Ubben Lecture Series collection

The Timothy and Sharon Ubben Lecture Series brings the world's leaders to DePauw's campus. A notable list of eminent individuals from a variety of backgrounds — including politicians, scientists, journalists, artists and human rights activists — have presented 120 Ubben Lectures since the series began in 1986 through a gift from 1958 graduates Tim and Sharon Ubben. All of the programs are free and open to the public.

Speaker List:

2023, March 20 - Brad Stevens, President of basketball operations, Boston Celtics

2022, November 2 - Maria Ressa, Nobel Prize Recipient

2021, November 22 - Tamika Catchings, Olympian and Basketball Hall of Famer

2020, February 25 - Ken Jennings, Jeopardy! Champion and Author

2019, October 8 - Condoleezza Rice, Educator, Author, Former US Secretary of State

2019, January 31 - John Kasich Jr., Former Ohio Governor and Congressman, Author and Presidential Candidate

2018, October 22 - Juan Manuel Santos, Former Colombian President, Nobel Peace Prize Recipient

2018, April 17 - Jenna Fischer, Award-Winning Actress (The Office) and Author

2018, February 28 - David Hanson and Sophia, CEO of Hanson Robotics and His Creation

2017, November 8 - Bill Rasmussen '54, Founder of ESPN, Entrepreneur

2017, September 4 - Malala Yousafzai, Activist, Author and Nobel Peace Prize Recipient

2016, December 8 - David Cameron, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

2016, October 29 - Vernon E. Jordan Jr. '57, Civil Rights Legend and Presidential Adviser

2016, September 20 - Leslie Odom Jr., Tony Award-Winning Hamilton Actor

2016, April 21 - Arne Duncan, Former US Secretary of Education

2015, October 26 - Douglas Hallward-Driemeier '89, Attorney, Supreme Court Advocate

2015, October 5 - Yeonmi Park, North Korean Defector and Human Rights Activist

2015, April 24 - Andrew Luck, National Football League Quarterback

2015, March 31 - Dan Quayle '69, The 44th Vice President of the United States, Chairman of Cerberus Global Investments

2015, February 4 - Piper Kerman, Author, Orange is the New Black

2014, November 8 - Jimmy Kimmel, Host and Executive Producer, Jimmy Kimmel Live!

2014, October 4 - David Brooks, New York Times Columnist and Author

2014, May 5 - Michio Kaku, Theoretical Physicist and Author

2013, November 21 - Martin Luther King III, Human Rights Advocate and Community Activist

2013, October 12 - Bret Baier '92, Fox News Channel Anchor

2013, September 10 - Ron Paul, Three-Time Presidential Candidate and Former Congressman

2013, April 17 - Jane Goodall, Primatologist, Ethologist, Anthropologist and UN Messenger of Peace

2013, February 13 - Carl Bernstein, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist and Author

2012, September 25 - Candy Crowley, CNN Chief Political Correspondent

2012, February 15 - Leymah Gbowee, Activist and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Recipient

2011, November 18 - Bill Clinton, The 42nd President of the United States, Founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation

2011, March 30 - Jimmy Wales and Nicholas Carr, Wikipedia Founder; Author of The Shallows

2011, March 15 - Lee Hamilton '52, Former Congressman and Veteran Statesman

2010, December 8 - Oscar Arias, Former President of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize Recipient

2010, September 9 - Rebecca Skloot, Author, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

2010, May 7 - F.W. de Klerk, Former President of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize Winner

2010, March 15 - Jason Reitman, Award-Winning Director and Screenwriter

2009, November 30 - Steven Levitt, Economist and Co-Author of SuperFreakonomics

2009, September 11 - Howard Dean and Karl Rove - Former Governor and DNC Chair; Former Senior Adviser to President George W. Bush

2009, April 17 - Jane Pauley, Award-Winning Journalist

2009, April 8 - Todd Rundgren, Musician, Producer and Technology Pioneer

2009, February 2 - David Plouffe, Obama 2008 Campaign Manager

2008, November 13 - Greg Mortenson, Author of Three Cups of Tea

2008, March 3 - Tony Blair, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

2007, November 26 - Frank Warren, PostSecret Founder

2007, September 27 - Ralph Nadar, Consumer Advocate and Presidential Candidate

2007, March 13 - Jim Alling '83, President, Starbucks USA

2006, November 13 - Mitch Albom, Bestselling Author and Sportswriter

2006, November 8 - E.O. Wilson, Biologist and Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author

2006, April 18 - Charles Fishman, Author, The Wal-Mart Effect

2005, October 27 - Mikhail Gorbachev, Former Soviet Leader and Nobel Laureate

2005, September 21 - Naomi Wolf, Author and Feminist

2005, April 25 - Paul Rusesabagina, Real-Life Hero of Hotel Rwanda

2005, April 6 - Liz Murray, "Homeless to Harvard"

2004, October 26 - Peyton Manning, 2003 National Football League Co-MVP

2004, October 25 - Senator Richard G. Lugar, Chair, Senate Foreign Relations Committee

