Speakers

Bailey has led the cancer center director since 2015. His clinical expertise is in sarcomas and gynecologic malignancies and his research focus is in anti-cancer agent development. In addition to his cancer care and research, Bailey has been a strong advocate for...

Baker is the chief White House correspondent for the New York Times, and has covered the past five presidents. With his wife, Susan Glasser, he co-wrote a book about Donald Trump's presidency titled “The Divider, Trump in the White House, 2017-2021."

Balz joined the Post in 1978 and has been involved in political coverage as a reporter or editor throughout his career. He has served as deputy national editor, White House reporter and Southwest correspondent. He is the author of New York Times bestselling books...

Becker founded her own dance company in 1987 after over a decade as a principal dancer. The company received two National Endowment for the Arts awards to bring her dance, "Into Sunlight," inspired by David Maraniss' Vietnam War era book "They Marched into Sunlight,"...

Working for the city of Minneapolis, Bernard has contributed to land use planning, transportation planning, development regulation, project management, and community engagement efforts since 2006. He served as co-project manager for the Minneapolis 2040 growth plan...

Hello my name is Jason Boatright! I’m the owner of B. Right Barber and Beauty in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. I originally grow up in Illinois and moved here in 2010 and lived here ever since!! I decided to take being a barber seriously in 2016 and went to MATC to get my...

Burris was elected to Madison's City Council in 2023 to represent District 12 on the city's east side. Outside of city government, her resume includes work in research and advising, policy development, issues advocacy, coalition building, and grassroots outreach for...

Butler is a physician with over two decades of experience in health care administration within large networks across the U.S. His career is marked by significant contributions to applied clinical informatics with a focus on physician adoption, clinical decision...

Carter is a real estate agent for Keller Williams Realty in Madison and also a Realtor ambassador for OWN IT: Building Black Wealth, a program designed to eliminate barriers to wealth and homeownership for Black families in the Madison area.

Cheney represented Wyoming's at-large congressional district from 2017 to 2023, and was the chair of the House Republican Conference from 2019 to 2021. A vocal critic of former President Donald Trump, she was one of only two Republicans to serve on the House's Jan. 6...

Christians has been writing about fine arts (particuarly theater) and food since 2008 for the Cap Times. Since early 2021, she has hosted Cooking with the Cap Times, featuring live demonstrations by Madison-area chefs.

Chu, a Singaporean native who graduated from UW-Madison, has been sharing the flavors of her grandmother’s southeast Asian recipes by recreating her sauces. All of Chu's products are handmade in small batches.

Clarke, also known as the Mango Man, was raised in Limon, Costa Rica, by a family of Jamaican descent. He opened his Madison food cart, Mango Man Latin Soul Food, in 2003, expanding into event vending and catering. In 2006 he opened Café Costa Rica on Butler Street,...

An immigrant from El Salvador, Menéndez Coller holds 20+ years of community-based experience working across multiple sectors. Since 2013 she has led Centro Hispano, the leading organization in Dane County prioritizing a vibrant, thriving, resilient Latinx community,...

Probably best known as a Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter, Collins is one of the most-recognized performing artists in recent American history. But she has always been deeply involved in politics, active in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s...

Smart Growth Greater Madison advocates at the local government level for policies that encourage increasing the supply of housing and take costs out of housing development. Connors is also a former City Council president of Sun Prairie and former city administrator.

Cox leads Epic Research, which utilizes deidentified records from millions of patients to address pressing medical questions and publish the findings free for everyone. An expert in using real-world data, Cox has collaborated with the CDC, academic institutions, and...

Crespin-Trujillo works to support organizations that are removing obstacles so more learners from low-income backgrounds can achieve their academic and career goals. Prior to working for Ascendium, Crespin-Trujillo served as an education director with the Wisconsin...

As the deputy Medicaid director at Wisconsin's Department of Health Services, Dreyer supports the teams that run health care and nutrition programs for the people of Wisconsin. Backed by a $15 billion budget, these programs provide resources and services that are...

Drosner is an award-winning journalist and a longtime chronicler of the business and culture of craft beer in Wisconsin. He began writing beer reviews for the Green Bay Press-Gazette in the early 2000s and in 2011 launched The Beer Baron column for the Wisconsin State...

