John Micklethwait
John Micklethwait
Editor-in-Chief of Bloomberg
John Micklethwait is the Editor-in-Chief of Bloomberg where he oversees editorial content across all Bloomberg platforms, including its news, newsletters, magazines, opinion, television, radio and digital properties, as well as its research services including Bloomberg Intelligence.
Prior to joining Bloomberg in February 2015, Micklethwait was Editor-in-Chief of The Economist where he led the newspaper into the digital age while expanding its readership and enhancing its reputation.
He is the co-author of six books, most recently The Fourth Revolution: The Global Race to Reinvent the State. In 2010, Micklethwait was named Editors’ Editor by the British Society of Magazine Editors.
Micklethwait was hosted by The Common Good in 2014: John Micklethwait on Political Revolution - September 10, 2014.
Evan Osnos
Evan Osnos
Journalist, author
Evan Osnos is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a fellow at the Brookings Institution. Based in Washington D.C., he writes about foreign affairs and politics.
He is the author of Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, which won the 2014 National Book award. Based on eight years of living in Beijing, the book traces the rise of the individual in China, and the clash between aspiration and authoritarianism. He was the China Correspondent at The New Yorker magazine from 2008 to 2013. He is a contributor to This American Life on public radio, and Frontline, the PBS series.
Prior to The New Yorker, he worked as the Beijing bureau chief of the Chicago Tribune, where he contributed to a series that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. He has received the Asia Society’s Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia, the Livingston Award for Young Journalists, and a Mirror Award for profile-writing. Before his appointment in China, he worked in the Middle East, reporting mostly from Iraq.
The Common Good hosted Osnos on August 27th, 2014, as part of the TCG Leadership series: Evan Osnos On The New China. He discussed China’s 35-year political and cultural transformation, drawing on ideas authored in his book Age of Ambition.
Twitter: @eosnos
Michelle Nunn
Michelle Nunn
Philanthropic executive, politician
Michelle Nunn is president and CEO of CARE USA, a leading humanitarian organization that fights global poverty and provides lifesaving assistance in emergencies. Last year, CARE worked in 93 countries and directly reached 63 million people in the fiscal year of 2017.
Nunn took the helm of CARE in 2015 and has spearheaded an ambitious strategy to reach 200 million of the world’s most vulnerable people by 2020. Under Nunn’s leadership, CARE has invested in innovative new programs and partnerships with private corporations and other nonprofits to increase its impact. Since assuming leadership of CARE, Nunn has set a goal of increasing CARE’s micro-savings program from 7 million participants to 60 million participants by 2028.
Before joining CARE, Nunn had built an illustrious career of civic and public service as a social entrepreneur, a nonprofit CEO, and a candidate for the U.S. Senate. She co-founded the volunteer-mobilization organization Hands On Atlanta, and expanded it from a single entity to a national network of more than 50 affiliates. Nunn oversaw that group’s merger with Points of Light, creating the world’s largest organization dedicated to volunteer service, with affiliates across the globe engaging more than 70,000 corporations and nonprofit organizations. Nunn served as Points of Light CEO from 2007 to 2013.
The Common Good hosted Michelle Nunn in 2014.
Twitter: @MichelleNunn
Jill Abramson
Jill Abramson
American author, journalist
Jill Abramson is an American author and journalist. She is best known as the former executive editor of The New York Times; Abramson held that position from September 2011 to May 2014. She was the first female executive editor in the paper’s 160-year history. Abramson joined the New York Times in 1997, working as the Washington bureau chief and managing editor before being named as executive editor. She previously worked for The Wall Street Journal as an investigative reporter and a deputy bureau chief.
In 2012, she was ranked number five on Forbes list of most powerful women. She was also named as one of the 500 most powerful people in the world by Foreign Policy.
In March 2016, she was hired as a political columnist for Guardian US.
In addition to her current position as a senior lecturer in Harvard’s English Department, Ms. Abramson has taught at both Princeton and Yale, where she led undergraduate writing seminars for five years. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.
Abramson was hosted by The Common Good in 2014: Political Journalism with Jill Abramson - July 15, 2014.
Twitter: @JillAbramson
Arnon Milchan
Arnon Milchan
Film producer
Arnon Milchan is a film producer who has produced over 130 full-length motion pictures. Milchan, the owner of New Regency Films, was also a former key Israeli intelligence operative from the mid-1960’s to the mid-1980’s.
He is known for his work on Noah, 12 Years a Slave, Once Upon a Time in America, Brazil, Pretty Woman, Under Siege, Natural Born Killers, Boys on the Side, L.A. Confidential, Unfaithful, and Knight and Day.
