Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

Desirée J. Garcia is professor and chair of the Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies Department at Dartmouth College. She has published widely on the overlapping dynamics of race, gender and film genres, including the books The Dressing Room: Backstage Lives and American Film (RUP, 2025), The Movie Musical (RUP, 2021), and The Migration of Musical Film: From Ethnic Margins to American Mainstream (RUP, 2014). Garcia has also authored videographic essays, including What Happened in the Dressing Room ([in]Transition, 2024) and The Bijou Room (ASAP/Journal, 2025). 

She holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Boston University and a BA in History from Wellesley College. 

The Dr. Jules K. Whitehill Professor of Humanism & Ethics and professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, Nicholas Buccola specializes in American political thought. His previous books include The Fire Is upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America (Princeton University Press, 2019) and The Political Thought of Frederick Douglass: In Pursuit of American Liberty (New York University Press, 2012). He is the editor of The Essential Douglass: Writings and Speeches (Hackett, 2016) and Abraham Lincoln and Liberal Democracy (University Press of Kansas, 2016).

His essays have appeared in scholarly journals including The Review of Politics and American Political Thought as well as popular outlets such as The New York Times, Salon, The Baltimore Sun, and Dissent.

The first biography of the writer-composer-actor-director, Lin-Manuel Miranda draws on more than one hundred fifty interviews with Miranda’s family, friends, partners, and mentors—from his elementary school music teacher to Andrew Lloyd Webber—as well as Miranda himself. Examining Miranda’s development from his early musicals in high school and college through the genesis of his professional masterworks, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner reveals the sources of creativity—not in immutable genius, but in exceptional openness, curiosity, and collaboration.

Daniel Pollack-Pelzner teaches English and theater at Portland State University. He received the Graves Award from the American Council of Learned Societies for outstanding teaching in the humanities. As a cultural historian and theater critic, his articles about playwrights from Shakespeare to Quiara Alegría Hudes have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. His pandemic spoof, What Shakespeare Actually Did During the Plague, was adapted into an Emmy-winning broadcast for PBS, and his New Yorker profile of Cherokee playwright and lawyer Mary Kathryn Nagle is being adapted into a feature documentary. He is the scholar-in-residence at the Portland Shakespeare Project and a frequent guest lecturer at theaters around the country.

Born and raised in Oregon, Pollack-Pelzer received his B.A. in History from Yale and his Ph.D. in English from Harvard.

David Dreier ’75 served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 2013, becoming the youngest—and the first Californian—chair of the powerful Rules Committee, where he helped shape legislation for floor debate. A former chair of Tribune Publishing and a long-time advocate of press freedom, he founded the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation to honor slain journalists on the National Mall. Dreier is a trustee of Claremont McKenna College.

John W. Dean III served as White House Counsel to President Richard Nixon (1970–73) and became a central witness in the Watergate investigation, pleading guilty to a felony as part of the cover-up before turning state’s evidence. Disbarred after Watergate, Dean went on to write widely on law, politics, and presidential power, and has been a prominent commentator and critic of excessive executive authority in the George W. Bush and Donald Trump eras.

This program is co-sponsored by the Dreier Roundtable at CMC. 
 

Eugenia Cheng is a mathematician, educator, author, public speaker, columnist, concert pianist, artist, and composer. She was an early pioneer of math on YouTube and her videos have been viewed over 20 million times to date. She is the author of popular math books including "Unequal" and "How to Bake Pi" and she wrote the "Everyday Math" column for the Wall Street Journal for over seven years. 

Cheng is Scientist in Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, won tenure in Pure Mathematics at the University in Sheffield, and holds a Ph.D. in pure mathematics from the University of Cambridge.

Photo credit: Brian McConkey

Michael Bridge is a musical maverick. “A wizard of the accordion” (CBC), he’s a virtuoso performer on both the acoustic accordion and its 21^st century cousin, the digital accordion. His concerts and improvisations capture the energy and panache of stadium rock with the elegance and discipline of chamber music.

