Jose Antonio Vargas

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Jose Antonio Vargas

Journalist, filmmaker, activist

Jose Antonio Vargas is a journalist, filmmaker, and immigration rights activist. He was part of The Washington Post team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting in 2008 for coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings online and in print. Vargas also has worked for The San Francisco Chronicle, The Philadelphia Daily News, and The Huffington Post. He wrote, produced, and directed the autobiographical 2013 film, Documented, which CNN Films broadcast in June 2014.

In a June 2011 essay in The New York Times Magazine, Vargas revealed his status as an undocumented immigrant in an effort to promote dialogue about the immigration system in the U.S. and to advocate for the DREAM Act, which would provide children in similar circumstances with a path to citizenship. A year later, a day after the publication of his Time cover story about his continued uncertainty regarding his immigration status, the Obama administration announced it was halting the deportation of undocumented immigrants age 30 and under, who would be eligible for the DREAM Act. Vargas, who had just turned 31, did not qualify.

Vargas is the founder of Define American, a nonprofit organization intended to open up dialogue about the criteria people use to determine who is an American.

Vargas was awarded the American Spirit Award for Citizen Activism at The Common Good Forum & The American Spirit Awards 2014.

Twitter: @joseiswriting

Sen. Amy Klobuchar

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Senator Amy Klobuchar

Senior Senator representing Minnesota

Amy Jean Klobuchar is the senior United States Senator from Minnesota. She is running in the 2020 Presidential Campaign and is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, an affiliate of the Democratic Party. She is the first elected female senator from Minnesota.

Klobuchar was county attorney of Hennepin County, the most populous county in Minnesota. She was a legal adviser to former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale and partner in two prominent law firms. Klobuchar has been named by the New York Times as one of the seventeen women most likely to become the first female President of the United States and by MSNBC as a possible nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Klobuchar served as Minnesota’s only senator between January 3 and July 7, 2009, due to the contested results of Minnesota’s senatorial election held the previous year.

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

Twitter: @amyklobuchar

Secretary Tom Vilsack

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Secretary Tom Vilsack

30th U.S. Secretary of Agriculture

Tom Vilsack serves as the Nation’s 30th Secretary of Agriculture.

As leader of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Vilsack is working hard to strengthen the American agricultural economy, build vibrant rural communities and create new markets for the tremendous innovation of rural America. In five years at the Department, Vilsack has worked to implement President Obama’s agenda to put Americans back to work and create an economy built to last. USDA has supported America’s farmers, ranchers and growers who are driving the rural economy forward, provided food assistance to millions of Americans, carried out record conservation efforts, made record investments in our rural communities and helped provide a safe, sufficient and nutritious food supply for the American people.

As chair of the first-ever White House Rural Council, Secretary Vilsack and USDA are taking steps to strengthen services for rural businesses and entrepreneurs by finding new ways to partner with other Federal agencies and the private sector to spur investment in rural America.

Prior to his appointment, Vilsack served two terms as the Governor of Iowa, in the Iowa State Senate and as the mayor of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Vilsack was born into an orphanage and adopted in 1951. After graduating Hamilton College and Albany Law School, he moved to Mt. Pleasant, his wife Christie’s hometown, where he practiced law. The Vilsacks have two adult sons and two daughters-in-law – Doug, married to Janet; and Jess, married to Kate. They also have two grandchildren.

Ambassador Pierre Vimont

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Pierre Vimont

French Ambassador to the United States

Ambassador Pierre Vimont was appointed Ambassador of France to the United States by President Nicolas Sarkozy on August 1, 2007. Prior to his present appointment, Mr. Vimont was chief of staff to the minister of foreign affairs, a position he had held since 2002.

Born in 1949, Pierre Vimont holds a degree in law and is a graduate of the Institute of Political Studies and the National School of Administration (ENA). Pierre Vimont joined the Foreign Service in 1977. He was first posted to London where he was first secretary from 1978 to 1981. He then spent the next four years with the Press and Information Office at the Quai d’Orsay. From 1985 to 1986 he was seconded to the Institute for East-West Security in New York. Returning to Europe, he served as second counselor with the Permanent Representation of France to the European Communities in Brussels (1986-1990), and was subsequently chief of staff to the minister delegate for European affairs from 1990 to 1993.

