UPHOLD DEMOCRACY. SUPPORT JOURNALISTS.

6 PM | Monday, Mar. 18, 2024

Rackham Auditorium
915 E Washington St

Free and open to the public.

Register for this event.
Registrations are not required but allow us to send you event
updates and reminders.

This is an in-person event. The event will also be livestreamed here.
Seating is on a first-come basis.

Watch the video recording here.

Join us for a special evening with journalist Kara Swisher and CEO of GM, Mary Barra, as part of the continuing series “Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press.”

About Kara Swisher

Kara Swisher is the host of the podcast “On with Kara Swisher” and cohost of the “Pivot” podcast with Scott Galloway, both distributed by New York Magazine. She was also the co-founder and editor-at-large of Recode, host of the “Recode Decode” podcast, and co-executive producer of the Code Conference. She was a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and host of its “Sway” podcast and has also worked for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Swisher has served as Livingston Awards judge for Wallace House since 2014. “Burn Book: A Tech Love Story” is her third book.

About Mary Barra

Mary Barra is Chair and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors. Prior to becoming CEO, Barra served as GM executive vice president, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain, and as senior vice president, Global Product Development. In these roles, Barra and her teams were responsible for the design, engineering and quality of GM vehicle launches worldwide.

Co-Sponsors

Gerald R. Ford School
U-M Democracy & Debate
U-M School of Information

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CNN anchor and author Jake Tapper
in conversation with Lynette Clemetson, director of Wallace House

4 – 5:30 PM | Friday, Nov. 3, 2023

Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre
911 N University Ave

Free and open to the public.

This is an in-person event. Register for this event.
Registrations are not required but allow us to send you event
updates and reminders.

Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Watch the live stream here.

Join us for a special event featuring CNN anchor and Chief Washington correspondent, Jake Tapper, as part of the continuing series: “Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press.” Tapper will be joined in conversation with Wallace House Director, Lynette Clemetson. Their wide-ranging discussion will cover the state of democracy and the role and responsibility of the press in a democratic society, as well as how Tapper’s experience of being an anchor and correspondent informs his craft of writing fiction.

Tapper’s newly released book, “All the Demons Are Here,” will be available for purchase at the event. The author will stay for a short book signing after the program.

About Jake Tapper

CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper joined the network in January 2013. Tapper currently anchors a two-hour weekday program, “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” which debuted in March 2013. He has hosted CNN’s Sunday morning show, “State of the Union,” since June 2015. In April 2021, he became the lead anchor for CNN for Washington, D.C. events.

About Lynette Clemetson

Lynette Clemetson is the Charles R. Eisendrath Director of Wallace House Center for Journalists, home of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists at the University of Michigan.

Co-Sponsors

Gerald R. Ford School
Democracy and Debate
With support from Detroit Public Television (DPTV)

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An Evening with CNN Anchor Chris Wallace and Governor Gretchen Whitmer

6 PM | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2023

Rackham Auditorium
915 E. Washington Street

Wallace House Presents CNN Anchor Chris Wallace and Governor Gretchen Whitmer as part of the continuing series “Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press.”

Watch this hour-long special event with Mr. Wallace and Governor Whitmer as they discuss politics, public service, the media, and the state of our democracy, with opening remarks by the University of Michigan President Santa Ono. 

About Chris Wallace

Chris Wallace is an anchor for CNN and host of Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? which also airs on HBO Max. He has covered every major political event of our time, including five presidential elections, and has interviewed every president since George H.W. Bush.

His career in journalism spans more than 50 award-winning years in broadcasting, including 14 years at ABC News as chief correspondent and host, and at NBC, as chief White House correspondent, moderator of Meet the Press and anchor of NBC Nightly News. He spent 18 years at Fox News as anchor of Fox News Sunday.

A graduate of Harvard University, Wallace began his career as a city hall reporter at The Boston Globe. Wallace is also the New York Times bestselling author of Countdown bin Laden: The Untold Story of the 247-Day Hunt to Bring the Mastermind of 9/11 to Justice and Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World.

About Governor Gretchen Whitmer

Governor Gretchen Whitmer is a lifelong Michigander who as governor has signed over 900 bipartisan bills and four balanced, bipartisan budgets.

She lists among her accomplishments the largest education investments in state history, increases in on-campus mental health resources, and expanding low or no-cost child care in affordable, high-quality pre-K.

Governor Whitmer earned a bachelor’s degree and a law degree from Michigan State University. The governor spent time as a Towsley Foundation Policymaker in Residence at the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy in 2015. Reflecting on that time, she told graduates at U-M’s 2019 Commencement, “I experienced my own version of the Michigan Difference.”

Co-Sponsors:
Ford School
Democracy & Debate
With support from Detroit Public Television (DPTV)

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An evening with scholar and journalist Jelani Cobb
in conversation with Celeste Watkins-Hayes, Ford School interim dean

“The Half-Life of Freedom: Notes on Race, Media and Democracy”

6 PM | TUESDAY, JAN. 24, 2023

An in-person event at Rackham Auditorium
915 East Washington Street

Did you miss the in-person event or would you like to watch it again?
Watch the video recording.

Wallace House Presents journalist and scholar Jelani Cobb, in conversation with Ford School interim dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes, as part of the continuing series: “Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press.” Watch Cobb, dean of Columbia Journalism School and staff writer for The New Yorker, as he examines race, historic challenges to democracy, the impact of the media, and how these inform our current moment.

 

 

About Jelani Cobb

Jelani Cobb is the dean of Columbia Journalism School and a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he writes about race, politics, history and culture. He received a Peabody Award for his 2020 PBS Frontline film “Whose Vote Counts” and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Commentary in 2018. He has also been a political analyst for MSNBC since 2019.

He is the author of “The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress” and “To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic.” He is the editor or co-editor of several volumes, including “The Matter of Black Lives,” a collection of The New Yorker’s writings on race, and “The Essential Kerner Commission Report.” He is the producer or co-producer on a number of documentaries, including “Lincoln’s Dilemma,” “Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union” and “Policing the Police.” 

Dr. Cobb was educated at Jamaica High School in Queens, New York; Howard University, where he earned a B.A. in English; and Rutgers University, where he completed his M.A. and doctorate in American history in 2003. He received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation and the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

 

About Celeste Watkins-Hayes

Celeste Watkins-Hayes is the interim dean of the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and founding director of the school’s Center for Racial Justice. She is also the Jean E. Fairfax Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, professor of sociology and an Anti-Racism Collaborative research and community impact fellow.

She is an internationally recognized scholar and expert widely credited for her research at the intersection of inequality, public policy, and institutions, with a special focus on urban poverty and race, class and gender studies. Dr. Watkins-Hayes has published two books, numerous articles in journals and edited volumes, and pieces in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education and Chicago Magazine. She has been widely quoted in the popular press as a national expert on social inequality, HIV/AIDS and societal safety nets.

Dr. Watkins-Hayes holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in sociology from Harvard University and a B.A. from Spelman College, where she graduated summa cum laude.

 

Co-Sponsors
Ford School
Democracy & Debate
Alumni Association
With support from our media partners at Detroit Public Television (DPTV) and PBS Books

 

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