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The What’s the Big Idea? Lecture Series is designed to expand our understanding about conditions, causes, consequences, and solutions regarding social equity and opportunity. The 2007-2008 What’s the Big Idea? Lecture Series Included: • Maya Wiley - Moving Forward: An Inclusive Agenda for Sustainability • Jared Bernstein - Prospects for a New Economy: Beyond Crunch Economics and the Squeeze on Working America • Daniel Kemmis - Is the Presidency Over-rated? • Rajiv Bhatia - Planning for Health: Health Impact Assessments as a Tool to Make Cities More Livable • Andy Stern - America: A Country of Greed or Greatness? • Marion Wright Edelman – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Tribute • Michael Shellenberger - Breakthrough: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility Descriptions of these events can be found below. ____________ May 28, 2008Moving Forward: An Inclusive Agenda for Sustainability
We concluded the 2007-2008 What’s the Big Idea? Lecture Series on May 28th with this event featuring Maya Wiley, founder and director of the Center for Social Inclusion a research and advocacy organization that works to build a fair and just society. A graduate of Columbia University School of Law, Ms. Wiley has worked in national and international settings and is a contributing author to Growing Smarter: Achieving Livable Communities, Environmental Justice and Regional Equity (2007). Maya’s talk was the capstone to a daylong summit, “Planning for Opportunity: An Inclusive Agenda for Sustainability” - the Coalition for a Livable Future’s Sixth Annual Regional Livability Summit, co-hosted this year by SEOF and the Sidney Lezak Project and attended by over 300 people. Following Ms. Wiley's presentation, a panel of community leaders from diverse sectors shared their perspectives on moving an equity agenda forward in our region. Panelists included: Sam Brooks, Portland Business Alliance and Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs; Barbara Dudley, Working Family and Hatfield School of Government; Michael Jordon, COO Metro; Chuck Sheketoff, Oregon Center for Public Policy; and Jeri Williams, City of Portland, Office of Neighborhood Involvement. ___________ April 28, 2008 Prospects for a New Economy: Beyond Crunch Economics and the Squeeze on Working America Author-economist Jared Bernstein shed light on current economic conditions and offered specific solutions for the future. Bernstein demystifies economics, and helped us understand the state of working America, the policies assaulting the Middle Class, implications of growing inequality, and steps necessary to build an economy that works for all of us, not just the chosen few. Bernstein is a senior economist and director of the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, DC. A leading authority on issues of labor and income inequality, he frequently testifies on Capitol Hill and advises members of Congress on economic policy. Co-author of eight editions of The State of Working America, he is also the author of All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy, a weekly commentator on CNBC, a regular source for media outlets such as NPR and the New York Times, and host of the bi-weekly podcast EconoCorner. This lecture was co-sponsored by the Oregon Center for Public Policy, the Sidney Lezak Project, and PSU’s Center for Academic Excellence. ___________ April 2, 2008 Is the Presidency Over-Rated? SEOF co-sponsored with the College of Urban & Public Affairs’ Hatfield School of Government and the National Policy Consensus Center, Daniel Kemmis - a senior fellow at The University of Montana’s Center for the Rocky Mountain West. Mr. Kemmis was formerly Mayor of Missoula, Montana, and a former Speaker and Minority Leader of the Montana House of Representatives. Mr. Kemmis serves on the Board of Directors of Philanthropy Northwest and the Missoula Redevelopment Agency. He is Chair of the Board of the Northwest Area Foundation and Chair of the Program Committee of the Kettering Foundation Board of Trustees. During a time of inundating presidential election coverage, Mr. Kemmis challenged us to ask whether a healthy democracy should put so much emphasis on one particular office. Is the “imperial presidency” itself a threat to democracy? Should we be trying to spread power more evenly between branches and across jurisdictions? ___________ February 27, 2008 Planning for Health: Health Impact Assessments as a Tool to Make Cities More Livable Dr. Rajiv Bhatia, MD, MPH, discussed Health Impact Assessment (HIA) as a tool for bridging planning and community health interests. Through research and practice, Dr. Bhatia has emerged as one of the nation’s foremost experts on the use of HIA and the intersection of planning, policy, and health. He nimbly discussed a range of social determinants of health - covering topics as diverse as housing, green industry, food access, neighborhood design, and transportation. Dr. Bhatia’s insights drew from his experience working for the City of San Francisco, the non-profit Human Impact Partners, and his practice as a physician. ___________ January 28, 2008 America: A Country of Greed or Greatness? SEOF co-sponsored with the Sidney Lezak Project, Andy Stern, President of the 1.9 million member Service Employees International Union (SEIU). In his lecture, Stern offered vision and pragmatism -- saying it is not only possible, but necessary, for workers to share in the prosperity they help create. Stern is the author of the book, A Country That Works, which offers a prescription for political and economic reforms for the US.___________ January 17, 2008 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Tribute SEOF co-sponsored an appearance by Marion Wright Edelman, founder and Director of the Children’s Defense Fund. In this inspiring tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ms. Edelman reminded us that America lags behind most industrialized countries on many measures, shamelessly squandering rather than cultivating potential, and recklessly impoverishing society on financial, cultural, and spiritual terms.___________ November 1st, 2007 Breakthrough: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility SEOF’s inaugural event in the “What’s the Big Idea?” lecture series drew a crowd of over 180 people. Michael Shellenberger, co-author of Breakthrough: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility delivered a provocative, inspiring talk suggesting that global climate change must be addressed in ways that spur economic development and social justice. For inquiries about any of these events, please contact Rod Johnson at
503-725-4044 or rod@pdx.edu |
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