Dr. Anthony Fauci at The Richmond Forum

Dr. Anthony Fauci FOR THE GREATER GOOD

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TONIGHT’S PROGRAM

Dr. Anthony Fauci

FOR THE GREATER GOOD MARCH 16,

2024

OPENING MUSIC Dr. W. Weldon Hill

NATIONAL ANTHEM Desirée Roots-Centeio

OPENING REMARKS

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

Heather Mullins Crislip Executive Director

The Richmond Forum

Gregg Karawan Executive Vice President & General Counsel Genworth Financial, Inc.

PRESENTATION & AUDIENCE QUESTIONS Dr. Anthony Fauci with Dr. Danny Avula Commissioner Virginia Department of Social Services

There will be no intermission during this program.

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Genworth is pleased to welcome physician-scientist, immunologist, and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, Dr. Anthony Fauci, to Richmond. With an unwavering commitment to advance health equity, Dr. Fauci guided the nation through two of the most significant global health crises in modern history - the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic.

At Genworth, we empower families to navigate the aging journey with confidence and, like Dr. Fauci, care about the wellbeing of each human being

Genworth is proud to support The Richmond Forum in its efforts to challenge us to think, encourage us to engage, and inspire each of us to strive for the greater good.

“I’LL LET OTHER PEOPLE JUDGE THE VALUE OR NOT OF MY ACCOMPLISHMENTS, BUT WHAT I WOULD LIKE PEOPLE TO REMEMBER ABOUT [MY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE] IS THAT EVERY DAY, FOR ALL OF THOSE YEARS, I’VE GIVEN IT EVERYTHING THAT I HAVE, AND I’VE NEVER LEFT ANYTHING ON THE FIELD.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI

TONIGHT’S SPEAKER

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI is perhaps the most recognized and influential public health and policy figure in modern times. With a career bookended by the HIV/AIDS epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic before his retirement in 2022, Fauci’s impact has spanned seven presidents and touched billions of lives.

Fauci has served the public with a relentless pursuit of discovery and innovation for more than 50 years. Throughout his tenure, which included 38 years as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Fauci oversaw an extensive research portfolio devoted to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of infectious and immune-mediated diseases. As the key advisor to seven United States presidents and their administrations, he led medical and public health preparedness and treatments against emerging infectious disease threats, including HIV/AIDS, pandemic influenza, Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19.

Fauci has faced his research — and critics — with a steadfast devotion to science, a deep concern and empathy for those suffering from disease, and a humancentered pragmatism that ultimately led to extraordinary results. His unwavering dedication to the public good has generated bipartisan political support for his scientific and medical contributions.

Fauci has been awarded both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Science by President George W. Bush. He has been the recipient of numerous awards for his scientific and global health accomplishments, including the Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service, the Prince Mahidol Award from Thailand, the Robert Koch Gold Medal from Germany, and the Gairdner Global Health Award from Canada.

Fauci has also been awarded 58 honorary doctoral degrees from U.S. and global universities. He has authored, co-authored, and edited more than 1,400 scientific publications, including major textbooks about internal medicine, infectious diseases, and autoimmune diseases.

DR. DANNY TK AVULA is the Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Social Services, one of the Commonwealth’s largest agencies. He oversees the agency’s efforts to stabilize families and give Virginians a pathway out of poverty. Avula spent 2021 leading Virginia’s unprecedented COVID-19 vaccination effort, helping Virginia become one of the top ten most vaccinated states in the country. Prior to that, he served as the director of the Richmond City and Henrico County health departments.

Avula is a public health physician who specializes in pediatrics and preventive medicine, and continues to clinically practice as a pediatric hospitalist. He graduated from the University of Virginia before earning his medical degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. Avula completed residencies at VCU and Johns Hopkins University, where he also earned a Master of Public Health. As an affiliate faculty member at VCU, he serves as an advisor and preceptor to graduate and medical students.

