Westminster Town Hall Forum

William Blair Jr - The Global Environment And The Extinction Crisis - 02/25/88 by westminsterforum

William Colby - Is The CIA Above The Law? - 02/19/1987 by westminsterforum

Clive Barnes decided at the age of 14 to become a critic, and four years later, he chose dance as his specialty. In 1967, he replaced Walter Kerr as The New York Times' drama critic while continuing to cover the world of dance. He describes the role of the critic as a "stimulator of thought and opinion, a catalyst or bridge between the artist and the audience." In addition to his work as a critic,...

Christine Cassel joined Mount Sinai Medical Center in 1995 as Chairman of the Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development. Her previous position was Chief of General Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago where she earned a national reputation for her work in bringing together biomedical, ethical, and policy issues in general internal medicine and geriatrics. She is the author of severa...

Government and Politics

Anne Cohn is executive director of the National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse. In this role, she oversees the organization's 50-state network of chapters, its nationwide public service media campaign, a national research center, and the organization's wide-ranging advocacy efforts. In the 1970s, she designed and directed the first national evaluation study of child abuse and neglect trea...

Alberta Arthurs is an educator and noted writer on higher education, humanities, and women in society. She is the former president of Chatham College and is currently director for Arts and Humanities at The Rockefeller Foundation.

David Brooks is a columnist for The New York Times and a regular contributor to The NewsHour on PBS and All Things Considered on NPR. His columns and books, including Bobos in Paradise and The Social Animal, offer sharp insight into American culture, politics, and foreign affairs. He has served as senior editor at The Weekly Standard, as a contributing editor at Newsweek and the Atlantic Monthly,...

Carl Bernstein is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who, along with Bob Woodward, broke the Watergate story for The Washington Post, leading to the resignation of President Richard Nixon and setting the standard for modern investigative reporting. For more than forty years, his writings and commentary have shed light on the inner-workings of government and politics, including the increasing dysfun...

Amy-Jill Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School and College of Arts and Sciences. She has held office in the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association, and the Association for Jewish Studies. She is the author, co-author, or editor of numerous books, including The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scan...

Andrew Zimmern is a chef, food writer, teacher, and television host. As creator, executive producer, and host of the popular series Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, he travels the globe, exploring the ways that food shapes and reflects the lives and culture of people around the world. He is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Babson College's Lewis Institute and serves on the board of directors for...

Frances Moore Lappe directs the Center for Living Democracy in Brattleboro, Vermont, with her husband Paul Martin Du Bois. They are also co-authors of the book The Quickening of America: Rebuilding Our Nation, Remaking Our Lives. In 1971, Ms. Lappe awakened an entire generation to the human-made causes of hunger in her book Diet for a Small Planet, a bestseller that has sold more than three millio...

John O'Sullivan has served as editor of The National Review since 1988, the most important conservative journal of the post-World War II era. His previous posts have included Special Advisor to the British Prime Minister, associate editor of the London Times, assistant editor of the London Daily Telegraph, and editor of Policy Review. He has published articles in Encounter, Commentary, Policy Revi...

Gordon Parks is a photographer, writer, poet, filmmaker, and composer. In 1949, he joined the staff of Life magazine where he worked as a photojournalist for twenty years, completing over 300 assignments and articles on a broad range of subjects. His career in film began in 1961 when he wrote and directed a documentary based on the life of a boy from a Brazilian slum. He is the director of Shaft,...

Georgie Anne Geyer writes a syndicated columnist who writes on foreign policy and international affairs for 120 American and Latin American papers, including the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Times. She is a regular commentator on PBS's Washington Week in Review and Frontline. Fluent in five languages, her career has been a whirlwind of ground-breaking journalism. She is the only American to...

David McCullough is an historian, lecturer, and teacher. He is the author of six books, including Truman, which was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. He is perhaps best known as the host of the PBS series The American Experience and as narrator of Ken Burns' documentary The Civil War. He received the Charles Frankel Prize from President Clinton and was recognized by the National Endowment for the Humaniti...

Juan Williams is a political reporter for The Washington Post, commentator on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, and author of the highly-acclaimed history of the civil rights movement, Eyes on the Prize, which is a companion volume to the PBS series. He is currently under commission to write the authorized biography of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. His expertise on Washington politics has ea...

Iris Chang is an historian and author of the book The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. More than fifty years after the end of that war, the horrors of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust remain etched in our memories, but most Americans are unaware of the atrocities committed by Japanese armies in the Far East. In her book, she documents the destruction of the city of Nanking i...

Betty Williams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her work in organizing marches for peace in Northern Ireland, bringing together Protestants and Catholics to hear the message that violence cannot bring social justice. With Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, she founded Community of Peace People. In 1981, she moved to the United States and has continued her work for peace. She has been honored with...

Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins is committed to the practice of civil discourse as a means to strengthening democracy. She believes that it is important to acknowledge the words, traditions, and stereotypes that exist today in individuals and communities as a first step toward understanding. She is the fifteenth president of the League of Women Voters of the United States and the first African-American...

Joseph Stanton, Ralph Nero & Walter Benjamin - Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides - 09/21/89 by westminsterforum

E. J. Dionne is a columnist for The Washington Post, specializing in politics and public policy. From 1977 to 1990, he worked for The New York Times, reporting on local, state, and national politics. In 1990, he joined The Post as a national political reporter. His articles have appeared in a variety of publications, including The New Republic and Commonwealth. His book Why Americans Hate Politics...

Harold Hodgkinson is Director of the Center for Demographic Policy and a Fellow of the American Council on Education. Widely known as a lecturer and analyst of demographic and educational issues, he has profiled 28 states and numerous metropolitan areas. His recent studies include All One System: Demographics of Education, Kindergarten Through Graduate School; The Demographics of American Indians:...

Gustav Niebuhr is the senior religion writer at The New York Times, reporting on major trends in religion and news-breaking stories throughout the United States. Before joining The New York Times, he wrote for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. He has covered the mass suicide of members of the Heaven's Gate cult, the growth of mega-churches in Ameri...

Andrei Codrescu is a professor of English at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, a commentator on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and the editor of the literary journal Exquisite Corpse. Born in Sibiu, Romania, he immigrated to the United States in 1966 and became a citizen in 1981. His experience as a foreigner lends his writing its fresh, unorthodox perspective and voice, r...