» Presidential Studies Program

The Bill and Ronna Shipman Distinguished Speaker Series in Presidential Studies encourages substantive and thoughtful debate on timely and essential topics related to the American presidency. In addition, this series will promote diversity of ideas and free speech reflective of the ideals of deliberative democracy. Understanding the history, influence, and global impact of the American presidency as an institution and the individuals who have and will hold the office is essential to promoting a better understanding of the American constitutional system and the ideal of public service in government. Speakers and related events will promote civic engagement, expanded political and intellectual discourse, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement from multiple perspectives on the Chapman University campus and beyond.

Chapman University’s School of Communication and Director Luke Nichter, Ph.D. Professor of History and James H. Cavanaugh Endowed Chair hosted The Distinguished Speaker Series in the Presidential Studies Program.

Read more about Dr. Nichter and the Cavanaugh gift...

These Chapman University events are open to Chapman faculty, students, and the community. Additional speakers and future events will be announced on our Presidential Studies Program page, so keep checking back!

Inaugural Bill and Ronna Shipman Distinguished Speaker Series in Presidential Studies with Kimberley Strassel

She moved to London in 1996 as a reporter covering technology and, in 1999, transferred to New York to cover commercial real estate. Soon thereafter, she joined the Journal’s editorial page, working as a features editor and then as an editorial writer. She assumed her current position in 2005.

 Strassel, a 2014 Bradley Prize recipient, regularly contributes to the Sunday political shows, including Fox News Sunday, NBC’s Meet the Press, and ABC’s This Week. She is also a co-author of Leaving Women Behind Modern Families, Outdated Laws, which argues that government regulation interferes with free market incentives to provide women with economic opportunity.

An Oregon native, Strassel earned a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy and International Affairs from Princeton University. She lives in Virginia with her husband and three children.

Inaugural Bill and Ronna Shipman Distinguished Speaker Series in Presidential Studies with Douglas Brinkley

Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, a CNN Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He has received seven honorary doctorates in American Studies. He works in many capacities in the world of public history, including for boards, museums, colleges, and historical societies. Six of his books were named New York Times “Notable Books of the Year,” and seven became New York Times bestsellers.

His The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, 2007, received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Book Award. Nancy Reagan selected him to edit President Ronald Reagan’s presidential diaries (2011). His 2012 book Cronkite won Fordham University’s Ann M. Sperber Prize for outstanding biographies. His two-volume annotated The Nixon Tapes in 2016 won the Arthur S. Link – Warren F. Kuehl Prize. He received a Grammy Award in 2017 as co-producer of Presidential Suite: Eight Variations on Freedom (Best Jazz Ensemble). The New York Historical Society selected Brinkley in 2017 as their official U.S. Presidential Historian. He is on the Board of Trustees at Brevard College and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. He is a member of the Century Association, Council of Foreign Relations, and James Madison Council of the Library of Congress.

He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and three children.

Read the article by The Panther HERE.

Inaugural Bill and Ronna Shipman Distinguished Speaker Series in Presidential Studies with Mara Liasson

Mara Liasson is a contributor to FOX News Channel (FNC) and the national political correspondent for NPR. She joined FOX in 1997 and serves as a panelist on Special Report with Brett Baier and FOX News Sunday, FOX Broadcasting Company’s public affairs program that airs nationwide each Sunday morning.

Liasson joined NPR in 1985 as a general assignment reporter and newscaster. She covered Congress and served as the White House correspondent during all eight years of the Clinton administration. Now, as the national political correspondent, her reports can be heard on the award-winning news magazines All Things Considered and Morning Edition.

During her tenure, she has covered all the presidential elections since 1992 and reports on Senate and House races every election year. She is an expert on elections, national policy, and relations between the White House and Congress.

Liasson received a Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism. From 1988 - June 1989, she took a leave of absence to attend Columbia University in New York. Shortly thereafter, she returned to NPR as its congressional correspondent.

Liasson has received numerous awards and honors for her reporting, including the White House Correspondents’ Association’s “Merriman Smith Award” in 1994, 1995, and 1997 for excellence in daily news reporting.

Liasson earned her bachelor’s degree from Brown University.

Inaugural Bill and Ronna Shipman Distinguished Speaker Series in Presidential Studies with John Heilemann

Heilemann is a co-founder of Recount Media and the editor-in-chief of The Recount, a new platform for short-form videos covering politics. He is a co-host and executive producer of The Circus, the heralded weekly political documentary series now in its sixth season on Showtime. He is National Affairs Analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, where he appears on Morning Joe, The Last Word, Deadline: White House, and The 11th Hour. And he is the co-author of two of the most successful and influential books in history on presidential politics: Game Change and Double Down, widely regarded as the definitive chronicles of the 2008 and 2012 elections, respectively. A New York Times No. 1 best-seller and worldwide sensation, reprinted in nine languages, Game Change was adapted by HBO Films into a movie of the same name, which went on to win five Emmy Awards, three Golden Globes, and a Peabody Award.