About the speakers....

Newt Gingrich – The Art of Transformation

Newt Gingrich was first elected to Congress in 1978 to serve Georgia’s Sixth District. He rose to prominence in 1994 as the architect of the “Contract with America,” which led the Republican party to victory by capturing the U.S. House for the first time in 40 years. In 1995, Gingrich was elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and held that position until 1999.  The Washington Times has called Gingrich “the indispensable leader” and Time magazine, in naming him Man of the Year for 1995, said, “Leaders make things possible. Exceptional leaders make them inevitable. Newt Gingrich belongs in the category of the exceptional.”

Gingrich is founder of the Gingrich Group, a communications and consulting firm focused on transformational change, and the Center for Health Transformation, a collaboration of public and private sector leaders dedicated to the creation of a 21st Century Intelligent Health System that saves lives and saves money.

A prolific author, Gingrich has published several fiction and nonfiction best-sellers. His nonfiction books include Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America; Contract with America; To Renew America; Lessons Learned the Hard Way; Saving Lives & Saving Money; Window of Opportunity; The Art of Transformation; and Rediscovering God in America, which was made into a documentary-style movie; and his latest, A Contract with the Earth, published in October 2007.

Michael Beschloss – Presidential Courage:  Brave Leaders and How They Changed America

Award-winning historian Michael Beschloss has been called “the nation’s leading presidential historian” by Newsweek. Beschloss serves as NBC News’ presidential historian, the first time a major network has created such a position. He’s the author of eight books, including the acclaimed New York Times best-seller The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler’s Germany, 1941-1945.

His most recent book, Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989, has been called “engrossing … marvelous … and judicious,” and, “History written with subtlety, verve and an almost novelistic appreciation for the complexities of human nature and Presidential politics,” by Kirkus Reviews. An excerpt of the book also appeared in Newsweek.

Beschloss appears regularly on Meet the Press, Today, and other NBC network news programs. He also is a regular on PBS’s The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. In 2005, he won an Emmy for his role in creating the Discovery Channel series, Decisions that Shook the World, of which he was the host.

Larry Sabato

Dubbed “The Dr. Phil of American Politics by Washingtonian Magazine and “America’s favorite politi-cal scientist” by Fox News Channel, Larry Sabato gives his analysis of the state election process, and discusses possible reform. His latest book “A More Perfect Constitution: 23 Proposals to Revitalize our Constitution and Make America a Fairer Country,” spurred the recently held Center for Politics sponsored-National Symposium Series National Constitutional Convention A Call to Reform.