Todd S. Purdum

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Todd S. Purdum

Editor, political correspondent

Todd S. Purdum is a senior writer at Politico, a staff writer at The Atlantic and a national editor and political correspondent at Vanity Fair. He was previously with The New York Times, where he worked for 23 years as a political writer, also serving as diplomatic correspondent and Los Angeles bureau chief.

He is the author of the books Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution, An Idea Whose Time Has Come: Two Presidents, Two Parties and the Battle for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and A Time of Our Choosing: America's War in Iraq.

Purdum spoke at The Common Good in 2014: The Civil Rights Act with Todd Purdum - April 2, 2014.

Jonathan Capehart

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Jonathan Capehart

Journalist, television personality

Jonathan Capehart is a member of The Washington Post editorial board and writes about politics and social issues for the PostPartisan blog. He is also an MSNBC contributor, appearing regularly on Hardball and other dayside programs. Prior to joining The Washington Post in 2007, Capehart was the deputy editor of New York Daily News’s editorial page from 2002 to 2005. He worked as a policy adviser to Michael Bloomberg in his successful campaign for mayor of New York City, and was a national affairs columnist for Bloomberg News from 2000 to 2001. He was also a member of The Daily News editorial board from 1993 to 2000. Capehart and The Daily News editorial board won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for their series on the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Capehart was a researcher for NBC's The Today Show. Subsequently, he worked for the New York Daily News (NYDN), serving as a member of its editorial board from 1993 to 2000. At the time of his hiring, Capehart was the youngest ever member of that newspaper's editorial board. In 2000, he left the NYDN to work at Bloomberg News. Afterward, he advised and wrote speeches for Michael Bloomberg, during Bloomberg's 2001 run for the mayoralty of New York City.

He joined the staff of The Washington Post as a journalist and member of the editorial board in 2007.  He continues in that capacity and is a contributing commentator for MSNBC. He also hosts the Cape Up podcast, in which he talks to newsmakers about race, religion, age, gender, and cultural identity in politics.

Capeheart presented speakers at The American Spirit Awards - November 13, 2013 and The Common Good Forum & The American Spirit Awards - June 2, 2014, and spoke at the event Election Insurrection: The Mid-Term Elections 2010.

Jonathan Capehart returned to participate in the 2020 Post-Election Roundup with Charlie Cook, Al Franken and Rick Wilson. After approximately two years, $14 billion and countless hours of attention, the 2020 campaign has finally come to a close. Al Franken was a part of the historic panel to discuss Joe Biden winning the presidency and President Trump is still contesting the results.

Twitter: @CapehartJ

Michelle Paige Paterson

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Michelle Paige Paterson

Former First Lady of New York State

Michelle Paige Paterson was the First Lady of New York state. Paige Paterson was the first African American First Lady in New York's history. (1)

Paige Paterson is director of the integrated-wellness program at the Health Insurance Plan of New York HMO, a program that assists individuals with chronic health problems to better manage their conditions by helping them to improve their life skills. She previously worked as a lobbyist for North General Hospital in Manhattan. (1)

Paige Paterson introduced Nicole Hockley at The American Spirit Awards 2013 and co-hosted The American Spirit Awards 2011.

(1) Material from Wikipedia.

David Gergen

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David Gergen

Senior political analyst for CNN

David Gergen is a senior political analyst for CNN and has served as an adviser to four U.S. presidents. He graduated with honors from both Yale College (1963) and Harvard Law School (1967), and served as an officer in the U.S. Navy for nearly three and a half years. He is a public service professor of public leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and the director of its Center for Public Leadership. In 2000, he published the best-selling book, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton.

Gergen joined the Harvard faculty in 1999. He is active as a speaker and sits on many boards, including Teach for America, the Aspen Institute, and Duke University, where he taught from 1995-1999. He is a member of the Washington D.C. Bar and the Council on Foreign Relations, and holds 19 honorary degrees.

Gergen was hosted by The Common Good in 2018, "On the Fault Lines: Decision 2018" Midterm Elections Power Panel, alongside Gerald Seib, Governor Haley Barbour, Nate Silver, and Ann Lewis, moderated by Gloria Borger. He also received the American Spirit Award for Distinguished Public Service at The American Spirit Awards 2013.

Twitter: @David_Gergen

Edie Windsor ✝

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Edie Windsor ✝

Marriage equality activist

Edie Windsor was a member of countless LGBT organizations in the past 30 years, including East End Gay Organizations, the LGBT Community Center, and Team New York at the Gay Games in NYC in 1994. She was also one of the first Marriage Ambassadors for Empire State Pride Agenda. The Edie Windsor Fund for Old Lesbians, gifted to Windsor on her 70th birthday and maintained and administered by Open Meadows Foundation, provides meaningful grants to projects by and for lesbian older adults.

