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Where does Congress go from here?

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris meet with congressional leadership to discuss the bipartisan supplement agreement for foreign aid and legislation to avoid a government shutdown, Tuesday, February 27, 2024, in the Oval Office. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schutlz)

James C. Lehrer Lecture

Where does Congress go from here?

Lisa Desjardins, William Antholis (moderator), Stephen M. Burns (introduction)

Thursday, May 02, 2024
11:00AM - 12:15PM (EDT)
Event Details

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Welcome to the 3rd annual James C. Lehrer Lecture—named in honor of the late Jim Lehrer, PBS NewsHour co-founder and former anchor who reported on every presidency from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama. Lehrer was also a longtime member of the Miller Center's Governing Council. 

PBS NewsHour commentator Lisa Desjardins joins Miller Center Director and CEO William Antholis to discuss the future of Congress, Desjardins’s views on the state of American democracy, and Lehrer’s legacy of journalistic integrity.

The Lehrer Lecture was established with generous financial support from Mary Anne Burns and Stephen M. Burns, Anne L. Fife and Eugene V. Fife, Alice W. Handy and Peter A. Stoudt, Kate Lehrer, and Karen Turner and Fred W. Scott Jr. The Miller Center also thanks the George and Judy Marcus Democracy Praxis Fund for its support of this event.

When
Thursday, May 02, 2024
11:00AM - 12:15PM (EDT)
Where
The Miller Center
2201 Old Ivy Rd
Charlottesville, VA
&
ONLINE
Speakers
Lisa Desjardins headshot

Lisa Desjardins

Lisa Desjardins is a correspondent for PBS NewsHour, where she covers news from the U.S. Capitol. Before joining PBS, Desjardins spent nearly ten years with CNN as a senior correspondent and Capitol Hill reporter. Prior to CNN, she reported for the Associated Press, WBTW-TV, WIS-TV, WTS-TV, Reuters, and The Sun News. She has received several journalism awards, including two George Foster Peabody Awards, the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association Joan S. Barone Award, and the National Press Foundation’s Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress. She holds a BA from the College of William and Mary and a MA from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She also received a first level graduate degree in Russian studies from the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia.

Bill Antholis headshot

William Antholis (moderator)

William J. Antholis has served as director and CEO of UVA's Miller Center of Public Affairs since January 2015. In that time, the Miller Center has strengthened its position as the leading nonpartisan research institution on the American presidency and worked with scholars across the University of Virginia to deliver vital research to policymakers and the public. Before coming to the Miller Center, Antholis served as managing director at the Brookings Institution from 2004 to 2014, working directly with Brookings's president and vice presidents. Antholis is the author of Inside Out India and China: Local Politics Go Global (2013) and co-author (with Strobe Talbott) of Fast Forward: Ethics and Politics in the Age of Global Warming (2010). He has published articles, book chapters, and opinion pieces on U.S. politics, U.S. foreign policy, international organizations, the G8, climate change, and trade.

Steve Burns headshot

Stephen M. Burns (introduction)

Stephen M. Burns, chair of the Miller Center's Governing Council, is a managing partner at Quad-C Management, a middle-market private equity firm headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia. Since joining Quad-C in 1994, Burns has invested in the building products, business services, specialty chemicals, packaging, transportation/logistics, and food sectors. Prior to joining Quad-C, Burns worked in the Risk Arbitrage Group and Leveraged Capital Group at Paribas and the corporate development group at W.R. Grace. He graduated from Boston College with a BS degree and earned his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.