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Interview with Dale Erquiaga, President & CEO of Communities in Schools, for NPR affiliate KUAR on Clinton School Presents, a weekly dialogue of distinguished guests that visit the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Arkansas. Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Dale Erquiaga, President & CEO of Communities in Schools. Communities in Schools is a national organization that ensures all students have what they need to stay in school towards a bright future.
Interview with Brandon Brown, a professor at the University of San Francisco, for NPR affiliate KUAR on Clinton School Presents, a weekly dialogue of distinguished guests that visit the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Arkansas. Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Brandon Brown, a professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of San Francisco. He’s the author of ‘The Apollo Chronicles: Engineering America’s First Moon Mission.”
Interview with Tim Rabolt, Executive Director for the Association For Recovery in Higher Education, for NPR affiliate KUAR on Clinton School Presents, a weekly dialogue of distinguished guests that visit the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Arkansas. Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Tim Rabolt, the Executive Director for the Association For Recovery in Higher Education, the only association exclusively representing collegiate recovery programs in collegiate recovery communities.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Helene Gayle, President and CEO of the Chicago Community Trust, a community foundation dedicated to improving the region through strategic grant making, civic engagement, and inspiring philanthropy. Named one of Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women and one of Non-Profit Times Top 50, Helene has authored numerous articles on global and domestic public health issues, poverty alleviation, gender equality, and social justice.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Alice Driver, a bilingual long form journalist based in Mexico City. Mrs. Driver’s works focuses on migration, human rights, and gender equality. For the past two years, she has covered migration along the United States/Mexico border and throughout Central America, witnessing first-hand how US policies have affected migrants living along the border.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Roderick Hart, former Dean of the Moody College at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of “Civic Hope; How Ordinary Americans Keep Democracy Alive” which analyzes over ten thousand letters to the editor from 1948 to the present published in twelve US cities. It states that the vitality of a democracy lies not in its strengths but in its weaknesses, and in the willingness of its people to address those weaknesses.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Susan Ford Bales, daughter of President Gerald R. Ford and Betty Ford, and Lisa McCubbin, award-winning journalist and the author of four New York Times bestselling books. McCubbin is the author of Betty Ford: First Lady, Women’s advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer is an intimate and insightful biography of Betty Ford, the groundbreaking, candid, and resilient First Lady and wife of President Gerald Ford.
Interview with Shari Davis, Co-Executive Director of the Participatory Budget Project, for NPR affiliate KUAR on Clinton School Presents, a weekly dialogue of distinguished guests that visit the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Arkansas. Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Shari Davis, Co-Executive Director of the Participatory Budget Project. She oversees the organization’s publicacy work, technical assistance, and operations. Since 2009 the Participatory Budget Project supported dozens of governments, public institutions, and organizations in launching their participatory budget processes, which empowers people to decide how to spend public money.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Rebecca Harper. In today’s world, the intersection of home and academic literacies often is non-existent. Yet, individuals practice sophisticated literacy skills on a daily basis. Unfortunately, these are often overlooked in lieu of traditional literacy practices. As a literacy professor, reading and writing are Rebecca Harper’s areas of expertise, but she learned more from literacy tasks in real life than in courses taken during her doctoral program. Join her for a lecture in real world literacy as she shares what pinball, her mother’s eulogy, and ESPN taught her about literacy and how it transformed literacy practices. Harper is and assistant professor of literacy in the Department of Advanced Studies and Innovation at Augusta University. She received her Ph.D. in Language and Literacy from the University of South Carolina. She is the author of “Content Area Writing that Rocks (and Works!)”.”
