Protecting the freedom to vote from election disinformation and anti-voter legislation
2023-05-18 19:30 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
Democracy in the balance: Election and voter issues remain grave concerns. Trevor Potter and Hayden Johnson will explore peak pandemic voter access expansion policies, the rise of the “election denier,” as well as election manipulation efforts and post-2020 efforts to roll back voter access. Potter and Johnson will provide the CLC response.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_f57vOao6RwCLJAQLT2SoNA
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/

Speakers:

Trevor Potter is the president of the Campaign Legal Center (CLC), an organization dedicated to advancing democracy through law. A Republican former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission, Trevor was general counsel to John McCain’s 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns and an adviser to the drafters of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. The American Bar Association Journal has described Trevor as “hands-down one of the top lawyers in the country on the delicate intersection of politics, law, and money.” Trevor has appeared widely in national broadcast and print media. To many, Trevor is perhaps best known for his recurring appearances on The Colbert Report as the lawyer for Stephen Colbert’s super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, during the 2012 election.

Hayden Johnson is an attorney on litigation and policy projects across CLC’s programs. Highlights from his CLC work include litigating disputes during the 2020 election, contributing to the development of the Electoral Count Reform Act, confronting voter intimidation, and advocating against gerrymandering.

Kevin Johnson, the moderator, is the Executive Director of Election Reformers Network, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to modernizing U.S. democratic institutions threatened by polarization. Kevin leads ERN’s programs in impartial election administration, independent redistricting, and voting rules. Mr. Johnson is also a member of the Carter Center’s Election Expert Study Team, which supports Carter Center programs in the U.S.
Mr. Johnson’s election reform experience includes seven years overseas with the National Democratic Institute, ten years on the Board of Common Cause Massachusetts, and advisory positions with American Promise, Rank the Vote, and Voter Choice Massachusetts.
Mr. Johnson has authored more than two dozen election-related opinion pieces in outlets including The Washington Post, The Hill, Governing, and The Daily Beast, along with longer reports on topics such as partisan election administration and gerrymandering. Mr. Johnson has an MBA from Wharton and a BA from Yale.

Event Co-sponsors:

Great Power Competition and the Middle East
2023-06-15 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
A new collaboration between China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Russia has emerged, confronting the US and the global community. What does such a collaboration actually mean for US foreign policy, competition with China, relationship with Saudi Arabia, and long-time challenging issues with Iran? What does this mean for democracy in the US and elsewhere? There are many questions, and it might be too early to determine the nature of this collaboration, but our expert team will get us thinking.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_E09WBbu2Sya3AMOPzP_9KQ
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/

Speakers:
F. Gregory Gause, III, joined the Bush School in 2014 as the head of the Department of International Affairs, serving until 2022 in that capacity, and holds the John H. Lindsey ’44 Chair. He was previously at the University of Vermont, where he was professor of political science from 1995 to 2014 and, from 2010 to 2013, chair of its Department of Political Science. He served as director of the University’s Middle East Studies Program from 1998 to 2008. He was a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Doha Center from 2012-2015. Dr. Gause received his PhD in political science from Harvard University (1987) and studied Arabic at the American University in Cairo (1982-83) and at Middlebury College (1984). Dr. Gause’s research focuses on the international politics of the Middle East, with a particular interest in the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf. He has published three books, the most recent of which is The International Relations of the Persian Gulf (Cambridge University Press, 2010). His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Security Studies, Middle East Journal, and The National Interest, as well as in other journals and edited volumes. He has testified on Persian Gulf issues before the Committee on International Relations of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Andrew Scobell is the Distinguished Fellow for China at the United States Institute of Peace and Adjunct Professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Prior to joining USIP, he spent eleven years as Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation. During 2021 he held the Donald Bren Chair in Non-Western Strategic Thought in the Krulak Center for Innovation and Future Warfare at Marine Corps University. Earlier he served on the faculty of Texas A&M University (2007-2010) and at the U.S. Army War College (1999-2007). Scobell’s publications include: Crossroads of Competition: China, Russia and the United States in the Middle East (RAND 2022); China-Russia Cooperation: Determining Factors, Future Trajectories, Implications for the United States (RAND 2021); China in the Middle East: The Wary Dragon (RAND 2016). Scobell earned a doctorate in Political Science from Columbia University. He was born and raised in Hong Kong.
Shibley Telhami is the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development, Distinguished Scholar-Teacher, and the Director of the University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll. He is also Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Before coming to the University of Maryland, he taught at several universities, including Cornell University, the Ohio State University, the University of Southern California, Princeton University, Columbia University, Swarthmore College, and the University of California at Berkeley, where he received his doctorate in political science. He has also been active in the foreign policy arena. He has advised every U.S. administration from George H.W. Bush to Barack Obama. He is the author and editor of numerous books. His best-selling book, The Stakes: America and the Middle East, was selected by Foreign Affairs as one of the top five books on the Middle East in 2003. His most recent book is a co-edited with contributions volume, The One State Reality: What is Israel/Palestine? which was published in March 2023 with Cornell University Press. He has one forthcoming books: Peace Derailed: Obama, Trump, Biden, and the Decline of Diplomacy on Israel/Palestine, 2011-2022 (co-authored). Telhami was selected by the Carnegie Corporation of New York along with the New York Times as one of the “Great Immigrants” for 2013. In 2022, he was listed by the Washingtonian Magazine as one of the “Most Influential People on Foreign Affairs.” He is also a recipient of the University of Maryland’s Honors College Outstanding Faculty Award, The University of Maryland Distinguished Service Award, and the University of Maryland Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award.
Gideon Rose, the moderator, is the Mary and David Boies Distinguished Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was previously Editor of Foreign Affairs from 2010 to 2021. He served as Associate Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 under the Clinton Administration. His most recent articles in Foreign Affairs are “Why the War in Ukraine Won’t Go Nuclear”, and “The Irony of Ukraine.”

Event Co-sponsors:

Climate Change Solutions with Bill McKibben
2023-07-11 19:30 - 20:30 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
Most understand the climate is changing before our eyes. Implementing solutions has been slowly occurring, but much more needs to be accomplished. Join Bill McKibben for an in-depth discussion on the opportunities, priorities, and diverse solutions to address the challenges of carbon emission and climate change. Find out what each of us can do to make a difference.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KhSMFuBjRCuTyV4aox1vuA
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/

Speakers:
Bill McKibben is a contributing writer to The New Yorker, and a founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice. He founded the first global grassroots climate campaign, 350.org, and serves as the Schumann Distinguished Professor in Residence at Middlebury College in Vermont. In 2014 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel,’ in the Swedish Parliament. He’s also won the Gandhi Peace Award, and honorary degrees from 19 colleges and universities. He has written over a dozen books about the environment, including his first, The End of Nature, published in 1989, and his latest book is The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at his Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened.

Daniel L. Sosland, the moderator, is the President of Acadia Center. For over 25 years, Dan has been working in the field of climate and clean energy solutions. His major focus has been as president and co-founder of Acadia Center, a non-profit research and advocacy organization acting at the state, regional, and community levels to advance climate and clean energy solutions in the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada. One of the first such organizations created in the U.S. to address climate solutions, Acadia Center, has won awards from U.S. EPA, the American Council for an Energy Efficiency Economy and others for its groundbreaking work on climate pathways, energy efficiency and transforming government to be responsive to climate and equity and is ranked in the top 1% of non-profits evaluated by Charity Navigator. Prior to Acadia Center, Dan’s work focused on energy efficiency and forest and watershed protection. Dan was given the Maine Forever Award by Gov. Angus King and the Exemplary Public Service Award from Cornell Law School. He began his career at a major law firm in New York City and holds a JD with honors from Cornell Law School and a BA from Brown University. He is a member of the board of directors of the U.S. Climate Action Network.

Event Co-sponsors:

State of the 2024 Elections: Context and Predictions from Academe
2023-09-21 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
This discussion will focus on the 2024 elections and the presidential campaign in process, highlighting the most important aspects of the race and putting the contest in a scholarly perspective. Manza and Herbst will bring their broad knowledge of American political and public opinion to the analysis of the campaign, going beyond the polls and media reports. Where are we with regard to political discourse, culture, and the future of the presidency, and how can we, as citizens, assess our role in these fraught times?

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OqGFIXEHQ4-5gG-3Im13qg
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/

Speakers:

Susan Herbst is University Professor of Political Science and President Emeritus at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Herbst is a scholar of public opinion, media, and American politics and is the author of five books and many articles in these areas. Along with Lawrence R. Jacobs, Adam J. Berinsky, and Frances Lee, she edits the University of Chicago Press Studies in American Politics. Her most recent book, A Troubled Birth: The 1930s and American Public Opinion, was recently published by the University of Chicago Press. Before coming to UCONN, Herbst was a faculty and administrator at Northwestern University, Temple University, and Georgia Tech.

