007: No Retreat, No Surrender: One American's Fight.