Pulitzer Prize-winning author to speak at UNI's Joy Cole Corning Distinguished Leadership Lecture Series

The University of Northern Iowa will host Presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham for the Joy Cole Corning Distinguished Leadership Lecture Series. The lecture event will take place on Monday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. in the Catherine Cassidy Gallagher Great Hall in the Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center (GBPAC). During his lecture titled “Finding Hope Through the Lessons of Yesterday,” Meacham walks audiences through moments that have seemed intractable to offer lessons for leaders on how to endure and prevail when everything appears hopeless.

The Joy Cole Corning Distinguished Leadership Lecture Series, established in 2001 by alumna and former Iowa Lt. Governor Joy Cole Corning, brings nationally and internationally renowned leaders in the arts, business, education, government and the judiciary to campus. The series provides students with an understanding of what constitutes leadership across disciplines and helps them discover how people become leaders in their fields.

"Our mother embodied what it meant to be a lifelong learner,” said Joy Cole Corning’s daughter Ann Lyons. “Education was both her passion and mission throughout her life. We are so very proud of the legacy she created through the Joy Cole Corning Distinguished Leadership Lecture Series and are honored to be in this collaboration with the University of Northern Iowa."

Meacham is regarded as one of America's most prominent public intellectuals. With a depth of knowledge about politics, history, religion and current affairs, Meacham has the unique ability to bring historical context to the issues and events impacting our daily lives.

The author of several #1 New York Times bestsellers, Meacham has written acclaimed books about Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, George H.W. Bush and civil-rights icon John Lewis. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the Society of American Historians, Meacham is a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University, where he holds the Rogers Chair in the American Presidency. His latest book, “And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle,” will be published in the fall of 2022.

Admission is free, but tickets are required. Tickets are available at the GBPAC and McLeod Center ticket offices or by phone at 319-273-4849.