Avula was appointed to Virginia’s State Board of Social Services from 2013 to 2021 and served as board chair from 2017 to 2019. He is also a former board chair of the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation. Avula was annually named one of Richmond’s “Top Docs’’ from 2013 to 2022 and has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities’ Humanitarian Award, a Richmond Times-Dispatch “Person of the Year” honoree in 2019, and Style Weekly’s “Richmonder of the Year” in 2020. His work has been extensively covered by statewide and national media outlets like The New York Times, NPR, and PBS NewsHour.

Avula has called Richmond’s Church Hill neighborhood his home for the past 19 years. There, he devotes his time to life with his wife and five kids.

Head to slido.com to submit a question for the Q&A. You can also endorse questions submitted by fellow audience members, both in the theater and online, to increase the chance of them being asked.

To Caring

DR. W. WELDON HILL

TONIGHT’S MUSICIANS

A PIANIST, MUSICOLOGIST, AND COMPOSER, Weldon Hill is a recently retired career educator who spent the majority of his 35-year career working in higher education executive administration. He has since made a full-time return to the stage. Hill is now in high demand as an arranger for several artists but most often performs with his own piano trio. He has also shared the stage with artists such as Jon Faddis, Joe Williams, Marleana Shaw, Benny Carter, Andrew White, and Jo Marie Payton.

Hill has recorded as a guest musician with several artists, and many ensembles have performed his arrangements and compositions. A Richmond native, he holds a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Union University and both a master’s and doctoral degree from the Catholic University of America — all in music. His dissertation, a comprehensive analysis and history of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts, is considered the seminal work on the subject. He is joined tonight by Billy Williams (drums), Michael Hawkins (bass), Desirée Roots-Centeio (vocals), and James B. Gates, Jr. (alto saxophone).

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Admissible: Shreds of Evidence

Presented in partnership with iHeartMedia and Story Mechanics, “Admissible: Shreds of Evidence” is a VPM original podcast examining how a key building block of our justice system –evidence itself – is often flawed, disputed, or even manipulated.

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PROTECTING PUBLIC HEALTH

THE HISTORY OF NIH AND NIAID

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES (NIAID) conducts and supports basic and applied research to better understand, treat, and prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases. It is one of 27 institutes and centers that comprise the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

For more than 60 years, NIAID research has led to new therapies, vaccines, diagnostic tests, and other technologies that have improved the health of millions of people in the U.S. and around the world. However, NIAID and NIH’s full history can be traced to the early days of bacteriology research in the U.S.

In the 1880s, millions of European immigrants crossed the Atlantic Ocean to reach Ellis Island, some unknowingly bringing cholera and other infectious diseases with them. At the time, the causes of these diseases were largely unknown, and physicians had to rely on clinical signs alone to determine whether someone might be carrying an infectious agent.

Hoping to forestall an import of pandemic cholera and yellow fever to the U.S., Congress authorized the Marine Hospital Service (MHS) to inspect passengers arriving on ships for signs of sickness. MHS asked a young medical officer studying the new science of bacteriology, Dr. Joseph J. Kinyoun , to support these efforts by setting up a laboratory on New York’s Staten Island in 1887.

Within months of setting up the one-room Hygienic Laboratory, Kinyoun put his microscope and newly developed research techniques to use.

An Italian steamship had arrived in New York with eight passengers who were sick with cholera, and another eight who had died during the voyage. Kinyoun and his team collected samples from the ill individuals and were able to isolate the cholera pathogen while the ship and remaining passengers were held in quarantine.

German physician Robert Koch had only recently discovered the relationship between the bacterial strain, Vibrio cholerae, and cholera. For the first time, American physicians could see the organisms that were causing the disease, proving the value of bacteria cultivation as a means to diagnose illness.