It all began when Bridge was 5 years old, growing up in Calgary, when his mom bought him a $5 accordion at a garage sale. He has since performed throughout Europe, 25 U.S. states, and all Canadian provinces. He received his doctorate in accordion performance from the University of Toronto. He’s at home with classical, contemporary, jazz, and folk music and has premiered 60 new works.

Bridge embraces a musical aesthetic that is alternatively irreverent, deadly serious, meticulously prepared and completely in-the-moment. Ultimately, he aims to make your world more bearable, beautiful and human—even if only for the length of a concert.

Grace Stewart ’17 is a mezzo-soprano who performs opera, musical theater, and choral repertoire throughout the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, and Orange County regions. She received her M.M. in Opera Performance from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at Cal State Long Beach. Opera credits include Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro at CSULB and chorus in numerous Pacific Opera Project productions including L’elisir d’amore, Pirates of Penzance, Trial by Jury, Die Fledermaus, Don Bucefalo, and HMS Pinafore. Favorite theater credits include featured dancer in Something Rotten at Rialto Community Players and Legendary Productions’ Beauty and the Beast as Madame de la Grande Bouche and Into the Woods as Lucinda. Grace sings with Pacific Chorale, and she has also sung as a member and soloist of Inland Master Chorale, including as Mother in a concert performance of the musical Ragtime. 

Stewart graduated from CMC in 2017 with a major in Environmental Analysis. While at CMC, she took voice lessons at Scripps and gave a senior recital at the Athenaeum in April 2017.

Sara Sadhwani is an award-winning scholar and political commentator. A political science professor at Pomona College, her research has been widely published in academic journals examining elections, representation, and public opinion with a focus on Asian American and Latino voting behavior. Sadhwani also serves as a commissioner for the state’s Citizens Redistricting Commission and as a member of the Los Angeles County Governance Reform Taskforce. Her analysis of elections has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, CNN, and many others. She is a political contributor for Spectrum News SoCal and makes regular appearances on KCAL News, LAist’s AirTalk, and KNX Radio. Sadhwani earned her doctorate in political science from the University of Southern California and has held fellowships at Stanford University and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation.

Vernon C. Grigg III is the executive director of the Kravis Lab for Civic Leadership and brings to CMC deep experience as a trial lawyer, political actor, and educator. Holding degrees from Yale Law School, the London School of Economics, and the University of Michigan, Grigg has served as CEO & President of Up with People, an international educational nonprofit; as a litigator with clients ranging from government officials to Fortune 100 companies; and as a Managing Assistant District Attorney for the City and County of San Francisco. He founded and led the Center for Electoral Equity, a nonprofit organization dedicated to voting issues, served on the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa and clerked for the Supreme Court of Israel. He has taught at Golden Gate University School of Law and is a certified Intergroup Dialogue Leader. 

 The Civitas Sessions focus on the stuff you need to know before it becomes the stuff you wish you had known…Curated by the Kravis Lab and hosted at the Athenaeum, this lunch series is designed to build real-world civic skills and the knowledge needed to live thoughtful, productive lives as responsible community members and leaders. Each session will deliver practical knowledge and discuss how the subject matter applies to important current issues. 

Jessica Fagerstrom ‘06, medical physicist and educator, specializes in radiation oncology physics and works with advanced technologies such as high dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy and precision radiation therapy to deliver life-saving care. Her clinical and educational work emphasizes that science in medicine is not only about technology—it is about improving lives, ensuring patient safety, and inspiring the next generation of innovators. Fagerstrom is currently in the department of radiation oncology at the University of Washington in Seattle.

As an alumna of Claremont McKenna College, Fagerstrom credits her liberal arts education with shaping the interdisciplinary approach she brings to healthcare. Her career blends deep technical expertise with a commitment to public engagement, including developing hands-on learning experiences to make complex medical science accessible to students of all ages. By connecting scientific innovation to its human impact, she encourages broader participation in science and a deeper understanding of its role in society.

Drawing on decades in the arena—and insights from his book Soul Venture, Ashwin Gulati ’90 provides a unique insider's view of the entrepreneurial journey. From launching international ventures to becoming a seasoned executive brought in to help companies take off or land, Gulati has helped pilot the complex transitional moments for more than 100 companies in a variety of industries. He has worked in the UK, Spain, France and the U.S. After nearly three decades in the trenches, he has identified the hidden pitfalls, unspoken truths, and personal twists that ultimately determine a venture’s success or failure.

