We bring public policy experts to the Steamboat community.

“Deeply Divided and Closely Divided: Why the Temperature Has Been Rising in American Politics,” by Dr. William Galston, The Brookings Institution. 

William A. Galston has written 10 books and more than 100 articles on political theory, public policy, political and moral philosophy, and U.S. politics. He also writes a weekly column on Politics & Ideas for the Wall Street Journal. He is currently a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and holds the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program.

“U.S.-China Strategic Competition,” by Dr. Scott Kennedy, Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

Scott Kennedy is a leading authority on China’s economic policy and global economic relations. He has been traveling to China for over 30 years and has interviewed thousands of officials, business executives, lawyers, nonprofit organizations and scholars. His specific areas of expertise include industrial policy, technology innovation, business lobbying, multinational business challenges in China, global governance, and philanthropy. He is currently at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C.

“Cryptocurrency: The Future of Money or All Hype?” by Lee Reiners, CFA, Global Financial Markets Center, Duke University.


Lee Reiners joined the Duke Global Financial Markets Center as executive director in 2016. At Duke Law, Reiners teaches FinTech Law and Policy as well as seminars relating to financial policy and regulatory practice. His research focuses on how new financial technologies fit within existing regulatory frameworks and he writes frequently on FinTech and other financial regulatory matters. Prior to joining Duke Law, Reiners worked for five years at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY), first as a supervisor of systemically important financial institutions and then as a senior associate within the executive office.

 “America’s Dysfunctional Housing Market,” by Christopher Ptomey, The Urban Land Institute.

Christopher Ptomey is Executive Director of the Urban Land Institute’s Terwilliger Center for Housing, a leading authority on housing issues. The Center promotes residential development and housing affordability through research programs, local and national conferences, partnerships with private and public sector organizations and leaders, and the development of practical tools to help developers of affordable housing.

“The Supreme Court: Looking Back While Looking Ahead,” by Joan Biskupic, J.D., CNN Legal Analyst. 

Journalist, author and lawyer Joan Biskupic is currently CNN’s full-time legal analyst. She has covered the U.S. Supreme Court since 1989 and has written biographies of Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia and Sonia Sotomayor, and Chief Justice John Roberts. Her work has been described as “essential reading for anyone who truly wants to understand this pivotal moment in Supreme Court history.”

Teaching Democracy: Civics and Civility in the Classroom and Beyond

Originally from the South Side of Chicago, Deval Patrick came to Massachusetts at the age of 14, when he was awarded a scholarship to Milton Academy through the Boston-based organization A Better Chance. After Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he clerked for a federal appellate judge and then launched a career as an attorney and business executive, becoming a staff attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, a partner at two Boston law firms and a senior executive at two Fortune 50 companies.

The Foreign Intelligence Threat to the U.S.:  Russia, China and Other Bad Actors

James Bruce, Ph.D., is a former senior executive officer at CIA, an adjunct researcher and former Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation, and an adjunct professor at Georgetown and Florida Atlantic Universities. He also taught as an adjunct at Columbia and American Universities and as a full-time faculty member at the National War College.

The Future of Public Health: Why We Should All Be Concerned

Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo is a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering and the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a Senior Fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations. An epidemiologist by training, her work focuses on global health security, with a focus on pandemic preparedness, outbreak detection and response, health systems as they relate to global health security, biosurveillance, and infectious disease diagnostics.

Fiscal Sanity in an Insane World

Maya MacGuineas is the president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Her areas of expertise include budget, tax and economic policy. As a leading budget expert and a political independent, she has worked closely with members of both parties and serves as a trusted resource on Capitol Hill. She testifies regularly before Congress and oversees a number of the Committee’s projects, including the grassroots coalition Fix the Debt, the Fiscal Institute and FixUS. Her most recent area of focus is on the future of the economy, technology and capitalism.

John D. Leshy is a Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Hastings College of Law, and was formerly solicitor of the Interior Department, counsel to the chair of the Natural Resources Committee, an attorney-advocate with the Natural Resources Defense Council and a litigator in the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Considering the political history of America’s 600 million acres of public lands, he’ll look at how Congress and the executive might respond to numerous challenges, especially those related to climate change and the ongoing decline in biodiversity.

Ambassador Eric Edelman served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republics of Finland and Turkey in the Clinton and Bush Administrations and was Principal Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs. He has been Chief of Staff to Deputy Secretary of State, special assistant to Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and special assistant to Secretary of State George Shultz. His other assignments include the State Department Operations Center, Prague, Moscow and Tel Aviv, where he was a member of the U.S. Middle East Delegation to the West Bank/Gaza Autonomy Talks.

Thinking Differently About Race and Public Policy

Camille Busette, PhD is a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies and Director of the Race, Prosperity and Inclusion Initiative at the Brookings Institution.  She has dedicated her career to expanding financial opportunities for low-income populations. Her work has centered primarily on systemic racism, the importance of social relationships to economic mobility and equity in healthcare. She also focuses on local and state government policy priorities.  Prior to joining Brookings, Camille was an executive at the World Bank, where she led the World Bank’s financial inclusion innovation arm.