News of Kinyoun’s work spread throughout the medical community. Health departments across the country called on him to assist their investigations and teach their physicians how to conduct bacteriological tests. In 1891, Kinyoun’s laboratory was moved to Washington, D.C., and granted federal authorization to investigate “infectious and contagious diseases and matters pertaining to the public health.”

The original Hygienic Laboratory (c. 1887-1891)

Dr. Joseph J. Kinyoun (c. 1886)

Meanwhile, doctors on the other side of the country were trying to understand another illness — one that was affecting a population of westward pioneers. Early settlers in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley were plagued by what they then called “black measles,” a deadly disease of unknown origin that seemed to be concentrated on the west side of the Bitterroot River. In 1902, the newly renamed Public Health and Marine Hospital Service sent a team to investigate what is now known as Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Dr. Howard Ricketts , a young pathologist from the University of Chicago, determined that the bite of a Rocky Mountain wood tick was transmitting the disease. He returned to the lab every summer to continue his work. A few years later, he isolated the bacterial organism that was responsible for spotted fever, which was later named Rickettsia rickettsii in his honor.

Efforts to understand and eradicate the disease continued. By 1924, Drs. Roscoe Spencer and Ralph Parker produced the first effective vaccine against spotted fever by emulsifying infected tick tissue and inactivating the rickettsiae with phenol.

Scientists and physicians spent those decades conducting research in rugged conditions, using tents, cabins, and an abandoned schoolhouse as their research facilities. A formal building for the Rocky Mountain Laboratory (RML) was constructed in the late 1920s in Hamilton, Montana. In 1932, the federal government purchased the building and incorporated it with the again-renamed Public Health Service.

Back on the East Coast, the Hygienic Laboratory had moved from Staten Island to Bethesda, Maryland, where it continued to investigate public health threats like the 1918 influenza pandemic, polio, diphtheria, and typhus. The laboratory also developed and regulated vaccines. It became the National Institute of Health in 1930 and went on to incorporate the RML seven years later.

In 1948, the National Institute of Health became the National Institutes of Health following the creation of several additional, individual institutes. The RML joined the NIH Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Diseases to form the National Microbiological Institute. In 1955, Congress changed the institute’s name to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to reflect the inclusion of allergy and immunologic research.

RML still operates in Montana as part of NIAID, where it’s now supported by state-of-the-art genomics and electron microscopy units.

As NIAID pursues progress in understanding, treating, and preventing infectious and immunologic diseases, it recognizes that new challenges to public health will emerge. It continues its tradition of supporting innovative scientific approaches that can address the causes of these diseases while discovering better ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat them.

The “black measles” rash characteristic of later stages of spotted fever infection.

The woodshed used by Dr. Ralph Parker to perform tick research near Hamilton, Montana (c. 1920)

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DR. FAUCI’S FIGHT AGAINST INFECTIOUS DISEASE

ANTHONY FAUCI WAS HALFWAY THROUGH HIS HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION when he decided that he wanted to become a physician. After he graduated from Regis High School in the Upper East Side of Manhattan in 1958, he attended College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Classics with a pre-med track.

In 1966, he graduated from Cornell University’s Medical College (now Weill Cornell Medical College) and ranked first in his class. Fauci furthered his study of adult internal medicine as he completed his internship and residency at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. In 1968, he undertook a three-year combined fellowship in infectious diseases and clinical immunology at NIAID, where he would continue to work until his retirement in 2022.

“Unbeknownst to me as a young physician, certain scholars and pundits in the 1960s were opining that with the advent of highly effective vaccines for many childhood diseases and a growing array of antibiotics, the threat of infectious diseases — and perhaps, with it, the need for infectious-disease specialists — was fast disappearing,” Fauci shared in The New England Journal of Medicine

Infectious diseases are illnesses caused by germs (such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi) that enter the body, multiply, and can cause an infection. Some infectious diseases are spread from one person to another; by germs carried in air, water, food, or soil; by vectors, like biting insects; or from animals to humans.

