Past Speakers
Eric Adams, Lt.
Founder President
Harry Allen
Hip Hop Activist and Media Assassin
Education Director
Center for Law and Social Justice, Medgar Evers College
Janis Astor Del Valle
Program Director
A.C.T.IO.N.
Jane Bai
Executive Director
Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence
Senior Editor; Associate Professor of Jounalism
Village Voice; Columbia University
Pastor; Assistant Professor; Director and Principal Investigator
St. Romero of the Americas Church; John Jay College of Criminal Justice; PALENQUE
Charles Barron
Council Member, Dist. 42
Council of the City of New York
Northeast Regional Coordinator
Critical Resistance
Derrick Bell
Visiting Professor
New York University Law School
Brenda Berkman
Former Captain
New York City Fire Department
Philanthropy Consultant
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Director of Public Policy
The Drug Policy Alliance
Editor in Chief
El Diario-La Prensa
Elizabeth Braddon
Reverend
Elombe Brath
Producer and Host of AfriKaleidoscope
WBAI Radio
Executive Vice President and Director of Research
Citizens Budget Commission
CEO
Children's Aid Society
Director
New York City Department of City Planning
President & CEO
Harlem's Children Zone
Senior Policy Analyst
Migration Policy Institute
Noam Chomsky
Professor of Linguistics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Director
Oral History Research Office, Columbia University
Columnist
The New York Times
Secretary of State
New York State, Department of State
Ron Daniels
Executive Director
Mark Davidovich
Member, New York State Democratic Committee
46th Assembly District
President
Public/Private Ventures
Co-Founder and Organizer
Taxi Workers Alliance, New York
Deputy Mayor of Economic Development and Rebuilding
Office of the Mayor
Jill Soffiyah Elijah
Director
Criminal Defender Clinic, CUNY School of Law
Ruth Faden
Executive Director
The Bioethics Institute
President; Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs
National Institute for Latino Policy; SIPA, Columbia University and National Institute for Latino Policy
Former Executive Director
National Organizers Alliance
Borough President of the Bronx
Juan Figueroa
President & Legal Counsel
Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund
Dasaw Floyd
Malcom X Grassroots
Eric Foner
Dewitt Clinton Professor
History Department, Columbia University
Professor
The Journalism School, Columbia University
Special Advisor for Governance and Strategic Planning; Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs
Office of the Mayor, NYC; Columbia University
Professor of Clinical Psychology
Columbia University
Associate Professor
Visual Arts Division, School of the Arts and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Columbia University
Professor of Journalism and Sociology
Columbia University
Neil Gotanda
Distinguished/Visiting Professor
St. John's University Law School
Mary Swartz Rose Professor Emerita and Former Chair
Nutrition Education Program, Teachers College, Columbia University
Emira Habiby Brown
Founder & Executive Director
Arab-American Family Support Center
Mark Hannay
Director
Metro NY Health Care for All
Founder and President Emerita
Political Research Associates (PRA)
Doug Henwood
Editor
Left Business Observer
Columnist
The New York Times
Journalist
The New Yorker
Frank R. Lautenberg Professor of Ethics and Corporate Governance
Columbia University Business School
Kenneth T. Jackson
Jacques Barzun Professor of History and the Social Sciences
Columbia University
President and CEO
ImmigrationWorks USA
Director of the Human Rights and International Cooperation Unit
Peace and Social Justice Initiative, Ford Foundation
Artistic Director, Co-Founder, Choreographer, Dancer
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
Professor of Public Administration, Hostos College, CUNY
Host, The Jordan Journal, WBAI
Sheila B. Kamerman, Ph.D.
Compton Foundation Centennial Professor; Director, The Institute for Child and Welfare Policy
School of Social Work, Columbia University
Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History
Columbia University
Robin D.G. Kelley, Dr.
Professor
Edward Said Professor of Middle Eastern Studies
Columbia University
Al-Haaj Ghazi Khankan
Director of Interfaith and Communications
Rev. Dr. Earl Kooperkamp
Rector
St. Mary's Episcopal Church
Vice President and Director of U.S. Programs
Open Society Institute
Director
Pratt Center for Community Development
Executive Director
Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA)
Executive Director
New York Foundation
Host, The Brian Lehrer Show
WNYC Radio
Dean; Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism
Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University
Harold Levy
Chancellor
New York City Board of Education
Visiting Professor
Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance Department of Psychiatry
William H. Ransford Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
Columbia University
Member of the Board
New York City Housing Authority
Margarita Lopez
New York City Councilmember
Founding Director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies
Columbia University
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology, Columbia University
Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations
Hartford Seminary Duncan Black MacDonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian/Muslim Relations
Assistant Director
The Sentencing Project
Co-Founder
Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM)
Executive Director
Fiscal Policy Institute
Senior Research Fellow
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy
Norman McConney
Chief of Staff and Executive Director, Deputy Speaker Arthur Eve's Office
New York State Assembly
Founder and Former Executive Director
The HIV Law Project, Inc.
Senior Fellow
Migration Policy Institute
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Institute for Research in African-American Studies
General Counsel
Council on American-Islamic Relations-New York (CAIR-NY)
Executive Director
New York Foundation
Economist
District Council 37, AFSCME, AFL-CIO
Associate Director
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy
Tram Nguyen
Executive Editor
Color Lines Magazine
Producer and Host
"Like It Is"
Executive Director
National Immigration Forum
Director of the Central Labor Council
Public Policy and Worker Education
Documentary Filmmaker and Director of Youth Channel
Manhattan Neighborhood Network
President
Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC)
Co-founder
Prison Moratorium Project
Op-Ed Columnist
The New York Times
Staff Writer
Village Voice
Assistant Professor of History and Sociomedical Sciences
Columbia University and Mailman School of Public Health
Deputy Mayor for Legal Affairs
City of New York
Executive Director
American Civil Liberties Union
Vice Chancellor
Board of Regents, New York State Education Department
Tim Schermerhorn
Vice President
Rapid Transit Operations, Transport Workers Union of America
Executive Director
Drum Major Institute
President and CEO
Public Allies Inc.
Executive Director
Freedom Project, Freedom Legal Defense & Education Project
Author
Gods, Gays, and Guns: Religion and the Future of Democracy
Director
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy
Executive Director
Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development (PICCED)
Conrad Lung Associate Professor of Asian-American Studies
Department of Anthropology, Columbia University
Professor of History
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
Executive Director
Center for Law and Social Justice, Medgar Evers College, CUNY
Legal Director
The Sikh Coalition
Ina Stavitsky
Project Director
Brooklyn Refugee Project
Lynne Stewart
Attorney at Law
George M. Jaffin Professor of Law and Social Responsibility
Columbia University
County Executive
Nassau County, Long Island
Independent Filmmaker
Takagi Productions
Director of Community Engagement
New Visions for Public Schools
President
Local 100, Transport Workers of America AFL-CIO
Editor and Publisher
The Nation
Deputy Mayor for Policy
Office of the Mayor
Vice President, Foundation Initiatives
Rockefeller Foundation
Director
The Gotham Center for New York City History, Graduate Center, CUNY
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science and the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Director
Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences
Anthony Williams
Cofounder; Chairman
Picture the Homeless; National Action Committee to End Homelessness
Director
Race Relations Institute at Fisk University
Iris Witherspoon
Principal Administrative Associate Level II
New York Police Department, Brooklyn Redemption Operations
Elizabeth Yeampierre
Executive Director
Erhan Yildirim
Assistant Imam
Press & Public Relations; NYPD Liason