Past Events

Martha Minow, 300th Anniversary Professor at Harvard University, former Dean of the Harvard Law School, 2009 – 2017 and Harvard Law School Professor since 1981. She is a constitutional law expert and advocate for minorities and disenfranchised individuals. After graduating from Yale Law School, she clerked for Judge David Bazelon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C., then clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. She serves on numerous boards including the MacAthur Foundation, the Campaign Legal Center, Carnegie Corporation, the American Bar Association Diversity and Inclusion 360 Commission and more. She has written over 10 books, including Saving the News: Why the Constitution Calls for Government Action to Preserve Freedom of Speech plus several law case books.

Newton Minow is the Former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and a leading advocate for the Public Broadcasting Act essential to public broadcasting today. Newton Minow, appointed to the FCC by President John F. Kennedy, changed television with his “Vast Wasteland” speech and continuing advocacy for news that delivers truth and trustworthy commentary. On his 95th birthday, Martha interviewed her father on the state of news today. He now interviews Martha on Saving the News.

Gerald Adelmann is the President and CEO of Openlands, an Illinois organization with national and International reach which combats climate change and protects natural and open spaces to ensure cleaner air and water. Jerry, as he is known to one and all, organized an Openlands program leading to the creation of the Illinois and Michigan Canal Heritage Corridor, the first federal land designation of its kind in 1982. Under his leadership, Openlands helped create Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, Openlands Lakeshore Preserve and Hackmatac National Wildlife Refuge in both Illinois and Wisconsin. Jerry will discuss these plus a new federal initiative, Renew Conservation Corps Act.

with Robert A. Pape, founding Director of the University of Chicago Project on Security & Threats and a Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago in conversation with Norman Ornstein, Senior Fellow Emeritus, American Enterprise Institute

Prof. Robert A. Pape’s research reveals a new kind of violent mass movement is growing in America, and not one confined to the usual suspects when it comes to right-wing extremism and nationalism. And the drivers for the movement do not necessarily fit previous narratives.

In his latest research, using online and nationally representative surveys, Prof. Pape addresses the most pointed questions yet:

• How much support is there to reinstate former President Trump by force?
• How large is the insurrectionist movement?
• Is it continuing to grow?
• What are the drivers?
• Who are the insurrectionists listening to?
• Who could influence the movement and help America?

The answers to these questions are not only surprising but also profoundly disturbing for the future of democracy and political stability in America. Anyone concerned about America’s future cannot afford to miss Prof. Pape discussing his latest findings.

Norman J. Ornstein is a senior fellow emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he has been studying politics, elections, and the US Congress for more than four decades. Along with Thomas Mann and Michael Malbin, he created “Vital Statistics on Congress” in 1980, a go-to-reference guide that provides impartial data for congressional watchers, and is updated every two years. He is also a longtime participant of AEI’s Election Watch series and an adviser to the Continuity of Government Commission.

Norm Ornstein often appears on C-SPAN, CBS, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, NPR, and “PBS NewsHour,” among other outlets.

Mia Bay, Professor of American History, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Mia Bay, Professor of American History at the University of Pennsylvania, will discuss her latest book, “Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance.” Her research has uncovered the efforts, including the creation of black owned companies, to overcome rules of segregation and restrictions from the era of the stage coach to trains, cars, buses, and planes.

Dr. Bay is also the author of, “To tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells,” “The White Image in the Black Mind,” and co-author of “Freedom on My Mind: A History of African Americans, with Documents.”

The Center will be conducting a virtual book signing. Dr. Bay will sign bookplates for those who purchase her book. Please email info@stevensoncenterondemocracy.org with your address and name or names for the inscription and the Stevenson Center will do our best to send a signed bookplate (sticker) that you may then apply to your copy of her book.

Zhao Jian, Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Chicago

The Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Chicago, Zhao Jian, is the 11th Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Chicago. His region covers 9 states, a large portion of the Midwest, including Illinois neighbors, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Missouri, and reaching as far west as Colorado. He was born in Shandong Province in 1971. His previous posts include Director, Department of North America and Oceanic Affairs, Counselor of Australian Embassy, 2009 - 2013, and Consul General in Melbourne, 2016 – 2019. He is married with a daughter. The Stevenson Center is pleased to welcome him to the Midwest.

Adrianne Benton Furniss will discuss, “The Infrastructure of Opportunity,” especially important now that the current health, economic, and social justice crises have brought into sharp focus the inequities of our broadband ecosystem. As the pandemic has forced learning, work, healthcare, and more into our homes, universal access to robust broadband infrastructure is imperative to the health of our communities, our country’s economic recovery, and our democracy.

The Benton Institute was founded by Charles Benton in 1981 and chaired by him until his death in 2015. The Benton Institute believes that communication policy, rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity, has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities to bridge our divides.

Adrianne Benton Furniss, Executive Director of the Benton Institute, formerly worked for eight years as Vice President for International Television for Children’s Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop) among other content-creating companies.

Martin Sherwin will discuss his new book, Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Martin Sherwin, co-author of Pulitzer Prize winning American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, investigates the United State’s use of nuclear weapons in World War II, and the years since, demonstrating how nuclear weapons are more of a threat than deterrent to world peace. In dramatic detail, Mr. Sherwin shows how leadership and luck prevented world destruction during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Martin Sherwin is a Professor of History at George Mason University and also author of A World Destroyed: Hiroshima and its Legacies. Mr. Sherwin will sign bookplates for those who have purchased his book. Email the Stevenson Center the names you wish inscribed.

Bruce Cumings, Professor of History at the University of Chicago, specializes in Korea and international policy. Bruce Cumings won the John King Fairbank Award for his book, The Origins of the Korean War. Additionally, he is the author of Dominion from Sea to Sea: Pacific Ascendancy and American Power and the editor of the Cambridge History of Korea plus numerous articles. The Center is delighted to welcome him back to Center programs.

Trains with fewer crew members fatigued from long hours often run through communities carrying flammable oils, explosives, and toxic substances. The panelists will discuss the need for further regulation of railroads and other practices to protect community safety. Gerri Songer is an educator, local activist and Legislative Director of Northwest Suburban Teachers Union Local 1211 IFT-AFT. She works to prevent fiery accidents often creating hazardous runoff. Mark Burrows is a retired Canadian Pacific Railroad engineer and an active member of SMART/TD, formerly United Transportation Union, who now works with Railroad Workers United to fight for improved safety for railroad workers and the public.