With two partners, Duplanty co-founded Young Blood Brewing Co., located in downtown Madison, in spring 2020. Previously he had worked in the beer industry for over a decade in Milwaukee in various merchandising and sales capacities.

Brian Espinosa is the owner of Adapt Marketing Consulting and a Madison native. He holds a bachelor's degree in Business Marketing from Edgewood College and has over six years of experience in the industry. His firm specializes in website development, and digital...

The poll, which Franklin leads in addition to serving as a professor of law and public policy at the university, is the most widely followed effort of its kind in Wisconsin, monitoring trends in politics and other matters of public policy.

In addition to his work at Columbia, Freedman is a former columnist for the New York Times and the author of the 10 books, the most recent of which is about Hubert Humphrey, the Civil Rights Movement, and the 1948 Democratic Party convention.

Garfield is an award-winning reporter for the Cap Times who has covered Madison and Dane County government since she started work at the company in 2020. Previously, she worked as a watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network-Wisconsin.  

Gerhart is a family medicine physician and a faculty member at UW-Madison as well as a clinical informaticist at Epic. At Epic she focuses on health care innovation such as the use of ambient voice for documentation and the use of EHR data to advance the knowledge of...

Glasser writes a weekly column titled “Letter from Biden’s Washington” and is a regular voice on the magazine’s popular podcast called “The Political Scene.” With her husband, Peter Baker, she co-wrote a book about Donald Trump's presidency titled “The Divider, Trump...

The author of nine books, Kearns Goodwin is is one of America’s most influential historians, shaping our national understanding about everything from the presidencies of Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson to baseball. Her latest book is about the...

In 2022, Gray founded Prodigal Building Systems, a Monona-based company that builds everything from residential and multifamily homes to large commercial projects. The company also runs, Prodigal Academy, which provides participants with on-the-job training,...

Uphoff Gray co-founded Forward Theater Company in 2009. As a freelance director she’s worked across southern Wisconsin, directed the National Tour of Copenhagen, and in 12 years working On- and Off-Broadway served as Associate Director for Copenhagen, Cabaret, The...

Green received her bachelor's degree from Florida A&M University and her Ph.D. in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As an economist and population health scientist, her mission is to understand the causes and consequences of racial/ethnic...

Her has over 25 years in data analytics and institutional research, most of it at Madison College. She leads research and data teams to build reporting solutions. With the emergence of generative artificial intelligence, she is teaching a professional development...

Founded over two decades ago in New York, Honsa's company has produced hundreds of television projects. He particularly enjoys making documentaries, including "Into Sunlight," which illustrates the transformation of David Maraniss' Vietnam War-era book into a dance.

Johnson was elected mayor of Chicago in 2023 after serving over four years on the Cook County Board of Commissioners. He came to politics through union activism. He was a social studies teacher in the Chicago Public Schools and was an organizer during the 2012 Chicago...

Jessica and spouse Erika Jones founded Giant Jones Brewing in Madison in 2018, one of only a very small percentage of woman-owned breweries in the U.S. It is also one of only a few certified organic breweries in Wisconsin.  

A Wisconsin native, Kaufman is the author of The Fall of Wisconsin and is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and has written for The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and The New Republic. Last year, his New Yorker article "On the Line,"...

Russ and brother Jim Klisch sold their first barrel of beer in Milwaukee in 1987 to a tavern within rolling distance. They have grown much since then, now producing around 40,000 barrels per year. In 1996, Lakefront became the first certified organic brewery in the...

Kures works in partnership with Extension's statewide network of resources to assist communities and organizations in the areas of regional economic analysis, labor force research and industry sector competitiveness. He has written numerous studies on Wisconsin’s...

As a post-doctoral researcher at UW-Madison, Lindner invented GaussPy, an AI program used at NASA and 40 other research facilities across the globe. The author of seven technology patents on AI, entity resolution, and machine learning, Lindner also has over 16 years...

As CEO, Loving develops and implements Access’ strategic goals and objectives. He gives direction and leadership toward the achievement of the organization’s mission of creating a healthier and more equitable community, along with ensuring an environment where Access...

Maraniss is a New York Times best-selling author, fellow of the Society of American Historians, and visiting distinguished professor at Vanderbilt University. He has been affiliated with the Washington Post for more than forty years as an editor and writer, and twice...