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Marjorie Spruill. Forty years ago, two women’s movements drew a line in the sand between liberals and conservatives. The legacy of that rift is still evident today in American politics and social policies. Gloria Steinem was quoted in 2015 in The New Yorker as saying the National Women’s Conference in 1977 “…may take the prize as the most important event nobody knows about.” After the United Nations established International Women’s Year (IWY) in 1975, Congress mandated and funded state conferences to elect delegates to attend the National Women’s Conference in Houston in 1977. At that conference, Bella Abzug, Steinem, and other feminists adopted a National Plan of Action, endorsing the hot-button issues of abortion rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, and gay rights – the latter a new issue in national politics. Across town, Phyllis Schlafly, Lottie Beth Hobbs, and the conservative women’s movement held a massive rally to protest federally funded feminism and launch a Pro-Family movement. “Divided We Stand” reveals how the battle between feminists and their conservative challengers divided the nation as Democrats continued to support women’s rights and Republicans cast themselves as the party of family values.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Kathy Izard. Mrs. Izard was enjoying a comfortable existence when she came face to face with the reality that while her dedicated service at the community soup kitchen might be feeding her soul, it would never solve the bigger needs of the homeless population. Confronting the question of where are the beds? Kathy realized that she had been called to take on what seemed like an insurmountable task – to build housing for Charlotte’s homeless. Woven together with this uplifting story of a call to social action is Kathy’s personal struggle with faith, forgiveness, and fulfillment. In telling her story, Kathy invites you to consider rewriting your own. What’s calling you? And as crazy at it seems, it may be crazier not to try.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Bill Meyer. While the power of mindfulness and meditation have become well-known in the culture at large, their use in education is just beginning. But teachers who incorporate moments of stillness, breath awareness, and calming images know how potent these practices are for creating focus and facilitating learning. “Three Breaths and Begin” is about practice, written by a schoolroom teacher who has shared these practices with students, teachers, and parents in a variety of real-world settings. Meyer details exactly how a teacher can use meditation techniques each and every day. From the very beginning of introducing the practice to students by creating a space within the classroom, to meditating on field trips, in sports setting, and in the midst of tragedy, he sets forth scripted meditations, with every aspect of conducting, running, and reflecting on the meditation considered.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Stuart Newberger. Renowned international terrorism litigation attorney Stuart Newberger has helped hundreds of American victims of state-sponsored terrorism, and their families, find justice, through his work with international law firm Crowell & Moring in Washington, D.C. In his book, “The Forgotten Flight: Terrorism, Diplomacy and the Pursuit of Justice,” Newberger asks how we can bring leaders of sovereign nations to account for their crimes. As a lawyer, Newberger represented the families of the seven Americans killed in the UTA 772 attack, a French airliner blown up by a suitcase bomb in 1989 while flying from Central Africa to Paris, killing all 170 people on board. Now he tells the story of the flight for the first time, piecing together the events leading up to the crime in extraordinary detail. He reveals how French investigators cracked the case and takes us inside the behind-the-scenes diplomatic talks with the Libyan government.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Danny Brassell. Danny Brassell has taught students ranging from preschoolers to rocket scientists and is currently an associate professor in the teacher education department at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Using humor, music, and games in his highly acclaimed presentations, Danny has motivated teachers around the country to create their own reading programs that nurture lifelong reading.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Debby Schriver. Debby Schriver is a cult expert, an author, and a human rights activist whose projects connect us to common, core values that lift the human spirit. Schriver earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her study of psychological and sociological development began in college and has been an integral part of her career as an educator at UT and as a writer. “Whispering in the Daylight: The Children of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries and Their Journey to Freedom” is based on numerous interviews from group members and, more importantly, on interviews with the children—second and third-generation followers. Schriver chronicles how this group was formed, documenting its many abuses and its gradual adoption of cult-like behaviors and practices. Her extensive research – including interviews with Tony Alamo himself, harrowing visits to Alamo compounds, and witnessing gut-wrenching confrontations between freed children and their unreformed parents – tells the story of a closed group whose origins and history are unlikely ever to be definitively unraveled.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Howard Bryant. Howard Bryant is an acclaimed sports journalist who writes for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine and appears regularly on ESPN Radio. Bryant has been a panelist on ESPN’s The Sports Reporters since 2006 and is a sports correspondent for Weekend Edition with Scott Simon on National Public Radio. Bryant is the author of four books. His latest book, “The Heritage,” is the story of the rise, fall, and fervent return of the athlete-activist. Through deep research and interviews with some of sports’ best-known stars – including Colin Kaepernick, David Ortiz, Charles Barkley, and Chris Webber – as well as members of law enforcement and the military, Bryant details the collision of post-9/11 sports in America and the politically engaged post-Ferguson black athlete.