From 1999 to 2002, he was ambassador and permanent representative of France to the European Union. He went on to serve as director for development and scientific, technical and educational cooperation and then for cultural, scientific and technical relations. He was deputy director general of the entire Cultural, Scientific and Technical Relations Department from 1996 to 1997 and then director of European Cooperation from 1997 to 1999.

Rick Klein

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Rick Klein

Political Director of ABC News

Rick Klein is Political Director of ABC News, leading the network's political coverage and planning, and serving as an on-air political analyst across ABC News platforms. Klein has contributed stories and analysis to all ABC News broadcasts, including Good Morning America and World News. He also provides regular political commentary and analysis for ABC News Radio, ABC News NOW and NewsOne, the network's affiliate news service. Klein also co-hosts Top Line, a political Webcast that's part of the Yahoo! News/ABC News "Power Players" series.

Klein also writes for The Note, a daily political blog and tip sheet that is published every weekday morning at ABCNEWS.com. The New Yorker magazine called The Note "the most influential morning tip sheet in Washington," serving as an insider's and outsider's guide to what's happening in politics and why. Starting in 2010, he began serving as Senior Washington Editor for World News with Diane Sawyer, working as senior Washington producer for the program in addition to on-air roles. Klein joined ABC News in 2007 from The Boston Globe.

Twitter: @rickklein

John Della Volpe

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John Della Volpe

Statistician

John Della Volpe is the Director of Polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, where he has led the institute’s polling initiatives on understanding American youth since 2000. He serves as President of the New England Association of Eisenhower Fellowships. In 2018, he received the Author E. Hughes Career Achievement Award from the University of San Diego.

The Washington Post referred to Della Volpe as one of the world’s leading authorities on global sentiment, opinion and influence especially among millennials and in the age of digital and social media. In 2008, he received an Eisenhower Fellowship for which he traveled extensively throughout China, Hong Kong, and Korea (including a supervised day in North Korea) studying millennials an the use of the internet; in 2011, he was appointed to the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission on Media. Della Volpe is also founder of SocialSphere, a Cambridge based public opinion and analytics company. He serves on the Board of Trustees of iCatholic Media and the Ad Club of Boston. Della Volpe appears regularly on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and his insights on millennials are found in national media outlets in the U.S. and abroad, including the Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

Della Volpe attended The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards on May 21st, 2018, and spoke on the panel “Political Landscape: Future of Elections, Campaigns, & Parties” alongside Susan Del Percio, former Congressman David Jolly, and Bill Schneider, with moderator John Harwood.

Twitter: @DellaVolpe

Joe Klein

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Joe Klein

Political columnist

Joe Klein is a longtime Washington, D.C. and New York journalist and columnist, known for his novel Primary Colors, which portrays Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign. Klein is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a former Guggenheim Fellow. Since 2003, he has been a contributor at the current affairs at Time news group. In April 2006, he published Politics Lost, a book on what he calls the “pollster-consultant industrial complex.” He has also written articles and book reviews for The New Republic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, LIFE and Rolling Stone.

Twitter: @JoeKleinTIME

Steven Waldman

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Steven Waldman

Journalist

Steven Waldman is President and Co-Founder of Report for America, a national service program that places emerging journalists into local newsrooms. Previously, he was Senior Advisor to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, serving out of the Office of Strategic Planning.

After college, Waldman was a political journalist. In 1986-87, he served as editor of The Washington Monthly. He was the National Editor of U.S. News and World Report, and worked for eight years in Newsweek’s Washington bureau as a national correspondent writing cover stories on social issues. Waldman co-founded Beliefnet in 1999. He was its CEO from 2002–2007, leading it out of bankruptcy to a sale to News Corp., and he continued on as editor-in-chief until November 2009. In late 2009, he became a Senior Advisor to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, serving out of the Office of Strategic Planning. The position arose in response to the report of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy and other studies that called on the FCC for “new thinking” to “ensure the information opportunities of America’s people and the information vitality of our democracy.”

