Meet & Greet: NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton

As the largest city in the United States, New York faces serious threats on a daily basis. New York Police Commissioner William J. Bratton spoke about a wide range of topics from the controversial Stop and Frisk to terrorist scares, and offered his expert insight on the state of our city—and its safety.

Commissioner Bratton established an international reputation for re-engineering police departments and fighting crime in the 1990’s. As Chief of the New York City Transit Police, Boston Police Commissioner, and in his first term as New York City Police Commissioner, he revitalized morale and cut crime in all three posts, achieving the largest crime declines in New York City’s history. At the NYPD in 1994 and 1995, he led the development of Compstat, the internationally acclaimed command accountability system now in use by police departments nationwide. As Los Angeles Police Chief from 2002 to 2009 and in a city known for its entrenched gang culture and youth violence, he brought crime to historically low levels, greatly improved race relations, and reached out to young people with a range of innovative police programs. He is the only person ever to lead the police agencies of the nation’s two largest cities.

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The Civil Rights Act with Todd Purdum

On the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act, acclaimed Vanity Fair and Politico journalist Todd Purdum released his new book An Idea Whose Time Has Come.

Todd S. Purdum tells the story of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, recreating the legislative maneuvering and the larger-than-life characters who made its passage possible. From the Kennedy brothers to Lyndon Johnson, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Hubert Humphrey and Everett Dirksen, Purdum shows how these all-too-human figures managed, in just over a year, to create this bill. He evokes the high purpose and low dealings that marked the creation of this monumental law, drawing on extensive archival research and dozens of new interviews that bring to life this signal achievement in American history.

“An Idea Whose Time Has Come is brilliantly rendered and emotionally powerful – a riveting account of one of the most dramatic and significant moments in American history. The story Todd Purdum tells is absolutely mesmerizing.”

— Doris Kearns Goodwin

“Todd Purdum’s remarkable An Idea Whose Time Has Come brings back to life the historic fight waged on behalf of civil rights by JFK and LBJ. Purdum is a superb writer, never dull, and his grasp of the Sixties milieu is foolproof. This is a marvelous and much needed book of lasting importance.”

— Douglas Brinkley

“Todd Purdum’s fascinating behind-the-scenes account of the birth of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a timely and hopeful reminder that sometimes the good guys do win, even in Washington.”

— Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Oath and The Nine

“odd Purdum brings alive Congress’s great historic achievement: the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The heroes are J.F.K. and L.B.J., but also those Midwest Republicans who stayed true to Lincoln. Those are the quietly eloquent stories here, the profiles in decency and guts, where members of Congress honored values greater than current popularity. An Idea Whose Time Has Come shows once again that the real action in American politics takes place in the back room – and in that quieter place: the beating hearts of the decent and courageous.”

— Chris Matthews

Todd S. Purdum is senior writer at Politico and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He was formerly with The New York Times, where he worked for 23 years, covering politics from city hall to the White House, and also serving as diplomatic correspondent and Los Angeles bureau chief.

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Exploring the Legacy of JFK: Citizenship and Public Service with Scott Reich

Fifty years after John F. Kennedy’s shocking and saddening death, our country is wrapped up in an era marked by political division, partisan bickering and cynicism. But attorney and author Scott Reich believes that Kennedy’s inspirational and timeless message of public service and active citizenship—values that The Common Good so proudly promotes—has a new resonance today.

Scott D. Reich is a practicing attorney and in-house counsel at American Express. In 2010, he was appointed by the governor of New York to serve on the College Council of SUNY College at Old Westbury. Scott prides himself on his pro bono contributions, including work with the Brooklyn Family Court, the New York Legal Assistance Group, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. He earned a B.A. in history and communication from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was president of his class.

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The American Spirit Awards 2013

Nicole Hockley made us remember, David Gergen made us think – and laugh – and Edie Windsor inspired us at The Common Good American Spirit Awards. All of us at The Common Good want to thank all our Sponsors, guests, friends and supporters who helped make this night a huge success! With your help, we look forward to a bright future.

