John Podesta, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, will deliver the 2004-05 Fowler Harper Lecture, "Dealing with Darfur: Can the World Act on Its Responsibility to Protect?" on Monday, December 6, 2004, at 4:30 p.m, in Room 127. The talk is free and open to the public.
John Podesta served as chief of staff to President William J. Clinton from October 1998 until January 2001, where he was responsible for directing, managing, and overseeing all policy development, daily operations, Congressional relations, and staff activities of the White House. From 1997 to 1998, he served as both an assistant to the President and deputy chief of staff. Earlier, from January 1993 to 1995, he was assistant to the president, staff secretary, and a senior policy advisor on government information, privacy, telecommunications security, and regulatory policy, and he has held numerous other positions on Capitol Hill.
Podesta is currently a visiting professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he has taught classes on technology policy, congressional investigations, legislation, copyright, and public interest law. In 2003, he created the Center for American Progress, which he has described as "a think tank on steroids." The New York Times has said that the Center is reshaping "the very idea of liberalism, a reproduction in mirror image of the conservative think tanks that have dominated the country's political dialogue for a generation."
"John Podesta is an influential figure in the world of politics and policy, well known for his straight talk, sharp wit, and his incisive political judgment. His Harper Lecture promises to uphold that reputation," says YLS Dean Harold Hongju Koh.