Category: Speeches and Presentations

These are speeches and presentations put on by people in the Charlottesville area. Some of them may be mere excerpts, some of them may be complete.

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Miller Center Forum: Modern Presidents and the Middle East: A World of Trouble

Patrick Tyler

Patrick Tyler

Journalist and author PATRICK TYLER was Chief Correspondent at the New York Times from 2002 to 2004, covering the invasion of Iraq and established the Baghdad Bureau after the fall of Saddam Hussein. He also served as the Times’ Bureau Chief in Moscow and Beijing, as well as Military Correspondent. Prior to that, Tyler was Middle East Bureau Chief for the Washington Post, and covered the State Department, the Pentagon, and the intelligence community. His books include A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China (Public Affairs, 1999) and Running Critical: The Silent War, Rickover, and General Dynamics (Harper & Row, 1986). Mr. Tyler spoke at a Miller Center Forum on April 6, 2009.



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The Older Dominion Partnership: How Virginia Is Preparing to Ride the Age Wave

John Martin

John Martin

John W. Martin, CEO of the Southeastern Institute of Research, spoke at the April 8, 2009 meeting of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia on the Older Dominion Partnership (ODP), an initiative by business, government, foundations and non-profits to help Virginia prepare for the coming boomer age wave.

The ODP is a public/private initiative created to raise awareness and advance preparation efforts across the Commonwealth of Virginia for the coming "age wave" of older adults – when aging Boomers double the population of citizens ages 65 and older as there are today. Through John’s vision, Virginia’s ODP has ushered in a new model in age wave planning where leaders in academic, nonprofit, state government, philanthropic communities, and business all join together to plan for their community’s shared destiny.

The ODP conducted strategic research among residents and business leaders to help create a planning roadmap for the ODP. Subsequently, six ODP workgroups were established: community readiness, civic engagement, aging services communications support, healthcare access and long-term care, workforce readiness, and a shared statewide research database work group that supports all of the ODP work groups and offers a matrix of age wave preparedness performance indicators.

In addition to co-founding the Boomer Project, the nation’s authority on marketing to today’s Boomer consumer, John Martin is president and CEO of SIR Research, a 44-year-old marketing research firm that has conducted over 13,000 studies for organizations like Media General, AARP, Liberty Mutual, Lincoln Financial, American Chemical Society, the Public Relations Society of America, Johnson & Johnson, and the American SPCA.

John speaks to audiences across the country about age wave preparation, as well as generational issues and understanding today’s Boomers. He also co-authored the award-winning business book, Boomer Consumer, published in 2007.

Over the last five years, the Boomer Project has established itself as the leading authority on generational marketing. Boomer Project findings have been shared on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, CBS Sunday Morning, CNBC, MSNBC, NPR’s "Marketplace" and recent cover stories about older Boomers by BusinessWeek and Newsweek, as well as articles in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. Hundreds of organizations from financial services firms, healthcare associations, consumer products companies, retailers, and governmental agencies have hired the Boomer Project to speak at conferences, events, and training sessions.

Following the presentation questions were taken from the audience. Today’s program was moderated by SSV Secretary Bill Davis.

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Miller Center Forum: Of Knowledge and Power: The Complexities of National Intelligence

Robert Kennedy

Robert Kennedy

ROBERT KENNEDY, a Professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology, served for 35 years in various government postings, including Civilian Deputy Commandant at the NATO Defense College in Rome, Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of National Security Studies at the U.S. Army War College, and Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. His most recent book examines the labyrinth of complexities that the intelligence community faces in trying to provide quality intelligence to support American foreign policy and national security interests.

Mr. Kennedy spoke at a Miller Center Forum on March 27, 2009.



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Miller Center Forum: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived: Virtual JFK

MARC J. SELVERSTONE moderated this Virginia Festival of the Book event, a discussion with JAMES G. BLIGHT and JANET M. LANG of Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies about their new book, Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived: Virtual JFK (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009). Blight and Lang co-direct critical oral history projects on the Cuban Missile Crisis, the collapse of U.S.-Soviet ditente in the Carter-Brezhnev period, and the Vietnam War. They served as advisers to Errol Morris’ Academy Award-winning documentary film, The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara. Blight is the author of a dozen books on the recent history of U.S. foreign policy, and Lang is also an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Boston University’s School of Public Health.