Windsor served on the Board of Directors of SAGE from 1986-1988 and 2005-2007. She was a founding member of the Improv acting group, “Old Queers Acting Up”, whose rallying cry was, “Out of the closest, onto the stage.” For several years, this group performed skits around ageism, racism, and homophobia at various venues.

The case of United States v. Windsor is arguably the most influential legal precedent in the struggle for LGBT marriage equality. In its landmark 2013 ruling, the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which by its terms had excluded gay couples from all the benefits and protections of marriage under federal law. Since Windsor, more than forty federal district court opinions and four circuit courts have held that the U.S. Constitution requires that gay people be allowed to marry.

Windsor passed away on September 12, 2017.

The Common Good was extremely proud to have honored Windsor as a marriage equality citizen activist, presenting her with the American Spirit Award for Citizen Activism at The American Spirit Awards 2013 on November 13, 2013.

Nicole Hockley

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Nicole Hockley

Sandy Hook Promise Co-Founder, Activist

Nicole Hockley is the Co-founder and Managing Director of Sandy Hook Promise. Her six-year-old son Dylan Hockley, was was one of 20 children killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on December 14, 2012. After his death, she dedicated herself to fighting for children to be safe in their own schools, and so others could be spared the pain of losing loved ones to gun violence.

Hockley co-founded Sandy Hook Promise, a non-profit who’s mission is to “honor all victims of gun violence by turning our tragedy into a moment of transformation by providing programs and practices that protect children from gun violence. By uniting people of all beliefs and backgrounds who value the protection of children to take meaningful actions in their homes and communities, we will prevent gun violence and stop the tragic loss of life.” Hockley is their managing director and continues to fight to prevent gun violence before it occurs, with Sandy Hook Promise releasing powerful PSA’s including their recent “Back-To-School Essentials” video.

She received the American Spirit Award for Citizen Activism at The Common Good American Spirit Awards, 2013.

Twitter: @NicoleHockley

Lester Brown

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Lester Brown

International analyst, author

Lester Brown started his career as a farmer, growing tomatoes in southern New Jersey with his younger brother during high school and college. Shortly after earning a degree in agricultural science from Rutgers University in 1955, he spent six months living in rural India where he became intimately familiar with the food/population issue. In 1959, Brown joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service as an international analyst. In 1964, he became an adviser to Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman on foreign agricultural policy. In 1966, the Secretary appointed him Administrator of the department’s International Agricultural Development Service. In early 1969, he left government to help establish the Overseas Development Council.

In 1974, with the support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Lester Brown founded the Worldwatch Institute, the first research institute devoted to the analysis of global environmental issues. In May 2001, he founded the Earth Policy Institute to provide a vision and a road map for achieving an environmentally sustainable economy.

Brown has authored or co-authored over 50 books. One of the world’s most widely published authors, his books have appeared in 40 languages.

The Common Good hosted Mr. Brown in October of 2013: Climate change and the food crisis with environmentalist Lester Brown.

Ambassador Frank Wisner

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Frank Wisner

Retired American diplomat

Ambassador Frank Wisner’s diplomatic career spans four decades and eight American presidents. He served as ambassador to Zambia, Egypt, the Philippines, and India during his years in the State Department.

After graduating from Princeton University in 1961, Frank Wisner joined the State Department as a Foreign Service officer. Ambassador Wisner worked as a senior diplomat in Tunisia and Bangladesh before returning to Washington as Director of Plans and Management in the Bureau of Public Affairs. He then joined the President’s Interagency Task Force on Indochina, the entity responsible for evacuating and settling nearly one million refugees and served as its Deputy Director. Later, as Director of the Office of Southern African Affairs, Frank Wisner worked closely with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to launch negotiations with Zimbabwe and Namibia. Ambassador Wisner played a crucial role in negotiating Kosovo’s independence as the nation’s special representative to the Kosovo Status Talks in 2005. He is currently a foreign affairs adviser for Patton Boggs.

Ambassador Wisner spoke at The Common Good in 2013: Foreign Affairs Series: Egypt in Crisis with Ambassador Frank Wisner.

David Rohde

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David Rohde

Journalist, author

David Rohde is the online news director for The New Yorker. He is a global-affairs analyst for CNN and a former reporter for Reuters, The New York Times, and the Christian Science Monitor. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in 1996 for stories that helped expose the Srebrenica massacre during the war in Bosnia. In 2009, he shared a Pulitzer Prize with a team of Times reporters for coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

His other books include Beyond War: Reimagining America’s Role and Ambitions in a New Middle East, A Rope and a Prayer: The Story of a Kidnapping (co-authored with his wife, Kristen Mulvihill), and Endgame: The Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica, Europe’s Worst Massacre Since World War II.

