DIC 2013 | Chicago

Speaker Bios

Sian Beilock
Author and Professor of Psychology, University of Chicago
Sian Beilock is a professor in the Department of Psychology and a member of the Committee on Education at The University of Chicago and one of the world’s leading experts on the brain science behind “choking under pressure” and the many factors influencing all types of performance: from test-taking to decision making to public speaking to your golf swing. Her research is routinely covered in the media (e.g., CNN, New York Times, NPR, Wall Street Journal) and her book, “Choke: What the Secrets of the Brian Reveal About Getting It Right When You
Have To” has received national and international acclaim. In 2007, Beilock was chosen as one of twenty-five “Women to Watch” by Crain’s Chicago Business Magazine and in 2011 she received an early career award from the Association for Psychological Science for her transformative contributions to the understanding of the psychology behind stress and performance.

Tom Braithwaite
US Banking Editor, Financial Times
Tom Braithwaite is the US Banking Editor of the Financial Times (FT), where he leads the FT’s US financial services team.  Previously, Braithwaite served as the Washington-based business and politics correspondent where he focused on financial policy and regulatory reform.

Ethan Bueno de Mesquita
Deputy Dean and Professor, Harris School, University of Chicago
Ethan Bueno de Mesquita is a professor and deputy dean for the faculty at Chicago Harris. He is an applied game theorist whose research focuses on political violence—especially terrorism and insurgency—and on democratic accountability. Bueno de Mesquita's current research on political violence focuses on tactical choice by rebel groups. He is also part of a team of scholars working to assemble the most comprehensive data set on political violence in Pakistan ever collected. Bueno de Mesquita's work on accountability examines how changes in electoral environments affect public goods provision, the quality of fiscal management, the incumbency advantage, corruption, and party strength. He is also concerned with more foundational questions regarding the nature of representation and accountability in democratic systems. Bueno de Mesquita has also written on several topics in law and politics, including the emergence of judicial norms such as deference to precedent, the effect of formal legal institutions on informal economic and social networks, and judicial oversight of the bureaucracy. Before coming to the Harris School, Bueno de Mesquita taught in the department of political science at Washington University in St. Louis and was a Lady Davis Fellow in political science and visiting fellow in the Center for the Study of Rationality at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and the United States Institute of Peace. Bueno de Mesquita received his BA in political science from the University of Chicago and his MA and PhD in political science from Harvard.

Wendy Chamberlin 
President, Middle East Institute and Former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan
Ambassador Chamberlin leads the Middle East Institute, one of the preeminent centers for Middle East research in Washington, DC. A 29-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, she was ambassador to Pakistan from 2001 to 2002, where she played a key role in securing Pakistan’s cooperation in the U.S.-led campaign against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in the wake of the terrorist attacks against the U.S. on September 11.

Ambassador Chamberlin served as director of global affairs and counter-terrorism at the National Security Council (1991-1993) and as deputy in the bureau of international counter-narcotics and law enforcement affairs (1999-2001). As assistant administrator in the Asia-Near East bureau of the U.S. Agency for International Development from 2002 to 2004, she oversaw civilian reconstruction programs in Iraq and Afghanistan and development assistance programs throughout the Middle East and East Asia. Other assignments included U.S. ambassador to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (1996-1999), director of press and public affairs for the Near East Bureau (1991-1993), deputy chief of mission in Kuala Lumpur (1993-1996), Arab-Israeli affairs (1982-1984) and postings in Morocco, Pakistan, Malaysia, Laos, and Zaire.

Robert Chatterton Dickson
British Consul General in Chicago
Mr. Dickson took up the post of British Consul General, Chicago on 26 July 2010. Previously, he was Joint Head of the Counter Terrorism Department at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London. From 2004 to 2007 he served as British Ambassador to the Republic of Macedonia.  Earlier diplomatic experience included working on Iraq, NATO and UN peacekeeping in London, and postings to the British Embassies in Manila and Washington.  Before joining the FCO Mr. Dickson worked as an analyst and UK and international investment manager for Morgan Grenfell & Co, a merchant bank in the City of London.

Richard M. Daley
Former Mayor of Chicago, IL
One of the most powerful and influential of America's big-city mayors, Richard M. Daley served six terms as Chicago's mayor. First elected in 1989, Daley was the longest-serving mayor in Chicago history, eclipsing the record set by his father, mentor and role model, the late Mayor Richard J. Daley. Richard M. Daley chose not to run for re-election in the 2011 campaign.

A former state legislator and Cook County state's attorney, Daley built a multiethnic, multiracial coalition that kept him in power, even as the strength and influence of the once legendary county Democratic machine waned. Daley worked to revamp and improve the city's public school system, overhauled public housing and invested heavily in the city's infrastructure in projects ranging from Millennium Park to the expansion of O'Hare International Airport. He also launched a beautification effort that included wrought-iron fencing on public properties and installation of planters, trees and landscaping citywide.