Trita Parsi, founder and Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and founder and former President of the National Iranian American Council, returns to the Stevenson Center by popular demand. The Quincy Institute is an action-oriented think tank that promotes a foreign policy based on diplomatic engagement and military restraint. Trita is the author of A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran (Yale University Press, 2012), selected by the Foreign Affairs Journal as the best book of 2012, Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy (Yale University Press, 2017), plus numerous articles in scholarly and popular journals. He is an adjunct professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University SAIS, George Washington University and Georgetown University, and a Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.

Jonathan Alter is an award winning author, former editor of Newsweek, political analyst with MSNBC and PBS, documentary filmmaker, columnist, television producer, and radio host. Join us a he present, "His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life" in a free Zoom webinar.

Jonathan Alter is a specialist in the American presidency, having covered and interviewed, Nixon, Ford, Carter, both presidents Bush, and Obama. This history, plus his three New York Times bestsellers, The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope (2006) The Promise: President Obama Year One (2010) and The Center Holds: Obama and his Enemies (2013), have given Alter his deep knowledge of the backgrounds and pressures in the lives of presidents, culminating in this biography of Jimmy Carter. Alter’s work defines a drama of the bright boy who rose from farm life without electricity or running water in the depth of the Jim Crow south to civil rights and environmental leadership as the President of the United States.

Jonathan will sign bookplates for those who purchase the book. Please send the address and name or names to us for his designation and we will mail you the signed bookplate.

Geoffrey Stone, Professor, University of Chicago

At a time when the Supreme Court is a paramount concern in our nation, Geoffrey Stone will speak on the latest of his many books on the constitution and the law, Democracy and Equality: The Enduring Constitutional Vision of the Warren Court, co-authored with David A. Strauss. Mr. Stone served as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William J Brennan, Jr. He later served as Dean of the University of Chicago Law School and Provost of the University. He was appointed by President Obama to serve on the President's Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology in the wake of the Edward Snowden leaks. He is an authority on civil rights, constitutional law, and the author of many books including Sex and the Law: Religion and Law from America's Origins to the Twenty-First Century (2017); Speaking out: Reflections of Law, Liberty and Justice (2010 and 2016); Top Secret: When Our Government Keeps Us in the Dark (2007), Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime (2004) and many more.  

The program begins with a 37 minute showing of The Color Tax, a segment of a documentary, The Shame of Chicago created by Bruce Orenstein, Founder and Director of the Chicago Video Project and Artist in Residence at the Samuel Dubois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, about practices which caused segregated communities throughout the metropolitan areas of Chicago.

The video will be followed by a panel discussion with Natalie Moore, panel moderator, WBEZ veteran reporter and author of Southside: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation among other publications; Kendra Freeman, Director of Community Development and Engagement, Metropolitan Planning Council; Marisa Novara, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Housing and former Director of the MPC project, The Cost of Segregation; Bruce Orenstein, Producer and Director of the Shame of Chicago documentary; Mary Pattillo, Harold Washington Professor of Sociology and Chair, Department of African American Studies at Northwestern University and the author of Black on the Block: the Politics of Race and Class in the City among other publications, will address current changes our government and communities can make in policies and practices to remedy and repair the damages of segregation. 

Co-sponsors for this Event:
Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity
https://socialequity.duke.edu/

Chicago South Side Film Festival
https://www.southsidefilmfest.org/

Metropolitan Planning Council
https://www.metroplanning.org/index.html

InJustice Watch
https://www.injusticewatch.org/

Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights
https://www.clccrul.org/

Facing History and Ourselves
https://www.facinghistory.org/

Lowell Sachnoff and Fay Clayton

Sponsored by Injustice Watch, Common Cause Illinois, and the Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy

This November, more than 60 Cook County judges will be on the ballot seeking retention. Judicial elections have been widely criticized as inaccessible to the electorate and rife with ethical concerns. This discussion will provide insight into why judicial elections matter and how voters can make informed choices. Panelists include; Jen Dean, Deputy Director of Chicago Vote and a political strategist, sociologist, youth mentor and community organizer. Kulmeet (Bob) Galhotra, Sole Proprietor, Galhotra Law, Michael S Kang, William G. and Virginia K. Karnes Research Professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Juliet Sorensen (moderator), Executive Director of Injustice Watch and Clinical Professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.  

Anita Banerji, Director, Forefront Democracy Initiative

Prior to her work with Forefront, Ms. Banerji served as Legislative Director for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Ms. Banerji is a former Board President of the Indo-American Center, a graduate of the 2010 Illinois Women's Institute in Leadership Training, and a 2019 Edgar Fellow. She holds a MA degree from DePaul University in multicultural and organizational communications and a BA in print journalism from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Ralph Martire
Arthur Rubloff Endowed Professor of Public Policy Roosevelt University

Ralph Martire is the Arthur Rubloff Endowed Professor of Public Policy at Roosevelt University, and the Executive Director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability (CTBA). CTBA is a bipartisan 501(c)(3) think tank committed to ensuring that state, federal and local workforce, education, fiscal, economic and budget policies are fair and just, and to promoting opportunity for all, regardless of race, ethnicity or income class.

Pat Davenport, CEO and Executive Director, Safe Place

Pat Davenport is the CEO and Executive Director of a Safe Place, the sole provider of services exclusively addressing domestic violence in Lake County, Illinois. Through multi-faceted programs A Safe Place assists victims in transforming their lives after domestic violence, prevents future abuse by addressing its root cause through abuser intervention programs, and educates the community about domestic violence and how we can all be involved in its end.

Adele Simmons, President, Global Philanthropy Partnership

Adele Simmons co-chaired Mayor Daley’s Chicago Climate Action Plan and helped implement Mayor Emmanuel’s Sustainable Chicago 2015. She served as co-chair of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs study The Global Edge: An Agenda for Chicago’s Future. Mrs. Simmons helped establish the Urban Sustainability Network that convenes sustainability directors from 125 cities in the U.S. and Canada. She was President of the John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation from 1989 to 1999 and President of Hampshire College from 1977-1989. She currently serves of the boards of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Field Museum, Ceres, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Synergos Institute, and the American Prospect.

The League of Women Voters of Lake Forest/Lake Bluff Area and the Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy will present “An Evening with David Axelrod.” The event will feature a wide-ranging conversation with Mr. Axelrod including current challenges to democracy and engagement in the political process.