Waldman is also a speaker on topics relating to the spiritual marketplace, the changing roles of religion in America, and the convergence of spirituality and marketing. In 2000, he was named by TIME Magazine as an “innovator” in its “100: The Next Wave” feature.  He has been a speaker at The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, “The Resurgence of Religion in Politics” series at The Carnegie Council, The Renaissance Weekend, and numerous religious, policy and media conferences.

Waldman spoke about The Role of Religion in the 2008 Campaign at The Common Good alongside Jon Meacham and Amy Sullivan, moderated by Paul Glastris and introduced by Richard Feigen.

Twitter: @stevenwaldman

Alison Klayman

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Alison Klayman

American filmmaker, journalist

Alison Klayman is an American filmmaker and journalist.

Klayman has produced radio and television feature stories for PBS Frontline, NPR’s All Things Considered, and others. Her movie, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, documents Ai Weiwei and his work. It was shortlisted for an Academy Award, nominated for two Emmy’s, and earned Alison a Director’s Guild of America nomination. It premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival where it won a Special Jury Prize, and was picked up by IFC Films. Never Sorry has now been translated into over 26 languages and released around the world. It was also one of the highest grossing films of 2012 directed by a woman.

Alison has made many media appearances to speak about her documentary work, including on The Colbert Report. She is a regular contributor to the New York Times’ Emmy-nominated Op-Doc Series, and a grant recipient of the Ford Foundation, Sundance Institute, Henry Luce Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Chicken and Egg Pictures. In 2011 she was a Sundance Creative Producing Fellow and one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” New York Times chief film critics A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis named Alison one of their 20 Directors to Watch on a list of rising international filmmaking talents under 40.

Klayman was hosted by The Common Good in 2012 for a Special Screening: Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry.

Twitter: @aliklay

Jenny McCarthy

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Jenny McCarthy

Actress, radio & television host, activist

Jenny McCarthy is a model, TV host, actress, screenwriter, and author. When her son Evan was diagnosed with autism, Jenny took on another role, as an advocate in the fight against autism.

McCarthy served as a spokesperson for Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) from June 2007 until October 2008. She participated in fundraisers, online chats, and other activities for the non-profit organization to help families affected by autism spectrum disorders. Her first fundraiser for TACA, Ante Up for Autism, was held on October 20, 2007, in Irvine, California.  She is a prominent spokesperson and activist for the Generation Rescue foundation, and serves on its Board of Directors.

McCarthy was hosted by The Common Good in 2010 for a Meet & Greet.

Twitter: @JennyMcCarthy

Congressman Joe Walsh

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the honorable Joe Walsh

Former Congressman

Joe Walsh was a U.S. Representative for Illinois's 8th congressional district and is currently a conservative talk show host.

Walsh began his career with Jobs For Youth, working in inner-city Chicago teaching high school dropouts basic academic and job skills. He worked on state and local public policy issues with the Heartland Institute, a free market think tank, and he ran the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, a Chicago-based privately funded school voucher program which gives high school scholarships to low-income Chicago eighth graders. Walsh also helped launch the Legislative Education Action Drive and Americans for Limited Government, national organizations working to get fiscally conservative state legislators elected in targeted states and advance the causes of limited government. He raised funds for and helped advance the cause of school choice for two of the nation’s leading school choice organizations, the American Education Reform Council and the Milton & Rose Friedman Foundation. Walsh continues to build support for an international charity which uses education and micro-enterprise to deliver Nicaraguan children from poverty, the Fabretto Children’s Foundation.

Walsh has run campaigns for elected office twice, first as a Republican candidate for the United States Congress in 1996 and then as a Republican candidate for the Illinois State House in 1998. He served one term in the United States House of Representatives for Illinois's 8th congressional district.

Congressman Walsh spoke at The Common Good in 2012: Tea Party Congressman Joe Walsh – February 13, 2012.

Twitter: @WalshFreedom

Secretary Henry Kissinger

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secretary Henry Kissinger

56th U.S. Secretary of State

Henry Alfred Kissinger was the 56th Secretary of State of the United States from 1973 to 1977. He held the position of Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from 1969 to 1975. After leaving government service, he founded Kissinger Associates, an international consulting firm, of which he is chairman.