Jeff Manza is Professor of Sociology and the chair of the Department of Sociology at New York University. He received his BA and PhD from the University of California – Berkeley. Before coming to NYU in 2006, he taught at Penn State (1996-98) and Northwestern (1998-2006). His teaching and research interests lay at the intersection of inequality, political sociology, and public policy. His research examines how different types of social identities and inequalities influence political processes such as voting, partisanship, and public opinion (at both the macro and micro level).

Event Co-sponsors:

Civil Liberties: The Next Hundred Years
2023-10-13 17:00 - 18:30 | Brookly Law School or Zoom, 250 Joralemon St., Brooklyn, NY, 11201, United States
About the Discussion
Please join us for a celebration of Advanced Introduction to US Civil Liberties (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023), the most recent publication by Susan N. Herman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, and of Professor Herman’s 40-year career at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), including serving as President from 2008 to 2021.
The panel includes an all-star roster of civil libertarians, including Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, UC Berkeley School of Law; Ellis Cose, acclaimed author and journalist; Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director, ACLU; and Nadine Strossen, John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law, Emerita, New York Law School and former President, ACLU, in a discussion of the future of civil liberties, with the past and present described in the book as prologue. This event will be held both in person and virtually on Zoom.
Please use the RSVP link below to register to attend this event in person at Brooklyn Law School or virtually on Zoom. Virtual attendees will receive the Zoom link shortly before the event.
https://securelb.imodules.com/s/1286/18/interior-wide.aspx?sid=1286&gid=1&pgid=3571&cid=5000

More Information
For general inquiries regarding this event, please get in touch with the Brooklyn Law School Office of Events at events@brooklaw.edu or (718) 780-0321.
Requests for a reasonable accommodation, based on a disability, to attend this event should be made to Louise Cohen, Director of Equal Opportunity and Title IX Coordinator, at louise.cohen@brooklaw.edu. Please make your request at least 10 days before the event. We will do our best to address accommodation requests made after the 10 days.
Co-sponsored by the ACLU and presented in collaboration with the Network for Responsible Public Policy (NFRPP).

What Are Human Rights Anyway?
2023-10-19 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
Human rights go beyond traditional American concepts of civil liberties.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN in the wake of World War II without dissent, included all kinds of rights – civil and political rights (like the right to free speech and a fair trial), social and economic rights (like the right to food, shelter, and education) and, critically, a right for all people to be treated with dignity – a concept traceable to the French value of fraternité.
At a time when civil liberties in many places around the world–and even here at home–are under siege, could this more expansive vision of our ideals help us to promote freedom, peace, and community?
The 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a good time to look at what this widely praised document actually says, why its framers thought that all of its values are inextricably interconnected, and America’s track record of implementation of those values.”

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Dd2YiF0TTkyOqZjJpreWHA
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/

Speakers:
Susan Herman is the inaugural Ruth Bader Ginsburg Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School. Like Ginsburg, she served as General Counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union. In October 2008, Herman was elected as the seventh President of the ACLU, a position she held until stepping down in January 2021. She teaches courses in Constitutional Law and Criminal Procedure, and seminars including Terrorism and Civil Liberties, Law and Literature, COVID-19 and the Constitution, and Current Issues in Constitutional Law.
Herman has written and spoken widely in the areas of Constitutional Law and Criminal Procedure. Her publications include several books as well as articles in law reviews, periodicals, and online venues. Her book, Taking Liberties: The War on Terror and the Erosion of American Democracy (Oxford University Press 2011; paperback edition 2014), was awarded the Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize. She has discussed constitutional law issues on radio, including a variety of NPR shows; on television, including programs on CNN, CSPAN, MSNBC, NBC, and PBS; and has been a frequent speaker at conferences and events organized by schools, universities, and law schools; by groups ranging from the Federal Judicial Center to the U.S. Army War College to Wikimania; and at international conferences like Web Summit and Collision.
Elisa Massimino is Visiting Professor of Law and Executive Director of Georgetown’s Human Rights Institute. She also serves as a non-resident senior fellow in national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress.
Massimino joined the Georgetown faculty in 2019 as the Robert F. Drinan, S.J., Chair in Human Rights. Before coming to Georgetown, Massimino was a senior fellow with the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a practitioner-in-residence at Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. Previously, Massimino spent 27 years—the last decade as president and CEO—at Human Rights First, one of the nation’s leading human rights advocacy organizations.
Massimino has a distinguished record of human rights advocacy in Washington. She has testified before Congress dozens of times; writes frequently for mainstream publications and specialized journals; appears regularly in major media outlets; and speaks to audiences around the country. During her leadership at Human Rights First, the influential Washington publication The Hill consistently named her one of the most effective public advocates in the country; Washingtonian magazine has repeatedly named her one of D.C.’s most influential people in foreign policy.

Penny M. Venetis, host/moderator, is a Distinguished Clinical Professor of Law and the Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise Scholar at Rutgers Law School, where she is the founder and Director of the International Human Rights Clinic. Her scholarship focuses on the interplay between U.S. constitutional law and international human rights law. Professor Venetis has litigated cutting-edge issues in state and federal courts throughout the U.S., as well as in international tribunals. Her lawsuits have covered issues of first impression in the areas of: freedom of speech, voting rights, equal protection, rape and sexual abuse, human trafficking, the Alien Tort Statue, and immigrants’ rights. Her 1995 Jama lawsuit led to the first federal court decision to find that international human rights law can be applied in damages actions for abuses committed in the U.S. Her challenge of felony disenfranchisement (state laws that disenfranchise over 5 million U.S. citizens simply because they have felony convictions) is currently being heard by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Professor Venetis was instrumental in drafting and helping to pass FOSTA/SESTA (federal anti-human trafficking legislation), and in introducing “sextortion” into the criminal codes of over 25 states to protect the public, particularly children, from online sexual predators. Professor Venetis has testified before many legislative bodies around the U.S. Her work has been covered widely by the media, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Politico.

Event Co-sponsors:

We Need to Talk: Affective Polarization and Discussion
2023-11-02 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
In the talk, Professor Levendusky discusses the origins of affective polarization, the tendency of Democrats and Republicans to dislike and distrust one another. He will share strategies he has tested in his research for reducing this animosity, centered on discussion.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sgLVnKuvQeidjKyIOac0iw
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on Thursday, November 2, 2022

Matthew Levendusky is professor of Political Science, as well as the Stephen and Mary Baran Chair in the Institutions of Democracy at the Annenberg Public Policy Center. He also holds a secondary (courtesy) appointment at the Annenberg School for Communication. He was previously the Penny and Robert A. Fox Director of the Fels Institute of Government (2018-2023), Distinguished Fellow in the Institutions of Democracy at the Annenberg Public Policy Center (2017-2019), as well as graduate group chairperson (2013-2018), associate professor (2013-2018), and assistant professor of Political Science at Penn (2007-2013), as well as a postdoctoral research associate at the Center for the Study of American Politics at Yale University (2006-2007). He obtained his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2006 and his BA (with highest honors) from The Pennsylvania State University in 2001. Since 2014, he has served as a decision desk analyst for NBC News.

Kristina Becvar, the guest host, is the Executive Director of the Bridge Alliance. Her professional journey has been nothing short of transformative. From a legal, operational, and change management background, she followed her curiosity to explore the world of data analytics and research methods, opening up new career paths for herself. Kristina is deeply engaged in nonviolence advocacy, particularly for those affected by war and conflict in conflict zones and international security. Her experiences as the spouse of a disabled combat veteran have contributed to her desire to bring about positive change in this field. During her M.S. pursuit, Kristina delved deep into her passion as a Human Security Lab project manager, supervising research on topics like nuclear taboos, Ukrainian conscription law, and post-U.S. withdrawal civilian voices in Afghanistan.

Ukraine Update IV
2023-12-21 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
As Russia’s war against Ukraine rages on, one wonders what to anticipate. Will the Coalition hold over time? Will Russia be held accountable for crimes? Can a small country succeed in its passion for independence and quest for democracy? How will peace be achieved? What is the likely future of Ukraine and Russia? What could be the impact on the global community? These are a few of the questions on our minds. You have your own questions. Our distinguished experts will help to unpack and understand the complexities and challenges of this war in its current phase and what to anticipate going forward.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kDRwfEgaSGGRJRgfeB3PjA
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on December 21, 2022

Speakers:
Timothy Frye is the Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy. He received a B.A. in Russian language and literature from Middlebury College, an M.I.A. from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia. His research and teaching interests are in comparative politics and political economy, focusing on the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. His most recent book is Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin’s Russia. He also edits Post-Soviet Affairs.