On May 24, 2011 the University of Chicago Press announced Daley's appointment as a "distinguished senior fellow" at the Harris School of Public Policy. The five-year, part-time appointment includes responsibility for coordinating a guest lecture series. Daley was elected to the board of directors of The Coca-ColaCompany. Daley is a managing principal of Tur Partners LLC, an investment firm, where Daley's son, Patrick Daley, is a principal.

Steve Edwards
Deputy Director, Programming, Institute of Politics, University of Chicago, and former WBEZ Chicago Radio Host
For more than two decades, Steve Edwards has covered politics and public policy as a journalist and program host. His work has appeared on the BBC, Bloomberg News, PBS, and on numerous public radio stations around the United States. Most recently, he spent nearly 14 years at WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR member station, where he served as host of the acclaimed daily shows The Afternoon Shift and Eight Forty-Eight. Steve has moderated numerous candidate debates, hosted the weekly political show The Best Game in Town, and was the correspondent for a BBC documentary on Chicago’s political culture. A native of Kansas City, he was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan and earned his A.B. in political science from Amherst College.

Yasser Elnaggar
Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Mr. Yasser Elnaggar was appointed Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of Egypt in Washington D.C. in September of 2010. Prior to this post, he served as Senior Policy Adviser to the Presidents of the 61st and 64th Sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.

Born in 1966, Mr. Elnaggar initiated his career in the diplomatic service in 1990. Previous assignments include the Consulate General in Chicago as well as the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. While in Cairo, he served as Director of the Department of United Nations Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt from 2007 until 2009, as well as adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Egypt from 1997 until 2001. Mr. Elnaggar was also assigned as political adviser to the Secretary General of the Arab League from 2001 until the end of 2002. During his different posts, Mr. Elnaggar has participated in numerous conferences on regional and international issues, as well as Arab and African Summits.

Mr. Elnaggar holds a Bachelor Degree in Economics from Cairo University and has a Masters Degree in Social Sciences with specialization in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago. He also acquired a diploma in International Relations and Development from the Institute for Social Studies in The Hague, The Netherlands and earned a Certificate for International Relations from the Institute for Diplomatic Studies in Cairo.

Mr. Elnaggar is married to Gihan Hafez and they have two children.

Karen Freeman-Wilson
Mayor of Gary, IN
In November 2011, the citizens of Gary, Indiana chose a new day for the city by electing Karen Freeman- Wilson for Mayor.  On December 31, 2011, Freeman-Wilson became the first woman to lead the steel city and the first African-American female mayor in the State of Indiana.

She is the immediate past CEO of The National Association of Drug Court Professionals and Executive Director of The National Drug Court Institute based in Washington, D.C. With Freeman-Wilson at the helm, the number of drug courts in the U.S. doubled to 1700 and NADCP became the premier organizational advocate for drug treatment in the judicial arena. Freeman-Wilson has consulted with the Office of White House Drug Control Policy, the Department of Justice and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the creation and implementation of drug policy. As the twice-elected Gary City Judge, she helped pioneer the drug court movement in Indiana.

Theaster Gates
Artist and Director of Arts and Public Life Initiative, University of Chicago
Theaster Gates has developed an expanded artistic practice that includes space development, object making, performance and critical engagement with many publics. Gates transforms spaces, institutions, traditions, and perceptions.

In Fall 2012, Gates debuted in London with his solo show 'My Labor is My Protest,' at White Cube Bermondsey. Gates will be exhibiting 'Theaster Gates: Soul Manufacturing Corporation--To Make the Thing that Makes the Things' at Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, PA, from January 21 through late Spring.

Gates was recently awarded the inaugural Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics, honored by the Wall Street Journal as Arts Innovator of the Year 2012, and commissioned as the Armory Show Artist 2012. USA Artists named him as the USA Kippy Fellow 2012. Gates is also a 2012-13 Creative Time Global Resident. A Loeb Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2011, Gates has received awards and grants from Creative Capital, the Joyce Foundation, Graham Foundation, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, and Artadia. 

Mandy Grunwald
Political Consultant and Media Advisor for the Democratic Party
Mandy Grunwald has been one of America's leading Democratic media consultants for more than two decades. She is President of Grunwald Communications, which has won every single one of its campaigns for the last three cycles - '04, '06, and '08 – with just one small exception – Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Grunwald is probably best known for her work for the Clinton/Gore '92 campaign. She served as media adviser and Director of Advertising -- the first woman in history to hold that job in a presidential campaign. She served in the same role in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Grunwald was responsible for the campaign's successful “pop culture” strategy: Bill Clinton's appearances on shows like “Arsenio Hall” and MTV, which had previously been considered taboo for a presidential candidate.

