Schedule

The conference will primarily consist of four different parts. (1) Panel series where students will listen to 3-4 speakers address a topic concerning liberty and then have the opportunity to question the panelists about what they said and hear panelists react to one another. (2) Workshop series where students will have a choice of three different workshops to attend that specifically address applying liberty to the college setting in some manner. Unlike prior SFL workshops, these will primarily be an open forum for students to discuss their opinions of an issue and provide input based on their own experience rather than be a lecture based event. (3) The Liberty Fair, which is analogous to a career fair, but is designed only for organizations dedicated to advancing liberty. This is your opportunity to find out what organizations exist that are dedicated to promoting liberty, gain their materials and find out about summer internships and job opportunities. (4) Social events in the evening to encourage interaction between students and speakers and promote greater discuss about the issues being discussed.  Th

The schedule presented here is tentative and is subject to change before the conference begins.

Disclaimer: SFL seeks to bring together a diverse array of speakers who promote liberty. To an extent, we attempt to bring together speakers who will disagree with one another to encourage thoughtful discussion and debate on the meaning of liberty and bet methods of promoting it. It is important to note that speakers may not agree with or endorse the views of others on the schedule.

Friday, February 20^th

3-5:00PM	Registration
5-6:00	Meet and Greet
6:00-7:30	Secure Our Future Opening Dinner
7:30-7:45	Introductory Speech: Alexander McCobin, “Change For Liberty”
7:45-9:00	Opening Keynote Speaker: Yon Goicoechea “The Power of Students”
9:00-11:00	Institute for Humane Studies Social

Saturday, February 21^st

8-8:45AM	Pennsylvania Libertarian Party Breakfast
9:00-10:15	Panel 1: How to Accomplish Social Change Scott Barton, Dr. Jo Kwong, Scott Bullock, Kurt T. Weber
10:15-10:30	Break
10:30-11:30	Organizational Workshops
	Leadership (Alexander McCobin)
	Starting a Student Organization (Dr. James W. Lark, III)
	Marketing on Campus (Austin Petersen & Mark Meranta)
11:30-12:45	Panel 2: Foundations of Liberty Dr. John Hasnas, Dr. Tom Palmer, Dr. C. Bradley Thompson, Dr. Korok Ray
12:45-1:30	Lunch
1:00-3:00	Liberty Fair
3:00-4:15	Panel 3: Changing the Academy Greg Lukianoff, Anne Neal, Jasmin Guénette, Dr. Daniel Klein
4:15-4:30	Break
4:30-5:30	Advancing the Movement Workshops
	Women and Liberty (Anne Skuza & Sloane Frost)
	Activism/Demonstrations (Pete Eyre)
	International Collaboration (Katya Akudovich & Anca Bogdana Rusu)
5:30-5:45	Break
5:45-7:00	Panel 4: Liberty and Politics
	Jeff Frazee, Dr. James W. Lark, III, Aaron Biterman, Brooks Nelson
7:00-8:15	Dinner
8:15-9:00	Travel Time
9:00-9:15	Keynote Speaker: Nick Gillespie “Why You’re Living in the Libertarian Moment: And what you can do to keep and expand your freedom”
9:15-11:00	Cato on Campus Social at the Cato Institute

Sunday, February 22^nd

8-8:45AM	Foundation for Economic Education Breakfast
9-10:30	Student Panel: “Organizing from a Student’s Perspective” Aaron Moyer (Philadelphia Forum for Freedom), Anne Skuza (Penn Libertarian Association), Jared Fuller (Wake Forest Young Americans for Liberty), Jonathan Slemrod (University of Michigan College Libertarians)
10:30-10:45	Break
10:45-12PM	Panel 4: The Greatest Threats to Liberty Today Radley Balko, John Tate, Michael Moynihan, Dr. Ed Hudgins
12:00-1:45	Closing Lunch & Closing Keynote Speaker: Robert A. Levy “The Worst Supreme Court Cases of the Modern Era”
1:45-2:00	Closing Remarks

Note: All named events are sponsored by the organization they are named after. SFL appreciates the support of every organization involved in the conference and wishes to thank them for their dedication to liberty.  Thank you to all of our conference sponsors!  Gold Level Sponsors: Cato on Campus, Institute for Humane Studies, Students for Saving Social Security.  Conference Sponsors: Pennsylvania Libertarian Party and Foundation for Economic Education.

