Independent Politician

Kent Conrad

The Theodore Roosevelt Association is pleased to announce that U.S. Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) will be the keynote speaker at our 93rd Annual Dinner on October 27, 2012. Senator Conrad’s remarks will cap the Association’s 93rd Annual Meeting.
“We are pleased to honor Sen. Conrad—who will retire from the Senate in December after 26 years—for his long and exemplary career as a public servant both in North Dakota and in the United States Senate,” said Tweed Roosevelt, president of the TRA and a great grandson of Theodore Roosevelt. “A lifelong fan of President Roosevelt, Senator Conrad is a fine example of the kind of public servant TR admired. He has also been a loyal supporter of the TRA and played a critical role in Theodore Roosevelt posthumously receiving the Medal of Honor for his charge up San Juan Hill on July 1, 1898 during the Spanish-American War. Without the support of Senator Conrad, Theodore Roosevelt might never have received this recognition. The TRA is grateful for all that Sen. Conrad has done for the memory of Theodore Roosevelt, for the Association and for the American People.”

Sidney Milkis

Sidney M. Milkis is the White Burkett Miller Professor of Politics and Director of Democracy and Governance Studies at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. His research focuses on the American presidency, political parties and elections, social movements and American political development. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate students, he regularly gives public lectures on American politics and participates in programs for international scholars and high school teachers that probe the deep historical roots of contemporary developments in the United States.

Milkis directs the Miller Center’s Democracy and Governance Studies Program, which includes the Governing America in a Global Era (GAGE) Faculty Associates, the National Fellowship Program, and the GAGE Colloquia Series on Politics and History. In addition to providing a vital connection between the public and academy writ large,  these academic programs also are the Miller Center’s most direct link to the University. Our initiatives bring together scholars, students, citizens and government officials in a rigorous, yet accessible setting, which is unique among public policy institutions. Recent events have included a National Conference on Climate Governance, a major initiative comparing America’s foreign policy challenges at the end of the Cold War and now, the 8th Annual Congress and History Conference, a series of panel discussions on China’s Rise in Historical Perspective, and a special conference to celebrate the 1oth anniversary of the Fellowship program.

David  Zarefsky

David Zarefsky is Owen L. Coon Professor Emeritus of Argumentation and Debate, and Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies, at Northwestern University, where he served as Dean of the School of Speech from 1988 through June 2000. He joined the Northwestern faculty in 1968 and rose through the ranks, achieving promotion to Professor in 1982. He also has held a series of administrative appointments, including Director of Forensics (1970-75), Chair of the Department of Communication Studies (1975-83), Associate Dean of the School of Speech (1983-88), and Dean. He retired from the full-time faculty and achieved Emeritus status in 2009.

Zarefsky’s research and teaching are in the areas of rhetorical history and criticism, argumentation and debate, and forensics. He is the author, co-author, or editor of nine books and the author of over 100 articles in professional journals. Two of his books have won the Winans-Wichelns Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address, an award of the National Communication Association: President Johnson’s War on Poverty: Rhetoric and History (University of Alabama Press, 1986) and Lincoln, Douglas, and Slavery: In the Crucible of Public Debate (University of Chicago Press, 1990). He is one of only four individuals to have won this award twice. In 1994 he was named to the ranks of NCA Distinguished Scholars. He also has twice won the “Best Article Award” from the Southern States Communication Association.

At Northwestern, Zarefsky taught courses in the study of American public discourse, with a special focus on the pre-Civil War years and on the 1960s. He also taught courses in argumentation theory, persuasion, and public speaking. On thirteen different occasions he was named to the student government’s honor roll for distinguished teaching. He has held visiting appointments at Harvard University and the University of Iowa. Zarefsky also has two videocourses, “Abraham Lincoln: In His Own Words” and “Argumentation: The Study of Effective Reasoning,” marketed by The Teaching Company.

In 1993 Zarefsky was President of the National Communication Association and in 2001 he received its Distinguished Service Award. He held the presidency of the Central States Communication Association in 1986-87. In 2010 and 2011 he is President of the Rhetoric Society of America, a position he also occupied in 2006 and 2007. He received the Distinguished Service Award from RSA in 2010. He has held numerous other positions in these organizations and in the American Forensic Association, whose journal he edited from 1977-80. From 1984-89 he was the Director of the National Debate Tournament, and from 2007-13 he is the Steering Committee chair of the NCA/AFA Biennial Summer Conference on Argumentation. He also has served on the editorial boards of 10 different journals.

Zarefsky has been involved in numerous other activities under the heading of University and professional service. In 1982-83 he chaired Northwestern’s General Faculty Committee, the principal arm of faculty governance, and he has served on several other committees and task forces at Northwestern. He has participated on academic program review committees for approximately 25 colleges and universities and as a peer reviewer for the National Endowment for the Humanities. From 1997 to 2001 he was on the National Advisory Council and the Steering Committee for the Center for Presidential Studies in the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University.

John Gurda

Louise Knight

Louise (Lucy) W. Knight is an author, writer, and leading scholar on Jane Addams’s life and thought. Her first book, Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy (2005), is an in-depth exploration of Addams’s formative years, and won the Russell P. Strange Book Award in 2007 for making a significant contribution to the study of Illinois History. Her second book, Jane Addams: Spirit in Action (2010), which traces the story of her leadership in the Progressive movement, is the first full biography of Addams in 37 years. Her essays on Addams have been published in various encyclopedias, books, and journals and she has given lectures on Addams across the country and reviewed books for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Journal of American History. She also writes for the History News Service and is a visiting scholar in the Gender Studies Program at Northwestern University. Her research has been supported by a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

David Kohn

Executive Director of Public Affairs at the Union League Club of Chicago, David Kohn oversees the Club’s public policy advocacy activities, serves as its liaison to local, state and federal government officials, and works to build coalitions with other civic organizations. Immediate past- President of the Chicago Area Public Affairs Group, he serves on the Board of Trustees of Econ Illinois (formerly the Illinois Council on Economic Education), on the Dean’s Advisory Council of DePaul University’s College of Communication, and as Secretary of the Armed Forces Council of Chicago.

Mr. Kohn’s background includes over 20 years of experience in media and government. He served for many years as press secretary to former U.S. Congressman John Porter. In that role he directed the Congressman’s media relations and was spokesman for the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services and Education that Representative Porter chaired until his retirement.

Before joining the Union League Club, Mr. Kohn was a Senior Public Policy Advisor at Holland & Knight LLP in Chicago, and he also served as Director of Communications for former Illinois Lieutenant Governor Corinne Wood. Prior to his government service, he worked as a reporter and talk show host at radio stations in the Chicago area and produced nationally-syndicated public affairs programming.

Mr. Kohn earned his bachelor’s degree in English from DePaul University in Chicago and a master’s degree in Communication Studies from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.