First-Year Experience

FIRST-YEAR EXPERIENCE

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merican Program Bureau offers an extensive roster of speakers specializing in campus programming and first-year events. With voices ranging from respected authors of popular all-campus reads to experts in student health and wellness to activists and global thought leaders, we have the right person for your program.

“When it is time for you to leave this school, leave your job, or even leave this earth, you make sure you have worked hard to make sure it mattered you were even here.”

We are proud to represent some of the world’s most respected speakers. Educated, motivational, and inspirational, they share messages of particular interest to campus audiences, including:

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• Promoting cultural understanding and inclusion • Bullying, gender issues, and self esteem • Environmental, political, and social issues • Addiction, abuse, and mental health • The Internet and new media • Discussions surrounding popular first-year reads

wes moore

author of The Other Wes Moore

APB has been a leader in college programming for over four decades. With affiliated offices around the world, we have the resources to match the ideal speaker to your next event.

For more information on the speakers within this catalog, or to learn about the many other voices we represent, visit us online at apbspeakers.com

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DENOTES THIS YEAR’S MOST REQUESTED AUTHORS

The American Program Bureau | 313 Washington Street, Suite 225 | Newton, MA 02458 | apbspeakers.com | 800.225.4575

FIRST-YEAR EXPERIENCE

Rye Barcott

A former Marine, Barcott penned the memoir It Happened on the Way to War: A Marine’s Path to Peace. In it, he shares his journey of sacrifice and courage as he explores the inherent contrasts in being both a warrior and a peacemaker.

Jennifer Finney Boylan

The first transgender American to author a best-selling book, Boylan penned the memoir She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders. A professor of literature and creative writing, she speaks on topics of gender, culture, and the redeeming power of love.

Pearl Cleage

An accomplished playwright, poet, and novelist, Cleage probes the issues of race, sex, and love in such literary works as Baby Brother’s Blues, Seen It All and Done the Rest, and Just Wanna Testify. She blends truth and humor to convey to audiences the importance of striving to live life to the fullest.

Ellis Cose

One of America’s most renowned journalists, media commentators, and widely read writers, Cose is known for his informed voice on issues of national and international concern. He has authored such books as The Envy of the World and the best-selling The Rage of a Privileged Class.

Michael Eric Dyson

One of America’s foremost public intellectuals, Dr. Dyson addresses the most controversial issues of the day. A prolific author, scholar, cultural observer, ordained minister, and media commentator, his sharp wit and profound thought are captured in his latest book, Can You Hear Me Now?

Anastasia Goodstein

Goodstein is an award-winning blogger and oft-quoted expert on how college students are using the Internet. The founder of Ypulse, an independent blog for teen media and marketing professionals, she offers insight into social media and the roles new technologies will play in our lives.

Erin Gruwell

The author of The Freedom Writers Diary— the acclaimed book that inspired the film Freedom Writers, starring Hilary Swank— Gruwell is a courageous and committed educator who transformed a group of students deemed “unteachable” in a racially divided school system.

Roya Hakakian

A celebrated writer and filmmaker, Hakakian is the author of Journey from the Land of No, an account of her life growing up as a Jewish teenager in post-revolutionary Iran, and Assassins of the Turquoise Palace. She speaks passionately on the Middle East and the importance of human rights.

Chris Herren

A former NBA player, Herren realized his lifelong dream of playing for the Boston Celtics only to lose it all to alcohol and drug addiction. Now in his third year of sobriety, he shares his story of abuse and recovery in the memoir Basketball Junkie and in the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary Unguarded.

Gish Jen

Named a “premier novelist of the 21st century” by John Updike, Jen writes on the experiences of diverse cultural groups and their joys and struggles in adapting to America. She is the best-selling author of Typical American, The Love Wife, and her latest, World and Town.

Parag Khanna

A foreign policy advisor to President Obama during his historic campaign, Khanna has become a key player in shaping the global community. He is the best-selling author of The Second World and How to Run the World.

Naomi Klein

A syndicated columnist and author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Klein offers stunning revelations and well researched insight to support her claim that governments have manipulated natural disasters, global crises, and wars to their advantage.

The American Program Bureau | 313 Washington Street, Suite 225 | Newton, MA 02458 | apbspeakers.com | 800.225.4575

FIRST-YEAR EXPERIENCE

Nick Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn

A Pulitzer Prize-winning duo, journalists Kristof and WuDunn are extraordinary human rights advocates. Together they have written the best-selling China Wakes, chronicling China’s rising economic and political power, and Half the Sky, exploring the oppression of women in the developing world.

Michael Patrick MacDonald

An award-winning writer who explores the complex relationship between race, class, and poverty, MacDonald authored All Souls, a stunning memoir about growing up poor in South Boston, and Easter Rising, an account of how he escaped it all.

James McBride

McBride authored the New York Times bestseller The Color of Water, a powerful memoir that has become required reading on many campuses. Also an award-winning jazz musician, his insightful presentations explore identity, race, and the common good that unites us all.

Wes Moore

After learning about a man who shared his name and was brought up in the same neighborhood but ultimately landed a lifetime prison sentence, Moore set out on a journey to discover how small choices make big differences in life. The result was his acclaimed memoir, The Other Wes Moore.