Despite broader skepticism, Fauci pursued his clinical and research interest in infectious diseases. Through the 1970s, he worked his way up the ranks at NIAID where he was first appointed head of the Laboratory of Clinical Investigation’s Clinical Physiology Section, then Deputy Clinical Director of NIAID, then chief of NIAID’s Laboratory of Immunoregulation. Fauci’s perspective on the relevance of infectious disease research, however, put him in the minority at that time. There remained a common viewpoint in the medical community that the potential for newly emerging and reemerging infections was relatively low.

“In the 1960s and 1970s, most physicians were aware of the possibility of pandemics, in light of the familiar precedent of the historic influenza pandemic of 1918, as well as the more recent influenza pandemics of 1957 and 1968,” Fauci said. “However, the emergence of a truly new infectious disease that could dramatically affect society was still a purely hypothetical concept.”

The tide changed in the summer of 1981 when the first cases of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that can cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), were recognized.

Fauci read a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) documenting Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in five healthy, young gay men in Los Angeles. This rare lung infection is almost exclusively limited to severely immunosuppressed patients. Like many physicians at the time, he was perplexed by these cases but said that mentors discouraged him from taking on what they felt was a niche disease contained to a small population.

Dr. Fauci works in a NIAID laboratory in 1984.

“I was prescient enough to realize that it wasn’t going to just go away,” Fauci stated. “I said: I’m an infectious-disease doc. I’m an immunologist. … If ever there was a disease that was made for me, it was this new disease.”

Fauci was named director of NIAID three years into the HIV/AIDS epidemic. His response was at first widely criticized by activist groups who felt unheard and believed the government’s response was slow and unorganized.

To find common ground, he began meeting with community leaders at the home of his NIAID deputy, James Hill, who was, unknown to the public, HIV positive. Those gatherings led Fauci to adopt a hands-on approach for which he would later become known.

He would often visit patients outside of clinical settings, including at their homes, to understand the full impact of the virus and disease. “I do believe that one gets unique insights into disease when you actually physically interact with patients,” he said.

After this point, Fauci became a widely respected ally. “I developed long-term friendships with the activists,” he said. “We were sort of soldiers in the same war.”

His hands-on approach was observed 30 years later when two of the four confirmed cases of Ebola virus in the U.S. were treated at NIH’s Special Clinical Studies Unit, a state-of-the-art facility that allows for isolation capabilities and infection control. Fauci reserved two hours on most days to put on a protective plastic suit and treat a healthcare worker who had become infected with Ebola while in Sierra Leone. Fauci said he wanted to show his staff that he wouldn’t ask them to do anything he wouldn’t do himself.

Landmark Events in Infectious-Disease Emergence Leading Up to and During Dr. Fauci’s Tenure as NIAID Director

Dr. Fauci discusses a patient’s condition with fellow physicians.

During his 38-year tenure as NIAID director, the world grappled with many infectious diseases that had varying degrees of regional or global impact (see timeline). Among these were the first known human cases of H5N1 and H7N9 influenza; the H1N1 pandemic, which was the first pandemic of the 21st century; multiple outbreaks of Ebola in Africa; Zika outbreaks in the Americas; and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), both caused by novel coronaviruses.

In 2019, the arrival of a new coronavirus rocked the global community and brought Fauci into the public eye once again. The COVID-19 pandemic became the most profound sign in more than a century that the world is still vulnerable to global outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases.

The pandemic reminded Fauci that the work of NIAID and infectious disease specialists is never over. “We must be perpetually prepared and able to respond to the perpetual challenge,” he said.

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Dr. Fauci puts on protective gear to visit a patient who was in isolation after testing positive for Ebola virus.

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Ben & Vivian Sillmon

Laine Sims, LCSW

Susan Snyder

Sarahbeth & Steve Spasojevich

Leila & Kirk Spitzer

Leslie Stack & Frank Rizzo

Dr. Ken Stoner

Dr. Charles & Mrs. Deborah Sutton

Leila Taaffe

Technology Leasing Concepts, Inc.