Mr. Axelrod’s New York Times best-selling memoir, Believer: My Forty Years in Politics, will be available for purchase, courtesy of the Lake Forest Bookstore. Mr. Axelrod will sign copies of the book.

Advance purchase is encouraged. A limited number of tickets may be available at the door for $20 for adults and $15 for students. Seating is general admission; doors will open at 6:30 pm.

About David Axelrod
David Axelrod is a preeminent American political strategist and commentator. He currently serves as the founding director of the University of Chicago's nonpartisan Institute of Politics and as a senior political commentator for CNN. Axelrod served as President Barack Obama’s chief strategist and senior advisor. He also hosts The Axe Files, a top-rated podcast featuring in-depth conversations with public figures across the political spectrum, and Hacks on Tap, a podcast with longtime Republican strategist Mike Murphy. A former political writer for the Chicago Tribune, Axelrod produced media strategy and advertising for 150 campaigns across the U.S., culminating in President Obama’s historic elections.

About the League of Women Voters
The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization founded in 1920, encourages informed and active participation of citizens in government and influences public policy through education and advocacy. Learn more about the local chapter at www.lwv-lflb.org.

About the Adlai Stevenson Center
The Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy was formed in 2008 to enhance the global understanding and practice of democracy. The goal of the non-profit organization is to address challenges to democratic systems of government and conceive practical ways of addressing them. Learn more at www.stevensoncenterondemocracy.org/mission

John and Nancy Hughes Theater, Gorton Community Center
400 E. Illinois Rd, Lake Forest, IL 60045

Violence in Chicago is a topic of local and national concern. While we have seen significant decreases in violence — the Austin community had a 47% reduction in violence from 2016 to 2018 — violence continues to plague Chicago. Past efforts have made some progress in some communities. More is needed. In 2016, the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago was established. Along with other partners, we began building a collaborative architecture of grassroots organizations working to reduce violence.

At this American Dream Reconsidered Session, the executive director of the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago and several leaders from our collaborative partner agencies will discuss the architecture of violence prevention in Chicago. Speakers include a range of administrators and practitioners overseeing and implementing Communities Partnering 4 Peace, READI Chicago, the Chicago Police Department and the Mayor’s Office of Public Safety to support and engage communities in short- and long-term violence reduction.

Panelists
Vaughn Bryant, director, Communities Partnering 4 Peace
Miguel Cambray, director of employment, READI Chicago
Ernest Cato III, 15th district commander, Chicago Police Department
Ric Estrada, chief executive officer, Metropolitan Family Services
Teny Oded Gross, founder and executive director, the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago
Invited: Susan Lee, deputy mayor of public safety, City of Chicago

Luvia Quinones, Health Policy Director, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR)
The Stevenson Center on Democracy, in collaboration with the League of Women Voters – Northwest Lake County, welcomes Luvia Quinones, Health Policy Director, The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR). The ICIRR is dedicated to promoting the rights of immigrants and refugees to full and equal participation in the civic, cultural, social, and political life of our diverse society. Luvia Quinones oversees the Immigrant Health Care Access Initiative and in collaboration with ICIRR's members develops ICIRR's health policy agenda with a special focus in access to health care and on health care reform. Prior to transitioning to this position, Luvia Quinones oversaw ICIRR's health and human services programs, The Immigrant Family Resource Program, WIC, and SNAP.

Hosts: Indivisible IL9, Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy, and the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago

Please join us to hear from a team from the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago as they describe the important work they are doing collaboratively to reduce gun violence. Their services are hyper-locally focused in Austin, West Garfield Park and Back of the Yards, where they engage with those at highest risk of being involved in gun violence and the communities in which they live to prevent and intervene in violence. Nonviolence Chicago provides outreach and mediation; victim support and advocacy; case management; reentry case management; community organizing and Nonviolence training to build the Beloved Community.

As partners in several collaborations across the city to decrease gun violence, including Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P), READI, and the Rapid Reduction initiative between Chicago CRED and CP4P, the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago is uniquely situated as a community-based organization and a big picture leader in this architecture. To learn how you can be an active partner in the Beloved Community, please join us on July 24!

Conrad Sulzer Library, 4455 North Lincoln Ave., Chicago 60625

Event is free, but space is limited. Please RSVP Here. Details/Facebook Event Post

The Institute for Nonviolence Chicago works toward building safe, peaceful, and just communities. They mobilize in three of Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods to decrease shootings and homicides. Their services include training on the 6 steps and principles of Nonviolence. What are they? Come find out. Dutch Treat.

RSVP: rsvp@skylinevillagechicago.org
1:00-3:00 pm, Mity Nice Grill
Water Tower Place, Mezzanine Level
835 N. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611

John Cruickshank, Consul General of Canada in Chicago. .
John Cruickshank, Consul General of Canada in Chicago, will speak on relations between the United States and Canada and other current issues. Consul General Cruickshank has enjoyed a distinguished career in newspapers and television in both the United States and Canada. He was publisher of the Toronto Star, Canada’s highest circulation newspaper, and President of Star Media Group from 2007 until 2016. He has served as publisher of CBC News from 2007 to 2008, responsible for all English- language television, radio and on-line news. Before joining the CBC, he worked with the Chicago Sun Times from 2000 to 2007, serving as publisher of the Chicago Sun Times and chief operating officer of the Sun-Times Media Group from 2003 – 2007. His role as Consul General covers Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, northwest Indiana and Kansas City.

Community Health Equity: A Chicago Reader Speaker: Dr, Raj Shah with introduction by Nancy Stevenson.

Edited by Fernando De Maio, Raj Shah, John Mazzeo, and David Ansell. In collaboration with The Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy.

No city offers more inspiring examples for action to overcome social injustice in health than Chicago. More than any other American city, Chicago has been a center for the study of both urban history and economic inequity. Community Health Equity assembles a century of research to show the range of effects that Chicago's structural socioeconomic inequalities have had on patients and medical facilities alike. The work collected here makes clear that when a city is sharply divided by power, wealth, and race, the citizens who most need high-quality health care and social services have the greatest difficulty accessing them.

A team from the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago will speak about their work building safe, peaceful and just communities. Nonviolence Chicago is mobilizing in three of Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods to decrease shootings and homicides. Their services include victim advocacy and support, street and school outreach and mediation, case management, community organizing and training on the 6 steps and principles of Nonviolence.

