Gergen

Scheduled to speak on April 30, 2003, in Boston, Mass.
This program will be broadcast live on the Colleges radio station WEOS at 89.7 and 90.3FM.

David Gergen

“American Leadership in a Time of War”

Commentator, editor, teacher, public servant, best-selling author and adviser to presidents – for 30 years, David Gergen has been an active participant in American national life. He served as director of communications for President Reagan and held positions in the administrations of Presidents Nixon and Ford. In 1993, he put his country before politics when he agreed to first serve as counselor to President Clinton on both foreign policy and domestic affairs, then as special international adviser to the president and to Secretary of State Warren Christopher. He returned to private life in 1995.

Gergen currently serves as editor-at-large at U.S. News & World Report. He is also a professor of public service and director of the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He served as moderator of World @ Large, the 13-part PBS discussion series for the past two seasons. In the fall of 2000, he published a best-selling book, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton.

During 1984-1993, Gergen worked mostly as a journalist. For some two years, he was editor of U.S. News. Working with the owner and editor-in-chief Mortimer Zuckerman and a revived staff, he helped to guide the magazine to record gains in circulation and advertising. During that period, he also teamed up with Mark Shields for political commentary every Friday night for five years on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. The two were a popular political team and won numerous accolades for their political coverage.

A native of Durham, N.C., he is an honors graduate of Yale University and the Harvard Law School. He is a member of the D.C. bar. In addition, he served for more than three years in the U.S. Navy, where he was posted for about two years to a ship home-ported in Japan.

Among his current non-profit boards, he was elected by the alumni to serve on the Yale Corporation, and he is Chairman of the National Selection Committee for the Ford Foundation’s program on Innovations in American Government. He frequently lectures in the United States and overseas and holds 10 honorary degrees.

This information is accurate for the time period that this person(s) spoke at Hobart and William Smith.