Oxana Shevel is an associate professor of political science at Tufts University and director of the Tufts International Relations Program. She is co-author (with Maria Popova) of a book on the root causes of the Russo-Ukrainian war, Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States (Polity, 2023). Her earlier book Migration, Refugee Policy, and State Building in Postcommunist Europe (Cambridge, 2011) won the American Association of Ukrainian Studies (AAUS) prize for best book in the fields of Ukrainian history, politics, language, literature, and culture. Prof. Shevel serves as Vice President of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) and of the AAUS. She’s also a country expert on Ukraine for the EU Global Citizenship Observatory, a member of the PONARS Eurasia scholarly network, a board member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, and an associate of both the Davis Center and the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. Prof. Shevel holds a Ph.D. in government from Harvard, an M.Phil. in international relations from the University of Cambridge, and a B.A. in English and French from Kyiv State University.
Gideon Rose, the moderator, is the Mary and David Boies Distinguished Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was previously Editor of Foreign Affairs from 2010 to 2021. He served as Associate Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 under the Clinton Administration. His most recent articles in Foreign Affairs are “Why the War in Ukraine Won’t Go Nuclear”, and “The Irony of Ukraine.”

The Problem With Politics Isn't What You Think It Is. And Neither Is the Solution
2024-02-15 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
Learn what is at the root cause of our political dysfunction (an anti-competitive system) and the solutions. During this webinar, we will learn about:

How the existing electoral systems deliberately contribute to gridlock and dysfunction.
Why competition plays a crucial role in holding elected officials accountable for delivering results.
How proposed solutions differ.
The promising governing results are already being seen.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hr-_eAIvQ5y8EhaOYAmjMw
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on Thursday, February 15, 2024

Speakers:
Richard Barton is a professor of Public Administration and International Affairs. His research focuses on election systems, legislative institutions and American political economy. His peer-reviewed publications include “A Primary Threat: How Ideological Primary Challengers Exacerbate Polarization in Bill Sponsorship” and “Upending the New Deal Regulatory Regime: Democratic Party Position Change on Financial Regulation.” He authored the white paper reports “California’s Top-Two Primary: The Effects on Electoral Politics and Governance” and “Louisiana’s Long-Term Election Experiment: How Eliminating Partisan Primaries Improved Governance and Reduced.” His op-eds have been published by over 50 different outlets including the Washington Post and CNN. He is a Democracy Fellow with the Unite America Institute, where he conducts research and thought leadership on the effects of primaries and alternative electoral institutions on governance He earned a Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University.
Katherine M. Gehl is the founder of The Institute for Political Innovation (IPI), a nonpartisan nonprofit founded in 2020 to catalyze modern political change in America. Katherine is the originator of Politics Industry Theory, and author of “The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy,” which she co-authored with Harvard Business School professor Michael E. Porter. Katherine is a veteran of the public and private sectors. The former president and CEO of Gehl Foods, a $250-million high-tech food-manufacturing company based in Wisconsin, she increased the equity value of the company by nearly 19x over seven years before selling the company in 2015. In the public sector, Katherine served on the Board of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the US government’s development finance institution. She is on several nonprofit boards and is an active philanthropist. She is also the honorary co-chair of the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers, and the co-founder of Democracy Found.
Kevin Johnson, the moderator, is the Executive Director of Election Reformers Network, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to modernizing U.S. democratic institutions threatened by polarization. Kevin leads ERN’s programs in impartial election administration, independent redistricting, and voting rules. Mr. Johnson is also a member of the Carter Center’s Election Expert Study Team, which supports Carter Center programs in the U.S. Mr. Johnson’s election reform experience includes seven years overseas with the National Democratic Institute, ten years on the Board of Common Cause Massachusetts, and advisory positions with American Promise, Rank the Vote, and Voter Choice Massachusetts. Mr. Johnson has authored more than two dozen election-related opinion pieces in outlets including The Washington Post, The Hill, Governing, and The Daily Beast, along with longer reports on topics such as partisan election administration and gerrymandering. Mr. Johnson has an MBA from Wharton and a BA from Yale.

Event Co-sponsors:

The Role Of Big Money In U.S. Elections
2024-03-21 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
Join this informative discussion with a group of campaign finance law experts from the nonpartisan, nonprofit Campaign Legal Center to learn how big money special interest spending—often from secret sources—is affecting our elections and the solutions. Topics will include the evolving and increasingly powerful role of super PACs and other ostensibly “independent” groups that influence U.S. elections and why federal regulators frequently fail to enforce federal campaign finance rules. The experts will discuss what money-in-politics concerns they anticipate in the run-up to the 2024 elections and what can be done (and is already being done) to address these problems, including in the courts, ballot initiatives, legislative and regulatory reforms at the state and local level.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yMDfWn8FQ4SDPETlUGFJlQ
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on Thursday March 21, 2024

Speakers:
Erin Chlopak – Senior Director, Campaign Finance
Erin leads CLC’s work to promote and defend strong campaign finance laws and ensure that existing laws are enforced. Erin’s expert analysis on campaign finance issues has been featured in national media outlets including the Washington Post, National Public Radio, BBC, Forbes, and USA Today.
Before joining CLC, Erin spent nearly a decade working on a wide range of campaign finance issues in the Federal Election Commission’s Office of General Counsel. From 2017 to 2018, Erin led the FEC’s Policy Division, overseeing all legal recommendations regarding FEC regulations, advisory opinions, and other legal policy guidance. From 2009 to 2017, Erin served as an attorney and then as assistant general counsel in the FEC’s Litigation Division, litigating a wide range of campaign finance cases.
Erin is a graduate of American University’s Washington College of Law, where she served as editor-in-chief of the American University Law Review, and she received a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University. She clerked for Judge Helen Gillmor of the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii.

Saurav Ghosh – Director, Federal Campaign Finance Reform
Saurav leads CLC’s efforts to uncover campaign finance violations, file complaints seeking administrative enforcement, and pursue legislative and regulatory reforms to strengthen and ensure the consistent and robust enforcement of federal campaign finance laws.
After starting his legal career in private practice, Saurav served for almost seven years in the Enforcement Division of the Federal Election Commission’s Office of General Counsel, investigating alleged violations in dozens of campaign finance matters. Saurav also previously served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
Saurav received his law degree from Stanford Law School (J.D.), where he was awarded the Carl Mason Franklin Prize in International Law and published in the Stanford Law Review, and his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania. After law school, Saurav clerked for the Honorable John M. Rogers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Kevin P. Hancock – Director, Strategic Litigation
Kevin litigates to protect voting rights, ensure fair redistricting and to reform the campaign finance system.
Before joining CLC, served for nearly a decade in several capacities as an attorney at the Federal Election Commission (FEC), including as an acting assistant general counsel for litigation and as senior counsel to FEC Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub. Kevin graduated valedictorian from Seton Hall University School of Law, where he was editor-in-chief of the Seton Hall Law Review. He clerked for the Honorable Maryanne Trump Barry of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and the Honorable John C. Lifland of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Aaron McKean – Legal Counsel, State & Local Reform
Aaron works with state and local partners to develop and advocate for campaign finance reforms that lift the voices of voters and lead to a more transparent democracy.
Prior to joining CLC, Aaron was a legislative attorney at the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, a nonpartisan legislative service agency, drafting legislation for members of the Wisconsin Legislature. He also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Azerbaijan from 2009 to 2011.
Aaron is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Event Co-sponsors:

Returning to Philadelphia: Amending the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century
2024-04-11 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
Learn the story of Jefferson’s debate with Madison about periodic constitutional renewal (Jefferson wanted each generation to write its own Constitution; Madison favored an enduring Constitution). That historical debate opens up different proposals for constitutional change today. Learn about historic challenges and what is possible today that could make the American Constitution even more effective for We the People”.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZqSwrYPlRVaqtEcO71KSnQ
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on Thursday, April 11, 2024

Speakers:
Beau Breslin is the Joseph C. Palamountain Jr. Professor of Political Science at Skidmore College. Skidmore’s Dean of the Faculty from 2011 to 2018, Breslin has called the College in Saratoga Springs, NY his professional home for 25 years. He is the author of numerous articles on topics ranging from constitutional theory to the death penalty to restorative justice. He has also published three books: The Communitarian Constitution (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), From Words to Worlds: Exploring Constitutional Functionality (The Johns Hopkins Series in Constitutional Thought, 2009), and his latest, A Constitution for the Living: Imagining How Five Generations of Americans Would Rewrite the Nation’s Fundamental Law (Stanford University Press, 2021). He holds a BA in political science from Hobart College and a MA and Ph.D in constitutional thought from the University of Pennsylvania.
Professor Henry L. Chambers, Jr., is Professor of Law and Austin E. Owen Research Scholar at the University of Richmond. He teaches and writes in the areas of voting rights, employment discrimination, constitutional law, criminal law, and law and religion. His upcoming essay, Douglass, Lincoln, and Douglas before Dred Scott: A Few Thoughts on Freedom, Equality, and Affirmative Action, considers how past visions of equality and inequality continue to arise in today’s affirmative action discussions. Chambers served as Special Assistant Attorney General for redistricting matters for the Commonwealth of Virginia during the post-2010 Census redistricting cycle. Recent appointments include serving as the vice-chair of the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission, as a member of the Virginia Governor’s Commission to Examine Racial and Economic Inequity in the Law, and as an advisor to the Virginia Model Jury Instruction Committee. Chambers has lectured on constitutional law in various venues, including through the We The People program, which provides civic education instruction to school teachers and the public; at James Madison’s Montpelier; and at the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville. He is the editor of the pocket pamphlet, American Legacy: The United States Constitution and Other Essential Documents of American Democracy, 2nd Edition (Center for Civic Education 2023).