Speaker Bios

Keynotes

Yon Goicoechea, Futuro Presente- A 23-year-old law student, Mr. Goicoechea plays a pivotal role in organizing and voicing opposition to the erosion of human and civil rights in his country. In his commitment to a modern Venezuela, Goicoechea emphasizes tolerance and the human right to seek prosperity.

Venezuela’s student movement emerged in May of 2007 in response to a government-ordered shutdown of the nation’s oldest private television station, RCTV. In the face of ongoing death threats and continual intimidation due to his prominent and vocal leadership, Mr. Goicoechea has been indispensible in organizing massive, peaceful student protest marches that have captured the world’s attention.

By December of 2007, the student movement was credited with defeating a proposed constitutional reform that would have concentrated unprecedented political and economic power in the hands of the government.

Nick Gillespie, Reason- Nick Gillespie is editor in chief of Reason.tv and Reason.com, which draws 2.5 million visits per month and features the staff weblog Hit & Run, named by Playboy, Washingtonian, and others as one of the best political blogs.

Gillespie served as Reason magazine’s editor in chief from 2000 to 2008. Under his direction, Reason won the 2005 Western Publications Association “Maggie” Award for Best Political Magazine. Gillespie originally joined Reason‘s staff in 1993 as an assistant editor and ascended to the top slot in 2000. In 2004, Gillespie edited the book Choice: The Best of Reason, an anthology of the magazine’s best articles.

The Washington Post featured Gillespie’s tenure at Reason magazine, asking, “Which monthly magazine editor argues that the spread of pornography is a victory for free expression? And that drugs from marijuana to heroin should not only be legalized, but using them occasionally is just fine? And is also quite comfortable with gay marriage? The answer is Nick Gillespie, libertarian and doctor of literature, who…is injecting [Reason magazine] with a pop-culture sensibility.”

Gillespie’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, Slate, Salon, Time.com, Marketplace, and numerous other publications. He was a regular contributor to the late, lamented satire site, Suck, where he wrote under the name Mr. Mxyzptlk.

Robert A. Levy, Cato Institute- Robert A. Levy is chairman of the Cato Institute’s board of directors. He joined Cato as senior fellow in constitutional studies in 1997 after 25 years in business. He also sits on boards of the Institute for Justice, the Federalist Society, and the George Mason University School of Law. He founded CDA Investment Technologies, a major provider of financial information and software, and was its CEO until 1991. Levy clerked for Judge Royce C. Lamberth on the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., and for Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. From 1997 until 2004, Levy was an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University. He has written numerous articles on investments, law, and public policy. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, National Review, and many other publications. Levy has also discussed public policy on national radio and TV programs, including ABC’s Nightline, CNN’s Crossfire, Fox’s The O’Reilly Factor, MSNBC’s Hardball, and NBC’s Today Show. His new book, co-authored with William Mellor, is The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom. Levy received his Ph.D. in business from the American University and his J.D. degree from the George Mason University School of Law.

Speakers

Katya Akudovich, George Mason University- Katherine Akudovich was born in Minsk, Belarus. Growing up in a totalitarian country, Katherine started to fight for liberty at school, notably promoting the idea of individual responsibility among her schoolmates. The ever-developing communist regime in Belarus and its near-total ban on freedom set the course for her future as she has dedicated her life to the cause of freedom. During her second year at Belarusian State University, Katherine founded an NGO called “Community of young economists and entrepreneurs” to help young people in Belarus achieve the proper economic education and aid in their first steps in scientific research or business. At the same time, she actively participated in the work of the leading Belarusian think-tank “Scientific Research Mises Center.” In January 2008, Katherine began her internship at the Cato Institute where she spent a year working for Cato’s Russian language platform. She is currently a student at George Mason University and European Humanities University in Lithuania.

Dr. Nigel Ashford, Institute for Humane Studies- Nigel Ashford is Senior Program Officer at the Institute for Humane Studies. He is a recipient of the International Anthony Fisher Trust Prize for published work which strengthens public understanding of the political economy of the free society.

Dr. Ashford has lectured in 16 countries. He is author of Principles for a Free Society, and co-author of US Politics Today; Public Policy and the Impact of the New Right, and A Dictionary of Conservative and Libertarian Thought.