Marilyn & Bobby Thalhimer

Melodie Thigpen & Paulette Moncol

Terry & Sherry Troxell

Marc & Marnie Warner

Kyle & Siri Wiggins

Beth Williams

Gary Wilson

Becky & John Young

Robyn Young

Episcopal

RICHMOND FORUM SPEAKERS

1987

January Ted Koppel

February Hodding Carter and Larry Speakes with Paul Duke

March General Brent Scowcroft with Diane Sawyer

April Charles Kuralt

1988

January Oprah Winfrey

February Jeane Kirkpatrick and Vladimir Pozner with Marvin Kalb

March George Will

April Art Buchwald

1989

January Sam Donaldson

February Henry Kissinger with John Chancellor

March William Buckley and Charles Rangel

April Dr. Carl Sagan

1990

January Paul Duke, Howard Fineman and Charles McDowell

February Frank Carlucci, George McGovern, William Proxmire and William Rusher with Bettina Gregory

March Mike Wallace

April Alistair Cooke

1990–1991

October Chancellor Helmut Schmidt

January Admiral William Crowe, General Alexander Haig and Robert McFarlane with Edwin Newman

February H. Ross Perot

March Art Buchwald and Andy Rooney

April Captain James Lovell and Dr. Frank Drake with James Burke

1991–1992

October Barbara Walters

January PM Margaret Thatcher

February General H. Norman Schwarzkopf with Larry King

March Dr. Marc Micozzi and Dr. Victor McKusick with Patricia Cornwell

April Mark Russell

1992–1993

October Terry Anderson

January Hiroki Kato and T. Boone Pickens

February Dr. Joyce Brothers

March Dr. Bill Cosby

April President Mikhail Gorbachev with Cokie Roberts

1993–1994

November Senator Warren Rudman, Lamar Alexander and Dr. Marvin Cetron with Chris Wallace

January Frank Capiello and Michael Holland with Louis Rukeyser

February President George H. W. Bush

March Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

April Bob Newhart

1994–1995

November General Colin Powell

January Walter Cronkite

February Dave Barry

March Tom Clancy

April Jack Kemp and George Mitchell

1995–1996

November PM Brian Mulroney and Ambassador Carla Hills

January Neil Armstrong, Eugene Cernan and Dick Rutan with David Hartman

February Calvin Trillin

March Charles Kuralt

April David Gergen, Pierre Salinger, Sheila Tate and Bob Woodward with Ed Bradley

1996–1997

November Carl Reiner with Dick Cavett

January Paul Volcker with Ray Brady

February Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough

March Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber with Sir David Frost

April Marcia Clark, Philip K. Howard, Dr. Rodney Smolla and Kym Worthy with Prof. Arthur Miller

1997–1998

November Bill Moyers

January Wynton Marsalis

February PM Shimon Peres

March Mary Tyler Moore

April Peter Lynch

1998–1999

November PM John Major

January Robert Bennett and Dr. William Bennett with Tim Russert

February Harry S. Dent, Jr. and Lou Dobbs

March Lily Tomlin

April Dr. Robert Ballard and Jean-Michel Cousteau

1999–2000

November Julie Andrews

January Todd Brewster and Peter Jennings

February John Krubski and Michael Connors with Ray Brady

March Archbishop Desmond Tutu

April James Carville and Newt Gingrich with Tim Russert

2000–2001

November Senator John Glenn

January Tom Brokaw

February PM Benjamin Netanyahu

March Frank McCourt

April Dr. William Kelso

2001–2002

November Hal Holbrook

January Rabbi Marc Gellman and Msgr. Thomas Hartman

February Dick Clark

March Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough

April Madeleine Albright and James Baker with Gwen Ifill

2002–2003

November Ken Burns

January Rudolph Giuliani

February PM Benazir Bhutto and Queen Noor with Gwen Ifill

March Louis Freeh

April Senator Fred Thompson

2003–2004

November Cal Ripken, Jr.