2004, September 16 - Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III, Former Presidential Envoy to Iraq

2004, April 22 - William S. Cohen, Former Defense Secretary, Senator and Congressman

2003, November 11 - Eric Schlosser, Author and Investigative Journalist

2003, October 8 - Paul A. Volcker, Former Federal Reserve Chairman

2003, September 23 - General Wesley K. Clark (Ret.), Presidential Candidate and Military Analyst

2003, April 3 - Spike Lee, Director, Producer and Writer 2002, November 18 - Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, Founders of "Ben and Jerry's" Ice Cream

2002, September 12 - Mike Krzyzewski, Head Basketball Coach, Duke University

2002, September 7 - Harry Belafonte, Entertainer and Human Rights Activist

2002, March 18 - David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author, Historian and Television Host

2001, December 3 - Robert Gates, Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency

2001, November 15 - Robert H. Waterston, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Genome Sequencing Center, Washington University

2001, October 29 - John Major, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

2001, March 22 - Burton L. Gerber, Retired CIA Officer

2000, November 16 - Norman J. Ornstein, Author, Columnist and CBS Election Analyst

2000, November 13 - Samuel E. Mann, Methodist Minister, Human Rights Spokesman

2000, March 2 - William J. Bennett, Former US Secretary of Education

2000, March 2 - Andrew Young, Former UN Ambassador and Atlanta Mayor

2000, February 29 - Julian Bond, NAACP Chairman, Civil Rights and Peace Activist

1999, October 28 - Oliver Sacks, Neurologist and Author, Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

1999, April 23 - Ferid Murad '58, 1998 Nobel Laureate in Medicine

1999, April 16 - George Gilder, Economist, Technology Consultant and Commentator

1999, February 12 - Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Historian and Bestselling Author and Commentator

1998, November 6 - Alan Simpson, Retired US Senator, Attorney and Author

1998, October 14 - David R. Gergen, Presidential Advisor, Journalist and Political Commentator

1998, May 8 - Sam Donaldson, Correspondent, ABC News

1997, December 9 - Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer Prize-Winner and Author, The Dark Side of Camelot

1997, November 12 - Jonathan Kozol, Educator, Writer and Activist

1997, November 5 - Gloria Borger, Columnist, US News and World Report, and CBS News Analyst

1997, November 5 - Christopher Edley, Jr., Senior Adviser to President Clinton and Author

1997, October 28 - Gwen Ifill, Correspondent, NBC News

1997, October 14 - Roger Wilkins, Educator, Writer, NPR Commentator and Activist

1997, September 10 - Bill Bradley, Former US Senator and Basketball Hall of Famer

1997, May 7 - Benazir Bhutto, Former Prime Minister of Pakistan

1997, April 30 - Sister Helen Prejean, Prison Activist and Author of Dead Man Walking

1997, April 16 - Dr. David Ho, TIME's 1996 Person of the Year, AIDS

1996, November 11 - Shimon Peres, Former Prime Minister of Israel and 1994 Nobel Peace Prize Recipient

1996, April 29 - H. Ross Perot, Business Executive and Presidential Candidate

1996, March 20 - Barbara Bush, Former First Lady

1995, December 1 - James Lovell, Former Astronaut and Apollo 13 Commander

1994, December 2 - Bob Woodward, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist, Assistant Managing Editor, The Washington Post

1994, November 2 - General Colin Powell (Ret.), Former Chairman, US Joint Chiefs of Staff

1994, October 7 - Lynne Cheney, Former Chair, National Endowment for the Humanities

1994, April 8 - Ken Burns, Emmy Award-Winning Documentary Filmmaker

1994, March 4 - George Will, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Columnist, Newsweek and The Washington Post

1993, December 3 - Allen Neuharth, Founder, USA Today

1993, November 18 - Brian Mulroney, Former Prime Minister of Canada

1993, November 12 - David S. Broder, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Political Commentator

1993, April 30 - Paul Tsongas, Former US Senator and Presidential Candidate

1993, April 6 - Carl Rowan, Journalist and Author

1993, April 2 - Leon Lederman, Physicist and Nobel Laureate

1993, March 12 - Tom Wicker, Author, Commentator and Former New York Times Columnist

1992, December 3 - Jesse Jackson, Civil Rights Leader and Two-Time Presidential Candidate

1992, September 30 - William J. Bennett, Former US Secretary of Education

1992, April 7 - Margaret Thatcher, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1991, January 25 - David R. Brower, Environmentalist

1990, November 2 - Willy Brandt, Former Chancellor of West Germany and Nobel Peace Prize Winner

1990, March 9 - Lester C. Thurow, Economist and Author

1989, September 21 - Elie Wiesel, Author and Nobel Peace Prize Winner

1988, October 6 - William J. Bennett, Former US Secretary of Education

1988, March 4 - Zbigniew Brzezinski, Former National Security Adviser

1987, November 6 - Mary Frances Berry, Historian and Member of the US Commission on Civil Rights

1987, September 11 - Allan Bloom, Philosopher and Author, Closing of the American Mind

1986, November 5 - Gov. Richard Lamm, (D) Colorado