Alessandra Stanley
Alessandra Stanley
Journalist, editor
Alessandra Stanley is the co-editor of Air Mail, a digital weekly publication created by Graydon Carter. Previously, Alessandra was a foreign correspondent and television critic at The New York Times. In 1993, she received the Matrix Award from Women in Communications, and in 1998, she received the Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting.
Stanley participated in The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019 on May 10, 2019. She spoke on the “Women & Power” panel alongside former Congresswoman Mia Love, Sally Quinn, and Kay Koplovitz, moderated by Juju Chang.
Cohen Curtis
Cohen Curtis
Advocate for criminal justice reform
Ellis Cohen Curtis was incarcerated for 25 years for involvement in the murder of Richard Harper. Having grown up in Sacramento with exposure to violence and crime from a young age, Curtis became embroiled in gangs as a young teenager. He was sentenced to life without parole as a juvenile - aged 17. Initially resentful, he found a path to reform while incarcerated. The Human Rights Watch took up his case and ultimately helped him to be released on parole.
Today, Curtis speaks out in favor of criminal justice reform and draws from his own personal experiences to evaluate the ways the system needs to change, and how we can prevent cases from his like occurring - both to prevent young individuals from joining gangs, and to allow them a chance to change. Curtis designs programs and processes for through networking in the south Los Angeles area to create dynamic resources for returning citizens.
Curtis detailed his experiences at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019 on May 10, 2019, on the “Renewing Democracy” panel with Nicole Austin-Hillery, Max Boot, and Michael Waldman, moderated by Ari Melber.
Honorable Mia Love
the Honorable Mia Love
Former U.S. House Representative for the 4th Congressional District of Utah
Ludmya "Mia" Love served as House Representative for the 4th congressional district of Utah from 2015 to early 2019. Prior to her election as House Representative, she was the Mayor of Saratoga Springs from 2010 to 2014. She graduated college with a degree in musical theater but became a community spokesperson due to her desire to make a change in the neighborhood she lived in. Love went on to continue her political career by winning a seat in the Saratoga Springs council and then went on to become mayor. She is the first black female Republican elected to Congress, and is currently a contributor at CNN.
Love participated in The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019 on May 10, 2019. She spoke on the “Women & Power” panel alongside former Alessandra Stanley, Sally Quinn, and Kay Koplovitz, moderated by Juju Chang.
Twitter: @MiaBLove
Errol Louis
Errol Louis
Broadcast journalist, television show host
Errol Louis is the Political Anchor of Spectrum News NY1, where he hosts Inside City Hall, a nightly primetime show about New York City politics. As part of the show, he interviews top political and cultural leaders, including an exclusive weekly one-on-one conversation with Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Louis has also conducted interviews with ex-mayors David Dinkins, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg; Gov. Andrew Cuomo and ex-governors George Pataki, Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson; dozens of city, state and federal officials, and presidential candidates including John Kasich, Jill Stein, Gary Johnson, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Louis has moderated more than two dozen debates between candidates for mayor, public advocate, city and state comptroller, state Attorney General and U.S. Senate. In addition to political leaders, Louis has interviewed iconic cultural figures including filmmaker Ken Burns and activist Gloria Steinem.
Louis was recently ranked #40 on the list of the 100 most powerful people in New York City politics. He is an adjunct professor of Urban Reporting at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, where he has taught political and investigative reporting to more than 100 graduate students.
Louis participated at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards on May 10th, 2019. He moderated the “The Road to 2020: Leaders & Ideas” panel featuring former Senator Claire McCaskill, former Congressman Steve Israel, Matt Bennett, Margaret Hoover and Rick Tyler.
Twitter: @errollouis
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Margaret Hoover
Margaret Hoover
Political commentator, political strategist, media personality, author
Margaret Hoover is the host of PBS’ Firing Line with Margaret Hoover a revival of the television series hosted by William F. Buckley Jr. for 33 years. A CNN political commentator, Hoover has served in The White House under President George W. Bush, in the Department of Homeland Security, on Capitol Hill and in two presidential campaigns. She is the President of American Unity Fund, a political organization focused on achieving full freedom and equality for LGBT Americans, as well as the bestselling author of American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party in 2011. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News, The Daily Beast, CNN and FoxNews. Hoover serves on the boards of Stanford University's Hoover Institution, the Hoover Presidential Foundation, and the Belgian American Educational Foundation.
Hoover participated at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019, on May 10th, 2019. She spoke on “The Road to 2020: Leaders & Ideas” panel alongside former Senator Claire McCaskill, former Congressman Steve Israel, Matt Bennett and Rick Tyler, moderated by Errol Louis. She also participated at The Common Good Forum 2015, on the “Lead Up to 2016 and Beyond: US Politics Now” panel alongside Jim McLaughlin and Robert Zimmerman, moderated by Dana Bash.