Nicole Hockley, whose son Dylan was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, was honored with the American Spirit Award for Citizen Activism for her outspoken support of common sense gun control and legislative success in Connecticut. In her introduction, former first lady of New York, Michelle Paige Paterson, noted that she and the members of Sandy Hook Promise want the tragedy they endured “to be remembered as the place where real change began.”

David Gergen, an adviser to four presidents and political analyst, took the stage after a warm introduction from Richard Wolffe, the executive editor of MSNBC.com and a fellow politico. Gergen talked about his hope for the future of American politics because of a rising generation of young leaders who are dedicated to service, but he also got the biggest laughs of the night by regaling the audience with anecdotes from his many years in Washington.

Jonathan Capehart of The Washington Post introduced marriage equality activist Edie Windsor, who closed the show with a celebratory message of perseverance, strength and love. Windsor, the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that overturned the Defense of Marriage Act, talked about the significance of her court victory. Even with a partner she had lived with for most of her life, marriage mattered, Windsor said. And it matters for millions more.

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All of us at The Common Good want to thank all our sponsors, guests, friends and supporters who helped make this night a huge success! With your help, we look forward to a bright future.

Climate Change and the Food Crisis with Environmentalist Lester Brown

President Obama announced executive actions in July of 2013 to combat global climate change. Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants New York City to spend $20 billion to prepare for global warming-related dangers. The vast majority of climate scientists agree that human activity is contributing to changing climate, but polls still find large percentages of Americans don’t believe that climate change is real.

These concerns were answered by noted environmentalist Lester Brown at a luncheon.

Lester Brown started his career as a farmer, growing tomatoes in southern New Jersey with his younger brother during high school and college. Shortly after earning a degree in agricultural science from Rutgers University in 1955, he spent six months living in rural India where he became intimately familiar with the food/population issue. In 1959, Brown joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service as an international analyst. In 1964, he became an adviser to Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman on foreign agricultural policy. In 1966, the Secretary appointed him Administrator of the department’s International Agricultural Development Service. In early 1969, he left government to help establish the Overseas Development Council.

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Foreign Affairs Series: Egypt in Crisis with Ambassador Frank Wisner

The Common Good hosted Former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner, who offered an insider’s perspective on American options relating to the political turmoil that had dominated Egypt since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and led to a takeover of the government by the Egyptian military.

Ambassador Frank G. Wisner’s diplomatic career spans four decades and eight American presidents. He served as ambassador to Zambia, Egypt, the Philippines, and India during his years in the State Department. Ambassador Wisner worked as a senior diplomat in Tunisia and Bangladesh before returning to Washington as Director of Plans and Management in the Bureau of Public Affairs. He joined the President’s Interagency Task Force on Indochina, the entity responsible for evacuating and settling nearly one million refugees and served as its Deputy Director. Later, as Director of the Office of Southern African Affairs, Frank Wisner worked closely with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to launch negotiations with Zimbabwe and Namibia.

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Foreign Affairs Series: Rethinking US Approaches to the Middle East with David Rohde

The Common Good hosted an important discussion with the highly respected journalist David Rohde on how to get U.S. policy “right” in the Middle East.

The winding down of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has not ended U.S. and world interests in the Middle East. The civil war in Syria and a coup in Egypt have now further destabilized the rapidly changing region.

David Rohde has argued that U.S. military power in the region is limited, so that empowering civilian institutions may be the critical way forward for our foreign policy. Can Muslim moderates, not Americans, eradicate militancy? Rohde led a discussion about how to make U.S. policy more effective in the region.

David Rohde, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes in journalism, is a foreign affairs columnist for Reuters and The Atlantic. From 1996 to 2011, he worked as a reporter for The New York Times. He is the co-author of A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides, written with his wife Kristen Mulvihill, and the author of Endgame: The Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica. David won his first Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for a series of stories in The Christian Science Monitor that helped uncover the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia. He won his second in 2009 as part of a team of New York Times reporters for their coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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NYC Mayoral Candidate Series: Joseph Lhota

Joseph Lhota has spent years in the public and private sectors as a manager. He ran the MTA as chairman and CEO, and he served in Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s administration as budget director and deputy mayor. Lhota also helped run Cablevision and Madison Square Garden.

