2006-2007 Speaker Program Archive

October 15, 2006

“Global Economy and  the U. S.”

Morris Beschloss
Commentator and Journalist

(Special Guests-Members and Friends of Illini Club of the Desert and Northwestern University)

Morris R. Beschloss was born in Berlin, Germany and immigrated with his family to the USA as a pre teen.  He graduated from the University of Illinois in Journalism and Economics.  In 2006 that University conferred upon him their first Distinguished Alumni Award.  During the Korean War he served as a 1st Lieutenant in the Army’s Psychological Warfare Division with a Reserve Captaincy at the time of his honorable discharge.   At the age of 33 he became the president of Hammond Valve Company.  He won that industries Man of the Second Half of the Twentieth Century Award; and was elected to the Young President Organization which recognizes corporate leaders under 40; he won the Free Enterprise Foundation Award, the Distinguished Eagle Award; the UI Alumni Loyalty Award, and the PVF Hall of Fame.  After a successful international industrial career, he moved from Chicago to Coachella Valley.  His prodigious talent has not slowed.  He publishes two newsletters.  The Beschloss Perspective; and Global Outlook; “Global Economics”, his column in the Business Section of the Desert Sun, can be found each Sunday.  Consultant and writer for The Wholesaler, he also does weekly analyses on breaking business news for the Sun; and is Executive Advisor to the Harris Bank in Chicago.

Congresswomen Mary Bono appointed Beschloss as her Senior Economic Advisor.   Recently inducted into the honored Committee of 25, Morris frequently speaks to interested local groups, conducts lectures as part of a College of the Desert Speaker Series, and is often interviewed by local TV hosts.  Beschloss is active with the Greater Palm Springs Jewish Federation.   He leads a weekly seminar on current events, is heard weekly with Steve Kelly on KPSI radio, is heard on KGAM Hey Wake Up America with Scott Crofut and Dave Marshal, and does current commentary twice a week on CBS2 TV with Kacey Montoya.

November 12, 2006

“Reagan’s Legacy—Ending the Cold War”

Peter Hannaford, Director
Committee on the Present Danger

(Special Guests - Alumni, Friends of Cal State University)

Peter D. Hannaford is the APCO Senior Counselor and President of Hannaford Enterprises, Inc.    a public relations/public affairs consultancy he founded in l998. Hannaford's principal assignment is management of the Committee on Present Danger, whose co-chairmen are George Shultz and former CIA Director Jim Woolsey.  Hannaford coordinates more than 100 foreign/defense/security policy specialists as member programs. Peter has broad knowledge of American Power Conversion and developing data centre space throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.  His long career encompasses spells with Societe Generale and Banque Arabe International d'Investments.  Hannaford has served on the United States Information Agency's Public Relations Advisory Committee; and the Board of Trustees of the White House Preservation Fund.  He was the Shapiro Fellow at George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs.  A native of California he holds a bachelors degree from the University of California at Berkley.

 Peter was director of President Reagan's senior communications advisor; and campaign director of issues and research.  He is the author of numerous articles and published books

December 3, 2006

“Privacy and National Security”

Jim Harper
Homeland Security Data Privacy Committee

(Special Guests - Alumni, Friends of Stanford University)

As Director of Information Policy Studies at a Washington D.C. think tank, the CATO Institution, James Harper J.D.  focuses on the difficult problems of adapting law and policy to the unique problems of the information age.   He is a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.  Harper has appeared on the FOX News channel, CBS, and MSNBC and other media. USA Today, Associated Press, and Reuters have cited his work.  He has given testimony before Congress.  His scholarly articles have appeared in the Administrative Law Review, the Minnesota Law Review, and the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly.  Harper is the editor of Privacilla.org, a Web-based think tank devoted exclusively to privacy issues.  Areas of Harpers studies include publications on Encryption and Wiretapping, Intellectual Property, Internet and Telecom Taxation, Internet Governance and Commercial Regulation, Medical Privacy, Surveillance and the War on Terrorism, and more. 

