Stephen S. Smith Center

Smith Center Events


2024 Education in Crisis Symposium 

Date: Wednesday, October 16, 2024 
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 1:15 p.m. 
Location: James and Caroline Duff Banquet Room
Xavier University's Cintas Center Cincinnati, OH 

Thank you for your interest! The registration is now closed. Please contact wcbevents@xavier.edu for any questions.

Program: 

Light Breakfast: 8:15 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
Panel 1: 9:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. Ohio School Challenges and Solutions
Panel 2: 10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. A Deeper Look at Solutions to the Education Crisis
Fireside Chat: 12 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.  Ohio Students and Teachers in a Post-Covid Environment

Panel Discussions: 

Panel 1: Ohio School Challenges and Solutions

  • Moderator: Erika Eicholz, M.Ed., Deputy Director, Cincinnati Montessori Secondary Teacher Education Program
  • Dr. Cate O’Brien, Director School Programs, Catholic Inner City Schools Education Fund 
  • Tim Reilly, President, St. Xavier High School
  • Mary Ronan, Superintendent, Norwood City Schools, Previous Superintendent, Cincinnati Public Schools 
  • Dr. Terrez Thomas, Principal, Mt. Healthy South Elementary 

Panel 2: A Deeper Look at Solutions to the Education Crisis

  • Moderator: Madeline Mitchell, Education Reporter, Cincinnati Enquirer 
  • Dr. Vladimir Kogan, Professor of Political Science, The Ohio State University
  • Dan Peters, President, Lovett and Ruth Peters Foundation
  • Julie Sellers, President, Cincinnati Federation of Teachers
  • Dennis Willard, Communications Director, Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Luncheon Fireside Chat: Ohio Students and Teachers in a Post-Covid Environment

  • Moderator: Steve Frankel, Executive Director of the Smith Center
  • Dr. Vladimir Kogan, Professor of Political Science, The Ohio State University
  • Julie Sellers, President, Cincinnati Federation of Teachers

Julie Sellers, President, Cincinnati Federation of Teachers

julie-sellers.jpg

Julie Sellers taught elementary school in Cincinnati Public Schools for twenty years before being elected President of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, Local 1520 in 2009. She is currently serving in her 7th elected term as an American Labor Leader for 3000+ Cincinnati Public School teachers and office professionals; she has successfully negotiated five labor contracts with the CPS district. She serves on the national Policies and Program Committee of the AFT, which helps to set national educational policies.  She also serves on the Executive Board of the Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council and serves as a Trustee for the Labor Council.

Dr. Vladimir Kogan, Professor of Political Science, The Ohio State University

dr-vladimir-kogan.jpg

Dr. Vladimir Kogan is a professor of political science and (by courtesy) public affairs at the Ohio State University. His research focuses on the intersection of politics and education — how the decisions voters make on Election Day (e.g., in school board contests) affect student learning in the classroom. Kogan’s new book, No Adult Left Behind, is coming out soon from Cambridge University Press. In it, he argues that adult interests — related to partisan conflicts, identity politics, and employment concerns — regularly hijack education policymaking, leaving students and their learning to ultimately pay the price.

Contact

Williams College of Business
wcbevents@xavier.edu

 

PAST EVENTS 


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April 10, 2024

Presentation by Neal McCluskey,

Director of CATO's Center for Educational Freedom.


Mr. McCluskey will speak on School Choice and Social Cohesion. Copies of his book, The Fractured Schoolhouse, will be available for purchase and signing.

6:00-6:30 - Reception and book signing, The Fractured Schoolhouse
6:30-7:30 - Remarks and Q/A

Sorry, event registration is now closed

 

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Dr.  Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute; editor of National Affairs, and author of "A time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and Campus";  How Recommitting to our institutions Can revive the American Dream.

 

 

 


 

 

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Michael Loban is the Chief Growth Officer at InfoTrust, a global analytics consulting and data governance company. He is the author of "Crawl, Walk, and Run: Advancing Analytics" and his article appearing in Forbes, AdWeek, and CIO Magazine.