Dr. Ashford works on many of the Institute’s educational programs, teaches at summer seminars, liaises with the IHS faculty network, produces regular academic newsletters for faculty and graduate students, and provides academic career advice to graduate students.

Note: Dr. Ashford became ill and was not able to speak.  Scott Barton filled in for his place.

Radley Balko, Reason Magazine- Radley Balko is a senior editor at Reason magazine and Reason.com. Previously, Balko was a policy analyst for the Cato Institute specializing in civil liberties issues, where he published a paper on alcohol policy and a groundbreaking study on paramilitary police raids.

He is a columnist for FoxNews.com and has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Time, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Slate, Forbes, ESPN, the National Post, Worth and numerous other publications. Balko has also appeared on the BBC, CNN, CNBC, Fox News Channel, MSNBC and NPR.

Balko’s work on paramilitary raids and the overuse of SWAT teams was featured by John Tierney in The New York Times, has been praised by outlets ranging from Human Events to the Daily Kos, and was cited by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s dissent in the case Hudson v. Michigan.

Balko is also credited with bringing national attention to the case of Cory Maye, a black man who prior to Balko’s work was on death row in Mississippi for shooting and killing a white police officer during a raid on Maye’s home. Balko’s Reason feature on Maye was also cited in an opinion by the Mississippi State Supreme Court. National Journal also profiled Balko’s coverage of the case. Balko’s November 2007 investigative report on Mississippi medical examiner Steven Hayne won second place in the investigative reporting category for the 2007 Los Angeles Press Club awards.

Balko publishes the personal blog, TheAgitator.com. He graduated from Indiana University in 1997 with a degree in journalism and political science.

Scott Barton, Institute for Humane Studies- As Director of Communicators Programs, Scott Barton oversees IHS’s programs for aspiring policy analysts, nonprofit leaders, journalists, filmmakers, and fiction-writers. He also personally directs the Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program, a summer internship program in public policy and nonprofit management.

Scott joined IHS in 2004 to work on several educational programs, especially Summer Seminars, and has directed the Koch Summer Fellow Program since 2006. Prior working at IHS, he was a 2003 Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow at the Washington Legal Foundation, where he researched and wrote papers on contemporary legal issues.

Scott graduated from Grinnell College in 2004 with a BA in Philosophy. His academic interests include ethics, political philosophy, law, and just war theory. At Grinnell, he was active in the philosophy department, student government, and various musical groups such as orchestra, band, and flute choir.

Aaron Biterman, Republican Liberty Caucus- Aaron Biterman has been involved politics since his teens and has been recognized for his activism by the Advocates for Self-Government and the International Society for Individual Liberty. Mr. Biterman received a B.A. in Political Science and Secondary Education from American University and is certified to teach middle school and high school social studies. While at American University, Mr. Biterman founded the American University College Libertarians. That group focused on activism and worked to market libertarianism in a positive way to the campus community. By the time Aaron graduated, the group had over 10% of the student body on its e-mail list-serve. Mr. Biterman is also a graduate of The Leadership Institute and the Campaign Management Institute. He currently works in donor relations for a non-profit organization in the DC area and has worked on political campaigns in AZ, ID, IN, MA, MD, VA, and WI.

Scott Bullock, Institute for Justice- Scott Bullock joined the Institute for Justice at its founding in 1991 and serves as a senior attorney. Although he has litigated in all of the Institute’s areas, his current litigation primarily focuses on property rights and free speech cases in federal and state courts.In property rights, Scott has been involved in a number of cases challenging the use of eminent domain for private development. He was co-counsel in and argued the landmark case, Kelo v. City of New London, one of the most controversial and widely discussed U.S. Supreme Court decisions in decades. He was also counsel along with Dana Berliner in the first state Supreme Court case to address eminent domain abuse after Kelo, where the Supreme Court of Ohio in July 2006 unanimously stopped the use of eminent domain for private development. Scott has worked with property owners in scores of other cities, including spearheading the litigation that saved the land and homes of the Archie family in Canton, Mississippi. For that accomplishment, he was awarded in 2002 the top civil rights prize by the state chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Among his work on other constitutional issues, Scott served as lead counsel in the Institute’s First Amendment lawsuit to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s campaign against investment newsletters, computer software and websites, establishing one of the first federal precedents extending free speech guarantees to Internet and software publishers. He has also led successful lawsuits challenging rental inspection laws on behalf of tenants, the abuse of civil forfeiture laws, and he has been involved in several cases advocating greater protection for commercial speech and parental rights.

