Noted historian, Pulitzer Prize-winning author to discuss U.S. presidents
Renowned presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin will give Virginia Tech's Cutchins Distinguished Lecture, “Leadership Lessons from the White House,” at 7:30 p.m. on March 26 in Virginia Tech's Burruss Auditorium.
Goodwin will share stories, intimate insights, in-depth analysis, and illustrate the individual and universal qualities of great U.S. presidents that will continue to inspire future leaders. She first visited campus as a Cutchins Distinguished Speaker in 2007.
The event is free and open to the public. No tickets are needed. Free parking for the event is available around the Drillfield, in the Perry Street lots, and in the Perry Street parking garage near Prices Fork Road. Find more parking information online, or call 540-231-3200.
Goodwin is the author of six critically-acclaimed New York Times best-selling books, including her most recent, “The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism,” a history of the Progressive era. Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks Studios has acquired the film rights to the book. Spielberg and Goodwin previously worked together on the movie “Lincoln,” based in part on her “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.”
Goodwin was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in history for “No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II,” and is the author of “Wait Till Next Year,” “Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream,” and “The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys.”
Goodwin is well known for her appearances and commentary on television. She has served as a consultant and has been interviewed extensively for PBS and History Channel documentaries.
She earned a doctoral degree in government from Harvard University, where she taught government, including a course on the American presidency. She served as an assistant to President Lyndon Johnson in his last year in the White House and later assisted him in the preparation of his memoirs.
Goodwin is the winner of the Charles Frankel Prize, given by the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Sarah Josepha Hale medal; and the Lincoln Prize.
The Cutchins Distinguished Lecture is sponsored by the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets Rice Center for Leader Development and the Pamplin College of Business and is also held in celebration of Founders Day.
The center aims to educate students about leadership and prepare them to be leaders of integrity and ability. It is named in honor of the late W. Thomas Rice, a retired railroad industry executive and former rector of the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. A member of the Class of 1934, Rice received his degree in civil engineering. The lecture series is named for the late Clifford A. Cutchins III, a former bank chairman and board of visitors rector. A member of the Class of 1944, Cutchins received his degree in accounting.
