College & Theater Events

<p>The innovative creator of culturally-inclusive AI software ChatBlackGPT, Erin Reddick provides expert insights into the ever-changing landscape of AI and the importance of inclusive technology development.</p><p>Erin Reddick has forged a vital path in the technology industry. With a career encompassing significant roles at major tech companies including Meta, Microsoft, and AWS, her most impactful contribution to the field is the creation of ChatBlackGPT, an AI software providing perspectives from the Black and African American communities.

<p>Widely considered the leading presidential historian of his generation, Jeffrey Engel connects America’s past with our present, helping our nation find a way forward by bringing history to life with humor and insight. </p><p>Today’s problems are nothing new. The United States has faced wars, pandemics, and political division before. While history is an imperfect guide to enacting a better future, it’s the best guide we have. It’s also a guide both for, and full of, people.

<p>Following in the footsteps of his legendary father, Luke Russert stands out among the new generation of American journalists, offering fresh insights on topics ranging from contemporary politics to navigating personal loss.</p><p>Luke Russert, an Emmy-winning former network news correspondent with a distinguished eight-year career primarily focused on American politics, took a courageous leap beyond the realms of conventional success.

A history-making cultural icon, ballet dancer Misty Copeland shares her inspiring life journey—from living in a motel room with her five siblings to becoming the first Black principal dancer at the prestigious American Ballet Theatre in the company’s 75-year history. 

<p>A social media star known as “The Moody Foody,” Toni Chapman loves traveling and sharing her culinary secrets and experiences with audiences. </p><p>Toni Chapman draws her inspirations for recipes from her Afro-Latina heritage and homestyle foods she grew up with. When she’s not in the kitchen, Toni loves to travel and experience new cultures.

Considered the greatest chess player that ever lived, Russian world champion Garry Kasparov shares insights on strategy, innovation, leadership, and risk. 

Garry Kasparov is widely regarded as the greatest chess player in history, becoming the youngest world champion ever at 22 in 1985 and spending twenty years as the world’s top-rated player. His legendary matches against the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in 1996 and 1997 made him a central figure in artificial intelligence and the evolution of the human-machine relationship. 

<p>A trailblazer in autism advocacy and a world-renowned animal behaviorist, Temple Grandin shares her insights on embracing and learning differences, and how animal behavior can help us solve human problems.</p><p>Temple Grandin is a professor of animal science at Colorado State University and has a successful career consulting on both livestock handling equipment design and animal welfare.

<p>Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum is the author of the New York Times best-selling book, <em>Why Are All the</em></p><p><em>Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?</em> and Other Conversations About Race as well as Can</p><p>We Talk About Race? and Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation.

<p>Selected by the Obama Foundation as a 2025–26 USA Leader, Halim Flowers draws on his 22-year journey of wrongful incarceration and powerful transformation to inspire audiences to rise above obstacles and discover their true purpose.</p><p> In 1997, Halim Flowers was arrested at the age of 16 and given two life sentences. His experiences were filmed in the Emmy Award-winning documentary <em>Thug Life in DC</em>. During his incarceration, Halim discovered a love for literature and the arts, and began writing, painting, and freestyle-rapping.

<p>Celebrated TV personality, radio host, and longtime newspaper columnist Michael Smerconish provides a refreshingly independent and balanced perspective to the world of political commentary and current affairs. </p><p>Michael Smerconish is on a mission to restore civility and compromise to our public discourse. For three decades he’s had a front-row seat to the increase in polarization that has gripped the nation.