About

Madhur Anand

MADHUR ANAND's debut book of prose This Red Line Goes Straight to Your Heart (2020) won the Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction. Her debut collection of poems A New Index for Predicting Catastrophes (2015) was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry, named one of 10 all-time "trailblazing" poetry collections by the CBC and received a starred review in Publisher's Weekly. Her second collection of poems Parasitic Oscillations (2022) was published to international acclaim and named the "top pick" for Spring poetry by the CBC. She is a professor of ecology and sustainability at the University of Guelph, where she was appointed the inaugural Director of the Guelph Institute for Environmental Research.

Mare Winningham

Film and TV credits include:

St. Elmo’s

FireTurner & Hooch

Hatfields & McCoys

Margaret Atwood

Author of The Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments, and, Alias Grace

Maria Dizzia

Theater credits include:
In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) (Broadway)
Eurydice (Second Stage)
Drunken City (Playwrights Horizons)

Marjolaine Goldsmith

Credits Include

Compromise

Afterwords

Henry IV

Martha Plimpton

Credits include:

Raising Hope

The Good Wife

The Mosquito Coast

Goonies

Martin Sheen

Credits Include:

The West Wing

The Departed

Apocalypse Now

Maryann Plunkett

Broadway credits include:
Saint Joan
The Crucible
Me and My Girl (Tony Award)

Matthew Frieman

Viral Pathogen Research Professor of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine

Matthew T. Starr

Mayor of the City of Mount Vernon, Mount Vernon, OH

Megan Brotherton

Theater credits include:
Alice vs. Wonderland
Drums in The Night
Macbeth

Michael Booth

Caregiver and Tranzac board member

Michael Imperioli

Credits include:

The Sopranos

GoodFellas

The Lovely Bones

Michael Izquierdo

Theater credits include:
Mrs. Warren’s Profession (McCarter)
New Jerusalem (Classic Stage)
Mother Courage (New York Shakespeare Festival)
Taking Woodstock (dir. Ang Lee)

Michael K. Williams

Credits include:

The Wire

Boardwalk Empire

The Night Of

12 Years A Slave

Michael Patrick Sullivan

Paramedic, FDNY EMS, South Bronx

Michael Stahl-David

Theater credits include:
The Overwhelming(Roundabout)
TV & Film credits include:
My Generation
Mercy
Cloverfield

Michael Stuhlbarg

TV & Film credits include:

Call Me by Your Name (2017)

A Serious Man (2009)

The Shape of Water (2017)

Boardwalk Empire (2010-2013)

Theater credits include:
The Pillowman (Broadway)
Saint Joan (Broadway)
Hamlet (The Public Theater)

Michael Yare

TV & Film credits include:
Game of Thrones
Get Rich or Die Tryin’
Neverland

Mike Colter

TV & Film credits include:
Salt
Taking Chance
Million Dollar Baby

Monica Feit

Executive Director, Health and Medicine Division, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Moses Ingram

The Queen's Gambit

Macbeth

Day 74

Nancy Kass

Deputy Director for Public Health, Berman Institute of Bioethics

Nandita Shenoy

Credits include:

Love, Repeat

Arranged: The Musical

After Forever

Naomi Mathis

Air Force Veteran, DAV Associate National Legislative Director.

Nate Smith

Theater Actor and Extinction Rebellion Activist

Nick Choksi

Credits include:

Happyish

One Life to Live

Law & Order: Criminal Intent

Nick Holder

Les Misérables

The Four Feathers

Anna Karenina

Nilaja Sun

Nilaja Sun is an actor, playwright and teaching artist. She recently performed an extended run of a critically acclaimed solo piece Pike St. that was commissioned and produced by Epic Theatre Ensemble and performed at the Abrons Arts Center. This year, a tour of the show started at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in D.C., and has continued to theaters in Minneapolis; Edinburgh, Scotland and Melbourne, Australia.