January Robert Shiller and Jeremy Siegel

February Candice Bergen

March President Mary Robinson

April Thomas L. Friedman

2004–2005

November General Tommy Franks

January Michael Beschloss and Walter Isaacson

February Tim Russert

March Dr. Fareed Zakaria

April Frank Gehry

2005–2006

November Robert Redford with Pat Mitchell

January Sherry Lansing

February General Colin Powell (Ret.)

March Tom Wolfe

April Rick Wagoner

2006–2007

November Burt Rutan

January Malcolm Gladwell and Alvin Toffler

February B.B. King

March Jim Lehrer

April Dr. Jared Diamond

2007–2008

November President Vicente Fox

January Carly Fiorina

February Michael Douglas

March Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

April David Brooks

2008–2009

November PM Tony Blair

January Reza Aslan and Jon Meacham

February Smokey Robinson with Daphne Maxwell Reid

March Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long

April Marion Nestle and Michael Pollan

2009–2010

November Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

January Greg Mortenson

March Steve Forbes

April Condoleezza Rice

May David Plouffe

2010–2011

November President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

January Laura Bush

February Anderson Cooper

March Dr. George Church

April David Blaine

2011–2012

November Dr. Robert Ballard

January Robert Gates

February Quincy Jones with Tim Reid

March Charles Krauthammer and Robert Reich with John Donvan

April Sir Ken Robinson and Rafe Esquith

2012–2013

November Platon

January Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner and Doris Kearns Goodwin with Tim Reid

February President Bill Clinton

March Captain Mark Kelly and Gabrielle Giffords

April Dr. Jane Goodall

2013–2014

November Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and Maajid Nawaz with John Donvan

January Dan Buettner

February President George W. Bush

March PM Gordon Brown

April Steve Martin and Martin Short

2014–2015

November Diana Nyad

January Garry Trudeau

March Ben Bernanke with Paul Solman

April Dr. Daniel Levitin and Rosanne Cash

May General Keith Alexander and Robert Mueller with John Donvan

2015–2016

November Michael Sandel

January Alan Alda

February James Balog

March PM Julia Gillard

April Russell Wilson and Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

2016–2017

November Nate Parker

January Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham with Steve Inskeep

February Krista Tippett

March PM Ehud Barak and Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei with Robin Wright

April Ron Howard with Linda Holmes

2017–2018

November President Barack Obama

January Glenn Close

February Peter Diamandis

March Ambassador Samantha Power

April Joe Scarborough and Newt Gingrich with Mara Liasson

2018–2019

November Captain Scott Kelly

January Tina Fey with Linda Holmes

February Dr. Sanjay Gupta

March Ian Bremmer

April Dr. Temple Grandin with John Donvan

2019–2020

November Bob Costas

January Dave Isay, Catherine Burns and Brandon Stanton with John Donvan

February Peggy Noonan

2020–2021

November José Andrés

January Theresa May

February Esther Perel

March Bryan Stevenson

April Vijay Gupta

2022

January Bob Iger with Kara Swisher

February Gloria Steinem with Zainab Salbi

March Erik Weihenmayer

April Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates

May Rhiannon Giddens

June

Michelle Obama

2022–2023

November Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster (USA, Ret.)

January Maria Ressa

February Ella Al-Shamahi

March John Lithgow

April Dr. Cornel West and Thomas Chatterton Williams

2023–2024

November Isabel Wilkerson

January Joel Sartore

February Liz Cheney

March Dr. Anthony Fauci

April Nina Totenberg and Kimberley Strassel

DEBATE: IT’S A FAMILY AFFAIR!

MEET TWO OF THE RICHMOND REGION’S MOST SEASONED DEBATE COACHES, JACKIE AND HUNTER CLARK, AND THEIR TWO CHILDREN ETHAN AND ISABELLE.

