Speakers and Performers
In 2017-2018, the following speakers and performers are scheduled to appear:
April 11: George Wolf, a holocaust survivor. View video here.
April 3: Dr. Selah Johnson, civil rights scholar and history teacher at The Spence School. View video here.
March 6: Jolli Humanitarian Award: Ellen L. Bassuk, M.D., a psychiatrist and president of The Bassuk Center, an organization focused on family homelessness and poverty. View video here.
Jan. 23: 6th Annual Mark Sutton-Smith '73 Assembly Concert featuring duo parnas, violinist Madalyn Parnas and cellist Cicely Parnas. View video here.
Dec. 6: John Isaac, former photojournalist for the United Nations. View video here.
Nov. 28: Stacey Mindich, producer of "Dear Evan Hansen." View video here.
Nov. 28: Dr. Kathy Pike, executive director and scientific co-director of the Global Mental Health Program and associate director of the Health and Aging Policy Fellowship Program at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. View video here.
Nov. 14: Chris Larsen, a graduate of Lawrenceville and West Point, a decorated Iraq War veteran, and MBA student. View video here.
Nov. 7: Gene Klein, a holocaust survivor and the subject of a book, We Got the Water: Tracing My Family’s Path Through Auschwitz, written by his daughter, Jill Klein. View video here.
Oct. 31: King Lecture: Nicole Hemmer, assistant professor in presidential studies at the Miller Center. View video here.
Oct. 25: Janice P. Nimura, author of "Daughters of the Samurai." View video here.
Oct. 20: Tara Setmayer and Kevin Powell, political commentators.
Oct. 19: David Yeager, a psychologist specializing in adolescent development at the University of Texas at Austin.
Oct. 18: Tsione Wolde-Michael, editor for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)
Oct. 17: Cathy O'Neil, mathematician, blogger, and author of books about data science. View video here.
Oct. 11: Leigh Bristow, founder of Sumbandila Scholarships in rural Limpopo, South Africa. View video here.
Oct. 6: Joanne Bland, above, co-founder and former director of the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma, Alabama. View video here.
Oct. 3: Leslie Adelson Lewin, executive director of Seeds of Peace, a leadership development organization focused on helping young people manage conflict and lead change. View video here.
Sept. 19: Kellen Blair, lyricist of "Murder For Two" and a film teacher at Riverdale, speaks on the question, "Why Learn?" View video here.
Speakers in the 2016-2017 school year included:
- Jerry Craft, syndicated cartoonist
- Scott Barry Kauffman, author, psychology researcher, and scientific director of the Imagination Institute
- Regina Calcaterra, memoirist
- Amanda Quaid '01, actor and theater coach
- Kip Fulbeck, artist, spoken word performer, filmmaker, and professor of art at the University of California, Santa Barbara
- Lenni Benson, founder of the Safe Passage Project
- Susan Hood, author
- Daniel LaChance, former Riverdale teacher, history professor at Emory University, author
- Emma Wunsch, author
- Ross Douthat, Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times
- Harry Enten '07, senior political writer and analyst for FiveThirtyEight
Speakers in the 2015-2016 school year included:
- Jeremy K. Kessler, associate professor at Columbia Law School
- Peter B. Ellis '57, a lawyer who represented several Guantanamo detainees and challenged the Obama administration’s definition for enemy combatants
- Kennedy Odede, founder of Shining Hope for Communities in the Kibera slum of Nairoibi, Kenya
- Dr. Melony Samuels, founder and executive director of the Bed Stuy Campaign Against Hunger
- Jordan Axt, researcher in social psychology for Project Implicit at Harvard University
- Alessia Cara, singer-songwriter known for her debut single, "Here"
- Hari Kondabolu, comedian
- Ryan Mundy, a safety for the Chicago Bears
- Elle Luna, artist, designer, and writer