In the Nixon administration, Kissinger served as the president’s National Security Advisor and then Secretary of State. Kissinger was the go-between in the secret negotiations that eventually opened relations between the U.S. and communist China.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for his role in arranging a ceasefire in North Vietnam. Kissinger also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the nation’s highest civilian award) in 1977 and the Medal of Liberty (given one time to ten foreign-born American leaders) in 1986. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, Kissinger continued to write, lecture and appear on TV as a foreign affairs expert.

Kissinger was hosted by The Common Good in 2007: Foreign Affairs and Economic Policy with Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, and in 2011: Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on China.

Tim Weiner

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Tim Weiner

Journalist

Tim Weiner is a reporter, author of three books and co-author of a fourth, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. He is a graduate of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University and has worked for the Times since 1993, as a foreign correspondent in Mexico, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan and as a national security correspondent in Washington, DC.

Weiner won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting as an investigative reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer, for his articles on the black budget spending at the Pentagon and the CIA. His book Blank Check: The Pentagon’s Black Budget is based on that newspaper series.

He won the National Book Award in Nonfiction for his 2007 book Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA.

He is featured along with other foreign affairs experts in interviews in Denis Delestrac’s 2010 “Pax Americana and the Weaponization of Space”. Enemies: A History of the FBI, Tim Weiner’s latest book, traces the history of the FBI’s secret intelligence operations, from the bureau’s creation in the early 20th century through its ongoing fight in the current war on terrorism. He explains how Hoover’s increasing concerns about communist threats against the United States led to the FBI’s secret intelligence operations against anyone deemed “subversive.”

Ambassador Sergey Kislyak

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Sergey Kislyak

Diplomat

Ambassador Sergey Ivanovich Kislyak was the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the United States between 2008 and 2017, when he took up representation of Mordovia in the Federation Council.

Before Kislyak became Russian Ambassador to the US, he held the positions of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Kingdom of Belgium and, simultaneously, Permanent Representative of Russia to NATO in Brussels, Belgium. He has been an employee of the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation since 1977.

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

Denzel Washington

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Denzel Washington

Academy award-winning actor, director and producer

Denzel Washington is an Academy award-winning actor, director and producer best-known for his roles in ‘Glory’, ‘Malcolm X’ and ‘The Hurricane’. As an actor, he is known for his penchant for taking on challenging roles and portraying them to perfection. 
He got his first big break when he was chosen to play the role of Dr. Philip Chandler in the NBC medical drama series, ‘St. Elsewhere’. He played several minor roles in films before ‘Cry Freedom’ happened in 1987. His portrayal of anti-apartheid social activist Steve Biko established him as a talented character actor. The decade of 1990 was a very productive period for the talented actor. He played the lawyer Joe Miller in the 1993 drama film ‘Philadelphia’ which was one of the first Hollywood movies to deal with issues like homosexuality, AIDS, and homophobia.

He appeared in several notable films throughout the 1990s, including his first of four Spike Lee collaborations Mo’ Better Blues (1990), Malcolm X (1992) in another Oscar-nominated performance, Philadelphia (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), Courage Under Fire (1996) and The Hurricane (1999), for which he received a Golden Globe for Best Actor and another Oscar nomination. In 2001, he received his second Oscar (this time in a leading role) for the cop thriller Training Day. The following year, he directed his first film, the drama Antwone Fisher, in which he also co-starred.

He went to Fordham University upon graduating from high school and earned a B.A. in Drama and Journalism in 1977. On May 18, 1991, Washington was awarded an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Fordham University, for having “impressively succeeded in exploring the edge of his multifaceted talent”. In 2011, he donated $2 million to Fordham for an endowed chair of the theater department, as well as $250,000 to establish a theater-specific scholarship at the school. He also received an honorary doctorate of humanities from Morehouse College on May 20, 2007 and an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania on May 16, 2011. In 2018 he returned to Broadway as Hickey in Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh.

Twitter: @Denzel Washington

The Honorable Bob Kerrey

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the honorable Bob Kerrey

American politician

Bob Kerrey is a former member of the elite Navy SEAL Team and a highly decorated Vietnam veteran who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor, America’s highest military honor. Kerrey served one four-year term as Governor of the State of Nebraska from 1983 to 1987, then won election to the Senate in 1988, defeating an incumbent senator. He ended his congressional tenure in 2001.