Event Co-sponsors:

Taxes: What You Need to Know
2024-05-02 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
Taxes are deeply embedded in the fabric of the American economy and society. They create incentives related to work, saving, investment, borrowing, and marriage. They are key tools for the provision of the safety net and the redistribution of resources. And, certainly, not least, they finance government spending. At some level, the goals of tax policy command widespread support: raise the revenues needed to finance the government as simply, as equitably, and in as growth-friendly a manner as possible. However, the goals often conflict with one another – equity and growth, in particular. In addition, people often disagree on what the goals mean, how to make tradeoffs among the goals, and the best way to achieve any particular objective. As a result, taxes remain a perennial source of controversy among researchers, policymakers, and the public, involving both subjective and objective considerations.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CL9M7buwQa-lG6Y4h2-23w
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on Thursday, May 2nd, 2024

Speakers:
Kyle Pomerleau is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies federal tax policy. Before joining AEI, Mr. Pomerleau was chief economist and vice president of economic analysis at the Tax Foundation, where he led the macroeconomic and tax modeling team and wrote on various tax policy topics, including corporate taxation, international tax policy, carbon taxation, and tax reform.
The author of many studies, Mr. Pomerleau has been published in trade publications and policy journals including Tax Notes and the National Tax Journal. He is frequently quoted in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He has also testified before Congress and state legislators.
Mr. Pomerleau has an MPP in economic and social policy from Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy and a BA in history and political science from the University of Southern Maine.

William Gale is the Arjay and Frances Miller Chair in Federal Economic Policy in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. His research focuses on tax policy, fiscal policy, pensions and saving behavior. He is co-director of the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute. From 2006 to 2009, he served as vice president of Brookings and director of the Economic Studies Program. Gale is the author of Fiscal Therapy: Curing America’s Debt Addiction and Investing in the Future (Oxford University Press, 2019).
His research has been published in several scholarly journals, including the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, and Quarterly Journal of Economics. In 2007, a paper he co-authored was awarded the TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award Certificate of Excellence.
He has testified more than 30 times in Congress and has written extensively in policy-related publications and newspapers, including op-eds in CNN, the Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.

Peter Coy, our moderator, writes about economics, business, and finance for the Opinion section of The New York Times. Prior to writing for The Times, he was the Economics Editor at Bloomberg Businessweek. Coy is an alum of Cornell University.

Event Co-sponsors:

Identity in Urban-Rural Political Division: Consequences and Solutions
2024-05-23 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
Rural America continues to surface in our media as a special place with a unique identity and challenges. What is that identity, how did it develop, and what are the special challenges? Is there an urban/rural divide, and if so, what are the solutions?

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uMqowo0DSSy7OxcIda-LyA
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on Thursday, May 23, 2024

Speakers:
Michael Shepherd is an assistant professor in the Department of Government and the Health and Society program. He joined the faculty in 2022 from Vanderbilt University, where he was a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society and the Data Science Institute. In August 2021, he received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Vanderbilt University. His dissertation, “Unhealthy Democracy: How Partisan Politics is Killing Rural America,” won the 2022 Best Dissertation Award from the Class and Inequality Section of the American Political Science Association. He graduated with a master’s degree from the University of Akron in 2015 and a bachelor’s degree from Murray State University in 2013. Michael’s research interests are in American politics and public policy. Specifically, his work focuses on the politics of health and health policy as well as the experiences of marginalized social groups with the government. Additionally, Michael’s research addresses questions of class and inequality, race and racism, and political communication in American politics
Kristin Lunz Trujillo is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of South Carolina. Her research adopts a political psychology framework to explore mass political behavior, particularly as it relates to the urban-rural divide, identity, trust, and health attitudes. Her work has been funded by the NSF, and she has published in academic journals such as Political Behavior, Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Geography, Political Science Research and Methods, Political Research Quarterly, and Social Science & Medicine, among others. Her work has also won several awards and has appeared in various media outlets, including The New York Times, Newsweek, Forbes, FiveThirtyEight, John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, Time, and US News and World Report. Before coming to the University of South Carolina, Kristin was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy and at the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University. She completed her Ph.D. in Political Science with a minor in political psychology at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities in 2021.

Event Co-sponsors:

Healthcare: How Did We Get Here and Where Are We Going
2024-06-04 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
This program will discuss the history of our healthcare system, the Affordable Care Act, and where we go from here. Many believe the US healthcare system is broken and needs fixing. Two health policy experts will discuss the issues, challenges, and opportunities.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rTRqlD9XQT2YkkVfgsSxVg
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on Tuesday, June 4th, 2024

Speakers:
Dr. Jonathan Gruber is the Ford Professor of Economics and the Chairman of the Economics Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has taught since 1992. He is also the former Director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the former President of the American Society of Health Economists and the Eastern Economics Association. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Social Insurance, and the Econometric Society He has published more than 180 research articles, has edited six research volumes, and is the author of Public Finance and Public Policy, a leading undergraduate text in its 7th edition, Health Care Reform, a graphic novel, and Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth and the American Dream (with Simon Johnson). In 2006 he received the American Society of Health Economists Inaugural Medal for the best health economist in the nation aged 40 and under. During the 1997-1998 academic year, Dr. Gruber was on leave as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department. From 2003-2006 he was a key architect of Massachusetts’ ambitious health reform effort, and in 2006 became an inaugural member of the Health Connector Board, the main implementing body for that effort. During 2009-2010 he served as a technical consultant to the Obama Administration and worked with both the Administration and Congress to help craft the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In 2011 he was named “One of the Top 25 Most Innovative and Practical Thinkers of Our Time” by Slate Magazine. In both 2006 and 2012 he was rated as one of the top 100 most powerful people in health care in the United States by Modern Healthcare Magazine. In 2020 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Joel Cantor, moderator/discussant, is a Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and the founding Director of the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Established 1999, the Center is a leader in health policy research nationally, with a special focus on informing policy in New Jersey. Dr. Cantor has published widely on innovations in health service financing and delivery for high-need populations and the regulation of health insurance and services. He serves frequently as an advisor on health policy matters to New Jersey state government and was awarded the 2006 Rutgers University President’s Award for Research in Service to New Jersey. Dr. Cantor currently leads a study funded by the National Institutes of Health examining Medicaid service use and spending for people experiencing homelessness and evaluating the impact of Permanent Supportive Housing on racial/ethnic and rural disparities in Medicaid outcomes. He also leads the of the New Jersey Population Health Cohort Study, a major new investigation of the effects of enduring and emerging stressors on population health and health equity. Dr. Cantor received his doctorate in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins University, School of Public Health in 1988.
.

Event Co-sponsors:

A Purple Agenda For The Next Four Years
2024-06-20 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
Americans are distinctly unenthusiastic about their options for president this year. Who the candidates are is one problem. What they stand for is another. What are the key issues concerning voters, and what policies best address them? The economist Laurence “Larry” Kotlikoff is here to help us figure this out. He has a purple agenda that blends some red, some blue, and some ideas that almost nobody else talks about. He has unique ideas for solving contentious issues that would replace the personal income tax, the banks, and Social Security as we know them today. Kotlikoff is an innovative thinker, and his ideas are worth our reflection.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vFBmIgZVR1WUV28Q2dvt6g
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on Thursday, June 20, 2024

Speakers:
Laurence Kotlikoff is a professor of economics at Boston University with a doctorate from Harvard. He is also president of Economic Security Planning, a company that provides personal financial planning tools. His columns, articles, and 21 books cover personal finance, generational policy, climate policy, inequality, tax reform, Social Security, banking, robotization, growth, and more. In 2014, The Economist named him one of the world’s 25 most influential economists.