Twitter: @MargaretHoover
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Major General Dr. Robert Latiff
Major General Dr. Robert Latiff
Retired Air Force Major General
Dr. Robert H. Latiff retired from the U.S. Air Force as a Major General in 2006. He is an Adjunct Faculty Member with the John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values at the University of Notre Dame, and is a Research Professor at George Mason University. Major General Latiff is also a member of the Committee on International Security and Arms Control of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the Intelligence Community Studies Board.
Dr. Latiff spoke on “Artificial Intelligence & Warfare” at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019.
Edward Luce
Edward Luce
Journalist, author
Edward Luce was made the Financial Time's chief US commentator in September 2011 with a weekly column and regular editorials on the US economy and politics. Prior to that he was the FT’s Washington Bureau Chief from 2006 until 2011, managing a team of ten DC-based reporters and leading the paper’s coverage of US politics and economy. Previously, he was the FT’s South Asia bureau chief, based in New Delhi, appointed in 2001. Between December 1999 and January 2001, Edward was the speechwriter to Larry Summers, Treasury Secretary in the Clinton administration.
He is the author of three highly acclaimed books: In Spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern India (2006), Time to Start Thinking: The Spectre of American Decline (2012) and The Retreat of Western Liberalism (2017), which was listed on the best non-fiction reading lists for 2017 at Amazon, The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the Washington Post.
Luce participated at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019 on May 10th, 2019, moderating the “World View: Security Challenges & Opportunities” panel featuring Ambassador Bill Burns, Ambassador Nicholas Burns, and Congresswoman Jane Harman.
Twitter: @EdwardGLuce
Ambassador Bill Burns
Ambassador Bill Burns
President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, former career Foreign Service Officer
Ambassador (ret.) William “Bill” Burns is currently president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the oldest international affairs think tank in the United States, after a thirty-three-year diplomatic career. He holds the highest rank in the Foreign Service, career ambassador, and is only the second serving career diplomat in history to become Deputy Secretary of State. Prior to his tenure as Deputy Secretary, Ambassador Burns was ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs from 2001 to 2005, and ambassador to Jordan from 1998 to 2001. Ambassador Burns speaks Russian, Arabic, and French, and he has been the recipient of numerous awards. His memoir, The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal, was released in 2019.
Burns participated at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019 on May 10th, 2019, on the “World View: Security Challenges & Opportunities” panel alongside Ambassador Nicholas Burns and Congresswoman Jane Harman, moderated by Edward Luce.
Senator Doug Jones
Senator Doug Jones
U.S. Senator
Senator Doug Jones served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama beginning in 1997. It was while serving in this position that Senator Jones successfully prosecuted two of the four men responsible for the 16th street church bombings. Along with taking on the Ku Klux Klan, he prosecuted terrorists like Eric Rudolph, and many others who sought to use fear, hatred, and violence to inhibit the rights of others. Since his historic election, Senator Jones has brought that lifelong passion for justice and commitment to service to his role in the Senate.
Senator Jones gave a talk at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019 entitled “Can’t We All Just Get Along? How Washington Can Best Serve the Nation,” emphasizing the importance of bipartisanship and consensus building.
Twitter: @SenDougJones
Congressman Steve Israel
The Honorable Steve Israel
Politician, former Congressman for New York’s 2nd and 3rd districts, writer
Former Congressman Steve Israel left Capitol Hill in 2017 to pursue a career as a writer. Israel was a member of Congress for sixteen years and served as House Democrats chief political strategist between 2011-2015 and as Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
As chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for four years, Israel was the chief architect of House campaign strategies. He was responsible for overall development of competitive House campaigns across America. Israel was lauded for recruiting and electing the most diverse and entrepreneurial freshman congressional class in history. He developed a vast network of local, state and federal officials throughout the nation and is considered a leading expert in congressional dynamics.
Israel is a regular political commentator on MSNBC. His insights appear regularly in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs and on 60 Minutes, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, FoxNews, and elsewhere. His 2017 NY Times op-ed, “Nothing Will Change After The Las Vegas Shooting” went viral; his Mic.Com video on gun violence received nearly 3.5 million views. Israel is currently the Director of the new Institute of Politics and Global Affairs at Cornell University, the only academically-based institute of politics in the New York City metropolitan area. He also served as a Tisch College Visiting Fellow at Tufts University.
Israel participated at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019 on May 10th, 2019. He spoke on “The Road to 2020: Leaders & Ideas” panel alongside former Senator Claire McCaskill, Matt Bennett, Margaret Hoover and Rick Tyler, moderated by Errol Louis.
