The 2008 Paul Offner Lecture hosted by the Urban Institute.
Guest Lecturer:
E. J. Dionne,
Washington Post columnist
on
Presidential Politics and Poverty Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Noon-1:15 p.m.
Scholar, state legislator, congressional adviser, and educator, the late Paul Offner left a special legacy of applying solid, evidence-driven research to public policy development, especially for society’s disadvantaged. Offner’s dedication to public service is celebrated with an annual lecture sponsored by the Urban Institute and the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs.
The 2008 lecturer is E. J. Dionne, the distinguished Washington Post columnist and one of the nation’s most perceptive political analysts. Speaking on presidential politics and poverty, Dionne will explain how this campaign year has renewed attention to the dilemma of poverty and race in America and will forecast what the domestic policy landscape might look like next year with new leadership at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Dionne, through his syndicated column, has shone a bright light on innovative solutions to reducing poverty and healing society’s divisions. In a 2006 column about
Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men (Urban Institute Press), which Offner coauthored with Harry Holzer and Peter Edelman, Dionne said Offner and his colleagues “issued an urgent plea for public action on behalf of our most disadvantaged fellow citizens.” The book, he observed, “provided a bracing reminder that there is an authentic search going on outside of conventional politics for the new ideas to animate a new political era.”
Offner’s unique career, said Urban Institute President Robert Reischauer, “allowed him to analyze public policy issues using the tools of a first-rate academic, the insights of an elected politician, and the wisdom of a seasoned government program administrator. He taught us a lot.”
A recording of the lecture will be posted on this page on September 26.