His articles and views on constitutional issues have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, 60 Minutes, ABC Nightly News, National Public Radio, and many other publications and broadcasts.

Scott’s volunteer activities include serving on the board of directors of HR-57, a Washington, D.C.-based music and cultural center dedicated to the preservation of jazz and on the board of a national, grass-roots civil forfeiture reform organization.

Scott was born in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and grew up outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received his law degree from the University of Pittsburgh and his B.A. in economics and philosophy from Grove City College.

Pete Eyre, Bureaucrash- Pete Eyre is the Crasher-in-Chief of Bureaucrash. Grounded in the principles of natural rights and the Austrian School, he believes that individuals should be free to act so long as they do not harm the equal rights of another.

Prior to stepping into this role, Pete worked at the Institute for Humane Studies having last served as director of the Campus Network program. Preceding his stint at IHS he was an intern at the Cato Institute in Foreign Policy and Defense and a Koch Fellow, when he was placed at the Drug Policy Alliance.

Pete double-majored in Law Enforcement and Ethnic Studies and minored in Sociology at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He received a M.A. in Law Enforcement and Justice Administration from Western Illinois University, completing his thesis on medical marijuana. While in school, Pete was active in a number of organizations, including the College Libertarians, Alpha Phi Sigma, and Phi Kappa Phi, which, along with an open and inquisitive mind, his coursework, outside reading, and an internship with the St. Paul Police Department, helped convince him that his comparative advantage could be better utilized working to change the system from the outside.

Jeff Frazee, Young Americans for Liberty- Coming soon.

Sloane Frost, Students For Liberty- Sloane Frost graduated from Cornell University in May with a degree in Policy Analysis & Management and concentration in Health Policy. While studying the economics and history of health policy in this country, Sloane became interested in the principles of liberty and individual responsibility that seem to be missing from modern policy initiatives. Various experiences in the university setting quickly taught Sloane that her fellow students are also deprived of many freedoms on campus, and she became dedicated to the student fight for liberty.

Jasmin Guénette , Institute for Humane Studies- Jasmin Guénette is originally from Montreal, Canada. He joined the Institute for Humane Studies in April of 2008 as an Academic Programs Director. From late 2002 to early 2008 he worked for the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) as coordinator and then director of public affairs. He holds a Bachelor and a Master’s Degree in Political Science from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). He is primarily interested in political theories, human rights, individual liberties, and the private enforcement of law. Mr. Guénette serves on the board of Mychoice.ca and as a Fellow at Confluences communications. He served as President of the board of the Political Science and Law alumni association & as a member of the Institutional board of Alumni both at the Université du Québec à Montréal and was also a member of Civitas Society. He is the author of an essay on the private enforcement of law (in French) La Production privée de la sécurité. À propos de l’argumentation libertarienne et anarcho-capitaliste and with Professor Pierre Desrochers he published for the MEI a research paper on industrial waste recycling in market economies.

Dr. John Hasnas, Georgetown University- John Hasnas is an associate professor of business at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, where he teaches courses in ethics and law. Professor Hasnas has held previous appointments as an Associate Professor of Law at George Mason University School of Law, Visiting Associate Professor of Law at the Washington College of Law at American University, and Law and Humanities Fellow at Temple University School of Law. Professor Hasnas has also been a visiting scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics in Washington, DC and the Social Philosophy and Policy Center in Bowling Green, Ohio. He received his B.A. in Philosophy from Lafayette College, his J.D. and Ph.D. in Legal Philosophy from Duke University, and his LL.M. in Legal Education from Temple Law School. Between 1997 and 1999, Professor Hasnas served as assistant general counsel to Koch Industries, Inc. in Wichita, Kansas. His scholarship concerns ethics and white collar crime, jurisprudence, and legal history. His book Trapped: When Acting Ethically Is Against the Law is available from the Cato Institute.

Professor Hasnas is visiting at the Georgetown Law Center in the fall of 2008 and at Duke University School of Law in the spring of 2009.