Hunter and Jackie, who both competed in Policy Debate during high school, met at a debate camp at the University of Mary Washington that took place one week before classes started in the summer of 1990. Debate had such a profound impact on the couple that they decided to go into teaching and coaching after graduation.

They moved to the Richmond area in 2000, where both of them became social studies teachers and debate coaches at Clover Hill High School. Jackie later transitioned to Cosby High School, where she continues to teach and coach today.

Having grown up with master debater parents, their son, Ethan, was eager to compete. He entered competitive debate as an eighth grader and began in Student Congress before moving to Public Forum Debate. By his senior year of high school, he’d added Lincoln-Douglas and Policy Debate to his resume, which meant he had now competed in all styles of debate offered in Virginia. His final high school season was sadly cut short in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ethan kept up with his passion in college by competing in virtual events until in-person events were re-introduced. This past December, he traveled to Vietnam for the World Universities Debating Championship. He has enjoyed being a public forum debate camp counselor for the Richmond Debate Institute the past two summers. Ethan attributes his advanced writing skills to his debate involvement and can see how it has benefitted him in his college courses. He is grateful for the opportunities that debate has given him to travel and meet students from around the world.

The Clark Family (from left: Hunter, Ethan, Jackie, and Isabelle)

Ethan now coaches the next generation of debaters.

His sister, Isabelle, was at first hesitant to jump into debate because of her time commitments as a year-round swimmer. When the pandemic opened her schedule in her junior year, she decided to join the Cosby team and competed in Student Congress until she graduated in 2022. She credits her time on the debate team for increasing her confidence during class discussions in college, as well as for improving her writing skills.

The Richmond Forum Speech & Debate Initiative has several current coaches whose children participate in speech and debate. They are often spotted as participants in tournaments, and later as judges and guest coaches once they’ve graduated. It’s always great to see alumni give back, family or not!

The Different Styles of Debate

PUBLIC FORUM

In this event, debaters compete in teams of two about a current topic that affects society, using structured arguments and properly cited evidence.

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS

Debaters compete one versus one about a philosophical topic, after they are randomly assigned an affirmative or negative role.

POLICY

This two-person team event asks students to debate a single resolution while focusing on the intricacies of policy details and the research presented.

STUDENT CONGRESS

In this event, students participate in a simulation of Congress as they give affirmative or negative persuasive speeches on legislation.

Another Debate Alumnus Gives Back

Speech and debate was an invaluable experience for both my academic endeavors and my personal life. My time in debate gave me the skills and confidence to speak on the complex policy issues that shape our modern world. I have applied these skills daily during my first year of college, and they have helped me keep pace with the rigorous demands of academia. I believe debate to be a profound opportunity for young adults to develop the critical skills needed for today's tumultuous and fastpaced world, which is why I continue to support my high school team and judge debates whenever I can. I am grateful for my time in debate every day and I'm glad I was able to share that time and opportunity with so many others in the Richmond area.

Drew Benedetti, Open High School ‘23

Drew is currently a freshman in the Joint Degree Programme between The College of William & Mary and the University of St. Andrews.

Isabelle Clark’s 2nd place win for Student Congress at the 2021 Clash of the Titans tournament at Cosby High School.

LIZ CHENEY AT THE RICHMOND FORUM FEBRUARY 17, 2024

“WE CANNOT BE BYSTANDERS. If we don’t defend this incredible republic — our land of freedom — then no one else will.”

Former U.S. Representative, attorney, and author Liz Cheney rocked the Republican party in 2021 when she spoke out against President Donald Trump’s actions following the January 6 attack on the Capitol. On February 17, she rocked The Richmond Forum with a rallying cry to preserve American democracy.

