2008-2009 Public Events
During the 2008-2009 academic year, the Berry Center has hosted several speakers on campus. The major speaker for the year was former Indiana Congressman Tim Roemer. He was on campus December 4 for several classroom meetings and a talk, "National Security Challenges in the 21st Century." Roemer served on the 9/11 commission and was the ranking house Democrat when the No Child Left Behind policy was enacted. Roemer is currently president of the Center for National Policy in Washington D.C. The Center for National Policy directly engages Capitol Hill and the executive branch on national security issues.
On April 15, the Berry Center hosted the second Economics Symposium, featuring two sessions. The first was Jane Fortson, PhD, a Becker Center Fellow in Price Theory at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago who presented her research in a session entitled "The Economic Consequences of HIV/AIDS." The second was Erica Field, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Economics at Harvard University, with a presentation entitled "Power of a Pill: Iodine Deficiency, Schooling Attainment, and Economic Development."
On March 4, Yuliya Demyanyk, a senior research economist with the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank and expert on the subprime mortgage crisis gave a well-attended talk entitled, "Understanding the Subprime Mortgage Crisis."
On December 15, the Berry Center hosted Financial Crisis in Perspective: A Panel Discussion. Invited panelists included Thomas Anderson, CIMA, Vice President, Merrill Lynch (Cedar Rapids); Todd Knoop, Ph.D., associate professor, Economics and Business; and Mark Zinkula, U.S. CEO, Legal and General Investment Management.
Cornell, along with the University of Iowa, Drake and Grinnell hosted three speakers from the National Security Network. The National Security Network has a goal of strengthening citizen support for responsible US foreign policy throughout the country. Speakers included Dr. James Ludes, Executive Director of the American Security Project (ASP); Roger W. Cressey, an on-air counterterrorism analyst for NBC News and homeland security, cyber security, and counterterrorism issues expert; and Joshua Casteel, former US Army interrogator and author of Letters from Abu Ghraib.