The Common Good hosted Milchan at The Common Good Forum & The American Spirit Awards 2014. He was awarded the American Spirit Award for Activism In The Arts for his legacy as respected and prolific film producer, and for his part in bringing the critically acclaimed 12 Years a Slave to the screen. The film provided an honest and unflinching portrayal of the ugly truth about slavery in America and has helped reinvigorate discussion of human dignity and equality in our country.
Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky
American filmmaker, screenwriter
Aronofsky is a screenwriter, director and producer of many critically acclaimed films. Aronofsky grew up in Brooklyn, New York with two parents as school teachers. Before attending Harvard in 1987 where he studied anthropology, film and animation, he trained with The School of Field Studies as a research biologist in Kenya and Alaska. He graduated from Harvard with honors in 1991 and went on to accrue similar high esteem from AFI Conservatory, as he was not only awarded his M.F.A. in directing, but the Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal.
His films include the sports drama The Wrestler, which received Academy Award nominations, The Fighter, Black Swan, and the biblically inspired epic Noah. Aronofsky himself received nominations for Best Director at the Golden Globes, and a Directors Guild of America Award nomination.
Aronofsky spoke at The Common Good Forum & The American Spirit Awards - June 2, 2014.
Twitter: @DarrenAronofsky
Ido Aharoni
Ido Aharoni
Ambassador, professor, veteran of Israel’s Foreign Service
Ido Aharoni serves as a Globally Distinguished Professor for International Relations at New York University’s Faculty of Arts and Science. He is a co-founder of Emerson Rigby Ltd., a member of the International Advisory Council of APCO Worldwide, a Global Ambassador for Maccabi World Union and the Chairman of the Charney Forum on New Diplomacy.
Aharoni has been Israel’s longest serving Consul-General in New York and the tri-state area to date. He held that position with the rank of Ambassador for six years, overseeing the operations of Israel’s largest diplomatic mission worldwide.
Ido Aharoni spoke at The Common Good in 2015; The Information Revolution: Challenges and Opportunities for Israel - June 24, 2015.
Twitter: @IdoAharoni
Soledad O’Brien
Soledad O’Brien
Broadcast journalist
Soledad O’Brien is an award winning journalist, executive producer, and philanthropist. She is the CEO of Starfish Media Group, which is a multi-platform media production company dedicated to telling empowering and authentic stories on range of social issues. O’Brien continues to be a television anchor and correspondent, and the Starfish Media Group lists CNN, HBO, Real Sports and America Tonight, among a growing list of networks she is working with.
O’Brien has received numerous awards, including an Emmy, the NAACP’s President's Award, the George Foster Peabody Award, an Alfred I. du Pont Award, and the Gracie Allen Award. In 2008, she was the first recipient of the Soledad O’Brien Freedom’s Voice Award from the Morehouse School of Medicine, and was the first recipient of The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Goodermote Humanitarian Award. O’Brien received the 2009 Medallion of Excellence for Leadership and Community Service Award from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. In 2010, she was named Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists.
In 2011 O’Brien and her husband Brad Raymond created the PowHERful Foundation, which helps get young women get to and through college. This year, their conference series will visit 8 cities across the country.
She spoke at The Common Good Forum & The American Spirit Awards 2014 on June 2nd, 2014.
Twitter: @soledadobrien
Senator John Walsh
Senator John Walsh
American Politician
John Walsh enlisted in the National Guard as a private, working hard and rising through the ranks to become adjutant general, leading the Montana National Guard.
As a battalion commander, John led more than 700 men and women overseas to Iraq in the largest deployment of Montana National Guard soldiers and airmen since WWII. During his time as adjutant general, John championed the Yellow Ribbon program, an initiative that provides valuable resources to National Guard members and their families at all stages of their deployment and ensures Guard members get their well-earned services and benefits when they return home.
After 33 years of distinguished service, John retired from the National Guard and was elected by the people of Montana to the office of Lieutenant Governor, serving with Governor Steve Bullock. As Montana’s 30th Lieutenant Governor, John Walsh fought to balance the budget, enact tax cuts for small businesses, invest in Montana’s schools, and toughen laws against child abuse.
Walsh served as junior Senator for Montana from 2014 to 2015. He is running for the Senate in the 2020 elections.
Senator Walsh was hosted by The Common Good in 2014: Meet & Greet: Senator John Walsh - May 9, 2014.
Twitter: @JohnWalsh
Todd S. Purdum
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
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
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Michelle Paige Paterson
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
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
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Edie Windsor ✝
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
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
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Lester Brown
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
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
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
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
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