Director of Programs Chris Patterson will describe Nonviolence Chicago's background and initiatives; Kejuan Scott, a participant, will talk about how Nonviolence Chicago and the READI program have positively impacted his life; and Teny Gross, the Executive Director, will tell us about Nonviolence Chicago's role in building and supporting the city-wide collaborative architecture of violence prevention and intervention services.

Tom Gochenour will trace the evolution of the prescription marketplace from 1972, the year he became a pharmacist to the present. Through this journey, he will refer to sentinel events and legislation that has led to our current condition in which the list price of some medications can cost over $25,000 per month.

Mr. Gochenour is a part time staff pharmacist and chief compounder for Rush University Medical Center. He is also an adjunct professor at the Chicago College of Pharmacy. He received his BS in Pharmacy from Purdue, 1972; PharmD from the University of Illinois, 1999. He is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapist (BCPS) since 2002.

Back by popular demand: Rachel Havrelock, Associate Professor of Jewish studies and English at the University of Illinois Chicago, author of River Jordan, The Mythology of a Dividing Line. The Jordan River, holy to monotheistic religions, is also a major border contested by Israelis and Palestinians. Dr. Havrelock will take us through the complex religious and political ideas that shape the current conflict. Afterward, she will sell and sign her book.

Dr. Havrelock spoke at the Center about Lake Michigan and the Freshwater Lab on January 21, 2018, “The Global Stakes and Local Politics of Fresh Water,” an interest that followed two decades of study in the Middle East. She is a member of the Cambridge University Middle East Water and Boundaries group and a member of Ecopeace Middle East Advisory Council.

“Student Sponsored Ticket” are available. All student sponsors will receive a letter acknowledging their donation (a tax deductible contribution for federal income tax purposes) from the Stevenson Center.

Norman Ornstein is a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and an author of many books. He also is a regular commentator on National Public Television, the BBC and a columnist for the Atlantic.

At the Nov. 19 luncheon the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore will sell his most recent two books: One Nation After Trump, co-authored with E.J. Dionne, Jr. and Thomas E. Mann (2017) and It’s Even Worse than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism, co-authored with Thomas E. Mann (2015).

Sponsored by the Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy and the Union League Club of Chicago.

Held at:
Union League Club of Chicago
65 West Jackson Boulevard
Chicago, Illinois 60604

Richard M. Goldwasser is currently chair of J Street Chicago and served on J Street’s national board of directors from 2011-2017. Richard and his wife Debra live in Highland Park, Illinois, and they have two adult daughters. After graduating from law school from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1990, Richard clerked at the Supreme Court of Israel for President Meir Shamgar.

Richard is a partner with the Chicago law firm of Schoenberg Finkel Newman & Rosenberg, LLC. He concentrates his law practice in commercial litigation and appellate practice, including criminal defense appeals, where he has obtained reversals of murder convictions based on violations of Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights.

Tom Ginsburg is the Leo Spitz Professor of International Law at the University of Chicago, where he also holds an appointment in the Political Science Department. He holds B.A., J.D. and PhD degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. He currently co-directs the Comparative Constitutions Project, an NSF-funded data set cataloging the world's constitutions since 1789. His latest book is How to Save Constitutional Democracy (2018 with Aziz Huq). His other books include Judicial Reputation: a Comparative Theory (2015 with Nuno Garoupa); The Endurance of National Constitutions (2009 with Zachary Elkins and James Melton), which won the best book award from the Comparative Democratization Section of the American Political Science Association; and Judicial Review in New Democracies (2003), winner of the C. Herman Pritchett Award.

Coffee and conversation will follow the presentations.

The Electoral College is a puzzling system that often has people scratching their heads about how it works and why we use it. Join us for a brief history of the Electoral College, a discussion of its impact on our democracy, and a plan for change.

The program will be presented by Karen Glennemeier of the League of Women Voters of Wilmette. Karen is part of a regional League committee that has been studying the Electoral College and organizing to abolish it since the last presidential election. Karen is a Conservation Biologist by profession and spends her free time working with local activists on issues impacting democracy and our environment.

Coffee and conversation will follow the presentations.

By popular demand, John L. Rogers, professor and legal counselor who lives with his wife in Beijing and Chicago, returns to speak at the Stevenson Center. His appointments include Professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University's School of Law as well as faculty appointments at China University of Political Science and Law, Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, as Adjunct Professor in Global Initiatives and Management at Helsinki School of Economics, Aalto University. John is a former president of the Midwest US-China Association and a founder of TANA (Transforming Asia-North America). He earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and his JD from John Marshall Law School.

Coffee and conversation will follow the presentations.

Please join us at the Stevenson Center for Richard Sobel as he presents, "Citizenship as Foundation of Rights." Dr. Sobel explores the relationships between citizens and governments as Director of the Cyber Privacy Project and a research associate and consultant to the Houston Institute at Harvard Law School. Previously, he was a Fellow at the Berkman Center on the Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, at the Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, in the Medical Ethics Program at Harvard Medical School, and Visiting Professor and Visiting Scholar at Northwestern.

In teaching and researching at Princeton, Smith College, the University of Connecticut, Harvard and Northwestern, Dr. Sobel's courses include public policy analysis, the Supreme Court and Privacy, the social consequences of technology, social movements and public opinion in foreign policy.

The Center through Unabridged Books will sell and Dr. Sobel will be available to sign copies of his recent book Citizenship as Foundation of Rights: Meaning for America which has received the 2017 George Orwell Award for contributions to public discussion.

Reverend Michael Kirby is Senior Pastor and Head of Staff at Northminster Presbyterian Church, Evanston. Born in Texas, he graduated from Baylor University Law School to practice as a commercial and appellate litigator in Houston for twelve years before receiving his Master of Divinity Degree from Columbia Theological Seminary, Georgia, in 2003.

He serves on all the corporate boards of the Presbytery of Chicago, on the Synod Permanent Judicial Commission and on the Board of Directors of Presbyterian Homes which operates Life Plan Communities in Evanston, Lake Forest and Arlington Heights. In Evanston, he serves as current co-program chair of the Evanston Interfaith Clergy and Religious Leaders Group.

Michael Zantovsky is a Czech diplomat, politician, author, journalist, lyricist and psychologist. He is the current Director of the Vaclav Havel Library and President of the Aspen Institute Prague. He was among the founding members of the movement that coordinated the overthrow of the Communist regime. In January 1990 he became spokesman, press secretary, and advisor to President Vaclav Havel. He was later the Czech ambassador to Washington, Tel Aviv, and London. Elected to the Czech Senate in 1996, he had spent six years as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security. He has combined a career in politics and foreign service with work as an author and translator of many contemporary British and American writers. He will sell and sign his book, Havel: A Life.

