The City Club of Cleveland Podcast

In the wake of major legislation - the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act - the Biden-Harris Administration is now implementing major public investments across a range of sectors from clean energy to semiconductors to broadband. This work is key to executing on the Administration's modern American industrial strategy, which aims to strengthen supply chains, rebuild the domestic industrial base, and create good jobs across the country.\r\n\r\nBrian Deese serves as the Director of the White House National Economic Council, advising President Biden on domestic and international economic policy. In this role, Deese has been a principal architect of the President's economic agenda, including the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPs and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. Prior to his role, Deese was a Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama, and was instrumental both in engineering the rescue of the U.S. auto industry in 2009 and in negotiating the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015. During the Obama-Biden Administration, Deese also served as Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council.

Since 1947, NBC\'s \"Meet the Press\" has provided its viewers with critical analysis on politics from the nation\'s top thinkers and incisive interviews with political leaders from across the political spectrum. Since 2014, Chuck Todd has hosted the show hailed as the longest-running show on American television.\r\n\r\nWith just over one month before election day, Ohio is garnering the kind of attention that suggests it may still be a swing state. A recent NBC News poll suggests 64% of voters say they have high interest in the upcoming midterm elections, an all-time high for a non-presidential year, and the most recent statewide poll puts the senate race at a dead heat.\r\n\r\nChuck Todd has been working in political journalism for 30 years. In 2007, he was brought to NBC by Tim Russert, who then hosted \"Meet the Press.\" As a journalist, political analyst, anchor, and moderator, he has had a ringside seat from the Clinton era to today.\r\n\r\nJoin the City Club for breakfast with Chuck Todd as we traverse the political landscape of the state and the nation.

The City Club of Cleveland is pleased to host the annual State of the City Address. This free public event will be held in Silver Hall, at the Maltz Performing Arts Center on the campus of Case Western Reserve University.\r\n\r\nMayor Justin M. Bibb will speak to the accomplishments of his first 100 days in office, the progress of the economic recovery underway, and his vision for the city.

Extensive research has shown the powerful impact of effective family-school partnerships on students, parents, teachers, and schools. In fact, Dr. Mapp joined the City Club in 2017 to talk about the importance of community supported education.\r\n\r\nNow, Dr. Mapp is back to discuss what we have learned from the COVID-19 crisis and the national racial reckoning about the critical role of home-school partnerships to support student success and school improvement. She will also introduce the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships (Version 2)-a compass that lays out the goals and conditions necessary to chart a path toward effective family engagement efforts that are linked to student achievement and school improvement.\r\n\r\nDr. Mapp is the co-author of several books, and from 2011 to 2013, Dr. Mapp served as a consultant to the United States Department of Education in the Office of Innovation and Improvement. She will be joined by Habeebah R. Grimes, CEO at Positive Education Program; and Gina Garrett, Family Program Manager at Open Doors Academy.

There may not be a presidential race, but it\'s hard to overstate the significance of the political year ahead. It\'s not just that 2022 brings the usual statewide contests--Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, and so forth; Ohio has an open senate seat with a formidable roster of primary contenders, including political neophytes, a celebrity author, and a firebrand former state treasurer. The GOP\'s incumbent governor faces an insurgent primary effort to his right. And new district boundaries will change the dynamics in 15 congressional races, as well as in state legislative seats. Plus, this is all happening with relatively new state leadership in both major political parties.\r\n\r\nOhio GOP chairman Robert Paduchik took over leadership of the state party in February of 2021, having previously served as Donald Trump\'s Ohio campaign manager in 2016 and co-chair of the Republican National Committee from 2017-2019.\r\n\r\nElizabeth Walters was elected chair of the Ohio Democratic Party in January 2021. President and at-large member of Summit County Council, Ms. Walters was raised in Northeast Ohio, was the party\'s previous executive director, and is the first woman to serve as chair.\r\n\r\nJoin us, in-person at the City Club on January 14th for a conversation moderated by Andy Chow of the Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau.

In early 2021, and after 18 years of service, David Abbott announced his retirement as president of the George Gund Foundation. He is one of several long-time leaders in the philanthropic, public, and private sectors to announce their departure over the last several years-evidence that the next era of Cleveland leadership has arrived. And Dave is ready to pass the baton.\r\n\r\nAbbott began his career as a Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter. He moved on from there, earning a law degree from Harvard University and spending 10 years in county government. As county administrator, he played a key role in the creation of the Gateway project, now home to two professional sports team and a strong business community. Dave also served as the executive director of the Cleveland Bicentennial Commission, overseeing the opening of the Great Lakes Science Center. He then served as director of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum before taking the helm at University Circle Inc.\r\n\r\nHe has worked in just about every part of the community, working to make Cleveland, and our country, a better place to live for everyone.\r\n\r\nSo what are the lessons of this storied tenure? And what does he see as the opportunities and challenges for Cleveland\'s next generation of leadership? Join us, in-person at the City Club as we sit down in conversation with one of Cleveland\'s biggest champions.