Lhota joined The Common Good for the latest edition of the 2013 NYC Mayoral Candidate Series.

Joseph Lhota, a Republican candidate for Mayor of New York City, has held a unique balance of leadership positions in both the public and private sectors. Joseph was an
integral part of Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s core management team. He was the City’s Budget Director in Mayor Giuliani’s first term and Deputy Mayor for Operations during the second term. In 2011 and 2012 Joe was Chairman and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Prior to joining the Giuliani administration, Joseph was an investment banker for 15 years. He was an acknowledged leader in public finance and assisted in the financing of infrastructure projects throughout the United States. Following the Giuliani administration, Joe held executive positions in the Cablevision Systems Corporation and the Madison Square Garden Company.

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NYC Mayoral Candidate Series: Bill Thompson

Bill Thompson lost a surprisingly close mayoral race to Michael Bloomberg in 2009. Now Thompson is back for another run against Gracie Mansion, hoping to emerge from the wide-open field as the Democratic nominee once again. With the support of the Teachers’ Union and years of private sector experience in addition to his long record as a public official, Thompson is tougher than ever.

As Comptroller of New York City from 2002 through 2009, Bill Thompson was responsible for managing the finances of the nation’s largest municipality and supervised a staff of 700 professionals. Thompson was given the opportunity to run for a third term in 2009, but he chose to run for mayor instead. As the Democratic nominee, Bill came within just a few percentage points of beating Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

As the head of the Board of Education for five terms, he oversaw a school system with 1.1 million students and 130,000 employees. Thompson is also Chair of Governor Cuomo’s Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprise Team. In 2012, he stepped down as Chairman of the Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority to focus on his campaign for mayor.

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Rising Leaders: Power Breakfast with Congressman Joseph Kennedy III

The Common Good hosted Congressman Joseph Kennedy III for a power breakfast.

Joseph Kennedy won election to Congress last fall, but he’s already building an impressive record in Washington. He’s certainly a rising leader to watch — and to meet.

The Massachusetts Democrat talked about his growing portfolio of legislation in the House of Representatives and his priorities for our country moving forward. He’s hard at work on everything from budget issues to civil rights, and has been busy promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, which is, as Joe puts it, “a vehicle not just for economic competitiveness abroad, but for economic opportunity at home.”

Elected in November of 2012, Congressman Joe Kennedy III represents a diverse district that spans from the suburbs of Boston to the more industrial towns of Massachusetts’ South Coast.

Prior to seeking office, Kennedy served the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as an Assistant District Attorney in both the Middlesex County and Cape and Island’s District Attorneys’ Offices. A graduate of Harvard Law, he was an active member of the school’s Legal Aid Bureau – a pro-bono law firm that provided legal services to low-income families around Boston. During that time he also co-founded an after school program for at-risk youth in the Boston area with his wife, Lauren.

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Leadership Series: New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman

A series of bribery scandals dominated the news from Albany this year, but the legislative session ended without movement on the reform package proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

We asked New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman what he can do to clean up the state capital and how to keep New York’s elections fair in the future at our intimate luncheon.

Eric T. Schneiderman was elected the 65th Attorney General of New York State on November 2, 2010. He served until his resignation in 2018.

Schneiderman previously spent 15 years in private practice as an attorney, and later as a partner, at the firm of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart. He was also a public interest lawyer for many years, and his clients included taxpayers in historic lawsuits against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, tenants trying to evict drug dealers from their buildings, and women seeking access to health clinics.

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NYC Mayoral Candidate Series: John Catsimatidis

With the support of former Gov. George Pataki, John Catsimatidis battled Joe Lhota for a spot atop the Republican ticket. The Common Good was proud to present an evening reception with Catsimatidis as part of our NYC Mayoral Candidate Series.