Panel Discussion: Michael Nerheim, Lake County State's Attorney; Mark Pfister, Executive Director Lake County Board of Health; and Mark Curran, Lake County Sheriff

Elected in 2012, Lake County State's Attorney Michael Nerheim co-founded the Lake County Opioid Initiative. He has also focused on wrongful convictions and gang violence.

Mark Pfister has worked with the Lake County Board of Health for 27 years and was named Executive Director in 2017. Lake County was among the first health departments nationwide to receive accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board.

Sheriff Curran hosted a Heroin Roundtable in early 2012, which resulted in the creation of a Gang Task Force and the training of all deputies and correctional officers in the use of Naloxone, an opioid reversal drug.

Cook County Clerk, David Orr will present, "The Role of Government in a Functioning Democracy." Mr. Orr serves as the chief election authority in the third largest election jurisdiction in the country. He led the fight to implement the motor voter law in Illinois, which has made it easier and more convenient for people to sign up to vote. Mr. Orr also introduced Early Voting legislation that now allows voters in Illinois to cast their ballots two weeks prior to an election and Automatic Voter Registration, bipartisan legislation that will allow your voter registration record to follow you if you move anywhere within the state of Illinois. Mr. Orr is also a Senior Fellow at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy.

 

with Scott Drury, State Representative, 58th District;

Lori Lightfoot, Partner, Mayer Brown and Counsel for Independent Maps Coalition; and

Nicholas Stephanopoulos; Professor, University of Chicago Law School Lead Counsel, Supreme Court Case Gill v. Whitford

Dr. Rachel Havrelock is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she specializes in Environmental Humanities. She is the founder and director of the UIC Freshwater Lab, which endeavors to train a new generation of water leaders to communicate Great Lakes water issues to the general public, and to engage unaffiliated groups in water planning.

Dr. Havrelock's focus on her native Great Lakes follows two decades of work in the Middle East. She is the author of River Jordan: The Mythology of a Dividing Line (University of Chicago Press) and numerous articles on water, borders, and oil in the Middle East. Dr. Rachel Havrelock serves on the Canadian Aqua Forum and the International Advisory Committee of the trilateral (Israel, Palestinian, and Jordanian) NGO Ecopeace Middle East to link communities supported by the same watershed.

 

Trita Parsi, Founder and President of the National Iranian American Council, will speak on "Trump, Obama, Iran and the Nuclear Deal - Is war back on the table?" at the Stevenson Center on December 10, 2017 at 2:00 P.M.

Parsi was born in Iran but moved to Sweden at the age of four with his family to escape political repression in Iran from the Shah and Ayatollah. He moved to the United States as an adult and studied foreign policy at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies where he received his PhD. Parsi studied for his Doctoral thesis under Professor Francis Fukuyama

NIAC, a non-partisan nonprofit, is a proponent of dialogue and engagement between the U.S. and Iran. Parsi has extensive experience on Capitol Hill and at the United Nations. Parsi has worked for the Swedish Permanent Mission to the U.N. where he served in the Security Council, handling the affairs of Afghanistan, Iraq, Tajikistan and Western Sahara.

He is the author of several books including, Treacherous Alliance: the Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States (2007) which won the Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations. His latest book, Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy (2017), will be on sale on December 10.

Edwin C. Yohnka is the Director of Communications and Public Policy for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois (ACLU-IL). Appointed in 1999, Yohnka is the primary spokesperson for this civil rights and civil liberties organization with more than 35,000 members. Yohnka appears regularly on television and radio programs throughout the nation with comments on a myriad of issues. He contributes to ACLU publications and coordinates the organization's multi-faceted communications.

In 2013, Yohnka served as vice-chair for Illinois Unites for Marriage, a coalition of organizations that helped win the fight to ensure the freedom to marry for all couples in Illinois.

From 1987  until 1999, Yohnka served on the staff of the American Bar Association, spending most of his time as a Special Presidential Assistant in the ABA's office of the President, overseeing and implementing the elected leadership's communications.

Bruce Cumings, Gustavus F. and Ann M. Swift Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, will present the topic, "The Sources of North Korea's Conduct."

Professor Cumings specializes in modern Korean history, East Asian political economy and international history. His first book, The Origins of the Korean War, won the John King Fairbank Award of the American Historical Association. The Yale University Press published Dominion from Sea to Sea: Pacific Ascendancy and American Power in 2009.

Professor Cumings is a frequent contributor to the London Review of Books, the Nation, Current History, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists and Le Monde Diplomatique.

Lyric Hughes Hale, editor in chief of EconVue, a website which publishes independent economic news and analysis, will speak on "The United States and the World Economy: Why Things Are Really Different This time."

Ms. Hale is an economic and political affairs commentator who contributes to many publications including the Yale Books Blog, the Huffington Post, the Financial Times and the Los Angeles Times.    Ms. Hale has spoken at the World Economic Forum, the Brookings Institution, the Aspen Ideas Festival, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco as well as Stanford, Northwestern, Harvard, and the University of Chicago.

Consul General Hong Lei has had a distinguished career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in China, beginning in the Department of Information from 1991 – 1994. He went on to serve as Attaché in the Chinese Embassy in the Netherlands. From there he served in several posts in the Department of Information, MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs): Third Secretary, Second Secretary in San Francisco, and First Secretary, Division Director, Counselor, 1997 – 2010. Before his appointment as Consul General at Chicago in 2016, Hong Lei was Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Deputy Director General, Department of Information, MFA, 2010 – 2016.

Hong Lei graduated from Beijing Language University in 1991. He is married with one son.

An Evening With TREVOR POTTER:
President, Campaign Legal Center Former Chairman, Federal Election Commission General Counsel, John McCain Campaigns Deputy General Counsel, George H. W. Bush Campaign Super/Pac Advisor to Steven Colbert

Sponsored by:
League of Women Voters - Lake Forest/Lake Bluff Area
Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy
Office of Community Education at Lake Forest College

Colleen Daley, Executive Director of the Illinois Council against Handgun Violence, will discuss current Illinois gun laws and citizen actions to decrease gun violence. Founded in 1975, ICHV is the oldest and largest statewide organization in the United States working to keep communities safe from deadly gun violence through legislation, education and programs in our schools.