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Dwayne Estes. Mr. Estes serves as executive director for SGI. For ten years Dwayne has served as Professor of Biology at APSU and was promoted to Full Professor in 2015. Grassland loss is the single greatest conservation issue currently facing eastern North American biodiversity. Southern grasslands are nearly extinct and the species that depend on them are fading fast. The Southeastern Grasslands Initiative (SGI) is a collaboration of leaders in international biodiversity conservation led by the Austin Peay State University Center of Excellence for Field Biology, in partnership with the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, North Carolina Botanical Garden, and Roundstone Native Seed. SGI seeks to integrate research, consultation, and education, along with the administration of grants, to create innovative solutions to address the multitude of complex issues facing Southeastern grasslands, the most imperiled ecosystems in eastern North America.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Mark Updegrove. In “The Last Republicans,” presidential historian Mark Updegrove offers a groundbreaking look at the lives of George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, the most consequential father-son pair in American history, often in their own words. Drawing extensively on exclusive access and interviews with both Bush presidents, Updegrove reveals for the first time their influences and perspectives on each other’s presidencies; their views on family, public service, and America’s role in the world; and their unvarnished thoughts on President Donald Trump and the radical transformation of the Republican Party he now leads. “The Last Republicans” offers revealing and often moving portraits of the forty-first and forty-third presidents, as well as an elegy for the Republican “establishment,” which once stood for putting the interests of the nation over those of any single man. Updegrove is an author, presidential historian, and president and CEO of the LBJ Foundation. He is the author of four books on the presidency including “Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency.” He appears regularly on Good Morning America, and This Week, and has written for The New York Times, The Hill, Politico, The Daily Beast, Time, Parade, National Geographic, and Texas Monthly.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Ken Thomas. Ken Thomas is a White House reporter with The Associated Press and has been based in the AP’s Washington bureau since 2005. He has covered President Donald Trump since the start of his transition and throughout his administration. He previously covered Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic primary campaigns of Clinton and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, as well as President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. Thomas is a 1997 graduate of Georgetown University and a 1999 graduate of the Columbia University School of Journalism.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Ilya Somin. Ilya Somin is a Professor of Law at George Mason University. His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, and the study of popular political participation and its implications for constitutional democracy. Somin is the author of “Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter” and “The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain.” He is the coauthor of “A Conspiracy Against Obamacare: The Volokh Conspiracy and the Health Care Case” and co-editor of “Eminent Domain: A Comparative Perspective.” From 2006 to 2013, he served as co-editor of “The Supreme Court Economic Review,” one of the country’s top-rated law and economics journals. Somin earned his B.A., Summa Cum Laude, at Amherst College, M.A. in Political Science from Harvard University, and J.D. from Yale Law School.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Dr. Carlos Rodriguez-Díaz. Dr. Rodriguez-Díaz spent the spring 2018 semester as the Researcher in Residence and Visiting Philanthropy Faculty Scholar for the Clinton School’s Center on Community Philanthropy. Rodríguez-Díaz is currently an associate professor in the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. Previously, he worked as a public health scientist and an associate professor at the School of Public Health at the Medical Sciences Campus of the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan. He will share findings from research conducted during his residency that explore the role of race in emerging response and recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Timothy Patrick McCarthy. Timothy McCarthy is an award-winning scholar, educator, and public servant. He holds a joint faculty appointment in Harvard’s undergraduate honors program in History and Literature, the Graduate School of Education, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he is Core Faculty and Director of Culture Change & Social Justice Initiatives at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. Dr. McCarthy is also founding Faculty Convener of the Carr Center’s Emerging Human Rights Leaders Program. A historian of politics and social movements, slavery and abolition, the art and literature of protest, media culture, and human rights, Dr. McCarthy is the author or editor of five books with the New Press, including The Radical Reader: A Documentary History of the American Radical Tradition (2003), Prophets of Protest: Reconsidering the History of American Abolitionism (2006), and Stonewall’s Children: Living Queer History in the Age of Liberation, Loss, and Love(forthcoming). Dr. McCarthy is the host and director of A.R.T. of Human Rights, a regular public series, co-sponsored by the Carr Center and the American Repertory Theater, that brings academics, artists, and activists together to explore the relationship between art and social change. A frequent media commentator, Dr. McCarthy is featured in several documentary films, has appeared on NPR, BBC, CBS News, Air America, Bloomberg Radio, Al Jazeera, Democracy Now!, HuffPost Live, and Big Think, and has published essays in The Daily Beast, Salon, Boston Globe, Huffington Post, and The Nation.