John Catsimatidis was born on the Greek Island of Nisyros in 1948, and 6 months later his parents emigrated to New York City. He was educated in both the parochial and public school systems earning his high school diploma from Brooklyn Tech. Catsimatidis enrolled in New York University to study electrical engineering; going to school during the day and working in a small grocery store on nights and weekends to help his parents pay the bills. He dropped out of school to work full time. By his 25th birthday he already had 10 Red Apple Supermarkets. Four decades later the Red Apple Group has evolved into a diversified corporation that has holdings in the energy, aviation, retail and real estate sectors and over 8,000 employees.

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Foreign Affairs Series: Syria update with Ribal al-Assad

Fighting has ravaged Syria for more than two years, as opposition forces and President Bashar al-Assad fight for control.

The Common Good was proud to host a very special luncheon with a man who has connections to both sides in Syria. Ribal al-Assad is an outspoken supporter of the opposition movement and an exiled cousin of President Bashar al-Assad.

Ribal Al-Assad is the founder and director of the Organization for Democracy and Freedom in Syria, which promotes democracy, freedom and human rights in Syria and the Middle East. He was born in Syria and has lived in the West since being exiled from his country as a child. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the InterAmerican University in New York and an MA in International Relations from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. Currently living in London, he is married and has a baby son.

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NYC Mayoral Candidate Series: Anthony Weiner on health care policy

The Common Good hosted former Rep. Anthony Weiner for an edition of our NYC Mayoral Candidate Series. The former Congressman delivered a health care policy speech exclusively for members of The Common Good and then answered questions from our engaged audience. Mr. Weiner outlined a health care plan that aims to lower costs, improve quality, and expand coverage for all New Yorkers.

In addition to the packed house at City University’s Macaulay Honors College, the event received a lot of coverage in the New York media:

The New York Times featured at story titled, “Weiner Wants City to Test Single-Payer Health Care.” Nina Bernstein wrote:

His talk, at a public lecture series sponsored by The Common Good, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, at a City University of New York branch on West 67th Street, stirred enthusiasm and interest. In the hour before he spoke, word of Mr. Weiner’s proposal galvanized other Democratic candidates for mayor to issue hurried news releases on health care.

“Weiner’s first ‘Big Thought’: Single-payer for the city“ was the headline in Politico (formerly Capital New York). Reid Pillifant wrote:

Anthony Weiner proposed an ambitious single-payer health care system for New York City on Thursday afternoon, in a policy speech his campaign billed as “Big Thought Thursday.”

“We should make New York City the single-payer laboratory for the rest of the country,” said Weiner, in a speech at the CUNY Macaulay Honors College, hosted by the nonprofit group The Common Good.

We also saw write-ups by some other outlets:

• The Daily News: Anthony Weiner rolls out new health care plan

• The Observer: Anthony Weiner Gets Professorial on ‘Big Thought Thursday’

• New York Magazine: Weiner Proposes Weinercare for Big Apple

Anthony D. Weiner was a member of Congress from 1998 to 2011, representing a district that includes neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens.

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Democracy Series: ‘Fighting for the Press’ with James Goodale

Congressional hearings have produced headlines and raised hackles over whether the Justice Department has misused its powers in going after The Associated Press and a Fox News reporter’s telephone records. We were privileged to host James Goodale, famed First Amendment attorney and author, to discuss his extremely timely and best-selling book Fighting for the Press: The Inside Story of the Pentagon Papers and Other Battles.

Where does freedom of the press supersede national security? Is the current administration too aggressive in shutting down leakers and potential whistle-blowers? Should there be new legislation to protect the press trying to report on the government? As the government also looks to prosecute Julian Assange for the largest series of leaks in the nation’s history, these questions will become even more important and pressing.