Peter Coy, our moderator, writes about economics, business, and finance for the Opinion section of The New York Times. Prior to writing for The Times, he was the Economics Editor at Bloomberg Businessweek. Coy is an alum of Cornell University.

.

Event Co-sponsors:

Add to calendar

A Serious Election Demands a Serious Electorate
2024-08-27 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
For most Americans, the upcoming election looms like a slow-moving train wreck. There is no way to stop it from happening and no way to get out of the way. There is no rewind button. The election of 2024 will come, and whatever the results, they will have profound and perhaps permanent implications for our society. How do we understand the choice before us, and what should we do? Chris Beem says that such a serious moment in our history requires us to respond accordingly: A serious election requires a serious electorate.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5CjKcjh7ROeCF8z_pO3ahQ
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Speakers:

Christopher Beem is the Managing Director of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State. He is Research Professor of Political Science and Affiliate Faculty in the Rock Ethics Institute. He is the author or co-editor of six books. His latest, The Seven Democratic Virtues, was published in 2022 by Penn State Press. He is a cohost of the podcast, Democracy Works.

Event Co-sponsors:

Challenges to Democracy for November 2024 and Beyond
2024-09-25 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
What we need to know and discuss to assure fair voting and “We the People” has meaning. Prof. Alex Keyssar will cover ongoing methods of voter suppression, the counting and certification of votes, and the hazards of the Electoral College for 2024 and beyond.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_VkATSqeWST-6Cb400-0OdQ
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Speakers:
Alexander Keyssar is the Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy. A historian by training, he has specialized in the exploration of historical problems that have contemporary policy implications. His book, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States (2000), was named the best book in U.S. history by both the American Historical Association and the Historical Society; it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. A significantly revised and updated edition of The Right to Vote was published in 2009. His 1986 book, Out of Work: The First Century of Unemployment in Massachusetts, was awarded three scholarly prizes. Keyssar is coauthor of The Way of the Ship: America’s Maritime History Reenvisioned, 1600-2000 (2008), and of Inventing America, a text integrating the history of technology and science into the mainstream of American history. In addition, he has co-edited a book series on Comparative and International Working-Class History. In 2004/5, Keyssar chaired the Social Science Research Council’s National Research Commission on Voting and Elections, and he writes frequently for the popular press about American politics and history. Keyssar’s latest book, entitled Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College? (2020), is published by Harvard University Press.

Event Co-sponsors:

US Immigration and Border Policies: The Wrong Actions at the Wrong Time for the Wrong Reasons
2024-10-24 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
Understanding the complexities of immigration, including its emotional impact, is vital for forming effective policies, a sentiment most Americans echo. Evaluating historical US immigration policies and their current implications, and determining the best future direction is key. Consideration of our current stance and the path forward is essential. Key considerations include designing an effective border or asylum system and potential immigration scenarios under a Trump or Harris administration.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WryMVLSGSNmqdhNhpiEABQ
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on Thursday, October 24, 2024

Speakers:
Douglas S. Massey is the Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton. Prior to joining Princeton’s faculty, he taught at the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania. He is Past-President of the Population Association of America, the American Sociological Association, and the American Academy of Political and Social Science and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Academia Europea. He is the author or coauthor of 17 books, the editor or co-editor of 13 published volumes, and the author or coauthor of more than 300 articles and chapters. His publications have garnered awards from the American Philosophical Society, the American Sociological Association, the Law and Society Association, German Institute for Social Research, and the Association for Applied Anthropology.

Jeremy Robbins is the Executive Director of the American Immigration Council. Previously, Jeremy spent more than a decade building New American Economy, the think tank and advocacy organization founded by Michael Bloomberg to make the economic case for smarter immigration policies, as NAE’s first and sole Executive Director. Prior to that, Jeremy served as a policy advisor and special counsel in the Office of New York City Mayor, a judicial law clerk on the United States Court of Appeals, a Robert L. Bernstein International Human Rights Fellow working on prisoners’ rights issues in Argentina, and a litigation associate at WilmerHale in Boston, where he was part of the firm’s team representing six Bosnian men detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Jeremy received a JD from Yale Law School and a BA in political science from Brown University.

Event Co-sponsors:

What’s Next in the Russo-Ukrainian War?
2024-11-13 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
Ukraine is in the crosshairs of politics, domestically and globally. What is the current status of this war, and what does the future hold for the Ukrainian people? This program will unravel the current situation on the ground, US political sentiments and challenges, Russia’s threats to the region, its cozy relationship with some American leaders, and more. Our speakers will address the now, options, and future for Ukraine.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8au2d-0tSeKAQgTrC4P2DQ
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Speakers:
Timothy Frye is the Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy. He received a B.A. in Russian language and literature from Middlebury College, an M.I.A. from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia. His research and teaching interests are in comparative politics and political economy, focusing on the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. His most recent book is Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin’s Russia. He also edits Post-Soviet Affairs.

Oxana Shevel is an associate professor of political science at Tufts University and director of the Tufts International Relations Program. She is co-author (with Maria Popova) of a book on the root causes of the Russo-Ukrainian war, Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States (Polity, 2023). Her earlier book Migration, Refugee Policy, and State Building in Postcommunist Europe (Cambridge, 2011) won the American Association of Ukrainian Studies (AAUS) prize for best book in the fields of Ukrainian history, politics, language, literature, and culture. Prof. Shevel serves as Vice President of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) and of the AAUS. She’s also a country expert on Ukraine for the EU Global Citizenship Observatory, a member of the PONARS Eurasia scholarly network, a board member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, and an associate of both the Davis Center and the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. Prof. Shevel holds a Ph.D. in government from Harvard, an M.Phil. in international relations from the University of Cambridge, and a B.A. in English and French from Kyiv State University.
Gideon Rose, the moderator, is the Mary and David Boies Distinguished Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was previously Editor of Foreign Affairs from 2010 to 2021. He served as Associate Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 under the Clinton Administration. His most recent articles in Foreign Affairs are “Why the War in Ukraine Won’t Go Nuclear”, and “The Irony of Ukraine.”

Event Co-sponsors:

American Political Institutions: Fragile or Resilient?
2025-02-13 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
Love him or hate him, no one should doubt that Donald J. Trump has shattered many of the norms undergirding the American political experiment. His radically populist style and unconventional conservatism have, and will, test the foundations of America’s system of separated powers, checks and balances, federalism, and the like. One question is whether our political institutions — which have endured for almost 250 years — can survive such a disruption. Another question is whether we need to rethink some of those institutions, given the electorate’s dissatisfaction with the election. And what about those uniquely Americanized principles of democracy, individualism, liberty, and equality? Will they hold up under the weight of an administration bent on flipping the political script? How can we ensure genuinely democratic institutions while also guarding against the risk of anti-democratic policies and practices? Join us for an evening of conversations and questions about America’s fragile, or perhaps resilient, political landscape.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yZv5SzheSpqWlEAgmwa7Bg
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on Thursday, February 13, 2025

Speakers:

Lisa L. Miller, a professor in the political science department at Rutgers University, has research interests in crime and punishment, racial inequality, democratic accountability, constitutions, and social policy. She has written three books: The Myth of Mob Rule: Violent Crime and Democratic Politics (Oxford University Press, 2016), The Perils of Federalism: Race, Poverty and the Politics of Crime Control (OUP, 2008) and the Politics of Community Crime Prevention (Dartmouth, 2001). Her work has appeared in Law and Society Review, Perspectives on Politics, Journal of Race and Ethnic Politics, Policy Studies Journal, and Annual Review of Law and Social Science, among others. Professor Miller has served as a Visiting Professor and Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford, and as a Visiting Scholar at Princeton University. Her current book project is titled, The Myth of Checks and Balances and the American Democratic Deficit.

Beau Breslin is the Joseph C. Palamountain Jr. Professor of Political Science at Skidmore College. Skidmore’s Dean of the Faculty from 2011 to 2018, Breslin has called the College in Saratoga Springs, NY his professional home for 25 years. He is the author of numerous articles on topics ranging from constitutional theory to the death penalty to restorative justice. He has also published three books: The Communitarian Constitution (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), From Words to Worlds: Exploring Constitutional Functionality (The Johns Hopkins Series in Constitutional Thought, 2009), and his latest, A Constitution for the Living: Imagining How Five Generations of Americans Would Rewrite the Nation’s Fundamental Law (Stanford University Press, 2021). He holds a BA in political science from Hobart College and a MA and Ph.D in constitutional thought from the University of Pennsylvania.

