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The Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture
The annual public lectureship carries McCarthy’s deep commitment to the ideals and principles of democratic self-government. It seeks to inspire a new generation of young people to pursue fresh ideas, challenge the status quo, effect positive change in their communities, and, like McCarthy himself, lead with honesty, integrity, and courage.
I am hopeful that this challenge may alleviate this sense of political helplessness and restore to many people a belief in the processes of American politics and of American government.
-Eugene J. McCarthy
You are invited to attend the 19th Annual Eugene McCarthy Reception and Lecture with Jake Sullivan, Kissinger Professor of the Practice of Statecraft and World Order at the Harvard Kennedy School and a Senior Fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. He was the 28th Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (National Security Advisor) from January 2021 to January 2025. In the Obama Administration, he served as National Security Advisor to then-Vice President Biden, Director of the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State and Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In the years between government service, Sullivan was a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he helped conceive a bipartisan task force project on a foreign policy for the middle class. He held teaching posts at the University of New Hampshire, Dartmouth College and Yale Law School. And he co-founded and co-chaired the advisory board for National Security Action.
He holds a B.A. in political science and international studies from Yale College; a M.Phil in International Relations from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar; and a J.D. from Yale Law School. He clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer of the Supreme Court of the United States. He grew up as the second of five children in Minneapolis, Minnesota and is a proud product of the Minneapolis public schools. He lives with his wife, Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander, in New Hampshire.
Event Details:
Date: March 12, 2026
Reception: Founders Room, SJU (Quad 170) 5:30 p.m.
Lecture: Humphrey Theater, SJU 7 p.m.
Please note- registering for the reception means you will also be registered for the lecture and will have a seat
For more information about the Eugene McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement see https://www.csbsju.edu/mccarthy-center/.