At HealthX, Martin helps portfolio companies with every operational challenge imaginable, from product strategy to implementation planning to administrative systems. He is a 15-year veteran of health care information technology, including a 5-year stint at Nordic...

McGroarty joined the Cap Times in May 2023 and covers politics and government. She holds an M.A. in journalism from UW-Madison and an interdisciplinary B.A. in journalism, history and political science from University of Alaska-Fairbanks. Prior to relocating to...

Dr. Morris' clinical focus is on the treatment of patients with melanoma and soft tissue sarcomas. He has played a seminal role in establishing the Carbone Cancer Center’s new Initiative of Theranostics and Particle Therapy.  

Samantha Newcomb is a member of APT's core acting company and is in her fifth season at the theater. Notable roles include Emily in “Our Town,” Lucrece in “The Liar” and Marianne in “Sense and Sensibility.” Select regional credits include work with Two Crows Theatre,...

In addition to his work at the Cap Times, Nichols is the author of several books about politics and the media, including "Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse." He writes about electoral politics and public policy for The Nation magazine.  

Pelosi has served as a Democratic member of Congress since 1987 from San Francisco and was the speaker of the House for two separate four-year stretches, the second one ending in early 2023. She remains among the most influential Democrats in the country.

Piefer's passion is the growth of technology companies that take scientific advancement to commercialization, providing the opportunity to serve and better humanity. He holds a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering and bachelor's degrees in physics and electrical and computer...

Reilly is an award-winning lighting and media designer based in Madison. Her work has been seen in Madison, Minneapolis, Chicago, Arkansas, San Francisco, New England, San Antonio, Austin, Ireland, Scotland, and Portugal. Upcoming design work includes JUST ASK! at the...

Richardson's daily digital essays (“Letters from an American”) place current political events into historical context and have gained a massive national following in the past five years. She is the author of seven books and teaches courses on the Civil War and...

Robinson is the chief programs and partnerships officer for the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit working to eliminate health disparities and other barriers impacting the lives of Black women as well as their families and communities....

Schimming became chairman of Wisconsin's Republican Party in late 2022, and is a 30-year veteran of politics and political campaigns, including the most recent one for U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson. From 2015 until early 2019, he was also the chief operating officer for the...

Showaki founded Octopi in 2015 and helped it grow the be a leading mid-size beverage copacker in the US. In 2024 he sold Octopi to Asahi Europe and International. As managing director, his job is to lead Octopi as the North American Headquarters for Asahi AEI.

Sibi is the owner and founder of Les Delices de Awa, a West African restaurant she opened on Madison's east side.

A native of Nicaragua, Soza spent six years working as an occupational therapist before relocating to the U.S. in 2005. He now works in the field of supply chain management and recently joined the board of the Literacy Network.

Taylor leads a team that is responsible for integrating information technology systems, electronic health records, clinical databases, tissue repositories, and external genomics. It also implements new tools and systems to support the conduct of research, including...

Thompson served as governor of Wisconsin from 1986 to 2000, the longest-serving governor in the state's history. Afterward he led the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush and unsuccesfully ran for president in 2007. More...

In addition to being an associate editor, Tumulty is also a columnist for The Post. In her previous role as a national political correspondent for the newspaper, she received the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting. She joined The Post in 2010 from Time...

Dr. Weichert's research interests focus on the design and development of cancer targeted molecular contrast, imaging and therapeutic agents for a wide range of applications in diagnostic cancer imaging and radiotherapy. He is an author on more than 90 peer-reviewed...

A Madison native, Wikler has led the Democratic Party of Wisconsin since 2019, overseeing its efforts in support of President Joe Biden in 2020 and Gov. Tony Evers in 2022. Before joining DPW, Wikler was the Washington director for MoveOn.org and before that the...

Yahr joined the Cap Times in 2019 and covers business for the organization, writing often about local small businesses and entrepreneurs. Before moving into journalism full-time, she trained as a Spanish-English interpreter and supported adult students working to earn...

Young has been managing director of American Players Theatre since 2022. Before that, she served as APT’s director of communication for 18 years. She has a bachelor's degree in theater from the University of Northern Iowa and began her career as a stage manager in...