Colleen Daley has 20 years of experience in political strategy, public policy, legislative affairs, media relations and resource management among large-scale government and non-profit organizations.

Rachel Bronson is the Executive Director and publisher of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.  Before coming to the Bulletin, Dr. Bronson was the vice president of studies among other responsibilities at the Council on Global Affairs.  Her career includes her appointments as a senior fellow of Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a senior fellow for international security affairs for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Dr. Bronson received her doctorate from Columbia University.  Her writing has appeared in numerous publications including Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune.

Caleb Probst will give an overview of sexual trafficking in the greater metropolitan area of Chicago.  He is a teacher, curriculum developer, speaker for CAASE (Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation) and the facilitator of the nation's first program Empowering Young Men to End Sexual Exploitation.

Dr. Joel Filmore, a survivor of sex trafficking, will speak on "Living Beyond the Pain: Being More than a Survivor."  Dr. Filmore is a licensed mental health clinician, author, trainer and international speaker.

Anne K. Ream, Founder of Voices and Faces Project, author, and former Group Creative Director at Leo Burnett will introduce her film "World without Exploitation."

JCAST-Chicago (Jewish Coalition Against Sex Trafficking-Chicago) will bring Trafficked Teens, silhouettes of teeage girls with accompanying personal stories and fast facts about sex trafficking.

Flooding or fishing; polluting or paddling; run off or land restoration. Join the discussion of choices and public/private land and water collaboration with Kara Riggio, Manager, Metropolitan Planning Council Three Rivers Project and local Lake County leaders.

Join Judge Colleen F. Sheehan to discuss the current state of Juvenile Justice in Illinois.  Learn about current reforms and innovations such as the historic Cook County Restorative Justice Community Court, a first in Cook County.  Explore solutions regarding police and community conflict. Discover how you can help repair the harm from crime, reduce costs associated with incarceration and contribute to neighborhood safety.

Judge Sheehan, a Circuit Court Judge elected in 2000, will preside over the Court, a pilot program that empowers victims and residents to play an active role in the rehabilitation of adult offenders.  The Community Court will hear non-violent felonies and misdemeanors committed by adults 18 through 26 who reside in the North Lawndale neighborhoods.

Lori Lightfoot, an attorney supporting the Independent Map Supreme Court Appeal, will speak on the need for reform of the rules and process for drawing Illinois legislative districts in a transparent, fair and impartial manner. Independent Maps is a non-partisan, statewide organization

Ms. Lightfoot is currently a trial attorney and partner with Mayer Brown. She focuses on employment discrimination disputes, risk management, corporate governance and ethics. She served as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division, Northern District of Illinois (1996-2002), redesigned Chicago's minority and women business program as First Deputy Procurement Officer before serving as Chief Administrator, Office of Professional Standards of the Chicago Police Department (2002–2005). Most recently, Lori chaired the Mayor's Police Accountability Task Force.

Representative Lee Hamilton

Lee Hamilton, Congressman from Indiana for 34 years, is the founder and President of the Center on Congress, formed to enhance the public's knowledge of the Congress's strengths and weaknesses, and its impact on the lives of ordinary people.

He was Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress and worked to promote integrity and efficiency in the institution.

President of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 1999 – 2010, he is noted for his leadership in foreign policy and security issues. Currently he serves on the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council and the CIA External Advisory Board.

Representative Hamilton received the Medal of Freedom from President Obama in 2015.

Trevor Potter

Trevor Potter is a former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission. He served as general counsel to John McCain's 2008 and 2000 presidential campaigns. He is the founding President of the Campaign Legal Center (CLC). CLC works in administrative, legislative and legal proceedings to shape our nation's laws and policies so that the right to have a voice in our free and democratic society remains the foundation of our political system.

To many, he is perhaps best known for his appearances on the Colbert Report as the lawyer for Stephen Colbert's Super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, during the 2012 election.

Trevor Potter received a prestigious John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur grant for the Voting Right Institute, a project of the Campaign Legal Center.

Cynthia Canary, Moderator

Cynthia Canary is a nonprofit management and policy consultant. She is an advisor to the Committee for Economic Development's Democratic Institutions Project. Canary served as Chair of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's Task Force on Ethics, which culminated in the enactment of the City's first ordinance on ethics in 25 years. She was the founding Executive Director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform from 1997 to 2011. Previously she was the Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of Illinois.

Author Jian Ping will talk about her family's story of surviving the chaos and persecution during China's Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976), as revealed in her memoir Mulberry Child. The book has been turned into an award-winning documentary film and was broadcast on PBS. Roger Ebert reviewed it, calling it "a powerful and touching film."

Irv Badr spent his childhood in the Middle East, South Asia, and South East Asia. He is a subject matter expert in the region's politics and religions, fluent in multiple Middle Eastern languages and indigenous cultures. Irv is a frequent speaker at Middle East forums and political interest groups in the Chicago area. He completed his education at the University of Illinois and Northwestern University and is employed as a technology Researcher at IBM, and Adjunct Professor of Computing at DePaul University.

Molly Flanagan, Vice President Policy, Alliance for the Great Lakes; Eleanor Revelle, President Citizens' Greener Evanston; Beth Drucker, Co-Facilitator CONSEG (Consortium of North Shore Environmental Groups) and President, Board of Trustees, Go Green Wilmette will share information about grassroots coalitions on combating climate change. We can celebrate the decision of 196 governments at the U.N. conference in Paris to work together by taking collaborative actions here at home to control flooding, drought, polluted aquifers and waste management while improving the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat.

Please join us for a luncheon featuring Ambassador Jack Matlock On Russia under Putin And How to Work with It

Thursday, February 11, 2016
12 noon - Lunch
12:30 - Program

The Union League Club of Chicago
65 West Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, Illinois 60604

The Stevenson Center will present a discussion by Dr. Dongsheng Di's on "The Middle Way of the Middle Kingdom, a Political and Economic Read on President Xi's Ongoing Reform" which is also the title of his forthcoming book. Dr. Di will also discuss the implications of China's reforms for U.S. – China Relations. Dr. Di is an Associate Professor on International Political Economics with the School of International Studies, Remnin University of China. His research covers topics such as the politics and economics of global currency and financial issues, as well as Chinese foreign economic relations, while his most recent research is about the reform presided over by the new leadership in China.