Twitter: @RepSteveIsrael
Former Ambassador Martin Indyk
Martin Indyk
Diplomat, academic
Martin S. Indyk is distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, he was the John C. Whitehead Distinguished Fellow in International Diplomacy in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. Indyk served as the U.S. special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations from July 2013 to June 2014. Prior to his time as special envoy, he was vice president and director of the Foreign Policy program and a senior fellow and the founding director of the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings.
Indyk was hosted by The Common Good in 2019: Discussion with Ambassador Martin Indyk.
Twitter: @Martin_Indyk
Vicky Ward
Vicky Ward
Author, journalist
Vicky Ward is a New York Times Bestselling author, investigative reporter and author of the book, KUSHNER, INC., published March 19, 2019.
The author of two best-selling books, The Liar's Ball: The Extraordinary Saga of How One Building Broke the World's Toughest Tycoons, and The Devil's Casino: Friendship, Betrayal, and the High Stakes Games Played Inside Lehman Brothers. She is the editor at large of HuffPost and HuffPost’s long-form magazine, Highline, and Town & Country magazine. Previously, she was a contributor to Esquire and contributing editor to Vanity Fair for eleven years where her articles covered politics, finance, art and culture and society.
Ward discussed her book KUSHNER, INC. at The Common Good in 2019: Vicky Ward Investigative Reporter and New York Times bestselling author "Kushner, Inc.".
Twitter: @VickyPJWard
Guy Cecil
Guy Cecil
Chair of Priorities USA
Guy Cecil is one of America’s leading political strategists. He is currently the Chairman of Priorities USA Action, an independent political action committee, and the Founder of Miles Strategies. Cecil has more than 15 years of experience managing high-profile political, non-profit, and corporate issue advocacy campaigns, including having served as Executive Director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. He is recognized as a leading Democratic strategist with experience in every region of the country, including Senate races in 35 states.
The Common Good hosted Cecil on March 6th, 2019, for a discussion entitled Political Briefing - “Election 2020: Messaging & Strategy”.
Twitter: @GuyCecil
Fern Hurst
Fern Hurst
Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of CLAL
Fern K. Hurst, a Jewish leader and champion for pluralism, was recently named the new Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. Ms. Hurst succeeds Thomas O. Katz, Esq. as Chairman of the organization.
Active in CLAL since the late 1980’s, Ms. Hurst has been a member of the Board for many years, most recently in the position of Associate Chair/Secretary. Long active in the work of the organization, she was a member of the delegation that went to the 2004 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Barcelona, the pre-eminent interfaith forum, and has been a key participant in CLAL’s annual workshops in Aspen, Colorado.
In addition to her participation at CLAL, Ms. Hurst is a member of the Executive Committee of AIPAC, and was the founding president of The Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York. She is a member of the Business Council of the Democratic National Committee, and a member of the Democratic Leadership Council. She is also on the board of Goucher College, from which she holds a B.A, and is an overseer of the School of Design of the University of Pennsylvania, from which she holds a Masters of City Planning.
Fern co-hosted Rule of Law, Investigations, Testing the New Supremes in 2019 and hosted a Meet & Greet: The Right Honorable David Miliband in 2016 at The Common Good.
Robert Friedman
Robert friedman
CEO of Bungalow Media & Entertainment
Robert Friedman is well known in the entertainment business world as his 30 year long career exemplifies. In this field he has developed, produced, and distributed all forms of filmed and experiential content across traditional and digital media platforms. Friedman has held an array of senior executive positions including President of RadicalMedia & Entertainment; President of AOL, Interactive Marketing, TV, & Ad Sales; Co-Chairman of New Line Cinema in charge of Worldwide Theatrical Marketing and Licensing and President of New Line Television, which he launched for the company. Friedman was an original member of the start-up team at MTV.
Friedman serves on the boards of AccuWeather, Mount Sinai Health System, Columbia Graduate School of Business, NATPE, The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and is a trustee emeritus of Vassar College.
The Common Good hosted Friedman on February 12, 2019: Screening and Discussion of The Panama Papers. Moderated by Stephanie Ruhle, Friedman spoke alongside Alex Winter and Kevin Hall at the event.
Alex Winter
Alex Winter
Actor, film director, screenwriter
Alex Winter is a British-American actor, film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his role as Bill S. Preston, Esq. in the 1989 film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and its 1991 sequel Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. However, his acting career dates all the way back to his childhood, when he spent several years performing on Broadway with co-starring roles in The King & I, Peter Pan, and the American premiere of Simon Gray's Close of Play at the Manhattan Theater Club. He then completed NYU film school and went on to have starring roles in several other feature films, including the Warner Brothers smash hit, The Lost Boys and Percy Adlon's Rosalie Goes Shopping.
