Past Events
Over the last few years, our students have had a chance to meet some very interesting people through the FDR Foundation! Here's a sampling:

Anna Sevortian, Director Human Rights Watch Russia
Fireside Chat: Human Rights in Putin's Russia

Doris Kearns-Goodwin, Historian, Author
Lecture: FDR, TR, and Lincoln

Julio Frenk, former Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health; President, University of Miami
Panel: Global Health Equity

Laurence Summers, former President of Harvard University
Panel: Global Health Equity

Francis Gatare, former chief advisor to the President, CEO of the Rwanda Development Board
Fireside Chat: Rwanda and Genocide 20 Years On

David Huebner, former US Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa
Lecture: What is Our Story, Anyway — American Narratives in the 21st Century

Bruce Oreck, former US Ambassador to Finland
Lecture: Don't Worry. It's Not the End of the World, Just the End of Yours

Michael Ignatieff, former leader of the Liberal Party in Canada, Professor Harvard Kennedy School
Fireside Chat: Sovereignty and Intervention

Kevin Rudd, Former Prime Minister of Australia
Fireside Chat: US, Australia and the The Future of the Pacific Rim

Juliana Jolly, Nieman Fellow, BBC Asia Editor
Fireside Chat: Sexual Violence Across Cultures

Jean Edward Smith, Presidential Historian
Lecture: FDR - A Life
Lecture: Eisenhower

Bob Schieffer, Anchor, CBS News
Fireside Chat: 50 Years in Washington

Tim Mayopoulos, CEO, Fannie Mae
Lecture & Fireside Chat: FDR, Fannie May and the Affordable Housing Crisis

John Rendon, CEO, The Rendon Group
Lecture & Fireside Chat: Realpolitik, Strategic Communications & the Projection of US Power

Raiyan Syed, Political Campaign Manager
Fireside Chat: Muslim-Jewish Relations in the US: Hard Choices

Laurel Thatcher, Professor Harvard University
Fireside Chat: History Next Door —Tangible Things in the FDR Suite

Robin Chase, Founder Zip Car
Lecture: How People and Platforms are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism

Alexander Bernstein, Musician, Historian
Performance: Take Care Of This House — Leonard Bernstein, Music and Hope

Amartya Sen, Harvard Economist, Nobel Laureate
Panel: Climate and Social Justice

Julie Wormser, Executive Director, Boston Harbor Association
Lecture: The Effect of Climate Change on Boston

David Brooks, NY Times Columnist, Author
Panel: What's Worth Saving in Civilization

Mark Plotkin, Ethnobotonist and Explorer
Panel: Legacy and Resilience
Fireside Chat: Possibilities in Ethnobotony

Geoffrey Ward, PBS Historian and Author
Lecture and Fireside Chat:
FDR at Harvard

Marcela Davison Aviles, Founder, The Chapultepec Group, FDR Foundation Director of Humanities Programming
Fireside Chat: Don't Steal My Sombrero - A Frank Discussion of Race and Culture in 21st Century America

Jim McCarthy, Professor Harvard University
Lecture: This is What Climate Change Looks Like

Admiral Linda Fagin, US Coast Guard
Lecture: Defending Against the Storm: Response and Resilience

Cynthia Koch, fromer Director of the FDR Presidential Libary and Museum, FDR Foundation Historian in Residence
Lecture: The American Story: From Washington to Roosevelt, Reagan and Beyond

Farnaz Fassihi, Wall Street Journal, Nieman Fellow
Fireside Chat: Covering Conflict in Today's Middle East: Syria, Iraq, ISIL, & Iran

Maggie Koerth-Baker, Nieman Fellow, NY Times
Fireside Chat: Why Won't They Listen to Me? Science, Anti-science, & Public Decision-making

Steve Curvood, NPR Host, Living on Earth
Lecture: Disbelievers: The Crisis of Faith on Climate Change

Ömür Budak, Consul General to New England from the Republic of Turkey
Fireside Chat: Turkey & America: An Essential & Challenging Relationship

Brent Bruen, former White House Director of Global Engagement, President Global Situation Room
Seminar: Global Risk & Crisis Management Strategies

Michael McCormick, Harvard
Lecture: Climate Change and the Fall of the Western Roman Empire

Elsie M. Sunderland, Harvard University Assistant Professor
Lecture: Muddying the Waters

Albert Cho, Vice President for Strategy and Business Development, Xylem Inc.
Workshop: Let's Solve Water: Alternative Approaches to Addressing the World's Water Challenges

Alberto J. Mora, former General Counsel of the Navy
Fireside Chat: Ending Torture as a Tool of American Foreign Policy
And then, there were the conferences...