In addition to these professional insights, Gulati will share lessons from his own journey, from arriving in the U.S. from India at age 13, to pursuing his interwoven passion for tennis and business, and asking the difficult questions about work/life balance and personal success.

Gulati holds a B.A. in economics and mathematics from Claremont McKenna College, including studies at King's College in England and the London School of Economics.

Debak Das is an assistant professor in peace and security at the Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs at the University of Denver. His research interests lie at the intersection of international security, nuclear proliferation, crises, and international history. His research and writing have been published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Global Studies Quarterly, H-Diplo Robert Jervis International Security Studies Forum, International Studies Review, Lawfare, Political Science Quarterly, Research and Politics, Security Studies, Texas National Security Review, The Washington Post, and War on the Rocks.

Das earned his Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University in 2021. He was the MacArthur Nuclear Security Pre-Doctoral Fellow in 2019-2020, and a Stanton Nuclear Security Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University in 2021-2022. Das also holds an M.Phil in Diplomacy and Disarmament, and an M.A. in Politics (with specialization in International Relations) from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Das is also an affiliate at CISAC at Stanford University, the Centre de Recherche Internationales (CERI) at Sciences Po, Paris, and at the Council for Strategic and Defense Research, New Delhi.

Nadine Strossen, the John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita at New York Law School and past president of the American Civil Liberties Union (1991-2008), is a Senior Fellow with FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Education) and a leading expert and frequent speaker/media commentator on constitutional law and civil liberties, who has testified before Congress on multiple occasions. She serves on the advisory boards of the ACLU, Academic Freedom Alliance, Heterodox Academy, National Coalition Against Censorship, and the University of Austin.

The National Law Journal has named Strossen one of America’s "100 Most Influential Lawyers," and several other publications have named her one of the country’s most influential women. Her many honorary degrees and awards include the American Bar Association’s prestigious Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award (2017). In 2023, the National Coalition Against Censorship (an alliance of more than 50 national non-profit organizations) selected Strossen for its Judy Blume Lifetime Achievement Award for Free Speech.

When Strossen stepped down as ACLU President, three ideologically diverse Supreme Court Justices participated in her farewell/tribute luncheon: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, and David Souter.

She is the author of HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship (2018) and Free Speech: What Everyone Needs to Know (2023). She is also the host and project consultant for Free To Speak, a 3-hour documentary film series on free speech that was released on public television in 2023, and now available on YouTube.

Her book Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women’s Rights was named a New York Times “notable book” of 1995 and was republished in 2024 as part of the New York University Press “Classic” series. Her book HATE was selected as the “Common Read” by Washington University and Washburn University.

Strossen has made thousands of public presentations before diverse audiences around the world, including on more than 500 different campuses and in many foreign countries, and she has appeared on virtually every national television news program. Her hundreds of publications have appeared in many scholarly and general interest publications.

Strossen graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. Before becoming a law professor, she practiced law in her home town of Minneapolis and in New York City. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Professor Strossen’s Athenaeum program is the Salvatori Center's 2025-26 Lofgren Lecture on American Constitutionalism and is also co-sponsored by the Jack Miller Center and CMC's Open Academy.

Šumit Ganguly is a Senior Fellow and directs the Huntington Program on Strengthening US-India Relations at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is also Distinguished Professor and the Tagore Chair Emeritus at Indiana University—Bloomington. 

Ganguly is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of over twenty books on the contemporary politics of South Asia. His most recent book, co-edited with Klaus Brummer, is States and their Nationals Abroad: Support, Co-Opt and Repress (Cambridge University Press, 2024). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Professor Ganguly’s Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at CMC.

 

Duncan Scott is senior vice president of Strategic Sourcing & Quality for New Balance Athletic Shoe, a leading manufacturer of branded athletic footwear, apparel and equipment since 1906. 

Currently based in Boston, Scott started his career in the industry in 1986 and has held global leadership roles in footwear & apparel sourcing and manufacturing in Korea, Taiwan, China, Brazil, and Hong Kong. He was Country Manager of China for Reebok, Head of Social & Environmental Compliance at Adidas, and subsequently Head of Global Footwear Sourcing for Adidas and VP of Sourcing for Sportswear at VF. Scott also served as Head of Latin American Sourcing for adidas, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil before joining New Balance in 2010. 

Scott has been active in corporate social responsibility forums and organizations during his career and has represented New Balance since 2017 in the Industry Summit initiative, a coalition of 13 global brands focused on social and environmental issues. He currently serves on the advisory board of the Global Labor Institute, which drives new conversations about work in global supply chains powered by quantitative research and action. Scott also serves as Vice Chair of the ESG Committee for the World Federation of Sporting Goods

He is a 1981 graduate of Cornell University, where he was an English major in the College of Arts & Sciences and ran for the varsity Cross Country & Track Teams.

Ryan Patel is currently a William F. Podlich Distinguished Fellow at CMC. Patel is an expert in scaling businesses and has served both startups and publicly traded firms. Listed as one of the “Creators to Follow” by LinkedIn Editor in Chief and recognized as a “Top Voice” on Linkedin, Patel is a news commentator Board Director. Patel also hosts "The Moment with Ryan Patel," featuring conversations with top innovators and executives. 

 

Christine Porath is a professor at Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Previously she was a faculty member at Georgetown University and at the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on how to help people and communities thrive. 

Her speaking and consulting clients include Google, United Nations, Microsoft, World Bank, World Health Organization, International Monetary Fund, Genentech, Ford, Marriott, National Institute of Health, Cleveland Clinic, AT&T, 3M, Verizon, Southwest, Salesforce, MD Anderson, Department of Labor, Department of the Treasury, Department of Justice, and National Security Agency. 

Porath is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, and written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. She has taught in various executive programs at Harvard, Georgetown, and the University of Southern California. 

Before getting her Ph.D., she worked for International Management Group (IMG), a leading sports management and marketing firm. 

Porath received her Ph.D. from Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned her bachelor's degree in economics from College of the Holy Cross where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa as well as the women’s basketball and soccer teams. 

Based on his recent firsthand experiences in Afghanistan, Jordan, Lebanon, West Bank and Gaza, Joseph Saba will suggest practical ways and means to reinforce the practice, visibility, and efficacy of International Human Rights Law (IHRL). Drawing on cases of assistance to the displaced and advocacy for the rule of law, he will present examples of resilience and a people-oriented human rights practice. These offer practical strategies, ways and means for dynamic constructive activism that have immediate impact on peoples’ lives.

Saba is currently chairperson of ANERA (American Near East Refugee Aid), a non-profit organization that delivered over $200 million in humanitarian and development aid last year to displaced people and vulnerable communities in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, and Jordan. Previously, for thirteen years he was the regional director for the Middle East at the World Bank, leading programs in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, West Bank/Gaza, and the GCC states. He co-led drafting the Holst Fund for Palestinians and multilateral trust funds for Afghanistan and Iraq, and co-chaired conferences for Lebanon, Libya, and UN-World Bank Iraq efforts. He resided for four years in Jerusalem and part-time in Beirut for another eight years. Finally, as an adjunct professor at Loyola University Chicago Law School, Saba has designed and instructs a course on rule of law, conflict, and development for the university’s PROLAW program in Rome, Italy.

Before joining the World Bank in 1991, Saba was a partner in Jones Day, for which he established an office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, residing there for 4 years. In addition to his law practice, he was a founder and editor of International Executive Reports, which published professional journals focused on law and doing business in the Middle East, East Europe, and East Asia.

Saba has co-authored and edited publications on development practice, donor finance, modalities, and governance reforms. Between graduate and law school, he served three years as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer assigned to the Middle East region, residing for two years in Kuwait.

Saba holds a JD from Yale Law School, an MA in Middle East Studies from Harvard University, and a BA from King’s College (PA).

Mr. Saba’s lecture is co-sponsored by the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights at Claremont McKenna College.