Nilaja’s Obie award winning solo piece "No Child…", was directed by Hal Brooks and commissioned and produced by Epic Theatre Ensemble. For her creation and performance of "No Child..." and its subsequent national tour, Nilaja garnered 21 awards including: an Obie Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, two Outer Critics Circle Awards including the John Gassner Playwriting Award for Outstanding New American Play, a Theatre World Award, the Helen Hayes Award, two NAACP Theatre Awards, and was awarded the soloNOVA Award for Artist of the Year by terraNOVA Collective. For “Pike St.”, Nilaja was recently awarded the Edinbugh Award and Ivey Award.

TV/FILM: Madam Secretary, The Good Wife, BrainDead, 30 Rock, Law & Order: SVU, Unforgettable, Louie, The International, and Rubicon.

A native of the Lower East Side, she is a Princess Grace Award recipient, and has worked proudly as a teaching artist in New York City for more than 15 years.

Nina Turner

Former Ohio State Senator.

Nyasha Hatendi

The Front Runner

Into the Dark

Alex Rider

Obi Abili

Obi Abili was recently seen in a recurring role on the third season of the Showtime Series Billions and will soon be in the upcoming film Faraway Eyes. He recently finished starring in the Irish Rep’s production of The Emperor Jones and just had a lead role in the new Sky comedy miniseries Delicious with Dawn French, which premiered on New Years’ Day overseas.

He just starred opposite Juliette Binoche in Ivo van Hove’s production of Antigone at BAM. He also has a major supporting role in the upcoming feature London Fields opposite Amber Heard, Billy Bob Thornton and Theo James, which just premiered at Toronto. He had a leading role in the feature Tula: The Revolt opposite Danny Glover and was also seen opposite Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz in Gambit. He was a regular on the UK minis The Take with Tom Hardy, Injustice with James Purefoy, Moses Jones with Eamonn Walker and The Nativity with Tatiana Maslany.

He has guest starred on the Cinemax series Strike Back and BBC’s Foyle’s War. Screen International named him a “Star of Tomorrow” in 2010 and IndieWire called him “an actor to watch."

Olena Martynenko

Communication Manager

Good Bread Bakery

Kyiv

Olenka Tsyhankova

Olenka Tsyhankova

Olenka Tsyhankova is a senior student from Lviv, Ukraine. At her home university, Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU),her academic field is Cultural Studies, which prompted her to become more curious about various nations and dig deep into their cultures. Therefore, she is taking American Studies, Art History, Anthropology, and Religious Studies courses at Notre Dame to rediscover American culture and history.

Olha Droniak

Olha Droniak

Olha Droniak is a junior majoring in political science. At Notre Dame, I'm taking courses related to international relations, world politics, policymaking, and American politics. Olha is passionate about theater! In her hometown in Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk, the theater is very modern and innovative, so she visits it very often.

Olivia Williams-Coombs

RN, RM, CEN, University Hospital Of the West Indies, Jamaica

Oscar Isaac

Ex Machina

Inside Llewyn Davis

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Osose Omofomah

Osose Omofomah is a student at Kenyon College

Patch Darragh

Theater credits include:
Our Town (Broadway, With Paul Newman)
The Glass Menagerie(Roundabout)
All That I Will Ever Be (NYTW)

Patrese McClain

Theater credits include:
Pericles (The Black Rep)
Ruined (The Black Rep)
Two Trains Running (Geva Theatre Center)

Patricia Buckley

Credits include:

Portland Stage Company

Paul Giamatti

Credits include:

John Adams

Cinderella Man

Sideways

Paul Juhn

Credits include:

Salt

Michael Clayton

30 Rock

Peter Francis James

Broadway:
Merchant of Venice
Drowning Crow
On Golden Pond
Judgment at Nuremberg

Peter Friedman

Theater credits include:
Ragtime (Broadway)
Twelve Angry Men (Broadway Revival)
Film credits include:
The Savages
I’m Not There
Synecdoche, New York

Peter Marks

former chief theater critic, The Washington Post

Phillippe Chang

Credits include:

Nobody’s Perfect

She Spies

Gift

Polly Noonan

Theater credits include:
Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Helen Hayes Award)
Passion Play (Arena Stage, Helen Hayes Award Nomination; Goodman Theatre, Yale Rep Theatre, Epic Theatre Ensemble)
Eurydice (Madison Repertory Theatre)