 

 

 

 


 

 

Mary Grabar: "Howard Zinn and The Fight for Truth in History" October 22, 2020

 

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On October 22, 2020, the Smith Center hosted Mary Grabar, who discussed her book: Debunking Howard Zinn.

Dr. Grabar was born in Slovenia when it was still part of the Communist Yugoslavia and grew up in Rochester, New York. She earned her Ph.D. in English from the University of Georgia and taught at Emory University until 2013. In 2014, Dr. Grabar became a resident fellow at The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization. She also founded a nonprofit reform iniciative the "Dissident Prof. Education Project"

 

 


 

 

Bruce Caldwell: "Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom on its 75th Anniversary" September 16,2020

 

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On September 16, 2020, the Smith Center hosted Dr. Bruce Caldwell who discussed "Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom on its 75th Anniversary".

Dr. Caldwell is a Duke University Research Professor. His research focuses on the history of economic thought, with a specific interest in the life and works of F. A. Hayek. He is the general editor of The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, which is published by The University of Chicago Press and Routledge. He is the director of the Center for the History of Political Economy, a center whose purpose is to promote research in, and the teaching of the history of economic thought.

 

 


 

 

Lawrence H. White "The Importance of F. A. Hayeks "The Road to Serfdom" September 7, 2020

 

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On September 7, 2020, the Smith Center hosted Dr. Lawrence White who discussed F.A. Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom".

Dr. White is a George Mason University Professor of economics and a distinguished senior fellow with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at GMU Mercatus Center.  

 


 

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On February 23rd of 2018, the Smith Center hosted a Distinguished Speaker Luncheon featuring Sam Quinones. He is the author of Dreamland, a New York Times best seller which tells the story of how heroin addiction became an epidemic in America. In addition to Sam sharing the story of his journey and investigation that became the basis of the novel, the event also featured two panels of speakers including Judge Executive Gary Moore, Paul T. Farrell Jr., Esq., Tanya Cornett LPCC, and two family members sharing their own tragic, yet inspiring, story of resilience and finding hope in the wake of the crisis.

 


 

Fall 2017 Speaker Series: J.D. Vance

 


 

J. D. Vance is the author of Hillbilly Elegy. A memoir about the Appalachian values of his upbringing and their relation to the social problems of his hometown. The book was on the New York Times best-sellers list in 2016 and 2017. It attracted significant attention during the 2016 election from national media as a window into the white working class.

J.D. Vance is a graduate of the Ohio State University and Yale Law School, and works as the principal in the Mithril Capital Management venture capital firm.  In January 2017, Vance became a CNN Contributor. In April 2017, Ron Howard signed on to direct a movie based on Hillbilly Elegy. The Stephen S. Smith Center hosted J.D. Vance on September 29, 2017. 

 


Matthew McCormick Investment Symposium, 2017

 

 

On January 26, 2017, the Center co-hosted, with the Fifth Third Trading Center, “The Matthew McCormick Cincinnati Investment Symposium.” The symposium featured a keynote address from Angela McGlowan, Fox News American Political Commentator, along with two panel discussions from financial and economic experts, covering the economic and investment environment: Scott Colbert, SVP, Chief Economist and Director of Fixed Income Management at Commerce Bank; Mike Condon, SVP, Institutional Investments at Fund Evaluation Group; James E. Russell Jr., VP and Principal, Portfolio Manager, Investment Research and Client Service at Bahl & Gaynor; Michael McDonough, Global Director of Economic Research & Chief Economist at Bloomberg Intelligence; R. Stafford Johnson, Director of the Smith Center and Professor of Finance at Xavier University; Nathan Bachrach, CEO at Simply Money.

 


Fall 2016 Speaker Series: John Taylor

 

   

 

On October 16, 2016, Dr. John Taylor, was the Stephen S. Smith Center's first distinguished speaker. Dr. Taylor is the Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of Economics at Stanford University and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute. He is a well-respected economist, having served as a senior economist on the President's Council of Economic Advisors and as a consultant to a number of central banks. He is perhaps most famous for Taylor's Rule.