“An engaging work which underlines the importance of fighting for a free press. Without press freedom, informed public debate is curtailed and democratic accountability diminished. ”

— Kofi Annan

“The most detailed and honest inside account yet of the successful judicial fight to publish the Pentagon Papers by the uncompromising lawyer in the middle of it. Goodale and his colleagues won the right to tell the American people that their government – and their President – had lied, manipulated and cheated their way into a disastrous war … while the war was still being waged. This history could not come at a more important time.”

— Seymour M. Hersh

“James Goodale is an American treasure and so is Fighting for the Press. This is a story worthy of John Grisham, except this one actually happened; it is fact, not fiction – and it’s still unfolding. ”

— Dan Rather

James C. Goodale is a leading First Amendment lawyer with Debevoise & Plimpton. He has represented The New York Times in every one of its cases to go to the Supreme Court. These were the Pentagon Papers case (The New York Times Co. v. The U.S.), The New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (libel), Branzburg v. Hayes and The New York Times Co. v. Tasini (digital rights).

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National Security Briefing with Thomas Pickering

The Common Good hosted a national security and foreign affairs briefing from former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Thomas Pickering.

Ambassador Pickering served as U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from May of 1997 until late 2000. Prior to that, he served briefly as the president of the Eurasia Foundation, a Washington-based organization that makes small grants and loans in the states of the former Soviet Union. Pickering holds the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service. In a diplomatic career spanning five decades, he has served as U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Pickering also served on assignments in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. From 1989 to 1992, he served as Ambassador and Representative to the United Nations in New York. He also served as Executive Secretary of the Department of State and Special Assistant to Secretaries William P. Rogers and Henry A. Kissinger from 1973 to 1974. (1)

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(1) Material from the National Committee on American Foreign Policy website.

Middle East Update with Elliott Abrams

Elliott Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and former adviser to two Presidents, joined The Common Good as part of our Middle East Series for a luncheon briefing on security concerns in the region, the Arab “Autumn,” and updates on Syria, Israel, Egypt and Pakistan.

Elliott Abrams is the Special Representative for Venezuela at the Department of State. He was senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington, DC, from which he is now on a leave of absence. He served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House. (1)

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(1) Material from the U.S. Department of State website.

Assessing the Presidency with Lesley Stahl, Douglas Brinkley, Jonathan Alter and Ed Rollins

President Obama clearly has a place in history for breaking through the race barrier, but how will the rest of his presidency be remembered?

The Common Good hosted a discussion comparing the current President and his accomplishments with other Presidents in modern history.

Moderated by the distinguished investigative journalist Lesley Stahl, the panel featured leading GOP campaign strategist Ed Rollins, esteemed historian Douglas Brinkley and award-winning author Jonathan Alter.

Douglas Brinkley, Ph.D., is a fellow in history at the Baker Institute and a professor of history at Rice University. Brinkley’s most recent publications include The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America (2009); The Reagan Diaries (2007), which he edited; and the New York Times best-seller The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast (2006), which was the recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy prize and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award.

Edward Rollins is Chairman of the Rollins Strategy Group, a communications and crisis management firm with offices in New York and Washington, D.C. He has long been considered one of America’s premier political strategists and communication experts, specializing in issue, image and crisis campaigns on behalf of corporations, governments, and political candidates around the world.

Edward Rollins has served four United States Presidents, including two tours of duty at the White House as Assistant to the President. He was in charge of both the White House Office of Political Affairs and the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs as well as serving as the Deputy Chief of Staff.

Jonathan Alter is an award-winning author, reporter, columnist and television analyst. Since 2011, Alter has written a column for Bloomberg View, a worldwide commentary site housed under Bloomberg News. He spent 28 years at Newsweek, where he was a longtime senior editor and columnist and wrote more than 50 cover stories. He has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Monthly, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, The New Republic and other publications. Since 1996, Alter has been an analyst and contributing correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC.

The 2012 campaign marks the eighth presidential election Alter has covered. He has frequently interviewed American presidents and other world leaders and regularly breaks news. His Newsweek cover stories over the years included everything from Bill Clinton’s first interview after leaving the presidency to Barack Obama’s first-ever magazine cover.