Raphael Sardina

Theater credits include:

Sea of Tranquility (Atlantic Theatre)

Sleepwalkers (Alliance Theater)

Film credits include:

War of the Worlds

The Brave One

Reed Birney

Theater credits include:
Blasted (Soho Rep, Drama Desk Award Nomination)
Bug (Obie Award)
Circle Mirror Transformation(Playwrights Horizons)

Reg E Cathey

Theater credits include:
The Shawshank Redemption(London’s West End, Dublin)
The Green Bird (Broadway)
Talk (Obie Award, Foundry Theatre)

Renzo Ampuero

Theater credits include:
Trojan Barbie
Ajax in Iraq
A Picture of Dorian Gray

Rev. Dr. Leonard Small

Pastor of Litway Missionary Baptist Church.

Reynaldo Piniella

Reynaldo Piniella was previously seen in Terminus (NYTW Next Door), Venus, The Death of the Last Black Man...(Signature Theatre Company), The Skin Of Our Teeth (Theatre For A New Audience), Romeo & Juliet (Actors Theatre of Louisville, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis), The Tempest, The Three Musketeers (Classical Theatre of Harlem), and Honky (Urban Stages).

TV credits include "Sneaky Pete", "Louie", "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", "Law & Order: SVU", "NYC 22", "The Carrie Diaries" and "Flesh & Bone". Film credits include "Madeline's Madeline", "Broken City", "One Percent More Humid" and "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close". He will next be seen in the McCarter Theatre Center production of "A Christmas Carol."

Rich Orlow

Credits include:

Law & Order

Grand Theft Auto

Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers

Rob Belushi

TV credits include:

The Joe Schmo Show

The Defenders

Rob Cameron

Credits include: Fenix Theatre Company

Roman Tolpezhnikov

Doctor of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor, Dean of the Department of Law and Economics, Mariupol State University, refugee from Mariupol, Ukraine

Rosalyn Rouse

Sistah Roz ~ Rosalyn Rouse
Rosalyn Rouse is a 'daughter of the soil' of Savannah, Georgia. Born and raised on the coast, she is a Descendant of the Enslaved that arrived on the edges of River Street in 1748. Sistah Roz greets you by saying, 'How U Be?' When she departs from U, she will say, 'Tek' Cyah', Nigh!' She is a proud Gullah Geechee Uhman/Woman.
'Sistah Roz' is one of five siblings, a wife, mother and grandmother. She loves people from all walks of life and they love her back all over the city. She is a graduate of Groves High School and is retired from a profession in the health care industry. In 2013 she co-founded a grass roots public policy organization, The Center for Jubilee, Reconciliation and Healing. Her work engages local, county and state governments to make positive changes in the lives of endangered communities in the areas of social justice and human rights.
As a national slave reenactor with Underground Tours of Savannah, she mesmorizes her audiences with her profound 'truth-telling' about the heart and souls of Enslaved spirits who dwelled on the coast of Georgia. Her most recent theatrical performance in 2022 was in the character of American Heroine Susie King Taylor in a production by 'The History Project' entitled Susie King Taylor, What A Wonderful Revolution’.

Ruth Faden

Berman Institute Founder; Philip Franklin Wagley Professor of Biomedical Ethics

Sally Wood

Stage credits include:

Portland Stage Company

Fenix Theatre Company

Samira Wiley

SAMIRA WILEY is best known for her SAG Award winning performance as inmate Poussey Washington on “Orange is the New Black.” She most recently starred in the Off Broadway play Daphne’s Dive, directed by Thomas Kail (Hamilton). Wiley’s current projects include roles in Hulu’s original drama series “The Handmaid’s Tale”, FX show “You’re the Worst” and independent feature 37.

Her past film projects include Nerve, Rob The Mob, Being Flynn and The Sitter. Television appearances include “The Catch”, “Law and Order: SVU”, “Person of Interest” and a recurring role on “Unforgettable.”

Wiley is a graduate of The Julliard School.