Henry L. Chambers, Jr., is Professor of Law and Austin E. Owen Research Scholar at the University of Richmond. He teaches and writes in the areas of voting rights, employment discrimination, constitutional law, criminal law, and law and religion. His upcoming essay, Douglass, Lincoln, and Douglas before Dred Scott: A Few Thoughts on Freedom, Equality, and Affirmative Action, considers how past visions of equality and inequality continue to arise in today’s affirmative action discussions. Chambers served as Special Assistant Attorney General for redistricting matters for the Commonwealth of Virginia during the post-2010 Census redistricting cycle. Recent appointments include serving as the vice-chair of the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission, as a member of the Virginia Governor’s Commission to Examine Racial and Economic Inequity in the Law, and as an advisor to the Virginia Model Jury Instruction Committee. Chambers has lectured on constitutional law in various venues, including through the We The People program, which provides civic education instruction to school teachers and the public; at James Madison’s Montpelier; and at the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville. He is the editor of the pocket pamphlet, American Legacy: The United States Constitution and Other Essential Documents of American Democracy, 2nd Edition (Center for Civic Education 2023).

Event Co-sponsors:

Ending the Corruption of Money
2025-02-27 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
Concentrated wealth is the enemy of democracy. As the great jurist Louis Brandeis is reputed to have said, “America has a choice. We can either have great wealth in the hands of a few, or we can have a democracy. But we cannot have both.”
Professor Lawrence Lessig, one of the most important experts on the problem of money influence, will provide a multi-prong approach to this serious challenge to democracy. Most Americans understand and deplore how money’s influence dims our voices in favor of powerful self-interest. How to address this complex issue will be a key part of this discussion. What can we do?

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2bBaIgFnToii637JnhaUwg
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on Thursday, February 27, 2025

Speaker:
Lawrence Lessig is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School. Prior to returning to Harvard, he taught at Stanford Law School, where he founded the Center for Internet and Society, and at the University of Chicago. He clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court. He holds an honorary degree from the University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada, UCLouvain, Belgium, Lund Univeristy, Sweden, Athabasca University, Athabasca, Canada, Amsterdam University, Amsterdam.
Lessig is the founder of Equal Citizens and a founding board member of Creative Commons. He serves on the Scientific Board of AXA Research Fund, is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He has received numerous awards including a Webby, the Free Software Foundation’s Freedom Award, Scientific American 50 Award, and Fastcase 50 Award.
Lessig’s early work focused on law and technology, especially as it affects copyright. His current work addresses the failure of democracy, and innovations to reform democracy.
He is the author of hundreds of articles and essays, and a dozen books, including: They Don’t Represent Us: Reclaiming Our Democracy (2019), Fidelity & Constraint: How the Supreme Court Has Read the American Constitution (2019), America, Compromised (2018), Republic, Lost v2(2015), The USA is Lesterland (2014), One Way Forward (2012), Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress—and a Plan to Stop It (2011), Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy (2008), Code v2 (2006), Free Culture (2004), The Future of Ideas (2001), and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (1999).
Lessig holds a BA in economics and a BS in management from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA in philosophy from Cambridge University, and a JD from Yale.

Event Co-sponsors:

Is Rule of Law Enough to Protect Democracy?
2025-03-27 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
Rule of Law has a long history in the human story. It has been implemented throughout history and in many different ways. American Democracy has depended on the rule of law and its traditions. What has changed, what’s it like to live without it, how much has been given away with the presidential immunity decision, how easily can we slip into autocracy, how can the law be manipulated, and more? This is a significant and challenging issue that requires our attention and action. Our speakers will provide what we need to understand this issue and offer ways to secure its viability and preserve and foster democracy.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_cqTGznePSnqqAhWy0y0GmQ
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on Thursday, March 27th, 2025

Speakers:
Kim Lane Scheppele is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs and Director of the Program in Law and Normative Thinking at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Her research focuses on backsliding democracies around the world, documenting how aspirational autocrats have been elected to high office and then used their legal powers to undermine democratic institutions. With experience living in and tracing the destruction of democracy first in Russia and then in Hungary, Scheppele warns that there are now signs of danger in the United States. Her book on this subject, Destroying (and Restoring) Democracy by Law, is forthcoming from Harvard University Press. An elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Scheppele received the 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship in constitutional studies.

Aziz Z. Huq is a scholar of U.S. and comparative constitutional law at the University of Chicago. He has worked on topics ranging from democratic backsliding to regulating AI. His scholarly work is published in several books and leading law reviews, social science, and political science journals. He has also written for numerous publications including the Washington Post, the New York Times, Dissent, The Nation. He currently serves on the board of the American Constitution Society, the New Press, and the ACLU of Illinois. Before joining the Law School, he worked as counsel and then director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Project, Senior Consultant Analyst for the International Crisis Group, and as a law clerk for Judge Robert D. Sack of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Susan Herman, moderator, is the inaugural Ruth Bader Ginsburg Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School. Like Ginsburg, she served as General Counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union. In October 2008, Herman was elected as the seventh President of the ACLU, a position she held until stepping down in January 2021. She teaches courses in Constitutional Law and Criminal Procedure, and seminars including Terrorism and Civil Liberties, Law and Literature, COVID-19 and the Constitution, and Current Issues in Constitutional Law. Among her publications are many articles for general and scholarly audiences and books, including Taking Liberties: The War on Terror and the Erosion of American Democracy (Oxford University Press 2011, 2014), which won the Roy C. Palmer Prize on Democracy, Civil Liberties, and the Rule of Law.

Event Co-sponsors:

Ukraine Update 2025
2025-04-03 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
Ukraine continues to present a complex challenge for U.S. foreign policy. While many Americans and international allies still back Ukraine’s struggle to maintain its independence from Russia, the current administration’s stance has been inconsistent, often emphasizing the financial and strategic costs of providing support and showing indications that it’s prepared to side with Russia. What lies ahead for Ukraine and its relationship with the U.S. remains uncertain. What does the future look like?
To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_cVb3OQUFSfKgHWUOLPrk_g
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on April 3rd, 2025

Speakers:
Timothy Frye is the Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy. He received a B.A. in Russian language and literature from Middlebury College, an M.I.A. from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia. His research and teaching interests are in comparative politics and political economy, focusing on the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. His most recent book is Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin’s Russia. He also edits Post-Soviet Affairs.

Oxana Shevel is an associate professor of political science at Tufts University and director of the Tufts International Relations Program. She is co-author (with Maria Popova) of a book on the root causes of the Russo-Ukrainian war, Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States (Polity, 2023). Her earlier book Migration, Refugee Policy, and State Building in Postcommunist Europe (Cambridge, 2011) won the American Association of Ukrainian Studies (AAUS) prize for best book in the fields of Ukrainian history, politics, language, literature, and culture. Shevel serves as Vice President and President-Elect of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) and Vice President of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN). She’s also a country expert on Ukraine for the EU Global Citizenship Observatory, a member of the PONARS Eurasia scholarly network, a board member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, and an associate of both the Davis Center and the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. Prof. Shevel holds a Ph.D. in government from Harvard, an M.Phil. in international relations from the University of Cambridge, and a B.A. in English and French from Kyiv State University.

Gideon Rose is an Axel Springer Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. He is also an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and an adjunct professor of political science at Columbia University. He served as the editor of Foreign Affairs from 2010-2021 and managing editor from 2000-2010. He was associate director for Near East and South Asian affairs on the staff of the national security council and is the author of How Wars End. His most recent articles are “Get Ready for the Next Nuclear Age” (Foreign Affairs, March 8) and “Ending War is Hard to Do” ( Foreign Affairs, January 21).

Event Co-sponsors:

We Can Save Our Earth: Environment Opportunities 2025
2025-05-08 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
In a time when our current administration denies climate change, many wonder how to keep up the momentum to salvage our planet. Our speakers represent a cross-section of successful public and private opportunities that can be implemented locally and statewide. Some may surprise you, and we all can do our part to assure our children’s future.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Xdgai6x7QgyYOZYNwSFX_Q
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on May 8th, 2025

Speakers:
Dale Bryk is Director of State & Regional Policy at the Harvard Environmental & Energy Law Program and a Senior Fellow at the Regional Plan Association. She helped launch the Conveners Network, which supports state efforts to develop climate and clean energy strategies and access and deploy federal resources to advance them. She served as New York State’s Deputy Secretary for Energy and Environment from 2019-2020. As the Governor’s top energy and environment policy advisor, she oversaw New York’s nation-leading climate agenda and directed the agencies and authorities responsible for developing and implementing the state policies and initiatives needed to build a just and sustainable clean energy economy, including the landmark Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. She sits on the boards of NYSERDA and VEIC. Prior to these roles, Dale was the Director of Programs at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Throughout her 21 years at NRDC, she worked to develop and implement climate, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and clean transportation policies. From 2002 to 2010, she also taught the Environmental Law Clinic at Yale Law School. Before joining NRDC, she practiced corporate law at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York. Dale holds a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University, a master’s from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. She is based in New York City.

