US Constitution Week

Dr. Thomas Krannawitter is President of Speakeasy Ideas. He knows that every valuable human creation begins with an idea, and he specializes in distilling the most important ideas—starting with the idea of human liberty—so that others can understand them and use them to improve their own lives.

He holds a Ph.D. from the School of Politics & Economics at
the Claremont Graduate University. He has taught at
Claremont McKenna College, Hillsdale College, Ashland
University, and George Mason University, among other
places. He was Director of Academic Programs and Vice
President for Development at The Claremont Institute in
California.

He’s one of the principal instructors for the Leadership Program of the Rockies, based in Colorado, and the Charter Oak Leadership Program in Connecticut. He frequently
advises businesses and charitable organizations on communications, cultural development, and strategy.

Dr. Krannawitter has testified before state legislatures, though he doesn’t put much faith in politicians. That’s among the reasons why he focuses on teaching citizens, helping teachers, students, business owners, and others to improve our modern American culture through persuasion and moving stories. Americans won’t get better policies from their government until they demand better politicians to serve in government.

Dr. Krannawitter’s research and published writings have ranged from politics to constitutional law to economics to social commentary, from specific historic events to
timeless philosophic questions. His 2008 book, Vindicating Lincoln, was featured by The History Book Club and endorsed by the United States Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

His 2014 book, Crisis of Our House Divided: A Guide To Talking Politics Without The Noise, applies the lessons of Lincoln to our challenges today. His most recent book,
Save the Swamp: Career Guidebook for Budding Bureaucrats, is different. Swamp is funny. It’s satire. Feel free to check out Dr. Krannawitter’s author page at Amazon.

Dr. Krannawitter has received numerous research fellowships throughout his career, including an H.B. Earhart Fellowship. He was a Winston Churchill Society Fellow, a
Henry Salvatori Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and a Richard Weaver Fellow at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

.

Eastman is a Senior Scholar in Residence, Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization, University of Colorado, Boulder

Sorbo received international stardom as the lead role in “Hercules, the Legendary Journeys” (1993-1999) the most watched TV show in the world! Sorbo directed/acted in “Let There Be Light”, a faith/family movie, which ranked number 4 out of the top 10 family movies of that year. For release in 2019, “One Nation Under God”, deals with the controversy over that quote in our Nation’s Pledge of Allegiance.   Also, “The Reliant”, which is a faith/drama dealing with the economic collapse of America. “The Mustard Seed” will be in theaters in 2020. Sorbo acted/directed “Miracle in East Texas”, a comedy based on a true story set in 1930, which will open nationwide in Spring of 2020.  Kevin released his memoir in 2012, “True Strength: My Journey from Hercules to Mere Mortal and How Nearly Dying Saved My Life”.  The book chronicles his near-death experience when he suffered three strokes and the battle back to regain his life.  Sorbo also co-authored a Chicken Soup for the Soul, “Think Positive for Kids”. In real life, Kevin leads "A World Fit for Kids”, a successful mentoring model that trains inner-city teens to use school, fitness, sports and positive role models for themselves.

.

.

.

.

David J. Garrow is the author of Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama, a 1,460 page pre-presidential biography which HarperCollins published in May 2017 and which Garrow began working on in 2008. A HarperCollins paperback edition will appear in May 2018.

.

.

.

.

Dr. Joseph Postell is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and holds a B.A. from Ashland University and a Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Dallas. He is a speaker, teacher, contributing non-staff member of the Heritage Foundation and has contributed to several publications including Freedom and the Rule of Law.

Dr. Thomas E Woods, Jr. who holds a B.A. from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from Columbia University, both in History and is a Senior Fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and is an American historian, political analyst, and author of twelve books including Rollback • Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse.

.

.

Alan S. Kahan is the 2021-22 visiting scholar at the University of Colorado Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization in Boulder, Colorado.

Kahan received his PhD in History from The University of Chicago in 1987, and is currently Professor of British Civilization at the Université de Paris-Saclay. He has been living in France since 2007. Previously he taught at Florida International University in Miami. Professor Kahan is the author of Aristocratic Liberalism: The Social and Political Thought of Jacob Burckhardt, John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville (Oxford, 1992); Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Europe: the Political Culture of Limited Suffrage (Palgrave, 2003); Alexis de Tocqueville (Bloomsbury, 2010); Mind vs. Money: The War Between Intellectuals and Capitalism (Transaction, 2010, Routledge 2017); and Tocqueville, Democracy, and Religion  (Oxford, 2015). He is currently working on “Liberalism – An Incomplete History," which will be published by Princeton University Press.

Akhil Reed Amar is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, where he teaches constitutional law in both Yale College and Yale Law School. After graduating from Yale College, summa cum laude, in 1980 and from Yale Law School in 1984, and clerking for Judge (later Justice) Stephen Breyer, Amar joined the Yale faculty in 1985 at the age of 26. He is Yale’s only currently active professor to have won the University’s unofficial triple crown — the Sterling Chair for scholarship, the DeVane Medal for teaching, and the Lamar Award for alumni service.​

​

Amar’s work has won awards from both the American Bar Association and the Federalist Society, and he has been cited by Supreme Court justices across the spectrum in over 45 cases — tops among scholars under age 65. He regularly testifies before Congress at the invitation of both parties; and in surveys of judicial citations and/or scholarly citations, he typically ranks among America’s five most-cited mid-career legal scholars. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has written widely for popular publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and The Atlantic. He was an informal consultant to the popular TV show The West Wing and his scholarship has been showcased on many broadcasts, including The Colbert Report, Tucker Carlson Tonight, Morning Joe, AC360, 11th Hour with Brian Williams, Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream, Fareed Zakaria GPS, Erin Burnett Outfront, and Constitution USA with Peter Sagal.