Sandy Cayo

Dr. Sandy Cayo DNP FNP-BC Phd (c) is a board certified family nurse practitioner. She has over 15 years of healthcare experience and expertise. She specializes in the areas of clinical, academic and executive leadership. As a practicing clinician, she cares for patients across the care continuum from pediatric to geriatric. Her specialties include, oncology, pediatrics/women's health, primary care and urgent care. She has owned and operated her own telemedicine practice and enjoys providing holistic modalities of care and wellness for her patients. As a nursing professor Dr. Cayo has taught bachelors, masters and doctoral level courses. She specializes in curricular/ course design, NCLEX advising, DNP coaching/advising, and student centered innovation in the classroom. Her experience as a Vice President of Clinical Performance demonstrates her ability to lead teams, conduct project management, quality improvement and advocacy. Past experience as a primary investigator include areas of infection control education, chronic disease management and social determinants of health, consumer health coverage, and health disparities research. Her independent reasarch focuses on psychosocial factors like discrimination and stress and their impacts on chronic disease in African American patients.

She has led and operated a patient safety organization and coordinated statewide education and planning for continuing education for nurses, physicians, pharmacists, public health professionals and health care administrators. She has overseen statewide efforts related to nursing workforce and wellbeing.

Sara Waisanen

Theater credits include:
Proof
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Winter’s Tale
Much Ado About Nothing

Seth Gilliam

Theater credits include:
Othello (Commonwealth Stage)
Richard III (New York Shakespeare Festival)
TV & Film credits include:
The Wire
Courage Under Fire

Seth Numrich

Theater credits include:
Merchant of Venice (Broadway)
War Horse (Lincoln Center)
TV & Film credits include:
Private Romeo
Gravity

Soffia Dobko

Sofia Dobko

Sofia Dobko is a senior student from Lviv, Ukraine. At Ukrainian Catholic University, her major is Philology (Linguistics). At Notre Dame, she is taking courses in anthropology, American and religious culture. Soffia also enjoys drawing and painting.

Solomiia Rozlutska

Solomiia Rozlutska

Solomiia is a PhD student in History in the Department of History of Humanities Faculty of Ukrainian Catholic University. At Notre Dame, she is doing a research internship in the Department of History. She is also a Project Manager for International Cooperation at the UCU International Academic Relations Office.

Sonja Sohn

Credits include: The Wire, Body of Proof, Bringing Out the Dead

Soraya Nadia McDonald

Soraya Nadia McDonald is an award-winning cultural critic and journalist. Most recently, she served as senior cultural critic for Andscape (formerly known as The Undefeated). She is the 2020 winner of the George Jean Nathan prize for dramatic criticism, a 2020 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism, and the runner-up for the 2019 Vernon Jarrett Medal for outstanding reporting on Black life. She is also an adjunct professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. You may recognize her voice from NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour or Fresh Air with Terry Gross. She is also a contributing editor for Film Comment.

Soraya’s essay “‘Believe Me’ Means Believing That Black Women Are People” was published in Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change the World (Seal Press, 2020) and her essay “The Unbearable Whiteness of Oklahoma!” was published in Bigotry on Broadway (Baraka Books, 2021). She has also written for Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, and New York.

Soraya was a 2018 Eugene O’Neill National Critics Institute fellow and a 2022 Princeton Belknap fellow. She is a member of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle, the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Society of Film Critics, and the Television Critics Association. She is a member of the board of trustees of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Before joining Andscape in 2016, she covered pop culture for the Washington Post.

Soraya graduated from Howard University with a degree in journalism. She grew up in North Carolina and lives in Brooklyn with her cat, Princess Buttercup. She is repped by Anna Sproul-Latimer of Neon Literary.

Steven Louis Grush

Theater credits include:
True West (American Theater Company)
Romeo and Juliet (Chicago Shakespeare Theater)

T. Ryder Smith

Theater credits include:
War Horse (Lincoln Center Theater)
Equus (Broadway)
Dead Man’s Cell Phone(Playwrights Horizons)
Lebensraum (Drama Desk Award)
Waiting for Godot (Christopher McElroen, Site-Specific in New Orleans)

Tamara Tunie

TAMARA TUNIE starred as "Marvelous" in the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway run of Tony nominated playwright Danai Gurira’s Familiar, at Playwrights Horizons.

