Past speakers

2008
Ray LaHood - U.S. Congressman (R-Peoria) - 4.28.08
David E. Sanger - Chief Washington correspondent, New York Times - 4.16.08
Alexi Giannoulias, Illinois State Treasurer - 4.06.08
Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois - 3.27.08
Dr. Tieraona Low Dog, University of Arizona - 3.19.08
Wole Soyinka, 1986 Nobel Prize laureate for literature. - 2.28.08
Ray Suarez, senior correspondent, "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." - 2.26.08

2007
Henry Bayer, executive director, Illinois AFSCME Council 31 - 11.15.07
Morris Dees, founder, Southern Poverty Law Center - 11.06.07
Anne M. Burke, Illinois Supreme Court Justice - 10.17.07
Catherine Bertini, the former executive director of the United Nation's World Food Programme - 10.15.07
Joan E. Higginbotham, NASA astronaut - 10.04.07
Christopher Gardner, CEO of Christopher Gardner International Holdings - 08.23.07
Alan J. Dixon, former U.S. Senator (D-IL) - 5.15.07
Bob Hartley, author and historian - 5.15.07
Maya Angelou, poet, author, civil rights leader - 5.02.07
Ellen Soeteber, former St. Louis Post-Dispatch editor - 4.24.07
Bob Hillman, former Dallas Morning News White House correspondent - 4.24.07
Al Balk, author and former editor of the Columbia Journalism Review - 4.24.07
Rick Kittles, renowned geneticist and cancer researcher - 4.12.07
Barbara Flynn Currie, Illinois State Representative and House Majority Leader - 4.02.07
Aaron Schock, Illinois State Representative (R-Peoria) - 3.24.07
Lisa Madigan, Illinois Attorney General - 3.24.07
Art Turner, Illinois State Representative and House Deputy Majority Leader - 2.19.07
Christine Todd Whitman, former EPA Administrator and New Jersey governor - 2.06.07
Ben Nelson, U.S. Senator (D-NE) and former Nebraska governor - 2.06.07
Jim Edgar, former Illinois governor - 2.06.07

2006
Gillian M. Sorensen, UN Foundation Senior Adviser - 10.24.06
Andrew H. Card, Jr., Veteran of Three White House Administrations - 10.10.06
Philip Taubman, Washington D.C., bureau chief of the New York Times - 09.25.06
Paula Wolff, Recipient of the Ralph A. Dunn Public Service Award - 09.18.06
Martin Luther King III, Civil Rights Leader - 08.26-27.06
Tom Cross, Illinois House Republican Leader
Tom Daschle, former U.S. Senator (D-SD)
Rodney Paige, former U.S. Secretary of Education
Clarence Page, nationally syndicated columnist
Ray LaHood, Illinois State Representative
Deanna Demuzio, Illinois State Senator
Jackie Spinner, Washington Post reporter
Earl Caldwell, journalist
Ralph Martire, Executive Director, Center for Tax and Budget Accountability

2005
Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew Shepard who was murdered in a 1998 hate crime
Janice Jacobs, head of visa services in the United States
Walter Rodgers, former senior international correspondent for CNN and SIU Alumnus
Mary Ann McMorrow, first female Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court
John C. Green, Director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics University of Akron
Jim Thebaut, director of Running Dry, a documentary based on a book by Paul Simon
Don Cochran, former assistant federal prosecutor
Jerry Mitchell, investigative reporter with the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss
Thomas Friedman, New York Times foreign affairs columnist and author
William Recktenwald, tsunami survivor and SIUC professor
Art Simon, founder and president emeritus of Bread for the World

2004
Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy to Africa on HIV/AIDS
Dan Balz, national political correspondent of The Washington Post
Mike Huckabee, Governor of Arkansas
Stanley Nelson, Emmy and Peabody Award winning filmmaker
Dawn Clark Netsch, first woman elected to statewide office in Illinois
Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate for an anti-landmine campaign
Michael J. Madigan, Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives
John Block, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
Dr. William Close, internationally acclaimed physician and author
Dr. Joe Nye, Dean of Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
David Yepsen, Des Moines Register Political Columnist

