Education: Michelle Rhee

September 20, 2011 • Tivoli Theater • 7p

 Throughout her career, Michelle Rhee has been working to give children the skills and knowledge they will need to compete in a changing world. She is a fierce and sometimes controversial advocate for public education reform. From her service as a Teach for America corps member to her leadership as Chancellor of the DC Public Schools, each chapter of Rhee 's story has convinced her: students of every background and ZIP code can achieve at high levels, and teachers are the most powerful driving force behind student achievement in our schools.

Rhee believes that, even in the toughest of circumstances, all teachers are called to turn the incredible potential that fills their classrooms daily into the achievements worthy of our children and country.

Rhee has a bachelor's degree in government from Cornell University and a master's in public policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Rhee's lecture is entitled: Putting Students First in Education Reform

For more information on Michelle Rhee visit Students First.  View Video Here.

Community Development: Armando Carbonell

November 1, 2011 • Roland Hayes Auditorium in the UTC Fine Arts Center  • 7p

Co-author of the book Regional Planning in America, Armando Carbonell is a nationally recognized expert on land-use planning for growing metropolitan regions and sustainable growth. He teaches planning at Harvard and is the Chairman of the Department of Planning and Urban Form at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Carbonell is also the co-chair of America 2050, a national initiative focused on developing a framework to meet the infrastructure, economic development, and environmental challenges of the nation in the face of rapid population growth and development. He holds an A.B. degree in geography from Clark University and was a Doctoral Fellow in geography at the Johns Hopkins University.

Carbonell's lecture is entitled: Planning for Growth, Livability, and Economic Success in the Chattanooga Region

For more information about Armando Carbonell, visit the Lincoln Institute of Land.

Arts & Culture: Robert Pinsky

February 7, 2012 • Roland Hayes Auditorium at the UTC Fine Arts Center • 7p

Robert Pinsky's first two terms as United States Poet Laureate were marked by such visible dynamism, and such national enthusiasm in response, that the Library of Congress appointed him to an unprecedented third term. Throughout his career, Pinsky has been dedicated to identifying and invigorating poetry's place in the world.

As Poet Laureate, Robert Pinsky founded the Favorite Poem Project, in which thousands of Americans - of varying backgrounds, all ages, and from every state - shared their favorite poems. Pinsky believed that, contrary to stereotype, poetry had a vigorous presence in the American cultural landscape. The project documents that presence, giving voice to the American audience for poetry. The anthology Americans' Favorite Poems, which includes letters from project participants, is in its 18th printing.

The poetry editor for the online magazine Slate, Pinsky appears regularly on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and publishes frequently in magazines such as the New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Threepenny Review, American Poetry Review, and The Best American Poetry anthologies.

He teaches in the graduate writing program at Boston University. He is one of the few members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters to have appeared on The Simpsons and The Colbert Report.

Pinsky's lecture is entitled: Placing Value on the Arts in Tough Economic Times

Environment: Michael Pollan

April 19, 2012 • Tivoli Theater • 7p

 For the past 20 years, Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect - with a focus on food and agriculture. He is the author of the bestsellers In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto and The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, which was named one of the 10 best books of 2006 by the New York Times and the Washington Post. It also won the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, the James Beard Award for best food writing, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Pollan's previous book, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World, was also a New York Times bestseller, received the Borders Original Voices Award for the best non-fiction work of 2001, and was recognized as a best book of the year by the American Booksellers Association and Amazon.com. PBS premiered a two-hour special documentary based on The Botany of Desire in fall 2009. His most recent book is Food Rules: An Eater's Manual, which was an immediate #1 New York Times bestseller upon publication; an expanded, illustrated edition of Food Rules will be published in November 2011.

In 2009 he was named one of the top 10 "New Thought Leaders" by Newsweek magazine. His essays have appeared in many anthologies, including Best American Essays (the 1990 and 2003 editions), Best American Science Writing (2004), and the Norton Book of Nature Writing. In addition to publishing regularly in The New York Times Magazine, his articles have appeared in Harper's (where he served for many years as executive editor), Mother Jones, Gourmet, Vogue, Travel + Leisure, Gardens Illustrated, and The Nation. Michael Pollan was chosen by Time Magazine for the 2010 Time 100 in the Thinkers category.

Pollan's lecture is entitled: How To Eat: Making Food Choices That Nourish Our Bodies and Our Communities