Dr. Ed Hudgins, The Atlas Society- Edward Hudgins, formerly director of regulatory studies for the Cato Institute and editor of Regulation magazine, is an expert on the regulation of space and transportation, pharmaceuticals, and labor. He served as a senior economist for the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress and was both deputy director for economic policy studies and director of the Center for International Economic Growth at the Heritage Foundation. He has testified on many occasions before Congress. His opinion writing has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Houston Chronicle, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer, Journal of Commerce, and Aviation Week & Space Technology. He is the editor of Freedom to Trade: Refuting the New Protectionism, Space: The Free Market Frontier and two books on postal service privatization. His latest collection is entitled An Objectivist Secular Reader. He has appeared on NBC’s “Dateline NBC,” National Public Radio, PBS, Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC and Voice of America. Hudgins has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, a master’s from American University, and a doctorate from Catholic University in political philosophy. He has taught at universities in the United States and in Germany.

Dr. Daniel Klein, George Mason University- Dr. Klein is a professor of economics at George Mason University.

Dr. Jo Kwong, Atlas Economic Research Foundation- Jo Kwong is the Vice President of Institute Relations at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. For two decades, she has worked to promote and develop an international network of independent think tanks devoted to the ideas of liberty. Prior to joining Atlas in 1989, Kwong worked at free market organizations including the Institute for Humane Studies (Virginia); Capital Research Center (Washington, DC); and the Property and Environment Research Center (Montana). Kwong received her doctorate in Natural Resource Economics from the University of Michigan and her undergraduate degree in biology at Brown University. She began her career in the free-market, nonprofit sector with a postdoctoral program in Nonprofit Management at the Institute for Humane Studies under the mentorship of John Blundell, the Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs (London). She lectures internationally on topics ranging from free-market environmentalism; markets and morality, globalization and women, to think tank management and development.

Dr. James W. Lark, III, University of Virginia, Virginia Libertarian Party- James W. (“Jim”) Lark, III, Ph.D., is the national campus coordinator for the Libertarian Party and the Region 5S representative on the Libertarian National Committee. He served as Libertarian Party national chairman during the 2000-2002 term. Dr. Lark is a professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia, and serves as advisor to The Liberty Coalition at the University. Dr. Lark received the Samuel Adams award (given to the most effective activist) from the Libertarian Party in 2004 and the Thomas Jefferson award (the Party’s highest honor, given for lifetime achievement) in 2008. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Individual Liberty and the Board of Directors of the Advocates for Self-Government; he is a member of the Board of Advisors of Students for Liberty.

Greg Lukianoff, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education- Greg Lukianoff is the president of FIRE and has been with FIRE since 2001, when he was hired to be the organization’s first director of legal and public advocacy. Greg is a graduate of American University and of Stanford Law School, where he focused on First Amendment and constitutional law. Greg has published articles in The Stanford Technology Law Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Fraternal Law, Inside Higher Ed, The Boston Globe, the New York Post, and numerous other publications. He is a blogger for the Huffington Post and served as a regular columnist for the Daily Journal of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Greg is a frequent guest on local and national syndicated radio programs, has represented FIRE on national television shows—including The O’Reilly Factor, Glenn Beck, The Abrams Report, Hannity and Colmes, and Buchanan and Press—and has testified before the U.S. Senate about free speech issues on America’s campuses.

Before joining FIRE, Greg practiced law in Northern California, interned at the ACLU of Northern California and the Organization for Aid to Refugees in Prague, Czech Republic, and was the development manager of the EnvironMentors Project in Washington, D.C. Greg, along with Harvey A. Silverglate and David French, is a co-author of FIRE’s Guide to Free Speech on Campus. Greg is also a proud member of the board of directors of Philadelphia’s Theater Exile.

Alexander McCobin, Students for Liberty- Alexander McCobin recognized the formal principles of his beliefs after reading Atlas Shrugged, a birthday present from his father in 9^th grade. Throughout high school, Alexander participated in Lincoln-Douglas debate, which allowed him to study philosophy and particularly those who advocated the philosophical principles of liberty. During college at the University of Pennsylvania, Alexander began the University of Pennsylvania Libertarian Association to promote discussion and education of libertarian ideas on campus. He also began Perspectives Debate Incorporated, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to promote youth debate education to underserved students in the greater Philadelphia and mid-Atlantic region. In May, 2008, Alexander graduated from Penn with a B.A. in philosophy and economics and a M.A. in philosophy.

Alexander is currently a Koch Associate at the Cato Institute focused on marketing and development. Alexander plans to pursue a Ph.D. in philosophy.