2003
Judy Baar Topinka, Illinois State Treasurer
Anthony Zinni, retired U.S. General
Richard Goldstone, Justice of the South Africa Constitutional Court
Walter Cronkite, legendary newsman
Carol Channing, Tony-Award winning entertainer
Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Chair of the President's Commission on White House
Fellowships
Howard Baker, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, former U.S. Senator (R-TN)
Nancy Kassebaum Baker, former U.S. Senator (R-KS)
Bruce Laingen, former U.S. Ambassador and Iranian hostage
Autherine Lucy Foster, civil rights pioneer
George McGovern, former U.S. Senator and 1972 Presidential Candidate
Ed Asner, actor and social activist
William Perry, former U.S. Secretary of Defense
Oliver "Buzz" Thomas, Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center
Charles Haynes, Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center

2002
Martin Marty, renowned University of Chicago theologian
Clayton Yeutter, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
Richard Carmona, U.S. Surgeon General
Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General
David Dinkins, former mayor of New York
Mike Farrell, actor and human rights activist
David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General
William Hungate, former U.S. Congressman and retired Federal Judge
Joe Tydings, former U.S. Senator (D-MD), (San Diego program)
Jim Sasser, former U.S. Senator (D-TN), (San Diego program)
David Durenberger, former U.S. Senator (R-MN)
Henry Bellmon, former U.S. Senator (R-OK) and Okla. Governor
Hank Brown, former U.S. Senator (R-CO), (San Diego program)
Richard Brecht, Director of the National Foreign Language Center

2001
John Anderson, former U.S. Congressman and 1980 Presidential Candidate
Coretta Scott King, human rights leader
Brian Mulroney, former Canadian Prime Minister
Harry Mark Petrakis, Greek author
Karen Hasara, former Illinois State Senator
Kirk Dillard, Illinois State Senator
Debbie Halvorson, Illinois State Senator
Clarence Harmon, former St. Louis Mayor
Corinne Wood, Illinois Lt. Governor
Pete Seeger, singer, songwriter and activist
Romeo Dallaire, retired Canadian Lt. General
James A. Baker III, former U.S. Secretary of State
Richard Riley, formerU.S. Secretary of Education
David Broder, Washington Post columnist and reporter
Dick Gregory, entertainer and activist

2000
Eugene Lang, founder "I Have a Dream" Foundation
Judy Baar Topinka, Illinois State Treasurer
Don McHenry, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
Dick Durbin, U.S. Senator (D-IL)
Barack Obama, Illinois State Senator
Lisa Madigan, Illinois State Senator
Juan Andrade Jr., Hispanic leader
Gwendolyn Brooks, Illinois Poet Laureate
Thomas Patterson, Professor of Government at Harvard University
William Gray, President & CEO of The College Fund
Heather Booth, founder of Citizen Action
Ron and Joan Engel, social advocates
Bernard Rapoport, Chairman Emeritus, American Income Life Insurance Co.

1999
David Rawson, former U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda
Studs Terkel, renowned author and historian
Carol Moseley Braun, former U.S. Senator and Ambassador to New Zealand
C. Everett Koop, former U.S. Surgeon General
Glenn Poshard, former U.S. Congressman (D-IL)
William Warfield, Grammy award winning singer
Wayne Owens, former U.S. Congressman (D-NV)
Fred Korematsu, Japanese-American civil rights leader
Michael Dukakis, former Massachusetts Governor and 1988 Presidential Candidate
Tom Sawyer, U.S. Congressman (D-OH)
Jesse White, Illinois Secretary of State
Barbara Bush, former First Lady of the United States
Jack Kubik, former Illinois State Representative

1998
Dick Lugar, U.S. Senator (R-IN)
Sherrod Brown, U.S. Congressman (D-OH)
Eugene Carroll Jr., retired Navy Admiral
Bette Bao Lord, renowned author on China
Winston Lord, former U.S. Ambassador to China
Barbara Gottschalk, executive vice president, Seeds for Peace
Lee Hamilton, U.S. Congressman (D-IN)
Jim Edgar, Illinois Governor
Dan Rostenkowski, former U.S. Congressman (D-IL)
Joe Hartzler, Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Oklahoma City Bombing case
Webbster Hubbel, former U.S. Deputy Attorney General
Ken Hechler, former U.S. Congressman (D-WV) and WV Secretary of State
Dick DeSchutter, vice chairman, Monsanto
Robert Nye, U.S. Congressman (R-OH)
Pat Robertson, Christian leader
Chief Shoneken of Lagos, Nigeria

1997
Hubert Humphrey III, Minnesota Attorney General
Jim Ryan, Illinois Attorney General
David Kessler, former director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Alan Simpson, former U.S. Senator (R-WY)
David Pryor, former U.S. Senator (D-AR)
Jack Danforth, former U.S. Senator (R-MO)