Broadway credits include: Julius Caesar, Dreamgirls, Oh, Kay!, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music.

Tamara also starred Off-Broadway in: The Library (Public Theater), Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare in the Park), Sheba, Loose Knit. . Regional: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Les Liaisons Dangereuse, Tartuffe, Antony and Cleopatra, All's Well That Ends Well. Film: Flight, Snake Eyes, The Devil’s Advocate, Wall Street and Caveman’s Valentine (Independent Spirit Award).

Television: Dr. Melinda Warner on “Law & Order: SVU,” Jessica Griffin on “As the World Turns,” “The Red Road” (opp. Jason Mamoa), “Elementary,” “Billions,” “24,” “Alpha House,” “The Good Wife,” “Sex and the City.”

An accomplished singer, Ms Tunie is a regular headliner in New York City’s cabaret venues .Tamara is also a successful Broadway producer, whose credits include: Spring Awakening (Tony Award), Radio Gold (Tony nom.), and Magic/Bird.

Tate Donovan

Broadway: 'Good People' (MTC), 'Amy's View' (Barrymore) 'Picnic' (Roundabout) Off Broadway: Kenneth Lonergan's 'Medieval Play' (Signature) and 'Lobby Hero' (Playwrights Horizons), 'American Plan' (MTC). Also appeared in productions at the Wiliamstown Theatre Festival, Long Wharf, Mark Taper, and The Geffen.

Tate has appeared in over 40 films, including MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, ARGO (SAG award), ELVIS AND NIXON, GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK, MEMPHIS BELLE, LOVE POTION #9, CLEAN AND SOBER, and the title voice in Disney’s HERCULES.

TV credits include Man in the High Castle, Masters of Sex, 24, Damages, The OC and Friends amongst others. Directing credits include Madam Secretary (CBS), Bloodline (Netflix), Damages (FX), Glee (Fox), Weeds (Showtime) and the ESPN 30 For 30 Documentary Short 'Arthur and Johnnie', for which he won an EMMY.

Tate Ellington

Theater credits include:
The Philanthropist (Broadway)
TV & Film credits include:
Taking Chance
The Good Wife

Tatiana Tolpezhnikov

PhD in Economics, Refugee from Mariupol, Ukraine

Taylor Schilling

Orange is the New Black

Argo

The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson

THE RT. HON. ADRIENNE CLARKSON, PC, CC, CMM, COM, CD

The 26th Governor General of Canada (1999-2005) since Confederation in 1867, when Canada became a nation, Adrienne Clarkson is universally acknowledged to have transformed the office during her six years at Rideau Hall, the official residence of Canada’s head of state, and to have left an indelible mark on Canada’s history. Her tenure as Governor General was remarkable for her passionate interest in Canada’s North, and in the circumpolar nations as a whole, which led her to establish the Governor General’s Northern Medal, awarded annually to an individual who has contributed outstandingly to our understanding and development of the North. In particular, her interest in the Aboriginal peoples was remarkable and has helped push the question of native peoples in Canada to the forefront of national discussion.

Madame Clarkson’s official titles include membership in the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada (PC), Companion of the Order of Canada (CC), Commander of the Order of Military Merit (CMM), Commander of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces (COM) and the Canadian Forces Decoration (CD). National Post Columnist John Fraser remarked that Adrienne Clarkson “has the ability, unique among public officials, of making Canadians feel good about themselves and their country.” This talent was recognized by the Blood Tribe of Alberta who adopted her as an honorary chief. Madame Clarkson is proud to have the title “Grandmother of Many Nations.”