Kerrey is a self-made businessman who, upon returning from the war and starting from scratch in 1972, built a chain of highly successful restaurants and health clubs that now employ more than 900 people.

Twitter: @KerreyBob

Neera Tanden

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Neera Tanden

President of the Center for American Progress and Counselor to the Center for American Progress Action Fund

Neera Tanden is the President of the Center for American Progress and Counselor to the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Tanden has served in both the Obama and Clinton administrations. Most recently, Tanden served as the Chief Operating Officer for the Center, where she oversaw strategic planning, operations, and fundraising.

Tanden previously served as senior advisor for health reform at the Department of Health and Human Services, working on President Barack Obama’s health reform team in the White House.

Prior to serving as senior advisor, Tanden was the director of domestic policy for the Obama-Biden presidential campaign. Tanden also served as policy director for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.

Tanden was also legislative director for Sen. Clinton, and served as associate director for domestic policy in the Clinton White House and senior policy advisor to the first lady.

Tanden was named one of the “Most Influential Women in Washington” by National Journal, was recently included on Elle magazine’s “Women in Washington Power List,” and was recognized as one of Fortune Magazine’s “Most Powerful Women in Politics.”

Twitter: @Neera Tanden

Russell Simmons

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Russell Simmons

Co-founder of the pioneering record label Def Jam

Russell Simmons is a co-founder of the pioneering record label Def Jam. He helped launch the careers of a number of important artists, such as Run-D.M.C. and the Beastie Boys. His empire includes a clothing line and an energy drink. Simmons is often described as the man who made black urban culture a part of the mainstream, but Newsweek’s Johnnie L. Roberts noted that “in the view of many, he is now emerging as potentially the most credible and effective leader of the post-civil rights generation.”

Simmons is a supporter of Farm Sanctuary, an organization working to end cruelty to farm animals. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals awarded him with the 2001 PETA Humanitarian Award and the 2011 Person of the Year Award. Simmons became Chairman of Board of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding in 2002. In May 2009, he was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Slavery Memorial at the United Nations to honor the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Simmons is also a long-time supporter for gay rights. He encourages marriage equality.

Twitter: @UncleRUSH

Secretary Jack Kemp †

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secretary Jack Kemp †

American politician

Jack Kemp was a pro football player, congressman, cabinet secretary and vice-presidential candidate.

Kemp served in Congress for nine terms (1971-1989). He was elected the incoming Republican freshman class president, and 10 years later was chosen Chairman of the Republican Conference (third ranking in House Republican leadership). Kemp served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1989-1993, where he championed affordable housing, tenant management, and a housing voucher program for homeless veterans and their families. Upon leaving office in 1993, he joined forces with William Bennett and Jeane Kirkpatrick to found Empower America. He also served as chairman of the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform, which promoted major reform and simplification of the U.S. tax code.

Jack Kemp died on May 2, 2009. President Obama posthumously awarded Jack Kemp the Presidential Medal of Freedom in August, 2009.

Joe Slade White

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Joe Slade White

Political strategist and media consultant

Joe Slade White is a Democratic political strategist and media consultant. His past clients have included Presidential candidates, U.S. Senators, Governors, Members of Congress, and Mayors, as well as statewide and local initiatives throughout the country.

At the age of 21, White was hired by the 1972 presidential campaign of U.S. Senator George McGovern, joining the campaign’s traveling staff and finding a place on President Richard Nixon’s “White House Enemies List.”  White worked briefly as a press secretary to McGovern.

When he was 23, White launched his own political consulting firm. White worked to elect the first Native American to the United States Senate, the first woman Attorney General and Governor of Michigan, and worked on the first campaign in the nation to defeat a ban on bilingual education for Hispanic children.  He has also served as an advisor and created television advertisements for Vice President Joe Biden, T. Boone Pickens, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, General Wesley Clark, U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, AT&T and others.  A number of his television campaigns have won national recognition.  The American Association of Political Consultants has recognized White’s television work with more “Pollie Awards” than they have bestowed on any of his Democratic peers.

In 2010, White served as media strategist for Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s campaign, that was named by RealClearPolitics.com as the #5 upset in the country.

Twitter: @joesladewhite