Cheney has been engaged in politics for most of her life. As the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, who was in the Forum audience, she was exposed to the inner workings of the federal government from a young age. She recalled her firstever volunteer gig at the age of 10 — sealing envelopes at the 1976 campaign headquarters of President Gerald Ford, for whom her father served as chief of staff. Cheney laughed that she was quickly fired after being a bit overzealous with the sealant, but her budding passion for politics was undeterred.

Twenty-five years later, after her father and George W. Bush were determined to be the winners of one of the closest presidential elections in American history, Cheney’s passion grew as she watched former Vice President Al Gore deliver his concession speech. Gore referenced what Senator Stephen Douglas had said in his own concession speech nearly a century and a half earlier: “Partisan feeling must yield to patriotism. I’m with you, Mr. President, and God bless you.”

Cheney said that she was struck by the idea that “it was a stunning and incredible thing that we had had this hard-fought campaign and here we were engaging in the peaceful transition of power, because that’s what we do in the United States of America.” She added, “Every single American president since George Washington has fulfilled that

oath and that responsibility ... every president except one.”

Having worked many years of her career in international affairs, Cheney recognizes former President Donald Trump’s behaviors as “tactics that we see from authoritarians from around the world and throughout history.” She claimed that authoritarian leaders can only succeed when they are surrounded by enablers and collaborators, which she believes is the case with the current state of the GOP.

Cheney has witnessed Republican colleagues quietly ignore this slide into authoritarianism. According to them, there are limits to the damage a second term could do because of the country’s system of checks and balances. However, she believes our institutions will not be able to restrain Donald Trump. “What we’ve learned since January 6 is that it’s not the institutions that defend themselves, it’s the people who do that.”

She urged that there is an immediate and immense need for citizens to step up to preserve our republic.

“As you go to the polls this year, I ask you to look beyond party. I ask you to find and support candidates who will defend the Constitution, candidates that you know will do the right thing. Please spread the word about how high the stakes are and how important this election is. Consider running for office yourselves. Lord knows we need good candidates.”

Cheney has absolute confidence that the majority of American citizens want future generations to grow up and live in freedom, which is attainable by moving beyond partisanship and working and voting together. “We can right the ship of our democracy,” she said. “There is no power on Earth that is stronger than ‘We the People.’”

ITWASAPRIVILEGETOBEINTHESAMEROOMWITH ATRUEHERO.APERSONWHOSTOODUPFORTHE CONSTITUTIONANDTHEGREATERGOODWHILEPUTTING ASIDEHEROWNINTERESTS.SHEISAMODELFORALL ABOUTWHATITMEANSTODOTHEMORALACTINLIFE EVENIFITHAMPERSYOUROWNINTERESTS.

-ForumSubscriber

1) Liz Cheney on stage. 2) Janet Tope of Wells Fargo, the evening’s Lead Patron, introduced the speakers. 3) Guests of YouDecide, the Host Patron for the evening. 4) Cheney visited the Student Room to talk with local high school and college students. 5) Cheney visited audience members in the Simulcast Room. 6) Quinton Jones provided musical entertainment. 7) Liz Cheney answered questions from the audience, as moderated by Melody Barnes, executive director of the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy.

UP NEXT AT THE FORUM

APRIL 20, 2024

NINA TOTENBERG & KIMBERLEY STRASSEL ON THE DOCKET

The Supreme Court is emerging as one of the most dynamic and consequential institutions of our time. With a pivotal year ahead, journalists Nina Totenberg and Kimberley Strassel will come together for a lively and nuanced conversation about the changing nature of the court and the potential impact of the most anticipated cases on the court’s 2024 docket. Totenberg is a veteran legal affairs correspondent and considered one of NPR’s “founding mothers.” Strassel is an author and opinion columnist for The Wall Street Journal. This discussion between two women with divergent views will be a testament to the power of civil discourse and the value of engaging with different perspectives.

(Format: Conversation with Q&A)

Who will sit here next?

Our 2024 - 2025 season speakers will be announced at the April program.

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