January 21, 2007

“Iraq —The Lessons of History”

Governor Michael Dukakis, UCLA

(Special Guests—Alumni, Friends of UCLA)

Michael Dukakis was born in Massachusetts to parents emigrated from Greece.After graduating from Swarthmore College and Harvard Law School, he served in the U.S. Army where he was with the Support Group to the UN Delegation in Korea.  After four terms in the legislature, he won the Massachusetts Governorship in 1974, and is credited with digging the state out of economic crisis.  In l982 he was again elected, and in l986 was voted the most effective governor in the nation.  Winning the Democratic nomination for President, he was defeated by George H W Bush. 

The Governor has been a visiting professor at Northeastern University, the John Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, Florida Atlantic University, and UCLA.  His research focuses mostly on National Health Care reform.  He has authored many articles on the subject.

February 4, 2007

“Trade Liberalization and Poverty Reduction”

Marian Tupy,  Director
Project on Global Economic Liberty

Marian L. Tupy is assistant director of the Project on Global Economic Liberty specializing in the study of Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.  His articles have been published in the Wall Street Journal Europe, the Washington times, Investors’ Business Daily, Fox News .com, National Review Online and various overseas outlets’ in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.  Tupy has appeared on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, N=CNN International, CNBC and Voice of America.  He received his B>A> in international relations and classics from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and his Ph.D. in international relations from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

March 11, 2007

“International Law:  Impact on U.S.”

Dr. Kenneth Starr, Dean and Professor of Law,
Pepperdine University

(Special Guests - Alumni and Friends of the University of Washington)A.B., George Washington University; MA., Brown University; J.D., Duke University, Dean Starr clerked for the Honorable David Dyer of the U.S. Court of appeals, Fifth Circuit, and for the U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren E. Burger.In addition to working in the private sector, he has served as Counselor to U.S. Attorney General William French Smith, Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, Solicitor General of the United States, and Independent Counsel on the Whitewater matter. As Solicitor General he argued twenty-five cases before the Supreme Court involving a wide range of governmental regulatory and constitutional issues.Dean Starr is a member of many professional organizations and boards, included the American Law Institute, the Supreme Court Historical Society, and the American Inns of Court. Professor Starr is an enthusiastic writer and scholar.  His latest book is First Among Equals.  His areas of expertise are antitrust, federal courts and federal jurisdiction, and constitutional law.

April 15, 2007

“Global Priorities and Reforming Global Governance”

Dr. Michael Intriligator
Professor, UCLASeveral distinguished teaching awards have been bestowed upon Michael D. Intriligator, PhD. He is Professor of Economics, of Political Science, and Public Policy; and the Co-Director of the Jacob Marschak Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Mathematics in the Behavioral Sciences; all at UCLA.His undergraduate and PhD degrees are from Massachusetts Institute of Technology; his M.A. is from Yale University.
Dr. Intriligator has authored publications on various Economic Theories which include Mathematical, Health, Defense and Peace, Reform of the Russian Economy, Strategy and Arms Control, Managing Nuclear Proliferation, and more.He is a Senior Fellow of the Milken Institute as well as the Gorbachev Foundation of North America,past President of the Peace Science Society (International) and wasrecently elected as the President of the Western Economic Association International (WEAI). He was elected as a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, past President of the Peace Science Society and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A complete list of his accomplishments is not possible do to space limitations.

May 6, 2007 Iraqi  Update
The Final Phase : Can We Go Home Now?

Penny Jenison
Full-Time Tenured – Associate Professor Of History
College Of The DesertProfessor Jenison Is a Middle East specialist focusing on the Arabs and Israel. She currently teaches classes in World History and United States History at the College Of The Desert.

She is the moderator for “Window On the World” Lecture Series (aka WOW) sponsored by the University of California, Riverside and formerly moderated the Great Decision Series.  She is also a member of the Board Of Directors of the World Affairs Council Of The Desert.

Education:  Graduate Degrees In Middle Eastern History from the University Of Missouri, Kansas City. Professor Jenison also holds a B.A in Radio – T.V (Communications).

In 1994 she was awarded a grant from Starr Symposium to study women and religion with faculty members from Harvard Divinity School.

Before becoming an academic Professor, Jenison worked in radio and television as a newscaster for CNN and several CBS affiliates. She has conducted seminars on the Middle East and Japanese and Asian business practices for international corporations including Hallmark Cards and the American Academy of Physicians.