The forum took place at the Miller Center of Public Affairs on March 20, 2009.



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Miller Center Forum: America in Transition: Between War and…War

Marc Selverstone

Marc Selverstone

James Goldgeier

James Goldgeier

This Virginia Festival of the Book event featured MARC J. SELVERSTONE, associate professor with the Presidential Recordings Program at the Miller Center and JAMES GOLDGEIER, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University.  Selverstone’s work focuses on the secret Oval Office recordings of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, with an emphasis on foreign policy; in particular, Vietnam. His most recent book is Constructing the Monolith: The United States, Great Britain, and International Communism, 1945-1950 (Harvard University Press, 2009). Goldgeier has taught at Cornell University and Stanford University, and has served at the State Department and on the National Security Council staff. He is the author of Leadership Style and Soviet Foreign Policy: Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), and co-author of Power and Purpose: U.S. Policy Toward Russia After the Cold War (Brookings Institution Press, 2003). His most recent book is America Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11 (Public Affairs, 2008), with Derek Chollet.

The presentation was made at a Miller Center Forum on March 20, 2009.



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The Changing Face of Virginia Politics

Bob Gibson

Bob Gibson

Bob Gibson, is executive director of the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia. He is a 1972 graduate of the University of Virginia with a B.A. in government and foreign affairs. After serving as news director of WCHV radio, he joined The Daily Progress in August 1976 and has held a number of positions with the newspaper. He began his career covering police and local court hearings and has covered state and local politics and government. He was named city editor in 1982 and later special projects editor in 1992 when he wrote a series about racial disparities and justice in local courts.

In addition to his newspaper work, Bob hosted a weekly political call-in show on WINA radio in Charlottesville for seven years. He has also hosted a public radio talk show since 2001 on WVTF-FM in Roanoke and Charlottesville. He has been a regular contributor and guest on public radio station WAMU’s Virginia Politics Hour in Washington.

Bob is the winner of several Virginia Press Association awards, the 1993 Virginia Bar Association Award in the Field of Law and Justice and the 1993 Southern Journalism Award for investigative reporting.

Mr. Gibson spoke at a Senior Statesmen of Virginia meeting on March 11, 2009. Following his presentation questions were taken from the audience. Today’s program was moderated by SSV President Marvin Hilton.

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Martha Jefferson Hospital: The Old and the New

James E. Haden, president and chief executive officer of Martha Jefferson Health Services, was the featured speaker at the February 11, 2009 meeting of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia.

James E. Haden was named president and CEO of Martha Jefferson Health Services in 1993. Mr Haden received his master’s degree in Public Health/Health Services Management from UCLA in 1971. He completed his administrative residency at Scripps Hospital in LaJolla, California, and received the 1988 Alumni of the Year Award from the UCLA Health Services Management Alumni Association. Mr. Haden served as president and CEO of Queen of the Valley Health Services in West Covina, California, from 1986 – 1993. Prior to that, he served as chief operating officer of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, California, from 1978 to 1986. Mr Haden served as associate administrator at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California, from 1976 – 1978. In 1992, Mr. Haden was chairperson of the California Association of Catholic Hospitals and was a member of the Hospital Council of Southern California from 1988 – 1993.

Mr. Haden served as a board member on the Federal Reserve Board of Richmond from 1998 – 2003, serving on its Executive Committee from 2002 – 2003. He is a former board member of the Charlottesville United Way, the Piedmont Virginia Community College Foundation and Charlottesville Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Haden served as a preceptor at the UCLA Health Services Management Program from 1981 – 1987 and currently serves as a preceptor for VCU’s Masters Program in Health Care Administration. In 2003 Mr. Haden was the recipient of the American Heart Association, Charlottesville Chapter, Billy Gitchell Award. In 2006 he was the recipient of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Blue Ridge Chapter Silver Hope Award. Mr. Haden is the 2008 recipient of the Beta Kappa Chapter, Sigma Theta Tau, UVa School of Nursing Community Service Award. Mr. Haden is married to Sue Haden. They have three children.

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The Financial Crisis – Which Inning Are We In?