A leading figure in Canada’s cultural life, Madame Clarkson has had a rich and distinguished career in broadcasting, journalism, the arts and public service. Her television career is a remarkable and historic one. In 1965, at the age of 26, she auditioned for the host/presenter role on Take Thirty, a national Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Television public affairs programme that occurred daily. It was remarkable because she was a woman, and because she was the first visible minority to ever headline a national programme. It was very successful and she headlined the show for ten years, from 1965-1975, presenting every day at 3pm subjects of interest and concern to all Canadians. Nothing was considered too sacred a cow and there were many long series over a week which dealt with adoption, sex education for children, and the status of women. This magazine-type show was awarded one of the first television awards ever to be given in Canada. In 1975, with the success of this show behind her, she was asked to be part of a small team which conceived and brought forth the fifth estate, a public affairs primetime show modeled on the BBC’s Panorama and CBS’s 60 Minutes. In 2015, it celebrated its 40th anniversary on air. She was one of the two co-hosts and the show debuted in 1976. The fifth estate regularly garnered huge audiences and is the show for which Madame Clarkson is best remembered. In 1977, it won numerous awards both nationally and internationally: In 1977, she interviewed the Shah of Iran and spent three weeks in Iran just before his downfall. She also uncovered the machinations behind the 1976 Olympics in Montreal which lead to an enquiry into the finances of the Games and to charges being laid for financial problems. After eighteen years she left television to become Agent-General for Ontario in France, to return to create the first cultural programme the CBC had done in 20 years – Adrienne Clarkson Presents, in which she presented cultural events, featured artists, and created new works of drama. This much-acclaimed show garnered many awards, and she was still in charge as Executive Producer and host when she became Governor General in 1999. This television career, spanning a period of over 30 years, was unprecedented in Canada and unmatched to this day. The longevity and excellence of the television programmes with which she was associated are remembered still. She has a shelf full of awards from the United States and Canada. Her own distinctive style of interviewing was much admired and considered to be the optimum in the ability to elicit meaningful conversation and enlightenment.

In 1982, she had been asked by the Ontario Government under Premier Bill Davis to go to Paris to become the Agent-General for Ontario in France and Italy. She spent five years encouraging trade and culture between Paris and Ontario, which is the largest province in Canada with well over a third of the Canadian population living and working in it. Because she was truly bilingual from her education at la Sorbonne, she was able to achieve some notable triumphs: the establishment of the Renault19 factory for Brampton, Ontario, and the building of the new Paris Opera by the Toronto-based architect Carlos Ott, which was a surprise win for which she worked very hard. These two triumphs marked the high notes of her five years of mission there. From 1987-1989, she was president and publisher of McClelland & Stewart, Canada’s preeminent publisher at the time.

On returning to television, Madame Clarkson continued to do volunteer work, being consulted by government for many aspects of their cultural activities. She was appointed Chairman of the Board of the Canadian Museum of Civilization (now styled the Canadian Museum of History) and remained in that position until her appointment as Governor General in 1999. It was a time when the museum was deciding to do two important things. First, to create a Canadian War Museum and to lay out the guidelines and seek the site for this. The museum, designed by Raymond Moriyama, is now an architectural jewel on the waterfront of downtown Ottawa and has gained many awards. Second, the museum negotiated throughout her tenure to return sacred objects to the Aboriginal Peoples which had been at the museum for decades. This delicate negotiation with the different tribes in Canada was a first in the world and is a beacon to many countries dealing with their Aboriginal Peoples’ sacred works. The delicate negotiations were important and were a pioneer move on the part of museums of the world.

Over the course of a decade throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Madame Clarkson was a member of the United Nations Association in Canada (UNA-Canada) Committee for the Pearson Prize Medal, a prize given in honour of Lester B. Pearson, Canada’s Nobel Peace Prize Laureate in 1957, awarded to an individual who has contributed to the developing world, to mediation between those confronting one another with arms, succour to refugees and others in need, equal rights and justice for all humanity, and peaceful change through world law and world organization.

In recent years, she has served as the chair of juries for numerous awards including the Glenn Gould Prize, the Giller Prize for Literature (Canada’s most prestigious English-language fiction award), the Banff World Television Festival’s Awards, the Gold Medal for Architecture given by the Royal Architectural Institute, and the Man Asian Literary Prize (based in Hong Kong).

