Leo Hill Leadership Speaker Series: David Gergen
The Center for Leadership and the Leo Hill Leadership Speaker Series are pleased to welcome David Gergen to campus.Ìý
The time has come for a new generation of leaders and innovators to bring fresh perspectives to the world’s toughest issues. Join us on October 2, 2023Ìýat 7:30pm in Macky AuditoriumÌýfor a talk by White House adviser and political commentator David Gergen, author of Hearts Touched with Fire: How Great Leaders are Made, as he offers wisdom and inspiration for students on becoming leaders, overcoming setbacks and building coalitions to make meaningful change. Drawing from insights gathered as adviser to four presidents and as founding director of Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership, Gergen presents a practical guide for all who seek a life of purpose and impact.
For more information on the event, please emailÌýcenterforleadership@colorado.edu.Ìý
More about David Gergen:
David Gergen is a professor of public service and founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, positions he has held for over a decade. In addition, he serves as a senior political analyst for CNN and works actively with a rising generation of new leaders. In the past, he has served as a White House adviser to four U.S. presidents of both parties: Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. He wrote about those experiences in his New York Times best seller, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton (Simon & Schuster, 2001). His newest book, Hearts Touched with Fire: How Great Leaders are Made, calls to younger generations to pursue lives of service and public leadership — along with a practical playbook on how they can succeed.
In the 1980s, he began a career in journalism. Starting with The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour in 1984, he has been a regular commentator on public affairs for some 30 years. Twice he has been a member of election coverage teams that won Peabody awards, and he has contributed to two Emmy award-winning political analysis teams. In the late 1980s, he was chief editor of U.S. News & World Report, working with publisher Mort Zuckerman to achieve record gains in circulation and advertising.
Over the years, he has been active on many non-profit boards, serving in the past on the boards of bothYale and Duke Universities. Among his current boards are Teach for America, The Mission Continues, The Trilateral Commission, and Elon University’s School of Law.Gergen’s work as co-director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School has enabled him to work closely with a rising generation of younger leaders, especially social entrepreneurs, military veterans and Young Global Leaders chosen by the World Economic Forum. Through the generosity of outside donors, the Center helps to provide scholarships to over 100 students a year, preparing them to serve as leaders for the common good. The Center also promotes scholarship at the frontiers of leadership studies.
A native of North Carolina, Gergen is a member of the D.C. Bar, a veteran of the U.S. Navy, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the U.S. executive committee for the TrilateralCommission. He is an honors graduate of Yale and the Harvard Law School. He has been awarded 27 honorary degrees.
Gergen has been married since 1967 to Anne Elizabeth Gergen of England, a family therapist. They have two children and five grand-children. Son Christopher is a social entrepreneur in North Carolina as well as an author and member of the Duke faculty. Daughter Katherine is a family doctor, working with the underserved population at the Boston Medical Center.