Rohde spoke at The Common Good in 2013: Foreign Affairs Series: Rethinking US Approaches to the Middle East with David Rohde.

Twitter: @RohdeD

Joseph Lhota

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Joseph Lhota

American public servant, former politician

Joe Lhota is an American politician and businessman, former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and former deputy mayor of New York City. He was the Republican nominee in his unsuccessful bid for the 2013 election for Mayor of New York City. As of 2015, he is senior vice president, vice dean, and chief of staff at NYU Langone Medical Center. In 2017, he returned to the chairmanship of the MTA and later resigned from the position in 2018.

Lhota spoke at The Common Good in 2013: NYC Mayoral Candidate Series: Joe Lhota - August 13, 2013.

Twitter: @JoeLhota

Eric Schneiderman

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Eric Schneiderman

Lawyer

Eric T. Schneiderman was elected the 65th Attorney General of New York State on November 2, 2010. He served until his resignation in 2018 amid accusations of sexual misconduct.

Schneiderman previously spent 15 years in private practice as an attorney, and later as a partner, at the firm of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart. He was also a public interest lawyer for many years, and his clients included taxpayers in historic lawsuits against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, tenants trying to evict drug dealers from their buildings, and women seeking access to health clinics. Before becoming an Attorney General, he served ten years as a democrat in the New York State Senate.

He was hosted by The Common Good in 2013: Leadership Series: New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman - July 23, 2013.

Twitter: @EricSchneiderNY

John Catsimatidis

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John Catsimatidis

Owner and CEO of the Red Apple Group

John Catsimatidis was born on the Greek Island of Nisyros in 1948. Six months later his parents emigrated to New York City. Catsimatidis enrolled in New York University to study electrical engineering, going to school during the day and working in a small grocery store on nights and weekends to help his parents pay the bills. He eventually dropped out of school to work full time. By his 25th birthday he already had 10 Red Apple Supermarkets. Four decades later, the Red Apple Group ranked 156th by Forbes in 2015 in“America’s largest private companies” and has evolved into a diversified corporation that has holdings in the energy, aviation, retail and real estate sectors and over 8,000 employees.

He and his wife are actively involved in political contributions and campaigns on both sides of the aisle.

Catsimatidis was hosted by The Common Good in 2013: NYC Candidate Series: John Catsimatidis - July 16, 2013.

Twitter: @JCats2013

Anthony Weiner

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Anthony Weiner

American politician and Former U.S. Representative

Anthony David Weiner is an American politician and former U.S. Representative who served New York’s 9th congressional district from January 1999 until June 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he won seven terms, never receiving less than 59% of the vote. Weiner resigned from Congress in June 2011, due to a sexting scandal.

He was a member of the New York City Council from 1992 to 1998, and a congressional aide to then–U.S. Representative Chuck Schumer from 1985 to 1991. A New York City native, he attended public schools and graduated from the SUNY Plattsburgh in 1985 with a B.A. in political science. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Mayor of New York City in the 2005 and 2013 New York City mayoral elections.

Weiner was incarcerated in 2017 for sending explicit photos to a minor. He was released from prison in February, 2019. After two months in a halfway house, Weiner was released as a registered sex offender.

Weiner spoke at The Common Good in 2013: NYC Mayoral Candidate Series: Anthony Weiner on health care policy.

James Goodale

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James Goodale

Leading First Amendment lawyer with Debevoise & Plimpton

James C. Goodale is a leading First Amendment lawyer with Debevoise & Plimpton. He has represented The New York Times in every one of its cases to go to the Supreme Court. These cases include the Pentagon Papers case (The New York Times Co. v. The U.S.), The New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (libel), and The New York Times Co. v. Tasini (digital rights).

Goodale spoke at The Common Good alongside Brian Knappenberger at a Special Screening and Conversation on “Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press” in 2017 and at the Democracy Series: ‘Fighting for the Press’ with James Goodale event in 2013.

Ribal al-Assad

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Ribal al-Assad

Syrian businessman, political activist

Ribal al-Assad is the founder and director of the Organization for Democracy and Freedom in Syria, which promotes democracy, freedom and human rights in Syria and the Middle East. He is also the Chairman and Founder of the Iman Foundation, a non-partisan and not for profit organization which aims to promote dialogue to strengthen international understanding and co-existence through the exchange of ideas, people, culture and religion. He was born in Syria and has lived in the West since being exiled from his country as a child.

