Explore the archives of our 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 Leadership Lecture Series programs.
At Dominican University of California, we are proud that our Leadership Lecture Series prepares ethical leaders and support globally responsible citizens. Most recently, these sessions have featured speakers including Frank Bruni, Dorothy Wickenden, Elizabeth Alexander, Valerie Biden Owens Louann Brizendine, and Eric Holder.
We encourage you to explore video archives of these lectures, as well as archives of similar recent Leadership Lecture Series conversations with U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff, Douglas Tallamy, and Lidia Bastianich; with Robert Reich, Isabel Allende, Sharon Stone, and Heidi Kühn; and with Chasten Buttigieg, Jon Meacham, and the Reverend Al Sharpton.
Click the corresponding event to learn more and to view the archive of recent online events.
Eric Holder
Our Unfinished March
Eric Holder, former U.S. Attorney General, shares a brutal, bloody, and at times hopeful history of the vote; a primer on the opponents fighting to take it away; and a playbook for how we can save our democracy before it’s too late.
Louann Brizendine
The Upgrade
Dr. Louann Brizendine details her own experiences and those of the thousands of women at her clinic, sharing a message that is nothing short of revolutionary: in the time of life typically known as menopause, women’s brains are reshaped, for the better, in a way that creates new power, a bracing clarity, and a laser-like sense of purpose if you know how to seize it.
Elizabeth Alexander
The Trayvon Generation
Elizabeth Alexander, Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestselling author and poet, offers a galvanizing meditation on the power of art and culture to illuminate America’s unresolved problem with race.
Dorothy Wickenden
The Agitators
Dorothy Wickenden, the executive editor of The New Yorker, shares riveting, provocative, and revelatory history of abolition and women’s rights, told through the story of three women — Harriet Tubman, Frances Seward, and Martha Wright—in the years before, during and after the Civil War.
Frank Bruni
Beauty of Dusk
Douglas Tallamy’s New York Times bestseller Nature’s Best Hope, urges homeowners to take conservation into their own hands. Now, he is turning his advocacy to one of the most important species of the plant kingdom—the mighty oak tree.
Congressman Adam Schiff
Midnight in Washington
Congressman Adam Schiff shares his vital, inside account of American democracy in its darkest hour – and a warning that the forces of autocracy unleashed by Trump remain as potent as ever.
Douglas Tallamy
The Nature of Oaks
Douglas Tallamy’s New York Times bestseller Nature’s Best Hope, urges homeowners to take conservation into their own hands. Now, he is turning his advocacy to one of the most important species of the plant kingdom—the mighty oak tree.
Lidia Bastianich
Lidia’s a Pot, a Pan, and a Bowl
Lidia Bastianich—doyenne of Italian cooking—makes Italian cooking easy for everyone with this new, beautifully designed, easy-to-use cookbook. Lidia’s a Pot, a Pan, and a Bowl shares more than 100 homey, simple-to-prepare recipes that require fewer steps and fewer ingredients (not to mention fewer dirty pots and pans), without sacrificing any of their flavor.
Sharon Stone
The Beauty of Living Twice
Sharon Stone is an actress, human rights activist, artist, mother, daughter, sister, and writer. She has been honored with a Nobel Peace Summit Award, a Harvard Humanitarian Award, a Human Rights Campaign Humanitarian Award, and an Einstein Spirit Award, as well as many other accolades. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her family.
Heidi Kühn
Breaking Ground
Heidi’s Kühn’s memoir Breaking Ground, documents her commitment to fostering peace and raising awareness – a driving force in her life from her early days as a student at the University of California, Berkeley, to her time as a reporter in Juneau, Alaska, covering the Exxon Valdez oil spill and US-Russia relations.
Isabel Allende
The Soul of a Woman
Isabel Allende, celebrated author, international human-rights advocate, and 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom award recipient discusses her new book, The Soul of a Woman, which offers and passionate and inspiring meditation on what it means to be a woman.
Robert Reich
The System: Who Rigged It. How We Fix it.
Robert Reich, The Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, discusses his latest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, which shows how wealth and power have interacted to install an elite oligarchy, eviscerate the middle class, and undermine democracy.
Al Sharpton
in conversation with Alicia Garza
Rise Up: Confronting a Country at the Crossroads
Al Sharpton talks with Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, about his new book Rise Up and offers contemporary lessons for anyone who’s stood at the crossroads of their personal or political life, weighing their choices of how to proceed.
Jon Meacham
in conversation with Dr. Clayborne Carson
His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope
Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian, talks with legendary civil rights pioneer Dr. Clayborne Carson about his just-released, intimate portrait of longtime U.S. congressman John Lewis — and of the power of hope that fueled this civil rights icon and helped lead a nation.
Chasten Buttigieg
in conversation with Andrew Sean Greer
I Have Something to Tell You
Chasten Butttigieg presents his memoir, I Have Something to Tell You, in conversation with Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Sean Greer, sharing his experiences growing up gay in his small Midwestern town; his life as the husband of former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg; and his hope for America’s future.
Join us live for these important conversations.
For more than 15 years, our Institute for Leadership Studies has hosted our Leadership Lecture Series, in partnership with Book Passage, on our San Rafael, California campus. Ticket revenue has helped fund a variety of Institute initiatives including our Leadership Learning Lab, the Leadership Minor, LeaderShape, and our Global Ambassador program.
For now, the COVID-19 virus continues to make it impossible to gather in person. But, we believe that our current moment requires — perhaps now more than ever — that we continue to bring people together, advocate for change, and improve conditions for us all.
Extending these leadership sessions in this way is something new and exciting for all of us. Particularly because of our current unprecedented challenges, we hope that you’ll do all you can to spread the word to include others who share our commitment to leadership and social change.