Professor Edwin T. Burton of the University of Virginia Economics Department spoke on the current economic crisis at a Senior Statesmen of Virginia forum on January 14, 2008. Professor Burton is a well known economic expert who is a frequent guest on WINA. He is the former head of the Virginia Retirement System and is the author of the Burton Finance Blog.

Burton received his B.A. in Economics from Rice University in 1964 and his Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University in 1971. He is currently professor of economics at the University of Virginia, a post he has held since 1998. He is also currently a trustee of Virginia Retirement System. His past positions include head of Investment Banking and Municipal Finance at Interstate Johnson Lane from 1994 to 1995, president of Rothschild Financial Services, Inc. from 1987 to 1994, senior vice President of Smith Barney from 1975 to 1984 and assistant and associate professor of economics at Cornell University from 1969 to 1979.

The topic of today’s presentation is “The Financial Crisis – Which Inning Are We In?”. Bill Davis, SSV board member and secretary, moderated today’s program.

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Left of Center: How Tom Perriello Won

On November 4, 2008, Democrat Tom Perriello achieved what almost no one thought he could do. He defeated Republican incumbent Virgil Goode by only 745 votes. What were the factors that led to Perriello’s victory? Well, on January 5, 2009, the group Left of Center sponsored a panel discussion to explore that question, and to look ahead to what it means for Democrats in the 5th District.

  • 1:00 – Introduction from Brevy Cannon of Left of Center
  • 2:45 – Presentation by Brian Bills, Perriello’s personal assistant during the campaign
  • 20:17 – Presentation by Kellie Palmer, who worked on a voter registration campaign in the rural southside
  • 33:00 – Presentation by Rachel Klarman
  • 43:00 – Comments from Will Goldsmith, News Editor at C-Ville Weekly
  • 50:00 – Comments from Lindsay Barnes, Reporter from the Hook
  • 56:00 – Comments from Fred Hudson, Chairman of the 5th District Democratic Party
  • 1:10:30 – Question and answer period begins



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NRO’s Jonah Goldberg addresses Jefferson Society

Jonah Goldberg spoke to the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society on Friday, November 21, 2008, on the subject of his latest book, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning. Mr. Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Online, a contributing editor to National Review, and a nationally syndicated columnist.

After his talk, Mr. Goldberg took questions from the audience:

01:01:00 Are political humor shows like the Daily Show or the Colbert Report having a negative effect on today’s youth?

01:03:00 Could you comment on your recent debate with columnist Kathleen Parker on the direction of the GOP?

01:08:00 The Nazis may have begun with a socialist ideology, but had they not moved away from socialism by the late 1930s?

01:13:00 President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus; President John Adams signed the Alien and Sedition Acts: would you classify these two presidents as fascist?

01:17:00 Why in modern political culture is there an impulse to associate with fringe movements like fascism?

01:21:00 What is it about Christianity that rattles totalitarian regimes?

01:26:00 What are some differences in the ways the right and the left use the rhetoric of “the moral equivalent of war”?

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Climate Change: Challenge and Opportunity for Virginia

Albert C. (Al) Weed II, Chairman, owns and operates Mountain Cove Vineyards in Nelson County. He has a BA (cum laude) from Yale in Latin American Studies (with Highest Honors) and a Master’s Degree in Economic Development and Political Modernization from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School. Including active duty in Viet Nam and Bosnia he served a total of almost 43 years mostly in the Reserve components, retiring from Army Special Operations as a Command Sergeant Major. Al worked for the World Bank and the Arthur Lipper Corporation before settling in Central Virginia and was a founder of the Virginia Wine Industry. He was involved in every significant legislative, regulatory and organizational development of this now vibrant industry’s first quarter century. Al is the founder of Rural Nelson, a land preservation group in his home county, and has served as a board member, director, and trustee for numerous nonprofit concerns.  At the request of the Governor of Virginia he serves on the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation’s Board of Trustees. Twice the Democratic candidate for the 5th Congressional District, he currently spends half of his time in the daily operations of Public Policy Virginia, acting as its executive director. Al’s Op Eds have been published in major publications, and he speaks frequently in all areas of the state about Climate Change and a broad range of other public policy issues.

Al spoke at Northside Library at a meeting of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia on November 12, 2008. The program was moderated by SSV board member and Past President, Don Wells.