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Hosting Distinguished Speakers Since 1920

Previous speakers

A few of the more than 300 speakers we have hosted over the years.
We host three speakers per season. Membership signup is from June 1, 2026 to September 1,2027.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Our 107th Season

2026-2027

Thursday, October 8, 2026, 7:30 p.m.

Leslie Greene Bowman: President Emerita of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.

Leslie Greene Bowman is President Emerita of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and operates Monticello, the home of founding father and third president, Thomas Jefferson. She is currently authoring a book on the White House fine arts collection for publication by the White House Historical Association in 2026. She served by presidential appointment on the Committee for the Preservation of the White House under Presidents Biden, Trump, Obama, Bush, and Clinton.

Thursday, November 19, 2026 7:30 p.m.

David W. Blight Ph.D. Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Sterling Professor of History at Yale University

Dr. Blight is the Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale University. He is the author or editor of a dozen books, including the Pulitzer Prize for Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom; American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era; and Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory; and annotated editions of Douglass’s firsttwo autobiographies. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, he has been awarded the Bancroft Prize, the Abraham Lincoln Prize, and the Frederick Douglass Prize, among others. He is the immediate past president of the Organization of American Historians (2024-2025).

Thursday, April 15, 2027 7:30 p.m.

Frank Lavin: Diplomat, author, journalist

Frank Lavin is a policy expert on U.S.-Asia policy, U.S. domestic politics, and trade policy matters. He previously served as a Fellow at the University of Southern California and as a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Lavin served as Under Secretary for International Trade at the U.S. Department of Commerce in the Bush (43) Administration. In that capacity, Lavin served as lead trade negotiator for both China and India and was responsible for commercial policy, export promotion, and trade negotiations across the globe. Lavin was previously U.S. Ambassador to Singapore, where he helped negotiate the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.