Upon leaving the office of Governor General in 2005, Madame Clarkson co-founded the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC) with her husband, John Ralston Saul. The Institute seeks to accelerate the acculturation of new citizens into Canadian life so they can participate fully and add their important voice to our pluralistic society. Among the ICC’s many practical programmes, there has been outstanding success with the Cultural Access Pass (CAP), which encourages new citizens and their families of up to four children to enter more than 1,400 cultural institutions and national and provincial parks for free for one year from the date of their citizenship. CAP members also receive 50% off the lowest train fare to travel the country for one year. The foundation of the ICC’s many programmes has helped to integrate new Canadians into the mainstream of Canadian life successfully. In September 2016, in inaugural 6 Degrees Citizen Space was launched in Toronto, an annual global forum on citizenship, immigration, inclusion, and diversity in the 21st Century. Intended to make Canada the ‘Davos of citizenship’, for three days 5,000 people from all over the world spoke together in an innovative conversation platform about belonging, exodus, and prosperity. The firm belief in Canada is that immigration and immigrants becoming citizens is the way forward for a prosperous and egalitarian world.

Since its inception in 2007, the Global Centre for Pluralism (GCP) has been part of Madame Clarkson’s activities. This initiative is the outcome of a partnership between His Highness the Aga Khan and the Government of Canada with a global mission to serve the world by fostering informed dialogue about the benefits of diversity as a global value. The GCP is an international centre for research, education and exchange about the values, practices and policies that underpin pluralist societies. Based in Ottawa, the Centre seeks to assist the creation of successful societies and was founded on the premise that tolerance, openness and understanding towards the cultures, social structures, values and faiths of other peoples are now essential to the survival of an interdependent world. As Chair of the GCP’s small Executive Committee, she is part of a Board of Directors of 11 members, which include Kofi Annan (now deceased), Huguette Labelle, Eduardo Stein, and other significant world leaders.

On March 17, 2007 Madame Clarkson became Colonel-in-Chief of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI), the first Canadian to be Colonel-in-Chief of a Canadian regiment. As Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Forces when she was Governor General she developed a close tie with the Armed Forces and enjoys the connection with this small but proud and effective force today through her Regiment.

In 2009, realizing that more and more girls were wanting to play the national game of Hockey, Madame Clarkson established the Clarkson Cup as the Championship Cup for the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, which is semi-professional, and many of whom whose members play on the Canadian Olympic women's hockey team. This establishment of a Cup was commissioned by Madame Clarkson to be designed by Inuit silver artists in Nunavut and was subsequently donated to make the reality of championship hockey concrete. It has been played for seven years now and the Canadian Women's Hockey League and women's hockey are growing exponentially in popularity. The Clarkson Cup now resides permanently in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

In 2004, Massey College, the graduate college at the University of Toronto, established the Clarkson Laureateship for Public Service to be awarded annually to three post-graduate fellows. The intent of this Laureateship is to recognize the incredible achievements of the Laureates in honour of Madame Clarkson's long public service as a volunteer, and in her ultimate service as Governor General. Madame Clarkson is also a Senior Fellow at Massey College in addition to being an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Trinity College at the University of Toronto, and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. She has also been honoured abroad with the Grand Cross of the Order of Pleiades from France (2001) and the Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation (2006), the only Canadian to be so honoured.

An eminent writer, Madame Clarkson has also written several books since she was Governor General, including her bestselling memoir Heart Matters that was received with acclaim in 2006. In the Ottawa Citizen, Janice Kennedy wrote, “Clarkson’s book is more than a memento mori but it is also more than a sweet and lyrical celebration of all the affairs of the heart that have constituted her life to date – her love of Canada and of Canadians, her love of immediate and extended family, her love of all those transcendent values that give grace to our moment on Earth.” Her biography of Dr. Norman Bethune for Penguin’s Extraordinary Canadians series was published in 2009. “[Clarkson’s] strength is her knowledge of Canadian social, cultural and political history, into which she inserts Bethune,” wrote Judy Stoffman from the Globe and Mail. “Clarkson’s Norman Bethune is perhaps the most inspired pairing of author and subject in Penguin Canada’s Extraordinary Canadians series to date.” Stories of the Canadian immigrant experience entitled Room for All of Us was published in 2011, in which ”Clarkson provides encouraging and optimistic stories of struggle and survival from the perspective of some remarkable people who have come to transform our nation despite their hardships. Room for All of Us is an intimate and insightful narrative, reflective of Canada’s rich immigration past and present,” is how Ottawa Life described the work. In 2014, she delivered the CBC Massey lectures, a cornerstone of Canadian public life. Broadcast on CBC radio, the national public broadcaster, her five lectures were also released as a book, Belonging: The Paradox of Citizenship, published by House of Anansi Press. Publisher’s Weekly shared, “For Clarkson, society is more than just a group of individuals; it is shaped by people's desire to belong. Her analysis stresses the interdependence among people, who are at their most human when they commit to their community. One of her key messages is acceptance: people need to acknowledge that there are other citizens with backgrounds different than their own, and these differences need to be included in citizenship. The great strength of Clarkson's work is the range of examples that she cites. Her discussion includes a tribe in Uganda, Icelandic chieftains, black loyalists in Nova Scotia, and many other groups. […] Her work stretches across time and countries and will inspire further debate and discussion.”

