Berger Institute Speaker Series

Since its inception, the Berger Institute for Work, Family, and Children has established a Speaker Series, in which we sponsor quality speakers to discuss relevant issues on work, family, and children. The Berger Institute has been proud to present the following speakers at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum at Claremont McKenna College.

2012 Speaker Series

February 22, 2012 - Meg Wolitzer, best-selling novelist and writer. Her books, including The Wife (2004), The Ten-Year Nap (2008), and The Uncoupling (2011), have been praised in the pages of The New York Times and The Washington Post, among others. In addition, Wolitzer has written a number of screenplays. Her short fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories and The Puschcart Prize, and she has also taught writing at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop and at Skidmore College.

April 13, 2012 - "Can Adaptation Save Us From Climate Change?" A talk by Dr. Michael Greenstone, 3M Professor of Environmental Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Keynote speaker at the Southern California Conference in Applied Microeconomics, co-hosted with the Lowe Institute of Political Economy.

2011 Speaker Series

November 30, 2011 - Condoleezza Rice, former United States Secretary of State (2005-2009) and former United States National Security Advisor (2001-2005); author, No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington (2011) and Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family (2010). Sponsored by Res Publica, the Berger Institute for Work, Family, and Children, the Kravis Leadership Institute, the Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom, the Lowe Institute of Political Economy, the Keck Center for International & Strategic Studies, and the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum. In the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum.

April 15, 2011 - “Immigration:  Economics, Attitudes and Policies." A talk by Dr. David Card, Class of 1950 Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley;  Director, Center for Labor Economics, University of California, Berkeley; and  Faculty Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research. Keynote speaker at the Southern California Conference in Applied Microeconomics, co-hosted with the Lowe Institute of Political Economy.

March 21, 2011 - Ellen Galinsky, President and Co-Founder of Families and Work Institute (FWI), helped establish the field of work and family life at Bank Street College of Education, where she was on the faculty for twenty-five years. Her more than forty books and reports include the highly acclaimed Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs, Ask The Children and the now classic The Six Stages of Parenthood. She has published over 100 articles in academic journals, books and magazines.

2010 Speaker Series

March 10, 2010 - Joanna Strober, author of Getting to 50/50: How Working Couples Can Have It All By Sharing It All

April 16, 2010 - “Gender, Source Country Characteristics and Labor Market Assimilation Among Immigrants.” A talk by Dr. Francine Blau, Frances Perkins Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Labor Economics and Academic Fellows of the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA). Keynote speaker at the Southern California Conference in Applied Microeconomics, co-hosted with the Lowe Institute of Political Economy.

2009 Speaker Series

March 2, 2009 - Dr. June Carbone, Edward A. Smith/Missouri Chair of Law Professor, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law

March 11, 2009 - Sandra Tsing Loh, writer/performer, regular commentator on NPR’s "Morning Edition"

March 23, 2009 - Dr. Janet Currie, Professor of Economics and Chair of the Department of Economics, Columbia University

October 5, 2009 - Sylvia Ann Hewlett, author of Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success (2007)

2008 Speaker Series

February 18, 2008 - Dr. Raka Ray, Sarah Kailath Chair of India Studies, Associate Professor of Sociology and South and Southeast Asia Studies, University of California, Berkeley

March 25, 2008 - Dr. Shelly Lundberg, Castor Professor of Economics and Directos of the Center for Studies in Demography and Ucology, University of Washington

April 15, 2008 - Dr. Ross D. Parke, Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Family Studies, University of California, Riverside

2006 Speaker Series

September 26, 2006 - Jeremy Rifkin, Founder and President of the Foundation on Economic Trends

October 9, 2006 - Hon. Eugene Hyman, Santa Clara Superior Court Judge

October 24, 2006 - Dr. Kathryn Edin, Professor of Sociology and Research Associated at the Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania

November 6, 2006 - Dr. Stephanie Coontz, Professor of History and Women's Studies, The Evergreen State College

2005 Speaker Series

September 26, 2005 - Julie Fletcher, Vice-President, Human Resources and Learning Option One Mortgage

November 7, 2005 - Dr. Carollee Howes, Professor of Education University of California, Los Angeles

2004 Speaker Series

February 26, 2004 - Dr. Bernardo J. Carducci, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Shyness Research Institute at Indiana University Southeast

March 1, 2004 - Amelia Tyagi, Co-Founder of HealthAllies

March 11, 2004 - Dr. Phyllis Moen, Professor of Sociology, University of Minnesota

2003 Speaker Series

January 27, 2003 - Dr. Alvin Poussaint, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School - Co-sponsored with the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum

March 3, 2003 - Dr. Ted Bergstrom, Professor of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara

March 31, 2003 - Dr. Michael Lamb, Head, Section on Social and Emotional Development, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

April 7, 2003 - Dr. Rosalind Barnett, Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University

2002 Speaker Series

October 4, 2001 - Maya Ajmera, Founder, Global Fund For Children

January 30, 2002 - Diane F. Halpern, Director, Berger Institute for Work, Family, and Children and Professor, Claremont McKenna College

February 18, 2002 - Ann Crittenden, Author, "The Price of Motherhood"

March 4, 2002 - Barbara Schneider, Co-chair, Chicago Center on Working Families, University of Chicago

April 1, 2002 - Hedrick Smith, Film Maker, "Juggling Work and Family"

April 2, 2002 - Cathy Guisewite, Cartoonist, "Twenty-five Years with Cathy"

April 15, 2002 - Duncan Thomas, Professor of Economics, University of California, Los Angeles