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Watch: As part of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging speaker series, Heather McGhee talks to Kenji Yoshino about the importance of transcending zero-sum thinking and building solidarity.

Speaker Series

The Meltzer Center offers an annual speaker series featuring leaders from academia and the public and private sectors on a range of topics relating to diversity and inclusion. Speakers for the 2025-26 academic year are: 

September 25, 2025

, 

Max and Bernice Garchik Family Presidential Professor at the Wharton School and author of The Truth About Immigration 

 

November 5, 2025

Albert Pratt Professor of Business at Harvard Kennedy School and co-author of Make Work Fair 

 

 

February 10, 2026

 

Howard R. Lamar Professor of History at Yale University and author of The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History 

 

 

April 7, 2026

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University, and author of Undivided: The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church 

 

 

Past Speakers

2024-2025

Speakers for the 2024-25 academic year were:

• , Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies and the Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies at Harvard University and author of Seeing Others: How Recognition Works—and How It Can Heal a Divided World (2023). [October 22, 2024]
• , Founder and President of Interfaith America and author of We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy (2022). [November 12, 2024]
• , Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and author of Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness (2024). [February 14, 2025] 
• ’87 Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Esq. Endowed Chair in Civil Rights at Howard University School of Law and former president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. [February 26, 2025]
• Deborah Archer, President of the ACLU and Margaret B. Hoppin Professor of Clinical Law at ÈâÂþÎÝ School of Law. [April 15, 2025]

2023-2024

Speakers for the 2023-24 academic year were:

• , President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF). [September 12, 2023] Read about the event.
• , Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego and author of The Equality Machine (2022). [October 17, 2023]
• Andy Marra, Executive Director of the . [February 28, 2024]
• , Author of Disability Pride: Dispatches from a Post-ADA World (2022). [March 26, 2024]

2022-2023

Speakers for the 2022-23 academic year were:

• , Professor at Smith College in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender and author of several books on reproductive justice. [October 6, 2022]. .
• , Jacob. B. Melnick Term Professor at ÈâÂþÎÝ Stern School of Business and author of A More Just Future (forthcoming, 2022). [October 27, 2022]. .
• , Chief Executive Officer of PEN America and author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All (2020). [March 7, 2023]. .
• , Author of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together (2021). [April 19, 2023].

2021-2022

Speakers for the 2021-22 academic year were:

• , Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. [October 13, 2021] .
• , Yale social psychologist and expert on political and psychological dynamics of increasing racial and ethnic diversity. [November 11, 2021] .
• , Wharton professor and author of How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be (2021). [February 15, 2022] .
• , University of Denver law professor and author of Identity Capitalists: The Powerful Insiders Who Exploit Diversity to Maintain Inequality (2021). [April 5, 2022] .

2020-2021

Speakers for the 2020-21 academic year were:

• , Professor of Journalism at ÈâÂþÎÝ Arthur Carter Journalism Institute and author of Diversity, Inc.: The Failed Promise of a Billion-Dollar Business (2019) [September 17, 2020]. Read about the event. .
• , and , authors of Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America (2018) [October 8, 2020].
• , Harvard Business School professor and renowned organizational behavior scholar on issues of gender inequality and work/family narratives. [October 27, 2020] .
• (JD '08). [April 8, 2021]. .

2019-2020

Speakers for 2019-20 academic year were:

• , Professor of Philosophy and Law at ÈâÂþÎÝ School of Law [September 26, 2019]. .
• , Reuben Mark Professor of Organizational Character at Columbia Business School, and Director of the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership & Ethics at Columbia Business School [October 29, 2019]. .
• , Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at ÈâÂþÎÝ Stern School of Business and author of The Person You Mean To Be: How Good People Fight Bias (2018) [February 20, 2020]. .

2018-2019

Speakers for the 2018-19 academic year were:

• , Commissioner at Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [September 12, 2018]. .
• , Managing Partner at Kaplan Hecker & Fink [October 17, 2018]. .
• , Professor at Kellogg School of Management and author of Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs (2015) [March 5, 2019]. .
• , founding director of Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab [April 4, 2019]. .

2017-2018

Speakers for the 2017-18 academic year were:

• , Professor Emerita at UC Berkeley Sociology Department and author of Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right (2016) [November 6, 2017]. .
• , Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court [February 5, 2018]. .
• , Emmy Award-winning host of All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC and author of A Colony in a Nation (2017) [March 22, 2018]. .
• , Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University and author (with Anthony Greenwald) of Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People (2013) [April 12, 2018].

2016-2017

Speakers for the 2016-17 academic year were:

• , Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court [November 10, 2016].
• , Director of People Analytics at Google [February 15, 2017].
• , Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and author of (2016) [March 2, 2017]. .
• JD '87, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund [April 21, 2017]. . .

 

Other Events

To watch some of our other events, go to our .

The Meltzer Center is delighted to partner with groups at the Law School on events consistent with our mission. If you would like the Meltzer Center to co-sponsor an event with your group, .