Madame Clarkson was born in Hong Kong and arrived in Canada as a refugee in 1942 with her family and one suitcase apiece. Her family settled in Ottawa, where she attended public schools until graduating from Lisgar Collegiate Institute in 1956. She obtained both an Honours B.A. and her M.A in English Literature from the University of Toronto’s Trinity College, followed by studies at La Sorbonne. Her work has been recognized with dozens of awards in Canada, the United States and Europe including 32 honorary doctorates from universities in Canada and abroad.

Adrienne Clarkson is married to the writer John Ralston Saul and has two children and four grandchildren. Her work continues and she is continually inspired by the words of the great 19th Century Canadian politician Joseph Howe, who said “I ask myself what is right, what is just, what is for the public good?”

Thomas Derrah

Credits include:

100+ productions at American Repertory Theater, including

Endgame

R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE

Film:

Mystic River

Tonya Britt

R.N.,

Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center

Tracie Thoms

Credits include:

Rent

The Devil Wears Prada

Annie

Tshaka Cunningham

Chief Scientific Officer, Polaris Genomics

Ty Jones

Artistic Director, The Classical Theatre of Harlem
Henry V (Title Role, The Classical Theatre of Harlem)
Broadway:
Enron
Judgment at Nuremberg
Julius Caesar

Vanessa Sears

Vanessa Sears is an actress, known for Suits (2011), The Beaverton (2016) and Canadoodaday(2017). Vanessa was born and raised in Deep River, Ontario. She began performing in school and in community theatre productions from a young age and was encouraged to pursue her passion professionally. This led her to audition for the prestigious Bachelor of Music Theatre Performance program at Sheridan College. After graduating with High Honours and beginning her career, Vanessa is now an award-winning actor based out of Toronto.

Victor Dzau

President, National Academy of Medicine

Vivian Pinn

Senior Scientist Emerita at the NIH Fogarty International Center

Wendy MacLeod

James Michael Playwright-in-Residence/Professor of Drama, Kenyon College

Willem Dafoe

Spider-Man

The Lighthouse

Platoon

William Jackson Harper

Theater credits include:
Measure for Measure (The Public Theater)
A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick (Playwrights Horizons)
Ruined (The Goodman Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club)

Yaryna Pysko

Yaryna Pysko

Yaryna Pysko is originally from Novoyavorivsk, Lviv oblast, Ukraine. She is an alumna of Ukrainian Catholic University, class of 2022, having majored in Political Science in an interdisciplinary "Ethics.Politics.Economics" program. She is currently pursuing a masters degree in the Master of Global Affairs program in the Keough School at Notre Dame, with concentrations in Governance and Policy.

Zach Grenier

Selected credits: Broadway: 33 Variations, A Man For All Seasons; Off-Broadway: A Question of Mercy, The Fiery Furnace, and, at the Public Theatre, Stuff Happens, Woyzeck, Talk Radio. Regional: the title roles in Uncle Vanya and Tartuffe at Yale Repertory, the latter also at Princeton’s McCarter Theatre, and Yvan in Art in Chicago. Films include Tommy Boy, Twister, Ride With The Devil, Fight Club and Zodiac. On television, series regular on C16:FBI and Touching Evil; featured on Deadwood, 24, and The Good Wife.