Dan Sosland is president of Acadia Center, a position he has held since co-founding the organization in 1998. One of the first non-profit organizations created to address climate solutions at the regional level, Acadia Center focuses on climate and clean energy solutions that reduce climate pollution while improving public health and consumer, economic and equity benefits. Using high quality data and analysis with best practice solutions has helped Acadia Center build diverse coalitions and reframe debates towards implementation of long term, sustainable change. Dan has authored and led the development of groundbreaking Acadia Center reports on climate change roadmaps, energy efficiency and electrification frameworks. Prior to Acadia Center, Dan was Senior Attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation in Maine and Boston and began his career as a litigation attorney at major law firms in New York City. Dan’s work at Acadia Center has been recognized by the Exemplary Public Service Award from Cornell Law School, the ACEEE Champion of Efficiency Award, the Maine Forever Award for watershed protection and the U.S. EPA’s Environmental Merit Award. He began his career as a litigation attorney at major law firms in New York City. He holds a JD with honors from Cornell Law School and a BA from Brown University. He is a member of the board of directors of U.S. Climate Action Network and the Northeast Clean Energy Council.

Richard Eidlin, moderator, has over 35 years of experience in the intersection of sustainable business, public policy, and advocacy. He helped establish organizations such as the American Sustainable Business Council, the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives, Business for America, and the United Nations Environmental Finance Initiative. He has served as adjunct professor at the University of Denver and Boston College, as a consultant to multinational companies, owned a solar energy firm, and led bipartisan advocacy campaigns on Capitol Hill for sustainable, clean energy and other environmental initiatives. Since 2019, Richard has been the National Policy Director for Business for America, working with companies to support a healthy democracy. A graduate of the University of Maryland, Richard holds an MA in Public Policy and Administration from the University of Wisconsin.

Event Co-sponsors:

The Future of Global Politics
2025-06-26 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
The new administration is spinning the globe upside down. Global politics is in shock and disarray, resulting in turmoil, uncertainty, and profound concern for the future. Our panel may not have a crystal ball, but their considerable expertise will help untangle the competing interests over trade policies, alliances, geopolitical interests, governing models, regional conflicts, and more.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ttm4MzdWS7mpFaniLjQEQA
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on June 26, 2025

Speakers:
F. Gregory Gause III is a Visiting Scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. and Professor Emeritus of International Affairs at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University, from which he retired in January 2025. From fall 2014 through summer 2022 he served as Head of the School’s Department of International Affairs. He is the author of three books and numerous articles on the politics of the Middle East, with a particular focus on the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf. He was previously on the faculties of the University of Vermont (1995-2014) and Columbia University (1987-1995) and was Fellow for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York (1993-1994). During the 2009-10 academic year he was Kuwait Foundation Visiting Professor of International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. In spring 2009 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the American University in Kuwait. In spring 2010 he was a research fellow at the King Faisal Center for Islamic Studies and Research in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. His most recent book isThe International Relations of the Persian Gulf (Cambridge University Press, 2010). His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Middle East Journal, Security Studies, Washington Quarterly, National Interest, and in other journals and edited volumes.

Minxin Pei is the Tom and Margot Pritzker ‘72 Professor of Government and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College. He is also a non-resident senior fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace from 1999 to 2009, and was an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University from 1992 to 1998. He is the author of From Reform to Revolution: The Demise of Communism in China and the Soviet Union (1994); China’s Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy (2006); China’s Crony Capitalism: The Dynamics of Regime Decay (2016); The Sentinel State: Surveillance and Survival of the Dictatorship in China (2024) and The Broken China Dream: How Reform Revived Totalitarianism (2025)

Kathryn Stoner is the Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), and a Senior Fellow at CDDRL and the Center on International Security and Cooperation at FSI. From 2017 to 2021, she served as FSI’s Deputy Director. She is Professor of Political Science (by courtesy) at Stanford and she teaches in the Department of Political Science, and in the Program on International Relations, as well as in the Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy Program. She is also a Senior Fellow (by courtesy) at the Hoover Institution. In addition to many articles and book chapters on contemporary Russia, she is the author or co-editor of six books: “Transitions to Democracy: A Comparative Perspective,” written and edited with Michael A. McFaul (Johns Hopkins 2013); “Autocracy and Democracy in the Post-Communist World,” co-edited with Valerie Bunce and Michael A. McFaul (Cambridge, 2010); “Resisting the State: Reform and Retrenchment in Post-Soviet Russia” (Cambridge, 2006); “After the Collapse of Communism: Comparative Lessons of Transitions” (Cambridge, 2004), coedited with Michael McFaul; and “Local Heroes: The Political Economy of Russian Regional” Governance (Princeton, 1997); and “Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order” (Oxford University Press, 2021).

Shibley Telhami is the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development, the Director of the University of Maryland’s Critical Issues Poll, and a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Before coming to the University of Maryland, he taught at several universities, including the University of California at Berkeley, where he received his doctorate in political science. He has authored and edited numerous books, including one forthcoming book: Peace Derailed: Obama, Trump, Biden, and the Decline of Diplomacy on Israel/Palestine, 2011-2024 (co-authored). His most recent book is a co-edited with contributions volume, The One State Reality: What is Israel/Palestine? which was published in March 2023 with Cornell University Press. He has advised every U.S. administration from George H.W. Bush to Barack Obama. Telhami was selected by the Carnegie Corporation of New York along with the New York Times as one of the “Great Immigrants” for 2013 and the Washingtonian Magazine listed him as one of the “Most Influential People on Foreign Affairs” in both 2022 and 2023. He is also the recipient of many awards including the University of Maryland’s Distinguished Service Award and the University of Maryland’s Honors College Outstanding Faculty Award.

Gideon Rose, moderator, is an Axel Springer Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. He is also an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and an adjunct professor of political science at Columbia University. He served as the editor of Foreign Affairs from 2010-2021 and managing editor from 2000-2010. He was associate director for Near East and South Asian affairs on the staff of the national security council and is the author of How Wars End. His most recent articles are “Get Ready for the Next Nuclear Age” (Foreign Affairs, March 8) and “Ending War is Hard to Do” ( Foreign Affairs, January 21).

Event Co-sponsors:

Eroding Ethics: The Fallout from Presidential Rollbacks on Accountability
2025-08-07 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
A discussion about the developing consequences of President Trump’s removal of the heads of the various agencies responsible for rooting out corruption and conflicts of interest, including the Office of Government Ethics, Office of Special Counsel, and numerous Inspectors General.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qGOsva5vRoC3yf_5Ud21iQ
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on August 7th, 2025

Delaney Marsco is Director, Ethics at Campaign Legal Center, where she works on CLC’s ethics watchdog and policy reform efforts at all levels of government. Her work helps hold public officials accountable to the voters and shapes stronger ethics rules and laws across the country. Delaney’s work encompasses a wide range of ethics issues, including congressional stock trading reform and conflicts of interest in the federal executive branch. Her watchdog work has led to numerous investigations into ethics violations by members of Congress and senior executive branch appointees, and her expertise is regularly relied on for ethics reform legislation. Delaney’s expert analysis has been featured in national print news publications, including The Washington Post, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, and she has appeared on television and radio programs on CNBC, C-SPAN and NPR.

Kedric Payne is the Vice President, General Counsel, and Senior Director of Ethics at Campaign Legal Center. He specializes in government ethics, lobbying law, and election law. Mr. Payne began his career in private practice and has since served in the three branches of federal government. Prior to joining CLC, he advised on executive branch ethics laws as a Deputy General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Energy. He also enforced legislative branch ethics laws as Deputy Chief Counsel of the Office of Congressional Ethics. He clerked in the federal court for the Southern District of New York and later counseled lobbyists and government contractors on compliance with federal, state, and local ethics laws at Skadden Arps. He graduated from Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review and later an adjunct political law professor.

Hugo Balta, moderator, is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Washington and Columbia College Chicago, where he teaches journalism courses that emphasize multimedia storytelling. Balta is currently the Executive Editor of the Fulcrum, a national cross-partisan news publication, engaging citizens in evolving government to better meet the needs of all people. He is also the Publisher of the Latino News Network with an editorial focus on covering the social determinants of health and democracy. Balta is an award-winning news veteran whose experience includes leadership roles in NBC, MSNBC, Telemundo, CBS, ESPN, and ABC networks. He previously worked at the Chicago Reporter as Executive Editor, WBBM News Radio as Editor, and WTTW Chicago as News Director.Balta received the 2024 Cecilia Vaisman Award from Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism. He is the only person to serve twice as President of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ). He was inducted into the organization’s Hall of Fame in 2016.A B.A. graduate of Seton Hall University, Balta has completed Executive Leadership programs at Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism, and the University of Virginia, Darden School of Business. He is also an accredited Solutions Journalism Network trainer.

