David Gergen, Richard Haass, and Condoleezza Rice to speak at Sept. 30 SMU Tate Lecture

DALLAS (SMU) - David Gergen, CNN senior political analyst; Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Affairs; and Condoleezza Rice, 66th U.S. Secretary of State, will be the featured speakers at The Linda and Mitch Hart Lecture of the Willis M. Tate Distinguished Lecture Series at SMU Wednesday, Sept. 30.

Gergen, Haass, and Rice will answer questions at the Turner Construction/Wells Fargo Tate Student Forum at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in Hughes-Trigg Student Center Ballroom, 3140 Dyer St. The student forum is a lively question-and-answer session with Tate speakers for area high school students, SMU students, faculty and staff.

The Linda and Mitch Hart Lecture will begin at 8 p.m. Wednesday at SMU’s McFarlin Auditorium, 6405 Boaz Lane. The event is sold-out.

About Richard Haass

Richard Haass has been president of the Council on Foreign Relations since 2003. In 2013 he served as chair of the multiparty negotiations in Northern Ireland that led to the 2014 Stormont House Agreement. For his efforts to promote peace and conflict resolution, he received the 2013 Tipperary International Peace Award.

Before assuming his present position, Haass served from 2001–03 as director of policy planning for the State Department, as U.S. coordinator for policy toward the future of Afghanistan and as envoy to the Northern Ireland peace process. He previously was special assistant to President George H.W. Bush and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs on the National Security Council staff from 1989 to 1993.

Haass is the author or editor of 12 books on American foreign policy and one book on management. A Rhodes Scholar, he earned both master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Oxford University.

About Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice has achieved prominence in government service and higher education. The 66th Secretary of State, she currently holds three positions at Stanford University: Denning Professor in Global Business and the Economy at the Graduate School of Business, Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution and professor of Political Science.

Rice’s academic career began when she joined the Stanford faculty in 1981. She began her government service as a member of the National Security Council staff under President George H.W. Bush from 1989–91. Returning to Stanford, she rose through the ranks to serve as provost from 1993–99. She returned to Washington to serve as National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush from 2001–05 and to become the 66th Secretary of State from 2005–09.

Rice earned her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver. She is the author of several books and chair of the George W. Bush Institute Advisory Board.

About David Gergen

David Gergen, moderator, is a professor of public service and co-director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He also is a senior political analyst for CNN. Gergen previously served as a White House advisor to four U.S. presidents of both parties: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. He wrote about those experiences in his bestselling book, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton. A regular commentator on public affairs for more than 30 years, Gergen has served as the chief editor of U.S. News & World Report and as a member of Peabody and Emmy Award-winning election coverage teams. He is an honors graduate of both Yale University and Harvard Law School.

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SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls approximately 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools.

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