KEYNOTE SPEAKER & BIO

Signature Event Speaker,  Jon Meacham, Best-selling Author and Editor of Newsweek

Faith and Politics: From George Washington to Barack Obama

Monday, January 26, 2009 – 7:30 p.m.

The Carlsen Center
Johnson County Community College
12345 College Blvd.
Overland Park, Kansas 66210

“ . . . one of our country’s most brilliant thinkers about religion’s impact on American society.”
Michael Beschloss, Award-winning historian

As Editor of Newsweek, Jon Meacham has been named “one of the most influential editors in the news magazine business” by The New York Times. With a keen understanding of complex interplay among media, culture, government and religion, he offers a unique and stimulating perspective.  Along with his in-depth knowledge and experience, he is known as an engaging speaker and fascinating storyteller.

Touching on the rich and provocative history of faith at our nation’s founding, he discusses how issues of faith play out – for better and worse – in current times. Most importantly, Mr. Meacham explores the changing political climate and what it may mean as Americans grapple with the reality of pluralism – peoples of varied religious persuasions (or none) living side by side.

Order your tickets now!

Arrive early for open seating. Purchase tickets by telephone or online. All tickets are General Admission.

Purchase by Phone:   Cost: $20 + $1.00 service charge
Phone Carlsen Center Box Office
@ 913-469-4445, TDD: 913-469-4885
Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday-Friday

Purchase Online: Purchase.Tickets.com
Cost: $20 + $2.50 service charge.
In addition, a $3 Internet fee will be added to your total ticket order.

Student’s tickets available for $10 at the Carlsen Center Box Office.

Public Interfaith Dialogue Opportunities:

In conjunction with Mr. Meacham’s presentation, several public facilitated interfaith dialogues are offered in the two weeks following the event.

• January 29, Thursday: Kansas City Public Library, Plaza Branch, 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO,  6:30 - 8 p.m.
• February 2, Monday: Johnson County Library, Central Resource Library. 9875 West 87th Street, Overland Park, KS, 6:30-8:00 p.m.
• February 4, Wednesday: Park University, 8700 NW River Park Drive, Parkville, MO, 6:30 - 8 p.m.
• February 5, Thursday: Johnson County Community College, 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park, KS. Regnier Center, 6:30-8:00 p.m.

For the complete schedule and details of the facilitated conversations, continue to visit: www.festivaloffaithskc.org.

Biography of Jon Meacham

Jon Meacham is the Editor of Newsweek. He arrived at the magazine as a writer in January 1995, became national affairs editor in June of that year, was named managing editor in November 1998 and was appointed editor of the magazine in October 2006. He supervises Newsweek's coverage of politics, international affairs, and breaking news, and has written cover stories on, among other topics, war, politics, religion, and race.

His latest book, American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation, was published by Random House on April 11, 2006, and became a New York Times and a Washington Post bestseller; it was favorably reviewed in such diverse publications as The Washington Post and First Things.

Meacham's book Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship, about the wartime relationship between Roosevelt and Churchill, was published by Random House on October 21, 2003, and became a New York Times bestseller. Named a book of the year by The Los Angeles Times, it won The Churchill Centre's 2005 Emery Reves Award for the best book of the year on Winston Churchill (previous winners include Roy Jenkins, Sir Martin Gilbert, and William Manchester) and the William H. Colby Military Writers' Symposium's Book of the Year Award. The paperback edition of Franklin and Winston was also a New York Times bestseller.

He has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, and The Washington Post Book World. In 2001, he edited Voices in Our Blood: America's Best on the Civil Rights Movement (Random House), a collection of distinguished nonfiction about the midcentury struggle against Jim Crow. He served as a judge of the 26th Annual Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial.

Born in Chattanooga in 1969, Meacham graduated from The McCallie School and from The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, with a degree summa cum laude in English Literature; he was salutatorian and elected to Phi Beta Kappa. An Episcopalian, Meacham is a communicant of St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, where he serves on the Vestry of the 180 year-old parish. He is also a member of the Board of Regents of The University of the South, the Vestry of Trinity Church Wall Street, the Leadership Council of the Harvard Divinity School and the Council on Foreign Relations. He received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University in 2005 and also holds honorary doctorates from Emmanuel College, Boston; Loyola College in Maryland; and Wagner College, New York City.

A contributing editor of The Washington Monthly, Meacham began his career at The Chattanooga Times. He is currently at work on a biography of Andrew Jackson. He and his wife live in New York City with their two children.