2009 Critical Issues Forum Speakers Selected

The University of Michigan-Flint is pleased to announce the speakers for the 2009 Frances
Willson Thompson Critical Issues Forum. This year's forum brings four speakers to Flint who are nationally and internationally recognized in their fields. The lineup for 2009 includes:

· Dr. David Walton, doctor, humanitarian, and world health expert;

· Zanny Minton-Beddoes, economist

· Speaker Newt Gingrich, the architect of the "Contract of America"

· Jerome Ringo, environmentalist and President of the Apollo Alliance.

The 2009 Frances Willson Thompson Critical Issues Forum begins April 23 with Jerome Ringo. The noon luncheon will be held at the Northbank Center in downtown Flint.

A series ticket is $125.00.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Jerome Ringo:Environmental Pioneer and President of the Apollo Alliance

Jerome Ringo represents more than 17 million people across the country as President of the Apollo Alliance, which brings together leaders of business, civil rights, national security, environmental, and labor to fight to make American independent from foreign energy.

After working in Louisiana's petrochemical industry for over 20 years, Ringo began observing the negative impacts of the industry's pollution and organized community environmental justice groups. In 1996, Ringo was elected to serve on the National Wildlife Federation Board of Directors and became chair in 2005, making him the first African-American to head a major conservation organization. He was also the only black delegate at the Global Warming Treaty Negotiations in Kyoto, Japan in 1998. In 2005, Jerome Ringo came to the Apollo Alliance. In 2006, Ebony Magazine named Ringo one the most influential African Americans in the April 2006 issue.

Today, Ringo is an associate research scholar at Yale University, an author, and a lecturer. He currently teaches Environmental Justice at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

David Walton: Doctor, Humanitarian, and Global Health Expert

Dr. David Walton, a graduate from Harvard Medical School, completed the Doris and Howard Hiatt Global Health Equity Residency Program at Brigham and Women's Health. He also received his Master of Public Health from Harvard in 2007.

Currently, Dr. Walton is an associate physician in the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at Brigham and Women's Health. He is an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and the associate director of the Hôpital de Lascahobas in Haiti, where he directs and supervises a team of healthcare professionals and community health workers. Dr. Walton is recently focusing on improving the healthcare delivery in central Haiti by designing and constructing a new 60-bed acute care hospital and a 30-bed women's hospital and more.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Zanny Minton-Beddoes: US Economics Editor for "The Economist"

As the economics editor of The Economist, Zanny Minton-Beddoes oversees all of the coverage for the American economy, economic policy, and issues surrounding globalization.

Minton-Beddoes joined The Economist in 1994, after spending two years as an economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Previous to IMF, she worked as an advisor to the Minister of Finance in Poland, as part of a small group.

Minton-Beddoes has written extensively about the American economy and the international financial policy in published works such as, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy. She has also testified before Congress on the introduction of the euro. Currently, Minton-Beddoes is a regular commentator on Marketplace (NPR) and has appeared on CNN, MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour, CNBC, and Public Interest.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Newt Gingrich:Leader on National Security, Leadership, and the Future of Healthcare

Newt Gingrich is known for the "Contract with America" that led the Republican Party to victory in 1994. After being elected Speaker, he moved power out of Washington and back to the American people. Under his leadership, Congress passed welfare reform, the first balanced budget in a generation, and the first tax cut in sixteen years.

In his post-Speaker role, Gingrich has become one of the most highly sought-after public speakers. He is the founder of The Gingrich Group, a consulting firm focused on t
ransformational change, and the Center for Health Transformation, which is a collaboration of public and private sector leaders dedicated to the creation of a 21^st Century Intelligent Health System that saves lives and money. Gingrich has been awarded the highest non-medical award from the American Diabetes Association and the March of Dimes named him the 1995 Georgia Citizen of the Year.

Speaker Gingrich also serves as a Member of the Defense Policy Board and is the longest-serving teacher of the Joint War Fighting course for Major Generals, teaching officers from all five sectors. He also serves as a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California and is an Honorary Chairman of the NanoBusiness Alliance. As an author, Speaker Gingrich has published many fiction and non-fiction best sellers, many of which are active history studies on warfare based on fictional accounts of historical battles and their aftermath. He is a contributor for the FOX News Channel and was an Environmental Studies professor at West Georgia College for eight years. He also serves as General Chairman of American Solutions for Winning the Future.

The Critical Issues Forum is made possible through the generosity of the Francis Willson Thompson family and the Critical Issues Endowment Fund.

For additional information, please call (810) 424-5485