Several of America’s leading voices in education will serve as panelists for the second in a series of National Conversations, sponsored by Indiana Wesleyan University.
The event, which will be October 22 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., will focus on the theme “Education in Crisis: The Unasked Questions.”
The first of the National Conversations, which focused on health care, was February 19 at the studios of WFYI-TV in Indianapolis. WFYI, the Indianapolis-based Sagamore Institute and Christianity Today International are co-sponsors of the series.
Scott Jaschik, founder and editor of Inside Higher Ed, will serve as the moderator for the main panel discussion and also for a second panel that will reflect on the main discussion.
Panelists for the 90-minute main discussion, “Education in Crisis: The Unasked Questions,” will be:
- Michael Gerson, The Washington Post
- Naomi Schaefer Riley, an author and national writer
- Phil Gardner, Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University
- Holiday Hart McKiernan, Lumina Foundation
- Deborah Santiago, EdExcelencia
- Mark C. Taylor, Crisis on Campus
- Gail Mellow, LaGuardia Community College
Jay Hein, President of the Sagamore Institute, will moderate the question-and-answer portion of the main panel discussion.
Panelists for the second discussion, “Enriching the Perspective on the Educational Crisis in America,” will be:
- Alan Bjerga, National Press Club
- Jeremie Kubicek, GiANT Impact
- Lindsay Waters, Harvard University Press
- Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen, The American University in the Postsecular Age
- Mark Galli, Christianity Today
A third panel discussion will feature several authors who have written books related to education. Moderators will be Dr. Jerry Pattengale, an IWU administrator who also serves as Executive Director of National Conversations, and John Wilson, Editor of Books & Culture. Authors on the panel are Mark C. Taylor, Naomi Schaefer Riley and Lindsay Waters, along with Tim Elmore, President of Growing Leaders. Hein also will moderate the question-and-answer portion of this discussion.
The working title for National Conversations is “The University and the Public Square: A Series of Civil Dialogues about Society’s Well-being.” Dr. David Wright, IWU’s Provost and Chief Academic Officer, is the founder of the series. “I believe there is a serious need for a convener of conversations about the great issues we face in our time and from the leading voices on those issues,” Wright said. “This role is certainly in keeping with our University’s heritage.” Wright emphasized, however, that the project is not about Indiana Wesleyan University. “It’s about the place that we as Christian universities play in creating well-being in our world today. A very practical outcome of this, we hope, is that it will show us places where we can make a difference based on our understanding of the issues.”