Mark Meranta, George Mason University- Mark is President of the George Mason University Students for Liberty.

Michael Moynihan, Reason- Michael C. Moynihan is a senior editor of Reason magazine and Reason.com. Before joining Reason, Moynihan was a resident fellow at the Swedish policy institute Timbro and edited the English-language Stockholm Spectator. He is currently a visiting fellow at Timbro.

Moynihan is a frequent commenter in the Swedish media and has written for Expressen, Aftonbladet, and Göteborgs-Tidningen. He serves on the editorial board of the Swedish magazine Neo, where he is also a regular columnist. In 2006, Moynihan produced a documentary for Stockholm’s TV8 on New York radio legend Barry Farber.

Moynihan is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he received a B.A. in history. He lives in Washington, DC.

Anne Neal, American Council of Trustees and Alumni- One of the founders of ACTA in 1995, Ms. Neal became president in 2003. She has authored or co-authored numerous ACTA studies, contributed a chapter to the book Reforming the Politically Correct University (AEI Press, 2008), and convened a number of higher education conferences under the auspices of the Philanthropy Roundtable. She regularly gives lectures and expert testimony, with past venues including the U.S. Senate, the University of Montana, the American Enterprise Institute, the University of Notre Dame, the Foreign Policy Association, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Montana State University, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, the National Association of Scholars, and the U.S. Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education. Before joining ACTA, she served as a First Amendment and communications lawyer with a number of firms, as General Counsel of the Office of Administration in the Executive Office of the President, as General Counsel and Congressional Liaison of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and as editor of the American Bar Association newsletter Communications Lawyer. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Harvard College with an A.B. in American history and literature and received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served as the first woman editor of the Harvard Journal on Legislation. She serves on the boards of many cultural and civic organizations, including the All Hallows Guild, Washington National Cathedral, the Washington Founders’ Committee for Historic Mount Vernon, the Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization, and the U.S. Capitol Historical Society.

Brooks Nelson, Democratic Freedom Caucus- Brooks Nelson is the National Director of the Democratic Freedom Caucus.

Dr. Tom G. Palmer, Atlas Research Foundation and Cato Institute – Tom G. Palmer is Vice President for International Programs at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, General Director of the Atlas Global Initiative for Free Trade, Peace, and Prosperity, and a Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute, where he directs Cato University, the Institute’s educational arm. He was very active in the late 1980s and the early 1990s in the spread of classical liberal ideas in the Soviet bloc states and their successors and continues to be active throughout the region through his work with InLiberty.ru. He also established and supervises programs programs in Arabic, Persian, Kurdish, Azeri, Portuguese, Chinese, French, Urdu, Hindi, Bahasa Melayu/Indonesia, and throughout Africa in English, Swahili, and French. Before joining Atlas he was Vice President for International Programs at Cato and director of the Center for Promotion of Human Rights.  He had previously been an H. B. Earhart Fellow at Hertford College, Oxford University, and a vice president of the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. He travels to all the corners of the globe to promote liberty through his lectures on political science, public choice, civil society, and the moral, legal, and historical foundations of individual rights. He is the author of Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, and Practice (June 2009) and has published reviews and articles on politics and morality in scholarly journals such as the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Ethics, Critical Review, and Constitutional Political Economy, as well as in publications such as Slate, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Spectator of London. He received his B.A. in liberal arts from St. Johns College in Annapolis, Maryland, his M.A. in philosophy from The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., and his Ph.D. in politics from Oxford University.

Austin Petersen, Libertarian Party – Austin Petersen is the Volunteer and Affiliates Coordinator of the Libertarian National Committee.

Dr. Korok Ray, Georgetown University – Dr. Korok Ray is a professor of economics at Georgetown University. Korok Ray conducts research in the areas of performance measurement, compensation, and corporate governance.

Anca Bogdana Rusu, Georgetown University- Anca Rusu was born and raised in Romania and since graduation she lived in Marseille, France and Washington, DC. She graduated the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, Romania with a degree in Economics, majoring in International Economic Affairs. During her college years she became more and more involved in the libertarian movement, by attending seminars organized by IES-Europe, Freedom Alliance, IHS and FEE. Following her graduation she interned for Atlas Economic Research Foundation in Washington DC, a period that she enjoyed greatly. Feeling very courageous, after her internship, she decided she can take upon promoting freedom in France and dedicated 8 months to working for the Institute for Economic Studies-Europe as program manager. The fact that the institute’s headquarters is located on the French Riviera had nothing to do in her decision, of course! After the one year hiatus from studying, Anca decided that besides the activist and academic side of liberty promotion, she wants to tackle the policy side. She is now studying at Georgetown Public Policy Institute, where is also holds the position of Interview Editor for the GPPI Journal.

