2016 - Speakers
These distinguished and provocative presenters, moderators, interviewers and debaters participated in KentPresents 2016. Click on any presenter's photo to learn more.
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André Aciman
Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at the Graduate Center of CUNY
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Colin Bailey
Director of the Morgan Library & Museum
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David Baltimore
Former president, Caltech, one of the world’s most influential biologists, Nobel Laureate
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Charles Blow
Op-ed Columnist, New York Times, author of “Fire Shut Up in My Bones”
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Andrew Bergman
Screenwriter-director, including “Blazing Saddles, ” “The Freshman,” "The In-Laws"
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Jonathan Burnham
Senior Vice President and Publisher, HarperCollins
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Thomas Campbell
Director and CEO, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Eric Cantor
Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Moelis & Company and former House Majority Leader
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Amy Cappellazzo
Art Advisor, Sotheby’s
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P. Carl
Co-Artistic Director, ArtsEmerson and Director/Co-founder of HowlRound
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Aaron Carroll
Vice Chair for Health Policy, Indiana University, creator of Healthcare Triage
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Kristen Clarke
President and Executive Director, Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
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Charlie Cook
Editor and Publisher of the Cook Political Report
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Frank Delaney
Former BBC correspondent, bestselling author, leading Joyce scholar
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Sir Richard Dearlove, KCMG, OBE
Former Chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service
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John Donvan
Newscaster for ABC News, Host and Moderator for Intelligence2 Debates
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John Doyle
Tony-winning Broadway director
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Charles Elachi
Director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, National Academy Engineering
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Oskar Eustis
Artistic Director, The Public Theater
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Carter Foster
Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs, Blanton Museum of Art in Austin
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LaToya Ruby Frazier
Multi-media artist, MacArthur Fellow
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Leslie Gelb
President Emeritus, Council on Foreign Relations, Former Pentagon official, Pulitzer Prize
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Mark Gorenberg
Founder and Managing Director of Zetta Venture Partners
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Danielle Gray
Former Asst. to President Obama and Cabinet Secretary, Partner at O’Melveny and Myers
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Eleanor Heartney
Author and Contributing Editor to Art in America and Artpress
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Amb. Christopher Hill
Former US Ambassador to Iraq, South Korea, Poland and Macedonia
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James Hoge
Former editor of Foreign Affairs, Pulitzer Prize
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Walter Isaacson
President and CEO, Aspen Institute, author of "Steve Jobs" and "Einstein"
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Hakeem Jeffries
Congressman, New York’s 8th District
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Pepe Karmel
Associate Professor of art history at NYU
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Dina Katabi
Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT, MacArthur Fellow
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Katya Kazakina
Art writer, Bloomberg
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Dodie Kazanjian
Art writer, Vogue and Curator Galley Met
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John Kelly
Senior Vice President, Cognitive Solutions and Research, IBM
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Henry Kissinger
Former Secretary of State, Nobel Laureate
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Steve Koonin
Director of NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress, National Academy of Sciences
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Michael Korie
Librettist and lyricist for many musicals and operas
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Michael Kramer
Playwright, Journalist, Author
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Jay Kriegel
Senior Advisor for the Related Companies
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Corby Kummer
Senior Editor of The Atlantic and restaurant critic
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William LeoGrande
Professor of Government, American University, Latin American expert
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Julian Lethbridge
Abstract Painter
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Sarah Lewis
Professor of Art History and Architecture & African and African American Studies, Harvard
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Adam Lindemann
Contemporary art collector, art writer
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Hussein Majali
Jordanian general and former Interior Minister
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Amb. Jack Matlock
Former US Ambassador to Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union
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Andrew McAfee
Principal research scientist at MIT, co-author of “The Second Machine Age”
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Trevor Morrison
Dean, NYU School of Law
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Charles Murray
American Enterprise Institute Fellow, columnist and pundit
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Joe Nocera
Sports columnist for the New York Times
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William Perry
Former US Secretary of Defense, National Academy Engineering
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Amb. Thomas Pickering
Former US Ambassador to Russia, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, Jordan and the U.N.
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Adam Platt
Food Critic, New York Magazine
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Michael Pollan
Food writer, author of the classic “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”
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Arati Prabhakar
Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, National Academy Engineering
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Gill Pratt
CEO Toyota Research Institute, autonomous driving and robotics
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Lonny Price
Broadway director, actor and writer, Emmy Winner
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Marc Raibert
Founder/CEO of Boston Dynamics, National Academy Engineering
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Chase Robinson
President, The Graduate Center, CUNY
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Scott Rothkopf
Chief Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art
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Amb. J. Stapleton Roy
Former US Ambassador to China, Indonesia and Singapore
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Stuart Russell
Professor of Computer Science at UC Berkeley
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Kevin Salatino
Director of the Art Collections at the Huntington Library
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David Sanger
Chief Washington Correspondent, New York Times, Pulitzer Prize
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Dana Schutz
Artist, American Academy of Arts and Letters Award 2010
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Michael Shellenberger
Environmental policy leader and and founder of Environmental Progress
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Shahzia Sikander
Pakistani-American artist who works in many media, MacArthur Fellow
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Laurie Simmons
Photographer and filmmaker
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Dinitia Smith
Author and filmmaker, Emmy Winner
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Andrew Stern
Former President of the Service Employees International Union
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Alex Taylor
Senior Editor-at-large (ret.), Fortune magazine
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Kip Thorne
Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus, Caltech, National Academy of Sciences
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Judith Thurman
Author, National Book Award
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Gary Tinterow
Director, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
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Frances Townsend
President, Counter Extremism Project, former Homeland Security Advisor, CNN Commentator
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Cyrus Vance
District Attorney of New York County
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Harold Varmus
Lewis Thomas University Professor at Weill Cornell, Nobel Laureate
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José Viera
Former First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cuba
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Darren Walker
President, Ford Foundation
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Jeffrey Wall
Former Asst. to the US Solicitor General
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Ken Washington
Vice President, Research and Advance Engineering at Ford Motor Company
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Faye Wattleton
Former President of Planned Parenthood
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Gilbert Welch
Professor of Medicine at Dartmouth, author of “Less Medicine, More Health”
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Jane Whitney
Former television correspondent, anchor and host
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Deborah Willis
Chair, Department of Photography, NYU
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Ekow Yankah
Professor of Law, Cardozo School of Law
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David Yazbek
Emmy winner, Broadway composer and lyricist