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Ian Rosenberger, Founder and CEO of Thread International, he founded Team Tassy & Thread in 2010 in the wake of the Haiti Earthquake. Team Tassy unlocks the inherent power in every person to end global poverty. Thread takes trash from poor neighborhoods and turns it into jobs. They work together under the same core philosophy: the biggest problem we face as a species is multidimensional poverty; ending it is entirely possible within our lifetime, and to do it we need to invest in the poor to create as many dignified, sustainable jobs as possible.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Nadine Strossen. Mrs. Strossen is Professor of Constitutional Law at New York Law School and the first woman national President of the American Civil Liberties Union, where she served from 1991 through 2008. HATE dispels misunderstandings plaguing our perennial debates about “hate speech vs. free speech,” showing that the First Amendment approach promotes free speech and democracy, equality, and societal harmony. We hear too many incorrect assertions that “hate speech” — which has no generally accepted definition – is either absolutely unprotected or absolutely protected from censorship. Rather, U.S. law allows government to punish hateful or discriminatory speech in specific contexts when it directly causes imminent serious harm. Yet, government may not punish such speech solely because its message is disfavored, disturbing, or vaguely feared to possibly contribute to some future harm. Citing evidence from many countries, this book shows that “hate speech” laws are at best ineffective and at worst counterproductive. Their inevitably vague terms invest enforcing officials with broad discretion, and predictably, regular targets are minority views and speakers. Therefore, prominent social justice advocates in the U.S. and beyond maintain that the best way to resist hate and promote equality is not censorship, but rather, vigorous “counterspeech” and activism.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Jon Michaels, he is the author of Constitutional Coup: Privatization’s Threat to the American Republic, which cements the constitutionality of the administrative state recognizing civil servants and public participants as necessary rather than disposable components.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Jim Schultz. Jim Schultz is an American lawyer, political pundit, and was an Associate White House Counsel for U.S. President Donald J. Trump until November 2017. Schultz was part of the legal team at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland and the Trump Transition Team. Schultz previously worked as general counsel to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett and as a top aide to Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.), when he was a U.S. attorney. He earned his undergraduate degree from Temple University before attending law school at Widener University. In addition to having provided legal counsel to the President of the United States and his senior staff, Schultz has provided legal counsel to the Governor of Pennsylvania and his senior staff and cabinet, a number of federal and state elected officials and has handled high profile matters for private sector clients. In his role as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Associate Counsel to the President, Schultz provided counsel to the White House on matters involving government contracting, procurement, trade, and transportation and infrastructure. Schlutz had liaison responsibilities to the Department of Transportation and the General Services Administration. He played a significant role in the drafting and review of Executive Orders and was involved in the interview and selection process for United States Attorneys and Federal District and Circuit Court Judges. Schultz also served as counsel to the Presidential Transition and was as a member of the legal team during the 2016 Republican National Convention. Throughout the 2016 election cycle, Jim was a frequent contributor on NBC 10 Philadelphia and currently serves as a contributor to CNN.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Mickey Ibarra. Mickey Ibarra is president of the Ibarra Strategy Group, a government relations and public affairs firm based in Washington, D.C. He is the founder and chairman of the Latino Leaders Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to “Bringing Leaders Together” to establish relationships, build unity, and share personal stories. He is a member of the Ibarra Foundation Board of Directors and completed six years of service on the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund Board. Appointed Assistant to the President and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House in 1997, Mr. Ibarra served as a member of the President’s senior staff. His role was to build support for the President’s policy initiatives and to coordinate outreach to state and local leaders on a broad range of issues. His new book published in 2017 by Arte Publico Press, “Latino Leaders Speak: Personal Stories of Struggle and Triumph,” features 33 keynote addresses delivered at the Latino Leaders Luncheon Series since 2004.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Jonathan Friesen. Jonathan Friesen is an author, speaker, and youth writing coach from Mora, Minnesota. His first young adult novel, “Jerk, California,” received the ALA Schneider Award. His recent books include “Unfolding” and “Both of Me.”