Since 2011, Dr. Di has held the position of Vice Director of Remnin Center for China's Foreign Strategy Studies, a university based think-tank which aims at providing comprehensive and innovative policy suggestions to the decision makers in Beijing. Since March 2013, Dr. Di has been invited several times by the U.S. State Department to give speeches on topics such as China-U.S. economic relations and Chinese domestic reform under new leadership. Dr. Di is currently spending one year as a visiting researcher at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

Ralph Martire is the Executive Director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. In February, 2011, he was appointed to serve on the U.S. Department of Education Equity and Excellence Commission. Mr. Martire teaches a Master's Class on Education Finance and Fiscal Policy for the University of Illinois and Roosevelt University where he is also a distinguished lecturer on public policy. He has taught fiscal policy seminars for various universities and the International Fulbright Scholar Program. He is a frequent commentator on WTTW's Tonight Show and other media organizations.

Children are born with the same potential to become successful learners.  Beginning at one year of age, however, significant deficits begin to show in children from high-risk environments. Research shows there is no single investment that can break the cycle of poverty more effectively than a high-quality early childhood education.  Children who have access to high-quality early childhood education are academically and socially more successful in school.  The Child Care Assistance Program is a cornerstone of Illinois early childhood system, providing low-income parents with access to affordable child care while they work or go to school.

Panelists will include: David Lloyd, Director of Fiscal Policy, Voices for Illinois Children; Nancy Ronquillo, President and CEO of Children's Home and Aid Society; and a parent of children at Children's Home and Aid Jerri Hoffmann Child and Family Center.

Ambassador Pickering will discuss the far flung mission of the U.N., its relevance to the world's condition and ideas for better utilizing and strengthening the agency of a dynamic, interdependent, nuclear world. Ambassador Pickering served as U.S. Ambassador and Representative to the United Nations in New York from 1989 – 1992. He served as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (1997 – 2000), and as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, and Jordan. He has held positions in Tanzania, Geneva, and Washington, including as Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Oceans, Environmental and Scientific Affairs, and as Special Assistant to Secretaries of State William P. Rogers and Henry Kissinger. After retiring from the State Department in 2000, Ambassador Pickering joined the Boeing Company as Senior Vice President, International Relations, retiring in 2006. He is currently Vice Chairman of Hills & Company, an international consulting firm providing advice on international investment, trade and risk assessment issues.

Chicago's Green City Market has been honored as one of America's Top 10 Farmers' Markets by USA Today. Located in Lincoln Park, the independent nonprofit market was founded in 1998 by the late chef, author, and entrepreneur Abby Mandel to encourage local, sustainable agriculture. Board member Elizabeth Richter and Executive Director Melissa Flynn will share the story and mission of the market, and the contribution the market and its vendor-farmers make to ensure Chicagoans access to locally produced, healthy food. The market is dedicated to connect local farmers and producers to chefs, restaurateurs, food organizations and the public. They will sell copies of Green City Market Cookbook.

Dr. Alexander Karakkal, former Vice Chancellor of Kannur, University, Kerala, India and President of the American History of Congress of India wrote his doctoral thesis, "Adlai Stevenson in American History 1945 – 1965" for Princeton University while on a Fulbright Scholarship. Stevenson had made an impression on young Alexander, who, at the age of 11, went with his father to hear Stevenson speak in Trivandrum, India in 1953. Dr Karakkal spent 30 years as a professor of history at the University of Kerala and Mahatma Gandhi University. He will share his thoughts on Adlai II's crusade for justice and democratic values on the world scene in this 50th year since Adlai II's death.

Adlai Stevenson III will introduce Dr. Karakkal and reflect on Governor Stevenson's political legacy and its implications.

Ambassador Chas Freeman, Chairman of the Board of Projects International, Inc., a Washington-based business development firm, is the quintessential on-the-ground practitioner in foreign affairs, having served for more than 30 years in The Middle East, Africa, East Asia and Europe. Fluent in Chinese, French, Spanish and Arabic, he was the principal interpreter for President Nixon's 1972 breakthrough trip to China. He served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, 1993-94, U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and other posts too numerous to detail. Since retiring from the foreign service, he was President of the Middle East Policy Council, 1997 - 2009, Co-Chair of the U.S. China Policy Foundation, 1996-2009, and Vice Chair of the Atlantic Council of the United States, 1996-2008. Ambassador Freeman is the author of two books on U.S. foreign policy: America's Misadventures in the Middle East (2010), Interesting Times: China, America and the Shifting Balance of Prestige (2013), and two books on statecraft.

Dr. Eugene Griffin, a psychologist and attorney, is the Director of Research at the ChildTrauma Academy. He is retired from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Griffin has spent his career caring for young people and families involved in the public sector settings of mental health, child welfare, and juvenile justice. He was named a Champion of Change by the MacArthur Foundation-supported Models for Change. Dr. Griffin received his B.A. degree from Villanova University and his J.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Northwestern University.

Maija Rhee Divine, a Korean War survivor, addresses contemporary questions raised in her autobiographical novel, The Voices of Heaven. Have Confucian patriarchal values vanished from high tech South Korea? What causes gender population imbalance issues? What is the legacy of the Korean War on women and the young generation? What cultural characteristics distinguish Korea from China and Japan?

Maija Rhee Divine received her B.A. from Sogang University, Seoul, and her M.A. from St. Louis University. She and her husband, Michael Divine, former director of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library, share interests in travel and art. Maija will sell and sign her novel at this event.

At a time when the threats of too much and too little water cover the globe, Debra Shore will speak on innovations for water control, conservation and cleanliness. Elected to the Board of Commissioners of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago in 2006 and 2012, Debra Shore is a strong advocate for cleaning up the Chicago waterways and for resource recovery. Debra received the Public Officials Award from the Water Environment Federation in 2013. She serves on the boards of the Great Lakes Protection Fund, the Gay and Lesbian Victory Institute, and Congregation Sukkat Shalom in Wilmette. She has climbed 42 of the 54 Colorado mountains more than 14,000 feet high.

Euan Hague is a Professor, Chair of the Department of Geography and Co-Director of the master's program in Sustainable Urban Development at DePaul University. He is a cultural and urban geographer with interests in relationships between Scotland and America, gentrification and urban development. His most recent work on Scottish-American cultural relations was published in "The Modern Scottish Diaspora" (University of Edinburgh, 2014). Born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland, he earned his B.S. from Bristol University, his M.A. from Lancaster University and his Ph.D. from Syracuse University. Jerome McDonnell (WBEZ) and others turned to Dr. Hague for explanations and commentary on the Scottish independence movement during the lead up to the Referendum.

