We have invited four experts to highlight the Public Affairs Conference as plenary speakers. Who are they?

Doris Kearns Goodwin

Goodwin is the ultimate trifecta — a biographer, historian, and political commentator. Her time as a White House Fellow during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration was the flame that ignited her literary career.

She has appeared on several television shows ranging from Meet the Press to American Horror Story. From Massachusetts, she brings her love for the Boston Red Sox to Springfield, as she was the first woman journalist to enter their locker room.

Goodwin will bring her unique first-hand political insights to the podium and shine a spotlight on the changes in our political system over the past 150 years.

Nadine Strossen

Let’s talk about our right to talk. Freedom of speech/press are hot issues in a world full of hostility, terrorist violence and hate crimes. Strossen, an expert of constitutional and human rights, will bring her expertise to the Public Affairs Conference to discuss a greater danger than the abuse of free speech: the government’s power to suppress it.

Pervez Hoodbhoy

Global terrorism and religious revivalism are phrases that pack a punch. What does life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness look like in an age of global terrorism? Hoodbhoy, one of the top 100 most influential global thinkers by Foreign Policy Magazine in 2011, is bringing his expertise to the podium to discuss the topics that are shaking some of the strongest pillars fueling human progress.

Sonja Lyubomirsky

How do I get happy? Lyubomirsky, professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside has the answer to increase happiness. She will deliver new research on the “how” of happiness and the secret formula to transform into a happier and more flourishing individual.