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Ellen Hart, world-class runner and lawyer. Mrs. Hart is known for her incredible athletic and professional achievements while going public about her battles with bulimia. As an undergraduate student-athlete at Harvard, Hart earned eight varsity letters while competing in basketball, soccer, and track and field. She placed third to qualify in the 10K in the 1980 Olympic Trials and went on to break the world record in 20K and the United States record in 30K. Hart earned her juris doctor from the University of Colorado Law School. She was an attorney with the Denver firm of Morrison and Foerster from 1988-90 and served as Executive Director of the Community Action Program at the University of Denver from 1990-92. Hart was married to Federico Peña, the former mayor of Denver, United States Secretary of Transportation, and United States Secretary of Energy. She helped start the Eating Disorder Foundation while giving lectures and speaking publicly about her personal experiences. A movie about her life, “Dying to be Perfect: The Ellen Hart Peña Story,” was released in 1996.
Interview with John Hechinger, a senior editor at Bloomberg News, a 2011 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Public Service, and a two-time winner for the George Polk Award for his reporting on education, for NPR affiliate KUAR on Clinton School Presents, a weekly dialogue of distinguished guests that visit the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Arkansas. Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with John Hechinger, author of True Gentleman: The Broken Pledge of America’s Fraternities, which takes readers deep into the world of fraternity culture, and reveals how profoundly that culture influences Wall Street, Main Street, and Washington.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Emily Crane Linn, Executive Director of Canopy Northwest Arkansas, a resettlement center that provides refugees with everything they need to build a new life: from a place to live and language classes to counselors and babysitters. They help refugees learn English, put together a resume, evaluate their degree, and prepare for the American workforce.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Ambassador James Pardew, he is the author of Peacemakers: American Leadership and the End of Genocide in the Balkans, the first inclusive history of the successful multilateral intervention in the Balkans from 1995 to 2008 by an official directly involved in the diplomatic and military responses to the crisis.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Ambassador David O’Sullivan, European Union Ambassador to the United States,as the European Union’s top diplomat to the United States, he oversees the EU’s bilateral relationship with the United States and the direction and work of the EU delegation including: political, economic, and commercial affairs.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Garrett Graff Garrett Graff is the author of “Raven Rock,” the eye-opening true story of the government’s secret plans to survive and rebuild after a catastrophic attack on US soil—a narrative that spans from the dawn of the nuclear age to today. In Raven Rock, Graff sheds light on the inner workings of the 650-acre compound (called Raven Rock) just miles from Camp David, as well as dozens of other bunkers the government built its top leaders during the Cold War, from the White House lawn to Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado to Palm Beach, Florida, and the secret plans that would have kicked in after a Cold War nuclear attack to round up foreigners and dissidents, and nationalize industries. Equal parts a presidential, military, and political history, Raven Rock tracks the evolution of the government’s plans and the threats of global war from the dawn of the nuclear era through the present day. Relying upon thousands of pages of once-classified documents, as well as original interviews and visits to former and current COG facilities, Graff brings readers through the back channels of government to understand exactly what is at stake if our nation is attacked, and how we’re prepared to respond if it is.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Dickie Scruggs, previously called the most powerful trial attorney in the United States for the multi-million and billion dollar awards secured in tobacco, asbestos, and hurricane Katrina lawsuits. He founded Second Chance Mississippi, which is a nonprofit collaborative effort with Mississippi’s community colleges, to raise awareness and funds for GED and adult education.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Scott Jackson, CEO of Global Impact. He is the Author of Take Me With You: One Person’s Journey to Find the Charity Within, an inspiring memoir with practical instructions for getting people involved either in important small ways or making larger commitment to achieve justice in a sustainable way.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Baz Dreisinger. Dr. Baz Dreisinger is the author of Incarceration Nations, a first-person odyssey through the prison systems of the world. Professor, journalist, and founder of the Prison-to-College Pipeline, Dreisinger looks into the human stories of incarcerated men and women and those who imprison them, creating a jarring, poignant view of a world to which most are denied access, and a rethinking of one of America’s most far-reaching global exports: the modern prison complex. Dreisinger was named a 2017-18 Global Fulbright Scholar and is working to internationally replicate the Prison-to-College Pipeline with a focus on the Caribbean and South Africa.