Lowell Sachnoff, distinguished Chicago lawyer, is the advocate for several non-terrorist detainees. He has visited Guantanamo many times and witnessed the detainee process. He will speak on Guantanamo and the fact that President Obama can still close the prison before more damage is done to the U.S. Sachnoff merged his Sachnoff Weaver law firm with Reed Smith in 2007. In 2011, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from The American Lawyer for his successful career in business law and "advocating for women, minorities and the poor, and inspiring others to do likewise."

Kristin Szremski, Director of Media and Communication for American Muslims for Palestine, will present a Palestinian narrative on the Middle East. American Muslims for Palestine is an education and advocacy organization that promotes human rights for Palestinians with the firm conviction that affording one people human rights does not detract from the human rights of other peoples.

The Lake County Forest Preserve District and the Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy invite you, your family, and friends to the official installation of the United States Department of Interior National Park Service's bronze plaque designating National Historic Landmark status to the Adlai Stevenson Farm.

1:00 to 3:00 P.M. - Tours of the house and exhibit.
3:00 P.M. - Installation and Comments.
The public is welcome free of charge. 

Tom Dart brings an aggressive and innovative approach to law enforcement. In 2009, Time magazine named Sheriff Dart one of the world’s 100 most influential people. Among his many innovations, he ordered electronic monitoring to relieve overcrowding, and expanded jail agricultural services to provide job skills for inmates and lower costs for tax payers. Sheriff Dart has organized special gang units to curb suburban gang activity.

As Cook County Sheriff, Tom Dart oversees 12,000 inmates, 2,500 – 3,000 of whom are diagnosed with mental illness, making the jail the largest mental health facility in the country. In 2013, Sheriff Dart launched the Office of Mental Health Policy and Advocacy which provides services and operates a 24-hour phone care line for ex-inmates and their families.

Jan Schakowsky has been a life-long consumer advocate and champion for what she identifies as the disappearing middle class. Elected to the House of U. S. Representatives in 1998 after serving eight years in the Illinois General Assembly, Ms. Schakowsky is a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and Ranking Democrat on the Commerce Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee. She also serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence where she is the Ranking Democrat on the Oversight Subcommittee. She is part of the Democratic leadership in the House, serving as Chief Deputy Whip and Vice President of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. 

Coffee and conversation following the presentation.

4:00 PM - Story Telling & Games
5:30 PM - North Suburban Wind Ensemble

Storytellers, Fun, Music & More
Bring Your Picnics, Blankets, & Chairs
Cost: $10 Per Person or $20 Per Car Load
Bicyclers Free

Narimon Safavi, Chicago based Iranian-American entrepreneur and regular commentator and analyst for Worldview, a public radio program on WBEZ, will speak about the problems and possibilities for future Iran/U.S. relations. Nari Safavi has served on the Chicago Committee of the Human Rights Watch, and numerous boards including the Gene Siskel Film Center, Latino Cultural Center of Chicago,the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, the DC based Citizens for Global Solutions and as an ambassador of the DC based National Iranian-American Council. A believer in the importance of multicultural understanding, he is currently engaged in developing COSMOPOLIS, an incubator project building global linkages through mission driven cultural enterprise.

Rich Beilfuss, President, and Hall Healy, Chair of the Board of the International Crane Foundation, will discuss endangered cranes, their cultural significance, beauty, dramatic migrations, and striking behavior as opportunities for addressing broad approaches to conservation related to water supplies and wetlands in Africa, Asia, and the U.S.A. They will show development from the Zambezi River water authorities, the farmers of North Korea to sustainable water management in the Texas Guadalupe River Basin.

Drawing from his second book, Kennedy and Reagan: Why Their Legacies Endure, former journalist and United Press International bureau chief Scott Farris will speak on the presidencies of John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan (with a little help from Adlai Stevenson and Barry Goldwater). Scott has also served as a senior policy and communication advisor to U. S. Senator Malcolm Wallop, California Governor Gray Davis, and Portland, Oregon, Mayor Vera Katz. Scott ran for Congress himself in 1998 in Wyoming. He will sell and sign copies of Kennedy and Reagan as well as his first book, Almost President: The Men Who Lost the Race But Changed the Nation, which includes a chapter on Adlai II's historic 1952 and 1956 presidential campaigns.

The Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy hosts Karen AbuZayd, former Commissioner-General for UNRWA and current Commissioner on the UN Human Rights Council's Independent International Committee of Inquiry on Syria, for an intimate discussion of the humanitarian crisis facing refugees in Syria and the foreign policy implications of ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. Special thanks to WiPP and CIAPP at the University of Chicago Harris School for co- sponsoring this conversation. This event limited to Harris students but stay tuned for future speakers!

Karen AbuZayd is the former Commissioner-General for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). She is currently a board member of the Middle East Policy Council in Washington and Commissioner on the UN Human Rights Council's Independent International Committee of Inquiry on Syria. Ms. AbuZayd has also served in the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She is a former lecturer of Islamic studies and political science at Makerere University in Uganda and Juba University in southern Sudan, received her B.S. from DePauw University, and was awarded her M.A. in Islamic studies from McGill University.

The Lake County Forest Preserve District with cooperation from the Adlai Stevenson Center on Demoracy will celebrate the 114th birthday of Adlai II.

The District will provide tours, 11:00 – 12:00 and 2:30 – 3:30 of the Historic Home. For reservations call 847-968-3321.

Joe Bean, Illinois Humanities Council Roads Scholar, will talk on Adlai II’s years as Governor of Illinois at 1:00 P.M.

All events free of charge.

International businessman, attorney, strategist, and educator John Rogers has spent the past 25 years commuting between Chicago and Asia. Beginning in 2014, Rogers will live in China where he will teach business and law at Beijing Foreign Studies University (Beiwai) and serve as Guest Fellow at the Shanghai Academy of Social Science (Institute of Law). He has held faculty appointments at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and Chicago Kent College of Law. He has also served as Adjunct Professor at Aalto University, Helsinki; and as Guest Professor at Beijing Language and Culture University.

China is actively increasing its level of research and development spending, and is dedicated to next generation technologies that may or may not be compatible with Western standards. Can the U.S. compete? If so, how?