One of America’s most recognized and experienced broadcast journalists, Lesley Stahl has been a 60 Minutes correspondent since March 1991. Prior to joining 60 Minutes, Stahl served as CBS News White House correspondent during the Carter and Reagan presidencies and part of the term of George H. W. Bush. Her reports appeared frequently on the CBS Evening News, first with Walter Cronkite, then with Dan Rather, and on other CBS News broadcasts. Her experiences covering Washington for more than 20 years became the subject of her book Reporting Live (Simon & Schuster, 1999). The stories she has covered since joining CBS News in the Washington bureau in 1972 range from Watergate through the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan to the 1991 Gulf War.

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Briefing on Turkey with Dr. Yusuf Ziya İrbeç

The Common Good held an authoritative briefing on Turkey as part of our Foreign Affairs/National Security Series with Dr. Yusuf Ziya İrbeç, Member of the Turkish Parliament.

Dr. Yusuf Ziya İrbeç was born in Kas, Antalya in 1959. He was an economist, foreign policy specialist and academician. He served as a Member of the Turkish Parliament for Antalya since 2007 and an Executive Board Member of the Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), in which he was the Deputy Convener of Peace and Democracy Program. He also served in the Turkish Parliament as Member, Clerk Member and Vice-Chairman of the European Union Harmonization Commission, and as a Member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee of the European Union.

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Women in the Military: US Senator Jeanne Shaheen and others

The Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel held a hearing March 13th to investigate sexual assault in the military. This issue was among the many important topics that were discussed at a very special lunch on “Women in the Military”, hosted by The Common Good, dedicated to the advancement of our women who serve.

The special expert lunch panel included:

• Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)

• Anu Bhagwati (Executive Director of SWAN)

• Molly O’Toole (News Editor, The Huffington Post)

• Brenda S. Fulton (Board Member, OutServe-SLDN)

• Krystal Ball (MSNBC contributor)

Jeanne Shaheen is the first woman in history to be elected a Governor and a United States Senator. She became the first woman elected Governor of New Hampshire, serving three terms from 1997-2003. In 2008 Shaheen became the first woman elected to the United States Senate from New Hampshire. She chairs the Committee on Foreign Relations’ Subcommittee on European Affairs, and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Water and Power. Shaheen is also a member of the Armed Services Committee and the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Anu Bhagwati is SWAN’s first Executive Director. A former Captain and Company Commander, Anu served as a Marine officer from 1999-2004. Under Anu’s leadership, SWAN has spearheaded legislative reform and litigation to end military rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and domestic violence, and to eliminate all barriers to equal opportunity for service women. Bhagwati has testified before Congress, advised the White House and the United Nations, and has spoken to countless audiences on challenges faced by military women, including the Combat Exclusion policy, Military Sexual Trauma, the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, and the VA health care and benefits system. A regular contributor to the media, Bhagwati has been featured on Piers Morgan Tonight, the CNN Situation Room, MSNBC, NBC Nightly News, NPR, the BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time and Newsweek.

Molly O’Toole previously worked as a reporter for Reuters in Washington, D.C. She has written for the Associated Press, The New York Times online, Newsweek, USA Today and The Nation, among others. She graduated cum laude from Cornell University with a B.A. in English and earned a dual M.A. in journalism and international relations at New York University.

Brenda S. “Sue” Fulton is a Board member of OutServe-SLDN, the national organization supporting LGBT members of the Armed Forces. A Florida native, Fulton graduated West Point in 1980, part of the first class to include women, and was commissioned in the Army. She served as a platoon leader, staff officer, and company commander in Germany, and was honorably discharged as a Captain.

In 2009, she co-founded Knights Out, an organization of LGBT West Point graduates and allies, and later helped Josh Seefried and Ty Walrod launch OutServe, the association of actively-serving LGBT military personnel. She served both organizations as Communications Director and later became Executive Director of Knights Out. A key player in the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Fulton was appointed by President Obama to the U.S. Military Academy Board of Visitors in 2011 – the first openly gay member of the Board.

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