Colleges & Universities

With the 2020 presidential election rapidly approaching and candidates hotly debating topics on the national stage, it is important to keep the dialogue alive about the issues that matter most. Our speakers are the voices that can help educate your audiences on the importance of voting and empowering our youth. 

New York Times best-selling author, musician and APB speaker James McBride wrote The Good Lord Bird, a powerful story of John Brown, a white American abolitionist who in 1859—along with 19 others—attacked the largest arsenal of weapons in America, ultimately prompting the Civil War. The drama is set to premiere on Showtime October 4th. The network consulted with the producers and other voices to proactively consider the content carefully. “We have to find ways to talk about race instead of yelling and shouting,” says McBride. “This guy [Brown] showed us how to do it.” 

APB speaker Jeffrey Selingo, best-selling author and co-host of the podcast FUTURE U, reports on the future of work and its impact on lifelong learning, paying for college, the financial sustainability of traditional higher education, and what employers and the public increasingly want in a college degree. His latest book, Who Gets In and Why, takes readers on a journey from the inside of admissions offices, revealing what really matters in the selection process and how ultimately decisions are based a college’s agenda and its priorities rather than the quality of applicants. Now the question is how will this pandemic change college admissions?

As both an observer of higher education and an insider with academic appointments at two universities, APB speaker Jeffrey Selingo occupies a unique position to explain higher education’s critical and influential role in the world economy. In his latest article in The Atlantic, Selingo explains how, as colleges are preparing to reopen, they are overlooking the concerns of campus staff. 

APB speaker David Epstein has made it his mission to uncover the keys to achieving high performance in any domain, and to debunk popular myths along the way. In his recent speech at TEDxManchester, he discussed why specializing early doesn't always mean career success. Be sure to check out the video on TED.com!

APB speaker Cleve Jones is a renowned activist whose work began in the 1970s during the gay liberation movement. A mentee of groundbreaking LGBTQ+ activist Harvey Milk, Jones has gone on to co-found the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, create the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and publish the memoir, When We Rise.

A political analyst for NBC and MSNBC and chief public affairs officer for MoveOn, Karine Jean-Pierre is now Kamala Harris’ Chief of Staff! Karine might be a new name to many, but she has been fighting against inequality for years.

Award-winning essayist and critic, frequent college speaker and best-selling author William Deresiewicz has a new book coming out on July 28th! The Death of the Artist: How Creators Are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech is a researched warning explaining how the digital economy threatens artists' lives and work—the music, writing, and visual art that sustain our souls and societies.

APB speaker John Quiñones is an ABC news veteran as well as the host of What Would You Do? on ABC with a new season premiering July 7th  at 10|9c. What Would You Do? is the highly-rated, hidden camera ethical dilemma newsmagazine, and Quiñones has literally become “the face of doing the right thing” to millions of fans. The bystanders on this hidden camera show are forced to make tough calls when directly faced with situations of racism, violence, hate crimes and other cultural issues going on everyday.

Oprah Winfrey has chosen New York Times bestselling author and APB speaker James McBride’s Deacon King Kong for her latest book club read. McBride’s novel is set in a Brooklyn housing project in 1969 and centers on the shooting of a drug dealer by an aging and tipsy church deacon. This book also pays tribute to community and to James’ own childhood in a Brooklyn project. "In a moment when our country roils with righteous anger and grief," Oprah says, "Deacon King Kong reminds us that when we come together as a community in compassion and empathy, our love triumphs."