​

He is the author of more than a hundred law review articles and several books, most notably The Bill of Rights (1998 — winner of the Yale University Press Governors’ Award), America’s Constitution (2005 — winner of the ABA’s Silver Gavel Award), America’s Unwritten Constitution (2012 — named one of the year’s 100 best nonfiction books by The Washington Post), and The Constitution Today (2016 — named one of the year’s top ten nonfiction books by Time magazine). His latest and most ambitious book, The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840, came out in May 2021.

A FREE AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF PROFESSOR AMAR’S BOOK WILL BE GIVEN TO ALL ATTENDEES OF HIS PRESENTATION. He has recently launched a weekly podcast, Amarica’s Constitution. A wide assortment of his articles and op-eds and video links to many of his public lectures and free online courses may be found at akhilamar.com. 

In 2021, Kelly Johnston returned to his roots in journalism and politics with his blog, Against The Grain, where he does deep dives and provides unique insights on politics, history, and public policy. He’s also one of the top contributors at Ricochet.com, a popular national conservative blog site. His work can be found at kellyjohnston.substack.com and, occasionally, at the North State Journal, a statewide newspaper in North Carolina.

Kelly retired from the Campbell Soup Company in October 2018 after a 16-year career as Vice President for Government Affairs. His work in the food industry spanned 26 years, including his first job in high school behind the counter at a Braum’s Ice Cream Company store in southwest Oklahoma City.

Previously, Kelly spent nearly 25 years in Washington, DC in several leadership positions within the executive and legislative branches of the federal government, politics, and the trade association worlds.  He was Executive Vice President for Government Affairs and Communications at the National Food Processors’ Association (NFPA), serving as the organization’s chief government affairs and communications officer for nearly 6 years. He also served as a Deputy Director of Communications for the National Restaurant Association in 1980.

From 1995 to 1997, he was the Secretary of the US Senate, the Senate’s chief legislative, financial and administrative officer. How he came into that job was discussed by Bob Woodward in his best-selling book about the 1996 presidential race, The Choice. Kelly has also served as Staff Director of the Senate Republican Policy Committee; Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs in the US Department of Transportation; and chief of staff or press secretary to three Members of Congress. 

During his time on Capitol Hill, Kelly worked on 35 US Senate and House campaigns in 25 states on behalf of the National Republican Congressional Committee (1984-86) and National Republican Senatorial Committee (1989-90). He was once named a “rising star” by the magazine Campaigns and Elections.

Kelly remains active in the non-profit community. He is a founding board member of the Bonnie and Bill Stubblefield Institute for Civil Political Communication at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, WV. He also currently serves on the board of Business-Industry Political Action Committee (BIPAC), which is dedicated to helping employers educate and mobilize their employees on public policy issues of importance to their jobs. He is a former chairman of the Canadian American Business Council and former co-chair of the Congressional Management Foundation.

A native of Oklahoma, Kelly earned his B.A. degree in Communications in 1976 from the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, where he has been named to the Alumni Hall of Fame. He began his career as a state capitol correspondent for the Donrey Media Group in Oklahoma, and later served as editor of the Henryetta Daily Free-Lance. He attended Georgetown University’s Graduate School of Demography in Washington, D.C.  He has guest lectured on politics, government, lobbying and communications at several universities, including Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, George Washington University, Shepherd University, and Burlington County College in New Jersey.

He and his wife, Adrienne, live in Arlington, Virginia.  They have two grown sons and a new grandson.

Jay joined the US Army in July 1971, leaving his home in Memphis, TN immediately after graduating High School. His service included three overseas tours in the Federal Republic of Germany and a temporary highly classified assignment to Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield. He rose through the enlisted ranks to Staff Sergeant (E-6) and was appointed by the Secretary of the Army as a Chief Warrant Officer, spending his entire military career supporting current and emerging Air Defense Missile systems.

Immediately following the first Gulf War and after 20 years of distinguished service, Jay culminated his US Army career when he retired as a Chief Warrant Officer, CWO-3.

Jay has never stopped serving. After moving to Colorado Springs from Memphis in 2005, he immediately continued his active involvement in The American Legion, and serving our Colorado Springs community and Veterans through organizations such as The Colorado Veterans Resource Coalition (a.k.a. The Crawford House on which he served as President and currently serving as Vice President on the Board of Directors), a safe haven for homeless Veterans.

​

In 2019, Jay was given the privilege to serve as National Chairman of Membership and Post Activities (M&PA), a position on which he continues to serve. Jay served as The American Legion, Department of Colorado State Commander during the 2016/2017 term and is an active member of the Neal Thomas Jr.-Centennial Post 209 in Colorado Springs, the largest Post in Colorado. He is also currently serving as Vice President on the Board of Directors for Colorado American Legion Boys State.

​

Jay received his Bachelors of Science degree as Summa Cum Laude from Southern Arkansas University with an emphasis in Industrial Technology and his Masters of Arts degree from Webster University with an emphasis in Procurement and Acquisition Management.

Host of The Kim Monson Show on KLZ 560 Radio