Interview with John Monahan, Senior Advisor for Global Health to Georgetown University President, for NPR affiliate KUAR on Clinton School Presents, a weekly dialogue of distinguished guests that visit the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Arkansas. Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with John Monahan, Senior Advisor for Global Health to Georgetown University President. He has served on two Presidential Transition Teams, and recently served as the Special Advisor for Global Health Partnerships at the US Department of State as well as Counselor to the Secretary and Director of Global Health Affairs at the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Michael Nelson. Published on the first anniversary of Trump’s inauguration, Nelson’s book offers the most complete and up-to-date assessment of this still-unfolding story. In “Trump’s First Year,” Michael Nelson, the Fulmer Professor of Political Science at Rhodes College and a Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, provides a thorough account and scholarly assessment of Donald Trump’s first year as president, starting with his election and transition in 2016. The analysis is grounded in the modern history of the presidency as well as in the larger constitutional and political order. Donald Trump took office in January 2017 under mostly favorable conditions. He inherited neither a war nor an economic depression, and his party controlled both houses of Congress. He leveraged this successfully by delivering on his campaign promises to roll back regulations on business, and he saw his nominee for the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, approved swiftly and with little controversy. Many more actions, however, have been perceived as failures or even threats to a safe, functional democracy, from immigration policies defied by state and local governments and volatile dealings with North Korea to unsuccessful attempts to pass major legislation and the inability to fill government positions or maintain consistent White House staff.
Interview with Evin Demirel, author of African-American Athletes in Arkansas: Muhammad Ali’s Tour, Black Razorbacks and Other Forgotten Stories, for NPR affiliate KUAR on Clinton School Presents, a weekly dialogue of distinguished guests that visit the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Arkansas. Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Evin Demirel, author of African-American Athletes in Arkansas: Muhammad Ali’s Tour, Black Razorbacks and Other Forgotten Stories. A Little Rock Native he’s written for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, the New York Times, Sporting Life Arkansas, SB Nation Longform.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Tererai Trent, author of “The Awakened Woman: Remembering & Reigniting Our Sacred Dreams.” Before Tererai Trent landed on Oprah’s stage as her “favorite guest of all time,” she was a woman with a forgotten dream. As a young girl in a cattle-herding village in Zimbabwe, she dreamed of receiving an education but instead was married young and by eighteen, without a high school graduation, she was already a mother of three. Trent encountered a visiting American woman, Jo Luck of Heifer International, who assured her that anything was possible, reawakening her sacred dream. Tererai planted her dreams deep in the earth and prayed they would grow. They did, and now not only has she earned her Ph.D. but she has also built schools for girls in Zimbabwe, with funding from Oprah. The Awakened Woman is her accessible, intimate, and evocative guide that teaches nine essential lessons to encourage all women to reexamine their dreams and uncover the power hidden within them – power that can recreate our world for the better.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Nick Schifrin. Nick Schifrin is PBS NewsHour’s foreign affairs and defense correspondent. He has created week-long, in-depth series for NewsHour from Russia, Ukraine, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Cuba, Mexico, and the Baltics. The series “Inside Putin’s Russia” won a 2018 Peabody Award. Prior to PBS, Schifrin was Al Jazeera America’s Middle East correspondent. He led the channel’s coverage of the 2014 war in Gaza; reported extensively on the Syrian war from Syria’s Turkish, Lebanese and Jordanian borders; and covered the conflict in and annexation of Crimea. He won an Overseas Press Club award for his Gaza coverage and a National Headliners Award for his Ukraine coverage. From 2008-2012, Schifrin served as the ABC News correspondent in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2011 he was one of the first journalists to arrive in Abbottabad, Pakistan after Osama bin Laden’s death and delivered one of the year’s biggest exclusives: the first video from inside bin Laden’s compound. His reporting helped ABC News win an Edward R. Murrow award for its bin Laden coverage. He ran the Islamabad and Kabul bureaus for nearly four years, beginning at age 28. He is a visiting fellow at the Clinton School, where he lectures and teaches a foreign policy class. He is a Council on Foreign Relations term member, and an Overseas Press Club Foundation board member. