Past Speakers

2019 | Michael A. McFaul, Ambassador of the United States of America to the Russian Federation (former)

2017 | J.D. Vance, Middletown native and author of the best-selling 2016 book Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

2016 | Nadine Strossen, President of the American Civil Liberties Union (former)

2015 | Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (former)

2014 | Dr. Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate and U.S. Secretary of Energy (former)

2013 | Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders, educator and US Surgeon General (former) | Event Photos

2012 | Ralph Nader, five-time candidate for President of the United State | Event Photos

2011 | David D. Cole, B.A., J.D., Yale, John Carroll Research Professor of Law, Georgetown | Event Photos

2010 | Dr. David A. Kessler, author, educator and Commissioner of the FDA (former) | Event Photos

2009 | Gary Hirshberg, President & Ce-Yo of Stonyfield Farm, Chair of Climate Counts | Event Photos

2008 | Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations | Event Photos

2007 | Norman J. Ornstein, resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

2003 | Richard Rodriguez, author and PBS commentator

2001 | Scott Carpenter, NASA Mercury astronaut and aquanaut

2000 | Phillip R. Shriver, President emeritus of Miami University

1999 | Benno Schmidt, President of Edison Project

1998 | Beverly Sills, New York City Opera (retired), Board of Lincoln Center (NYC)

1997 | Jonathan Kozol, author and educator

1996 | Clarence Page, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, television commentator, graduate of Middletown High School

1995 | Robert Novak, columnist and television commentator

1994 | Sarah Brady, gun control advocate

1993 | Dr. Benjamin Hooks, retired executive director of the NAACP

1992 | Dr. Oscar Arias, Nobel Peace Prize recipient and former president of Costa Rica

1991 | Daniel Schorr, journalist and NPR commentator

1990 | Edmund Muskie, Governor of Maine, Senator from Maine, US Secretary of State, Presidential candidate

1989 | Archibald Cox, Watergate prosecutor, President of Common Cause

1987 | Mortimer Adler, author, philosopher, Encyclopedia Brittanica editor

1986 | Elliot Richardson, Ambassador to the Court of St. James, US Attorney General, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Commerce

1985 | Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., presidential advisor and Pulitzer Prize winning historian

1984 | Senator William Proxmire, US Senator

1983 | Dr. Leon Martel, Futurist

1982 | Dr. Linus Pauling, recipient of two Nobel Prizes, Chemistry and Peace

1981 | Juanita Kreps, Secretary of Commerce (Carter administration)

1980 | General William Westmoreland, US Army (retired)

1979 | Sir Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of Great Britain

1978 | Justice Arthur Goldberg, Secretary of Labor, US Supreme Court Justice, Ambassador to the United Nations

1977 | William B. Saxbe, Ohio Attorney General, US Ambassador to India

1976 | George M. Hook, retired president of Armco Steel

1975 | James J. Kilpatrick, columnist and commentator

1974 | Sander Vanocur, journalist

1973 | Justice William O. Douglas, US Supreme Court Justice