Grunwald has also worked for a wide variety of groups, corporations and causes including the “Si” campaign against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, the Human Rights Campaign, USA for Africa, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Environmental Trust, the Energy Foundation, the National Women's Political Caucus, Westinghouse Broadcasting, Time Inc., the Coca Cola Company, and Columbia Pictures.

James J. Heckman
Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Nobel Laureate, University of Chicago
James J. Heckman is the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, where he has served since 1973. In 2000, he shared the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel with Daniel McFadden. Heckman directs the Economics Research Center in the Department of Economics and the Center for Social Program Evaluation at the Harris School for Public Policy, and Professor of Law at the University of Chicago School of Law. In addition, he is Professor of Science and Society in University College Dublin and a Senior Research Fellow at the American Bar Foundation.

His work has been devoted to the development of a scientific basis for economic policy evaluation. He has developed a body of new econometric tools that address these issues. His recent research focuses on inequality, human development and lifecycle skill formation, with a special emphasis on the economics of early childhood. He is currently analyzing new social experiments on early childhood interventions and reanalyzing old experiments. He is studying the emergence of the underclass in the U.S. and Western Europe.

Heckman has published over 280 articles and several books. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the John Bates Clark Medal in 1983, the Jacob Mincer Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2005, the 2005 and 2007 Dennis Aigner Award for Applied Econometrics from the Journal of Econometrics, the Ulysses Medal from the University College Dublin in 2006, the 2007 Theodore W. Schultz Award from the American Agricultural Economics Association, the Gold Medal of the President of the Italian Republic, awarded by the International Scientific Committee of the Pio Manzú Centre in 2008, and the Distinguished Contributions to Public Policy for Children Award from the Society for Research in Child Development in 2009.

Lisa Madigan
Attorney General of Illinois
In November 2002, Attorney General Madigan became the first woman elected to serve as the Illinois Attorney General, and one of only a handful of female Attorneys General in the country. In 2010, she was elected to her third term as Attorney General and now is the senior-most female Attorney General in the country. Before her election as Attorney General, Madigan served in the Illinois Senate and worked as a litigator for a Chicago law firm. Prior to becoming an attorney, she was a teacher and community advocate, developing after-school programs to help keep kids away from drugs and gangs. Madigan also volunteered as a high school teacher in South Africa during apartheid. Madigan earned her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and her J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

Alisa A. Miller
CEO, Public Radio International
Alisa Miller is a business builder, innovator and creator, working at the intersection of people's interests, storytelling, mobile, web, social media and mass media. Alisa is CEO of Public Radio International (PRI) and as such, the first woman to head a public radio network. She was recently named one of the Most Influential Women in Technology by Fast Company. At PRI, she leads all aspects of the company including PRI's content portfolio, branding/marketing, creation and distribution of some 200 hours of content each week, thought-provoking audio, video, global storytelling and interactive/mobile experiences- reaching millions of listeners/users. Under her auspices, PRI partners with companies such as Apple, BBC, The New York Times, CBC and Flipboard. She recently initiated and led PRI's acquisition by WGBH, public television's largest producer and digital leader – the largest transaction of its kind in public media.

Alisa has in-depth knowledge of news/info, kids and family entertainment markets. She advocates for technological innovation to help people engage with each other and our world to live better and happier lives. Her 2008 TEDTalk on the power of media to shape our perceptions of the world has been viewed over 750,000 times and has been translated into 44 languages. Her TED ebook, Media Makeover: Improving The News One Click At A Time, was published in 2011. Prior to joining PRI, she served as an executive in strategic alliances for Sesame Workshop and in business development for SesameStreet.com. She is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is on the Board of the Loft Literary Center.

Miller received an MBA and MPP at the University of Chicago's Booth Graduate School of Business and the Harris Graduate School of Public Policy. She holds a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism, graduating with highest distinction from the University of Nebraska.

Michele Norris
Host and Special Correspondent, National Public Radio
Michele Norris is one of the most respected voices in American journalism. As NPR host and special correspondent, Norris produces in-depth profiles, interviews and series, and guest hosts NPR News programs.  She also leads the "," an initiative to foster a wider conversation about race in America that she created after the publication of her 2010 family memoir, The Grace of Silence. In the book she turns her formidable interviewing and investigative skills on her own background to unearth long hidden family secrets that raise questions about her racial legacy and shed new light on America's complicated racial history.

Most recently, Norris was a host on NPR's All Things Considered, where she informed, engaged and enlightened listeners with thoughtful interviews and in-depth reporting. An award-winning journalist, Norris has interviewed world leaders, Nobel laureates, Oscar winners, American presidents, military leaders, influential newsmakers and even astronauts traveling in outer space. She is known for her approachable interviewing style that is both relaxed and rigorous.