Ralph Nader

Former presidential candidate Nader is a renowned consumer advocate who urges people to become involved in the political process. He authored Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!, a fictional exploration of how the world would be different if those with power united for the common good of humanity.

Sonia Nazario

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Nazario authored the national bestseller Enrique’s Journey. What began as a newspaper series and has since become an all-campus read at colleges nationwide, Enrique’s Journey offers a gripping perspective on immigration, one of today’s most controversial issues.

Summer Rayne Oakes

Oakes is considered the world’s first ecomodel for seamlessly combining her environmental expertise and vision with her modeling career. She is the author of Style, Naturally, the first global guide to sustainable beauty and fashion, and speaks on body image, sustainability, and green living.

Raj Patel

A journalist and food policy expert, Patel challenges our presumptions on consumption through his work both as an analyst and activist.

In his book Stuffed and Starved he explores the worldwide food crisis, and in The Value of Nothing he tackles how we can achieve a fair society and sustainable economy.

Jonathan Perry

The founder of Johnson C. Smith University’s first official GLBT organization, Perry—who is HIV positive—is an outspoken activist who has organized several forums on race and sexual orientation. He shares his story of living with HIV, his struggle to overcome depression, and how activism saved his life.

Alvin Poussaint

One of America’s top authorities on subjects ranging from media literacy to family dynamics, Dr. Poussaint is a strong proponent of non-violent parenting and parental education. He co-authored Come On, People: On the Path from Victims to Victors with Bill Cosby.

William Powers

Powers is the author of the New York Times bestseller Hamlet’s BlackBerry, which explores digital life and offers a bold approach to making better, smarter use of today’s technologies. It has been called “a brilliant and thoughtful handbook for the Internet age.”

Victor Rivas Rivers

An actor and former NLF player, Rivers penned the New York Times bestseller A Private Family Matter, chronicling the years of abuse both he and his mother endured at the hands of his father. He is now a spokesperson for the National Network to End Domestic Violence.

The American Program Bureau | 313 Washington Street, Suite 225 | Newton, MA 02458 | apbspeakers.com | 800.225.4575

FIRST-YEAR EXPERIENCE

Thad Roberts

As a former astrophysicist at NASA, Roberts’s career took a turn when he tried to impress his girlfriend by stealing lunar samples and landed a six-year prison sentence. He chronicles his heist and explores human potential to rebound from failure in the book Sex on the Moon.

Liz Seccuro

As a college freshman, Seccuro was drugged and raped by a fellow student. Twenty years after the fact, she received a letter of apology from her rapist, prompting her to bring him to justice. Now a devout victims’ rights activist, she shares her story in her 2011 memoir, Crash Into Me.

Nic & David Sheff

In Tweak, recovering addict Nic Sheff spared no detail about his experiences with alcohol and heroin. Nic’s father, renowned journalist David Sheff, shared the struggle from his point of view in Beautiful Boy. Together, the duo recounts a heartbreaking, honest story of the emotional rollercoaster of addiction.

Gary Shteyngart

Celebrated by Publishers Weekly as an upand-coming author, Russian immigrant Shteyngart penned the bestsellers The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, Absurdistan, and Super Sad True Love Story. He weighs in on the absurdity of life, contrasting humor against a backdrop of the world’s tragedies.

Robyn Silverman

A body image and body bullying expert, Dr. Silverman is known for her no-nonsense yet positive approach to helping young people and their families thrive. Her groundbreaking research provides the foundation for her book Good Girls Don’t Get Fat.

Rachel Simmons

Simmons is the author of the New York Times bestseller Odd Girl Out, the first book to explore the phenomenon of negativity and bullying between females—just as harmful as that between males, but harder to recognize. She is the founder and director of The Girls’ Leadership Institute.

Ian Smith

Known as one of the diet experts on VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club and as a contributor to The Rachael Ray Show, Dr. Smith also hosts the syndicated radio show “HealthWatch” on American Urban Radio Networks. He created The 50 Million Pound Challenge, a nationwide weight loss movement.

Touré

As a correspondent for NBC and a contributing editor to Rolling Stone, Touré addresses such issues as hip-hop culture, modern racism, and interracial dating. He authored Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness, which offers a bold look at what it means to be black today.

Colson Whitehead

An award-winning author known for providing an articulate view of race, culture, and class, Whitehead was the recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award and a Pulitzer Prize finalist for John Henry Days. His latest novel, Zone One, offers a wry look at a post-apocalyptic world.

Juan Williams

Williams is a political analyst for Fox News and a panelist on its newest show, The Five.

He is the author of the hotly debated Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America and Muzzled: The Attack on Honest Debate.

Rosalind Wiseman

An authority on teens, bullying, and parenting, Wiseman is the author of Queen Bees and Wannabes, the best-selling book that inspired the hit film Mean Girls. She is the media’s go-to expert on bullying prevention and school violence, and is a frequent guest on The Today Show.

Koren Zailckas

Twenty-something Zailckas is the author of the New York Times bestseller Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood, in which she chronicles her experiences with alcohol, from early experimentation to habitual excess to full-blown abuse. Her latest book is Fury, a follow-up.

The American Program Bureau | 313 Washington Street, Suite 225 | Newton, MA 02458 | apbspeakers.com | 800.225.4575