Ribal al-Assad spoke at The Common Good in 2013: Foreign Affairs Series: Syria update with Ribal al-Assad - June 25, 2013.

Twitter: @RibalAlAssad

Krystal Ball

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Krystal Ball

Journalist, politician, news talk anchor

Krystal Marie Ball is a co-host on MSNBC’s ensemble show “The Cycle”.  She’s also a political writer, former congressional candidate and CPA. Her writing has appeared in publications such as US News and World Report, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, and Politico; she has been a featured speaker at Columbia, Princeton, and George Washington University; and a guest lecturer at the New School in New York City. (1)

Following her congressional campaign, Ball was number 21 on Forbes Magazine’s “Most Powerful Women in the Mid Term Elections” list. She has been profiled all over the United States for her innovative use of social media in politics. (1)

Ball attended Women in the Military: US Senator Jeanne Shaheen and others – March 15, 2013 as the moderator at The Common Good. This panel included Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Anu Bhagwati, Molly O’Toole, and Brenda S. Fulton.

Twitter: @krystalball

(1) Material from the MSNBC website.

Sec. Thomas Pickering

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secretary Thomas Pickering

Former U.S. ambassador, diplomat

Ambassador Pickering served as U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from May of 1997 until late 2000. Prior to that, he served briefly as the president of the Eurasia Foundation, a Washington-based organization that makes small grants and loans in the states of the former Soviet Union. Pickering holds the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service. From 1989 to 1992, he served as Ambassador and Representative to the United Nations in New York. He also served as Executive Secretary of the Department of State and Special Assistant to Secretaries William P. Rogers and Henry A. Kissinger from 1973 to 1974. (1)

Pickering currently serves as Senior Advisor at Hills and Company. From 2001 to 2006, Ambassador Pickering served as Senior Vice President for International Relations and as a member of the Executive Council of The Boeing Company. (1)

In 1983 and in 1986, Pickering won the Distinguished Presidential Award and, in 1996, the Department of State’s highest award – the Distinguished Service Award. He is a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies and the Council on Foreign Relations. (1)

Pickering spoke at The Common Good in 2013: National Security Briefing with Thomas Pickering – May 8, 2013.

(1) Material from the National Committee on American Foreign Policy website.

Elliott Abrams

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Elliott Abrams

American diplomat, lawyer

Elliott Abrams is the Special Representative for Venezuela at the Department of State. He was senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington, DC, from which he is now on a leave of absence. He served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House. (1)

Mr. Abrams was president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, DC, from 1996 until joining the White House staff. He was a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom from 1999 to 2001 and chairman of the commission in the latter year, and served a second term as a member of the Commission in 2012-2014. From 2009 to 2016, Mr. Abrams was a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, which directs the activities of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. He is a member of the board of the National Endowment for Democracy, and teaches U.S. foreign policy at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. (1)

Abrams spoke at The Common Good in 2013: Middle East Update with Elliott Abrams – April 17, 2013.

(1) Material from the U.S. Department of State website.

Jonathan Alter

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Jonathan Alter

American journalist, best-selling author, documentary filmmaker, television producer

Jonathan Alter is an award-winning author, reporter, columnist and television analyst from Chicago.

For a decade in the 1980s, Alter was Newsweek’s media critic, where he was among the first in the mainstream media to break tradition and hold other news organizations accountable for their coverage, a precursor to the role later played by blogs. In total, he spent 28 years at Newsweek, where he was a longtime senior editor and wrote hundreds of columns and features on a wide variety of subjects. He is also an analyst and contributing correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC. His 2010 book, The Promise: President Obama, Year One, was #4 on the New York Times Nonfiction Bestseller List and was one of the Times’ “Notable Books” of the year. The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope,”published in 2006, was also a bestseller.

Alter was hosted by The Common Good in 2013: Assessing the Presidency with Lesley Stahl, Douglas Brinkley, Jonathan Alter and Ed Rollins – April 11th, 2013.

Twitter: @jonathanalter

Molly O’Toole

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Molly O’Toole

Reporter

Molly O'Toole is an immigration reporter based in the Los Angeles Times' Washington, D.C. bureau. She was previously a senior reporter at Foreign Policy covering the 2016 election and Trump administration, and a politics reporter at The Atlantic's Defense One. She has covered migration and security from Mexico, Central America, West Africa, the Middle East, the Gulf, and South Asia.

The Common Good hosted O’Toole in 2013: Women in the Military: US Senator Jeanne Shaheen and others – March 15, 2013. She spoke alongside Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Anu Bhagwati, and Brenda S. Fulton, moderated by MSNBC contributor Krystal Ball.

Twitter: @mollymotoole