In addition to this deep reporting, Norris regularly interviews newsmakers, from politicians to prominent individuals such as Representatives James Clyburn (D-SC), Paul Ryan (R-WI) and First Lady Michelle Obama.

Norris has received numerous awards for her work. In 2009, she was named "Journalist of the Year" by the National Association of Black Journalists. The NABJ recognized Norris for her body of work, in addition to her coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign — when she co-hosted NPR's Democratic presidential candidates’ debate, covered both conventions, anchored multi-hour election and inauguration live broadcasts and moderated a series of candid conversations with voters on the intersection of race and politics. That series earned Norris and Morning Edition Host Steve Inskeep an Alfred I. duPont -Columbia University Award for excellence in broadcasting.

Kathleen Parker
Syndicated Columnist
Kathleen Parker started her column in 1987 when she was a staff writer for The Orlando Sentinel. Her column was nationally syndicated in 1995 and she joined The Washington Post Writers Group in 2006. Along the way, she has contributed articles to The Weekly Standard, Time, Town & Country, Cosmopolitan and Fortune Small Business, and she serves on USA Today's Board of Contributors and writes for that newspaper's op-ed page. She is a regular guest on "The Chris Matthews Show" on NBC. Her book "Save the Males: Why Men Matter, Why Women Should Care" was published in 2008 by Random House.  As an undergraduate, Parker studied in both the United States and abroad, including the University of Valencia in Spain. She holds a master's degree in Spanish from Florida State University, and is writer in residence at the Buckley School of Public Speaking in Camden, S.C.

Bev Perdue
Former Governor of North Carolina
Bev Perdue was born in Grundy, VA. She earned a bachelor's from the University of Kentucky, and she attended the University of Florida where she earned a master's and a doctorate degree.

Perdue was a schoolteacher in Kentucky, Florida and Georgia. She worked as a human services director, geriatric director and geriatric health care consultant.  She was elected to the state House in 1986 and to the state Senate in 1990. She became co-chairwoman of the state Senate Appropriations Committee in 1995.  Perdue was elected lieutenant governor in 2000 and served two terms before winning election to the governorship in 2008. She is the state's first female governor.  Bev Perdue decided to cut short her trailblazing political career by declining to run for re-election as North Carolina's governor in 2012, four years after she was elected the state's first female chief executive.

Anna Deavere Smith
Actress, Playwright and Educator
Ms. Smith is probably most recognizable in popular culture as Gloria Akalitus on Showtime’s hit series Nurse Jackie, or as Nancy McNally, national security advisor on NBC’s former hit The West Wing. Yet, her work in the theater has been a central part of her artistic life. It has been said that she created a new form of theater.

When granted the prestigious MacArthur Award, Ms. Smith’s work was described as “a blend of theatrical art, social commentary, journalism, and intimate reverie.” Ms. Smith’s theater combines the journalistic technique of interviewing her subjects with the art of interpreting their words through performance. Her most recent work Let Me Down Easy deals with the subject of health care. It ran for six months at New York’s Second Stage Theater, and then toured for nine months around the US. Its PBS broadcast (January 2012) is a part of PBS’s arts initiative.

Ms. Smith has received two Tony nominations, an Obie, Drama Desk Award, Special Citation from the New York Drama Critics Circle, and numerous other honors. She is author of Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines and Letters to a Young Artist (Random House), and has written for The New York Times, Newsweek, The New Yorker, OMagazine, Elle, Essence, and The Drama Review as well as other publications. 

Mary A. Tolan
Chairman, Accretive Health
Mary A. Tolan is Chairman of Accretive health, having co-founded the company in 2003. Prior to joining the company, Ms. Tolan spent 21 years at Accenture Ltd, a leading global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. At Accenture, Ms. Tolan served in several leadership roles, including group chief executive for the resources operating group that had approximately $2 billion in annual revenue, and as a member of Accenture’s executive committee and management committee. She serves on the board of trustees of the University of Chicago, Loyola University and the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Álvaro Uribe Vélez
Former President of Columbia
Álvaro Uribe Vélez is a Colombian politician who served as the 58th President of Colombia from 2002 to 2010. In August 2010 he was appointed Vice-chairman of the UN panel investigating the Gaza flotilla raid. Uribe started his political career in his home department of Antioquia. He has held office in the Empresas Públicas de Medellín and in the Ministry of Labor and in the Civil Aeronautic. Later he held office as the mayor of Medellín in 1982, then he was Senator between 1986 and 1994 and finally Governor of Antioquia between 1995 and 1997 before he was elected President of Colombia in 2002. Before his current role in politics Uribe was a lawyer. He studied law at the University of Antioquia and completed a post-graduate management program at Harvard University. He was awarded the Simón Bolívar Scholarship of the British Chevening Scholarships programme and was nominated Senior Associate Member at St Antony's College, Oxford after completing his term in office as the governor of Antioquia in 1990.