Past Speakers
2023 | Erin Brockovich, American paralegal, consumer advocate, and environmental activist
2019 | Michael A. McFaul, Ambassador of the United States of America to the Russian Federation (former)
2017 | J.D. Vance, Middletown native and author of the best-selling 2016 book Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
2016 | Nadine Strossen, President of the American Civil Liberties Union (former)
2015 | Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (former)
2014 | Dr. Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate and U.S. Secretary of Energy (former)
2013 | Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders, educator and US Surgeon General (former) | Event Photos
2012 | Ralph Nader, five-time candidate for President of the United State | Event Photos
2011 | David D. Cole, B.A., J.D., Yale, John Carroll Research Professor of Law, Georgetown | Event Photos
2010 | Dr. David A. Kessler, author, educator and Commissioner of the FDA (former) | Event Photos
2009 | Gary Hirshberg, President & Ce-Yo of Stonyfield Farm, Chair of Climate Counts | Event Photos
2008 | Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations | Event Photos
2007 | Norman J. Ornstein, resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
2003 | Richard Rodriguez, author and PBS commentator
2001 | Scott Carpenter, NASA Mercury astronaut and aquanaut
2000 | Phillip R. Shriver, President emeritus of Miami University
1999 | Benno Schmidt, President of Edison Project
1998 | Beverly Sills, New York City Opera (retired), Board of Lincoln Center (NYC)
1997 | Jonathan Kozol, author and educator
1996 | Clarence Page, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, television commentator, graduate of Middletown High School
1995 | Robert Novak, columnist and television commentator
1994 | Sarah Brady, gun control advocate
1993 | Dr. Benjamin Hooks, retired executive director of the NAACP
1992 | Dr. Oscar Arias, Nobel Peace Prize recipient and former president of Costa Rica
1991 | Daniel Schorr, journalist and NPR commentator
1990 | Edmund Muskie, Governor of Maine, Senator from Maine, US Secretary of State, Presidential candidate
1989 | Archibald Cox, Watergate prosecutor, President of Common Cause
1987 | Mortimer Adler, author, philosopher, Encyclopedia Brittanica editor
1986 | Elliot Richardson, Ambassador to the Court of St. James, US Attorney General, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Commerce
1985 | Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., presidential advisor and Pulitzer Prize winning historian
1984 | Senator William Proxmire, US Senator
1983 | Dr. Leon Martel, Futurist
1982 | Dr. Linus Pauling, recipient of two Nobel Prizes, Chemistry and Peace
1981 | Juanita Kreps, Secretary of Commerce (Carter administration)
1980 | General William Westmoreland, US Army (retired)
1979 | Sir Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of Great Britain
1978 | Justice Arthur Goldberg, Secretary of Labor, US Supreme Court Justice, Ambassador to the United Nations
1977 | William B. Saxbe, Ohio Attorney General, US Ambassador to India
1976 | George M. Hook, retired president of Armco Steel
1975 | James J. Kilpatrick, columnist and commentator
1974 | Sander Vanocur, journalist
1973 | Justice William O. Douglas, US Supreme Court Justice