Event Co-sponsors:

Corruption and Power at the Top
2025-09-04 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
Ethics rules and standards are being violated every day. This is not a “draining of the swamp” but deliberate corruption. Corruption at the very top of our government is a major challenge to a viable democracy. Two leading experts will detail what is happening before our eyes and what might be possible to stem this wanton violation of trust in our leaders and government:

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pr4vlTz5Rb-97ydrypY72w
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on September 4th, 2025

Zephyr Teachout is a Professor at Law at Fordham Law School where she focuses on the intersection of corporate power and political power. She teaches corporations, election law, antitrust, and prosecuting white collar crime. Her most recent book, Break ’em Up (2020), makes a case for reimagining the relationship between democracy and antimonopoly law. Her prior book, Corruption in America (2014), argued that the American constitutional system has an embedded anti-corruption principle that has been discarded by the modern Court. Her public writings have appeared in the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, New York Review of Books, Washington Post, The Nation and The New Republic. In 2021, she took a leave to work as Special Advisor and Senior Counsel for Economic Justice at the New York Attorney General’s Office. Before Law School, Zephyr Teachout had a career as a digital consultant and nonprofit entrepreneur, and represented clients on death row in North Carolina. She was a Law Clerk to then-Chief Judge Edward R. Becker., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Roger Berkowitz, discussant/moderator, is Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities and Professor of Politics, Philosophy, and Human Rights at Bard College. Professor Berkowitz authored The Gift of Science: Leibniz and the Modern Legal Tradition (Harvard, 2005; Fordham, 2010; Chinese Law Press, 2011). Berkowitz is editor of The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition (forthcoming 2020) and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), The Intellectual Origins of the Global Financial Crisis (2012) and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The American Interest, Bookforum, The Forward, The Paris Review Online, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, and many other publications. Berkowitz edits HA: The Journal of the Hannah Arendt Center and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Bremen, Germany.

Event Co-sponsors:

Add to calendar

DOGE – What’s Happening?
2025-09-18 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
DOGE-Department of Government Efficiency was created to address cost cutting goals. DOGE may have left the media’s headlines along with Elon Musk, but DOGE remains and is still at work. What is DOGE doing and what is its impact? What do Americans need to know? How has DOGE changed the federal government and what other changes could it make?

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_W6izPH3STWiXPCdgJegHPQ
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on September 18th, 2025

Algernon Austin has conducted research and writing on issues of race and racial inequality for over 20 years. His current primary focus is on the low rate of employment in Black America, one of the three major labor market challenges facing this population, and on using subsidized employment as a tool to address this problem. Austin also has an interest in social housing, infrastructure, racial wealth inequality, and other topics at the intersection of race and the economy. Austin has a PhD in sociology from Northwestern University, and he taught sociology as a faculty member at Wesleyan University. He has held positions at the Economic Policy Institute, the Center for Global Policy Solutions, Dēmos, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He has discussed racial inequality on PBS, CNN, NPR, and other national television and radio networks.

Jonathan Maier is Senior Litigation Counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonpartisan nonprofit government watchdog that works for transparency and accountability in government and to preserve America’s democratic institutions. Among other cases, he is currently leading CREW’s litigation in CREW v. DOGE et al., a lawsuit seeking to ensure that DOGE is subject to and complies with the Freedom of Information Act and Federal Records Act. Jon is also a Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School. Prior to joining CREW, Jon spent 10 years as a litigator in the Washington, DC office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.

Peter Coy, moderator, is a freelance journalist covering economics, business and finance. He was previously a staff writer for The Associated Press, BusinessWeek, Bloomberg Businessweek and the Opinion section of The New York Times. He is a graduate of Cornell University.

.

Event Co-sponsors:

Cryptocurrency: Debunking Myths, Understanding Realities, and Exploring Economic and Social Impacts
2025-10-23 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
What is cryptocurrency really all about? Who stands to gain, and what should the rest of us know? Join distinguished experts as they break down the myths, reveal the realities, and explore crypto’s impact on finance, democracy, and everyday consumers.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_dOaQUCk0Re-3EPNe0Bnpuw
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on October 23rd, 2025

Speakers:
Professor Hilary J. Allen is a Professor of Law at the American University Washington College of Law. She is an internationally recognized expert on financial stability regulation and new financial technologies, and regularly shares her expertise with financial regulatory bodies in the United States, EU, UK, Canada, and Australia. She has also been invited to share her research with central banks around the world, as well as with international bodies including the IMF, World Bank, IOSCO, G20, APEC, and Financial Stability Board. She has testified before the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee, and is the author of the internet serial FinTech Dystopia and the book Driverless Finance: Fintech’s Impact on Financial Stability (2022, Oxford University Press). Professor Allen received her Bachelor of Laws from the University of Sydney, Australia, and her Master of Laws in Securities and Financial Regulation Law from Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to entering the academy, Professor Allen spent seven years working in the financial services groups of prominent law firms in London, Sydney, and New York. In 2010, she worked with the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which was appointed by Congress to study the causes of the financial crisis of 2007-2008.

Mark Hays is the Associate Director for Cryptocurrency and Financial Technology with AFR/AFREF and with Demand Progress. He works to ensure effective regulatory oversight of cryptocurrency and other financial technologies. Previously, Mark was the Anti-Money Laundering Campaign Director at Global Witness, where he led advocacy efforts to secure financial transparency measures, including legislation requiring shell companies – often used to facilitate corruption and financial crime – to reveal their true owners. In other roles, Hays has led advocacy work at the intersection of business, human rights, and the environment for a range of organizations, including The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, Greenpeace, Mighty Earth, NAACP, Public Citizen, The Sierra Club, Waxman Strategies, and others. Mark is a graduate of Tufts University (BA, English) and the New England Conservatory of Music (BA, Vocal Performance).

Peter Coy, moderator, is a freelance journalist covering economics, business and finance. He was previously a staff writer for The Associated Press, BusinessWeek, Bloomberg Businessweek and the Opinion section of The New York Times. He is a graduate of Cornell University.

Event Co-sponsors:

Add to calendar

Socialism: Beyond the Myths and Fears
2025-11-20 19:30 - 21:00 | Webinar and Facebook Live Stream
The concept of socialism has been debated for generations—often surrounded by controversy, confusion, and fear. In the United States, the very word “socialism” can spark strong emotions, even as many nations have adopted socialist-inspired programs with broad support.
Here at home, initiatives like Medicare and Social Security—often labeled “socialist”—remain among the most popular government programs. Others point to bailouts and subsidies for banks, corporations, farmers, and energy companies as examples of socialism benefiting different groups.
So, what exactly is socialism, and why does it provoke such anxiety? Despite its frequent use in political rhetoric, few Americans can clearly define the term.
To explore this complex and often misunderstood philosophy, the NFRPP presents a conversation with distinguished scholars Prof. Axel Honneth and Prof. Nadia Urbinati, moderated by New Republic staff writer Timothy Noah.

To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_58DAozRESVKutdnZ5Cjx2A
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on November 20th, 2025

Speakers:

Axel Honneth, born in 1949, is Jack B. Weinstein Professor of the Humanities in the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University, New York. After holding professorships at the University of Konstanz and the Free University of Berlin, he taught before at Goethe University in Frankfurt, where he was director of the Institute for Social Research from 2001 to 2018. His publications in English include: The Working Sovereign, 2024; The Idea of Socialism, 2015, Freedom’s Right. The Social Foundations of Democratic Life, 2014; The Struggle for Recognition, 1994.
(photo attribution: SPÖ Presse und Kommunikation, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Nadia Urbinati is the Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University. She is the author of several books, including Democracy Disfigured: Opinion, Truth, and the People (Harvard); The Tyranny of the Moderns; Representative Democracy: Principles and Genealogy; and Mill on Democracy: From the Athenian Polis to Representative Government, which won the David and Elaine Spitz Prize for the best book in democratic theory.

Timothy Noah, moderator, is a staff writer for the New Republic and maintains the Substack newsletter Backbencher. Previously he was a Washington-based reporter for the Wall Street Journal, a labor-policy editor for Politico, and an editor of the Washington Monthly, where he remains a contributing editor. He is the author of “The Great Divergence: America’s Growing Inequality Crisis and What We Can Do About It” (Bloomsbury, 2012).

Event Co-sponsors:
