Past Seminars

“Disaster Preparation and Management in the Face of a Changing Climate”

Craig Fugate Consulting, LLC, Gainesville, FL,
Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Administration (2009-17)

Craig Fugate is the former administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), during which time he organized recovery efforts for a record eighty-seven disasters in 2011 alone.  Before that, as director of the Florida Emergency Management Division, he coordinated the state’s response to Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne (the “Big 4 of ’04”), and Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina and Wilma in 2005.  At FEMA, Fugate emphasized a “whole community” approach to emergency management, spearheaded the effort to build capacity to stabilize catastrophic events within 72 hours and incorporated “Thunderbolt exercises” using fake disasters and lightning inspections to train emergency operations centers.

“Colorado River in Crisis: Learning From the Past to Protect the Future”

Visiting Professor at the University of California – Irvine School of Law, with introductory remarks by Luke Runyon, Managing Editor & Reporter, Colorado River Basin, KUNC — Community Radio for Northern Colorado

Heather Tanana is a visiting Professor at the University of California – Irvine School of Law and has become a nationally recognized researcher and educator specializing in the vexing questions at the junction of law, health and water policies. In 2021 she received an award from the American Bar Association for “distinguished achievement in environmental law and policy” for her work including the 2021 report Universal Access to Clean Water for Tribes in the Colorado River Basin, for which she served as lead author. She is also contributing to the water chapter for the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5), due in 2023, which will analyze the effects of global change on the world’s natural environment, resources and social systems.

“Russia, Ukraine, and Beyond — Challenges for the U.S.”

President and CEO, U.S. Russia Foundation, Wilson Center, Washington, DC

Matthew Rojansky is one of the country’s pre-eminent Russia scholars.  In early 2022 he became President and CEO of the U.S.-Russia Foundation, a private grant-making foundation established to promote the development of the private sector and the rule of law in Russia.  Prior to joining USRF, Rojansky served as Director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center, the premier U.S. institution for research on Russia, from 2013 to 2021.  Between 2010 and 2013, he was Deputy Director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he founded Carnegie’s Ukraine Program and prior to that he served as executive director of the Partnership for a Secure America (PSA).

“Elections on the Brink: Where We Are and Where We Need to Go to Ensure Fairness and Integrity”

Vice President for Democracy, Brennan Center for Justice, New York University School of Law

Wendy Weiser directs the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, a nonpartisan think tank and public interest law center that works to revitalize, reform, and defend systems of democracy and justice.  Her program focuses on voting rights and elections, money in politics and ethics, redistricting and representation, government dysfunction, rule of law, and fair courts.  She founded and directed the program’s Voting Rights and Elections Project, directing litigation, research, and advocacy efforts to enhance political participation and prevent voter disenfranchisement across the country.

“R/Evolution: Recasting Life in an Age of Radical Biotechnology”

Technology Futurist, Geopolitics Expert, Entrepreneur, Sci-Fi Novelist

Jamie Metzl is one of the world’s leading technology and healthcare futurists and author of the non-fiction bestseller, Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity. He has appeared regularly on national and international media programs and his writings in science, technology, and global affairs are featured in publications around the world. He additionally earned the title of “the original COVID-19 whistleblower” for his leading role advocating for a full investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. During his career, Jamie has served in the U.S. National Security Council, State Department, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and as a Human Rights Officer for the United Nations in Cambodia and was a member of the World Health Organization expert advisory committee on human genome editing from 2019 to 2021.

“The Supreme Court 2022: Institutional Shock and Constitutional Change,” by Garrett Epps.

Garrett Epps is a novelist, journalist, and legal scholar.  He has taught Constitutional Law, First Amendment, and Legal Non-Fiction at American University, the University of Baltimore, Boston College, Duke University, and the University of Oregon.  He is currently Professor of Practice at the University of Oregon School of Law and Legal Affairs Editor of the Washington Monthly.   From 2011 until 2020, he covered the Supreme Court for The Atlantic, filing weekly during the Court’s Term. 

 “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.

“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.

“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.

“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.

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.

Prospects for U.S. National Security, Defense Strategy and Policy

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.

America’s Public Lands – A Look Back and Ahead

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. 

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.

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.

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

James Bruce is a former senior executive officer at the CIA, where he held analytic and management positions in both directorates of intelligence and operations, including serving as Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Science and Technology, vice chairman of the Director of Central Intelligence Foreign Denial and Deception Committee, Chief of Counterintelligence Training, and a senior staff member on the President’s Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction. He is an adjunct researcher and former Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation.

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.