For more than 30 years, David Harris has been leading the American Jewish Committee (AJC), one of the world\'s leading advocates for civil rights for Jews and a strong Jewish voice against discrimination of all kinds. As every era, these last three decades have seen their share of anti-Semitism, which range from individual instances of violence, to mass shootings, and the rise of far right Holocaust deniers attempting to shape policy based on a false understanding of history.\r\n\r\nIn his time at the AJC, David Harris has consistently worked to combat anti-Semitism, to advocate for the nation of Israel and to build bridges with allies, wherever they may be. In January of 2020, he led an historic delegation of Muslims and Jews to visit Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp. Prior to his leadership role at the AJC, he played a key role in helping Jews emigrate from the Soviet Union where they faced intense discrimination.\r\n\r\nJoin us, in-person at the City Club on December 10th as we hear from David Harris, CEO of the American Jewish Committee.

The discovery of the bodies of these missing people, among at least eight others who were found as authorities searched for Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie, has highlighted a disturbing question when it comes to those reported missing: was enough done to find them too?\r\n\r\nThe Gabby Petito case created a media frenzy resulting in a deeper look into how missing persons cases in the United States are handled. Most glaring was the ongoing, disproportionately less attention given to missing persons cases involving people of color. The first 72 hours of a missing persons case are the most crucial, after which the volume of clues, evidence and witness accounts slow to a trickle, severely impeding cases with less attention. Further, missing persons cases are often complicated by sex trafficking, kidnapping and drug-related crimes involved in addition to the search for the missing person, as well as runaway cases often receiving less attention due to the misconception they are in less danger than other missing persons.\r\n\r\nHere in Cleveland, high profile missing persons cases and rescues shed light on many of these key issues. As result, several organizations and initiatives have been put in place to address concerns. However, there is always more that can be done.\r\n\r\nWhat more can be instituted to ensure missing persons cases are adequately reported and handled? How can the public, as well as the media, be better equipped to disseminate information about missing persons cases? In what ways can we ensure all missing persons cases are given the same priority?\r\n\r\nJoin us at the City Club for a virtual Youth Forum as an expert panel explains the intricacies of missing persons cases, and what can be done to help find them.

In January 2019, Say Yes Cleveland was launched as the fourth community-wide organization based on the Say Yes to Education model of tuition scholarships and support services for Cleveland students. With its 25-year commitment, Say Yes Cleveland was seen as a complete game-changer and ushered in the next era of public-school education where all kids have the opportunity to succeed through post-secondary education.\r\n\r\nWhen Say Yes Cleveland first launched, the City Club heard from local leadership on how Cleveland plans to leverage the scholarship program and expand support services. But nobody could have predicted what was to come. Cleveland schools, students, and parents have now weathered three school years touched by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the increase in capacity for support services has never been more critical.\r\n\r\nHow has Say Yes Cleveland been able to step up to serve CMSD scholars in this most urgent time of need? What else needs to be done to ensure more students succeed? And what are the strategies Say Yes Cleveland will employ to combat some of the more pressing challenges exacerbated by the pandemic?\r\n\r\nJoin the City Club in-person as we hear the latest updates from Diane Downing, Executive Director of Say Yes Cleveland. Her remarks will be followed by a panel conversation including Lekisha Rogers, Say Yes Cleveland Family Support Specialist at CMSD's Joseph M. Gallagher K-8 School; and Leean Andino, 2019 graduate of CMSD's New Tech West High School, and the first student to earn a bachelor's degree with a Say Yes Cleveland Scholarship.

The remarkable conversion of HIV/AIDS from an inevitable death sentence to a manageable chronic illness is not only one of the most noteworthy medical achievements of the past forty years, but it is also a significant political and social achievement.\r\n\r\nCeleste Watkins-Hayes, PhD, author of Remaking a Life: How Women Living with HIV/AIDS Confront Inequality, outlines the importance of the activism and community leadership that led the way to address this seemingly unsurmountable problem. She points to the significance of looking for leadership in unexpected places, the value of constructive conflict among diverse groups, and the willingness to see this public health threat through the lens of inequality as useful lessons that can apply to many of our challenges, including the Covid-19 pandemic.\r\n\r\nThe HIV movement offers a hopeful reminder in the time of COVID-19 of the power of ordinary citizens to change the world and a call to action to address the disparities and challenges that persist.\r\n\r\nJoin the City Club virtually with Watkin Hayes as we mark World AIDS Day on the 40th year since the AIDS/HIV pandemic began.