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    ABA Presidential Speaker Series

    Exclusive conversations with world leaders, thought leaders, businesspeople, philanthropists, entertainers, and others will encapsulate the theme for ABA President Mary Smith’s term: “Lifting Our Voices, Charting the Future.” This series is dedicated to spotlighting trailblazers and thinkers who are shaping the course of our collective future, and is designed to inspire, provoke thought, and foster deeper understanding of pressing national and global issues.

    Featured

    Democracy in Peril

    Co-Chairs of the ABA Task Force for American Democracy Jeh Charles Johnson, former Secretary of Homeland Security, and former federal judge J. Michael Luttig in conversation with David French, N.Y. Times Opinion columnist. Program will be available on Thursday, December 14, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. CT. No advance registration is required.

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    A Special Black History Month Program “The Business of Democracy”

    Featuring Special Advisors to the ABA Task Force for American Democracy, Kenneth Frazier, the former CEO of Merck, and Kenneth Chenault, the former CEO of American Express, in conversation with Paulette Brown, Past ABA President (2015-2016) and the first women of color in this role. Program will be available on Thursday, February 29, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. CT. No advance registration is required.

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    Martin Scorsese and Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear

    Martin Scorsese, director of Killers of the Flower Moon, and Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear, Principal Chief of the Osage Nation, will be interviewed by ABA President Mary Smith and American Bar Foundation President Jimmy K. Goodman.

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    Artificial Intelligence – The New Frontier

    Featuring a panel of Special Advisors for the ABA Task Force on Law and Artificial Intelligence including Daniel Ho, Associate Director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence; Michelle Lee, CEO and founder of Obsidian Strategies; Trooper Sanders, CEO of Benefits Data Trust; Miriam Vogel, President and CEO of EqualAI; and Seth Waxman, former U.S. solicitor general, interviewed by Lucy Thomson, Chair, ABA Task Force on Law and Artificial Intelligence.

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    Deb Haaland and a panel of Native American women “firsts”

    Native American Heritage Month program featuring U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and a panel of other Native American women “firsts,” followed by release of the ABA study “Excluded and Alone: Examining the Experiences of Native American Women in the Law and a Path Toward Equity.”

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    Dolores Huerta

    Dolores Huerta is an American labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Cesar Chavez, is a co-founder of the United Farmworkers Association. She will be interviewed by Reverend Miguel Bustos, the Episcopal Church’s Manager for Racial Reconciliation and Justice for the U.S. and Latin America, and former Executive Director of the California Latino Civil Rights Network.

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    Ivo H. Daalder and Ertharin Cousin

    Our inaugural speaker is Ivo Daalder, Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and former U.S. Ambassador to NATO. Ambassador Daalder discusses international events involving Ukraine, China, North Korea, the Middle East, and other global areas with Ambassador Ertharin Cousin, president and CEO of Food Systems for the Future.

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