In 2000, Winter wrote and directed Fever, released by LionsGate Films. In 2013, Winter returned to the screen in Grand Piano, directed by Eugenio Mira. 2013 also saw the release of Winter’s VH1 Rock Doc Downloaded, the story of Napster. The feature documentary premiered at SXSW and earned worldwide critical acclaim at theatrical and festival screenings. Winter’s follow-up, the multiple award-winning documentary Deep Web, had its world premiere in 2015 at SXSW followed by a broadcast premiere in the U.S. on the Epix network alongside a global festival tour.
Winter now has two new documentary features; The Panama Papers for the Epix Network, and Trust Machine for Breaker and Futurism Studios. His current project is titled Zappa; the first all-access documentary on the life and times of Frank Zappa. The Kickstarter campaign for this project was the highest funded documentary in crowdfunding history.
The Common Good hosted Winter on February 12, 2019: Screening and Discussion of The Panama Papers. Moderated by Stephanie Ruhle, Winter spoke alongside Kevin Hall and Robert Friedman at the event.
Twitter: @Winter
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Kevin G. Hall
Kevin G. Hall
Journalist
Kevin Hall is a senior investigator and chief economics correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers. He shared the 2016 Pulitzer Prize as part of the Panama Papers team, and is a 2010 Pulitzer finalist and Loeb Award winner for reporting on Wall Street and the financial crisis. From 1999 to 2005 Hall was Knight Ridder’s Brazil-based South America bureau chief, and won the Sigma Delta Chi for Best Foreign Correspondence in 2004. Hall was the 2013-14 president of SABEW and co-coordinates its annual Goldschmidt data-immersion fellowship.
The Common Good hosted Hall on February 12, 2019: Screening and Discussion of The Panama Papers. Moderated by Stephanie Ruhle, Hall spoke alongside Alex Winter and Robert Friedman at the event.
Twitter: @KevinGHall
Joseph Zidle
Joseph Zidle
Investment strategist
Joe Zidle is a Managing Director and the Chief Investment Strategist in the Private Wealth Solutions group. He has been on CNBC and is known for his ability to spot trends in reams of data.
He previously spent nearly a decade at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, most recently serving as Head of Investment Strategy for Global Wealth Management and Deputy Director of the Research Investment Committee, where he was responsible for creating and communicating global investment strategies to the firm's private client division across all major investment disciplines. He was also with Richard Bernstein Advisors, as an independent investment advisor, where he was responsible for portfolio strategy, asset allocation, investment management and marketing to major wealth management firms and independent RIAs.
Joe Zidle participated in the Economic Forecast For 2021 with Bryon Wien and Joe Zidle, on February 15 2021. Wien and Zidle provide a special forecast on the economy and the markets given the many unusual factors - Covid, a new Administration and the continued political divide, raging unemployment, etc. What are we likely to see in the next few months and what can we hope for?
Laurence Tribe
Laurence Tribe
Legal scholar
Laurence H. Tribe, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor and Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard, has taught at its Law School since 1968 and was voted the best professor by the graduating class of 2000. The title “University Professor” is Harvard’s highest academic honor, awarded to just a handful of professors at any given time and to just 68 professors in all of Harvard University’s history.
Born in China to Russian Jewish parents, Tribe entered Harvard in 1958 at 16; graduated summa cum laude in Mathematics (1962) and magna cum laude in Law (1966); clerked for the California and U.S. Supreme Courts (1966-68); received tenure at 30; was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at 38 and to the American Philosophical Society in 2010; helped write the constitutions of South Africa, the Czech Republic, and the Marshall Islands; has received eleven honorary degrees, most recently a degree honoris causa from the Government of Mexico in March 2011 that was never before awarded to an American and an honorary D. Litt. From Columbia University; has prevailed in three-fifths of the many appellate cases he has argued (including 35 in the U.S. Supreme Court); was appointed in 2010 by President Obama and Attorney General Holder to serve as the first Senior Counselor for Access to Justice; and has written 115 books and articles, including his treatise, American Constitutional Law, cited more than any other legal text since 1950.
Tribe spoke at The Common Good in 2019: Rule of Law, Investigations, Testing the New Supremes.
Twitter: @tribelaw
Bret Stephens
Bret Stephens
Columnist, associate editor for the New York Times
Bret Stephens is an op-ed columnist and associate editor for the New York Times. He previously worked for the Wall Street Journal, where he served concurrently as foreign-affairs columnist, deputy editorial page editor and member of the editorial board. Prior to that he was editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, a position he assumed in 2002 at the age of 28. Mr. Stephens has degrees from the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics, as well as three honorary doctorates.
Stephens was hosted by The Common Good in 2018: Defending Democracy: John Avlon, Philip Bobbitt, Ian Kahn, Garry Kasparov, and Bret Stephens.
Twitter: @BretStephensNYT