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a master’s in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where he graduated with distinction.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Luke Dittrich, author of “Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets, the story of Henry Molaison, who lost the ability to create memories after he underwent a lobotomy to treat his seizures. His case taught scientists a lot about how the brain creates and stores memories. The case was one of personal tragedy for Molaison, but a boon for the modern landscape of medicine and science. Dittrich is the grandson of William Scoville, the doctor who performed Patient H.M.'s lobotomy. Additionally, Dittrich is a National Magazine Award-winning journalist, and a contributing editor at Esquire.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Ryan Hampton, a recovery advocate. Nearly three years into recovery from a decade-long heroin addiction, Ryan Hampton is a prominent, leading face and voice of addiction and is changing the national dialog about addiction through social media. With content that reaches over 1 million people a week, Ryan has the largest following of any person in the addiction and recovery space. He was part of the core team that released the first-ever Surgeon General's report on addiction and was singled out by Forbes as a top social media entrepreneur in the recovery movement. Ryan connects a vast network of people who are passionate about ending the drug epidemic in America. His writing on recovery and addiction related issues regularly go viral in online journals such as HuffPo and The Hill.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Daniel Lippman, a reporter for POLITICO and co-author of POLITICO's Playbook, the most indispensable morning newsletter for the biggest influencers in politics. Before joining POLITICO, he was a fellow covering environmental news for E&E Publishing and a reporter for The Wall Street Journal in New York. He has also interned for McClatchy Newspapers and Reuters. During a stint freelancing in 2013, he traveled to the Turkish-Syrian border to cover the impact of the Syrian civil war for The Huffington Post and CNN.com.
. Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down Michelle Kuo, author of Reading With Patrick, who taught English at an alternative school in the Arkansas Delta for two years. Recently graduated from Harvard University, Kuo arrived in the rural town of Helena, Ark., as a Teach for America volunteer, bursting with optimism and drive. But she soon encountered the jarring realities of life in one of the poorest counties in America, still disabled by the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. In this stirring memoir, Kuo, the child of Taiwanese immigrants, shares the story of her complicated but rewarding mentorship of one student, Patrick Browning, and his remarkable literary and personal awakening.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down Dan Zak, author of Almighty: Courage, Resistance, and Existential Peril in the Nuclear Age. In his book, Zak writes about a book about nuclear weapons, the activists who resist them, and the bureaucracy that maintains them.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Dr. Billy Fleming, a co-author of The Indivisible Guide and co-founder of Data Refuge – an international consortium of scientists, librarians, and programmers working to backup sensitive environmental data during the Trump administration. Currently, he directs an environmental research center at University of Pennsylvania. Originally from Arkansas and the former student government president at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Fleming worked in the White House Domestic Policy Council during President Barack Obama’s first term.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Becky Straw, co-founder and CEO of the Adventure Project, a nonprofit creating jobs in developing countries. Instead of giving money and products away, The Adventure Project works somewhat like a venture capital firm for effective nonprofits: funding entrepreneurial activity that will both provide jobs and help in the four most needed areas – water, hunger, health, and environment. The 10-year goal of the organization is to create one million jobs worldwide. Prior to The Adventure Project, Becky spent three years helping to launch Charity: Water, an organization bringing drinking water to people in developing countries.
Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Alex Eaton, director and technician for Sistema Biobolsa. He has evaluated, developed, and managed small scale and industrial anaerobic digestion systems in Asia, Latin America, and the US. Recent clients include the US EPA, USAID, PA Consulting, various Mexican government offices, and international carbon offset firms. As the Executive Director of the International Renewable Resources Institute, Alex has developed and managed carbon offset and renewable energy projects across Latin America, including projects that have been commercialized under the Kyoto Protocol.