Anne Skuza, University of Pennsylvnia- Anne Skuza is a junior at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in Russian and Linguistics. Having grown up partially in Poland, she was exposed early to the dangers of totalitarianism and communism, though it would take another decade and Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead before she would formally join the libertarian movement. Anne has been a member of the Penn Libertarian Association since her freshman year and president since January 2008. She is especially interested in the ethical foundations for freedom, and looks forward to promoting liberty as she pursues work in the former Soviet block after graduation.

Dr. C. Bradley Thompson, Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism- C. Bradley Thompson is the BB&T Research Professor at Clemson University and the Executive Director of the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism. He has also been a visiting fellow at Princeton and Harvard universities and at the University of London.

Professor Thompson is the author of the prize-winning book John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty. He has also edited The Revolutionary Writings of John Adams, Antislavery Political Writings, 1833-1860: A Reader and was an associate editor of the four-volume Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. His current book project is on “The Ideological Origins of American Constitutionalism.”

Dr. Thompson is also an occasional writer for The Times Literary Supplement of London. He has lectured around the country on education reform and the American Revolution, and his op-ed essays have appeared in scores of newspapers around the country and abroad. Dr. Thompson’s lectures on the political thought of John Adams have twice appeared on C-SPAN television.

John Tate, Campaign for Liberty- John is a long-time political operative who has spent the last 26 years working in the political, lobbying and non-profit world in the areas of high dollar fundraising, direct mail, political strategy, grassroots activism and non-profit management. He is the founder and President of JFT Consulting, Inc. a consulting firm that specializes in political strategy, fundraising and grassroots lobbying. John served as the National Political Director for The Ron Paul Presidential Campaign Committee and is currently President of the newly formed Campaign for Liberty.

Prior to joining Campaign for Liberty, John served as the Vice President, Membership for the Leadership Institute. In this role he headed up a department of LI staff that contacted and visited supporters nationwide to show them and raise funds for special targeted LI programs. In his 4 years at LI this program raised nearly $4 million. He also taught at many of LIs schools.

Before joining LI, John spent 14 years with the National Right to Work Committee, serving as Vice President from 1998 to 2004. As Vice President he oversaw all state and federal lobbying efforts, public relations, the affiliated state and federal PACs for Right to Work and a direct mail and telemarketing fundraising operation that raised more than $23 million to combat Big Labor’s coercive power over workers.

In 1996, John was the GOP nominee for Congress in Virginia’s 2nd district. Prior to his work at National Right to Work, John was Executive Director of Right to Work organizations in California and Delaware, and was Legislative Director of the United States Defense Committee.

John is a long-time political activist in Virginia and National politics. He was Chairman of the Rules committee at the 1994 Virginia Republican State Convention and has worked on numerous local, state and national campaigns in Virginia, North Carolina, Delaware, California, Colorado, New Hampshire and around the country.

John began teaching political strategy in 1983 and has taught at many schools and seminars through the years. He is a sought-after speaker on winning political technology and grass-roots mobilization at the local, state and national level and is author of The Grassroots Activist Manual. John is a graduate of the University of Virginia with a B.A. in History.

Kurt T. Weber, State Policy Network- Kurt T. Weber is senior advisor with State Policy Network, the capacity-building service organization for America’s free-market, state-focused think tank community. Founded in 1992, SPN is the only group in the country dedicated solely to improving the practical effectiveness of independent, non-profit, market-oriented, state-based think tanks.

He has been an life-long activist for liberty. During his undergraduate and graduate school years he organized student groups, ran an active campaign for the Kalamazoo City Council in Michigan, spent a summer petitioning in several states to get the Libertarian Party on the ballot and was a regular columnist for college newspapers.

Prior to SPN, Weber concluded a decade of service at Cascade Policy Institute in Portland, Oregon. He joined the Institute in 1993 as its program director and was eventually promoted to vice president. Among his responsibilities as vice president were budget and strategic planning and staff management.

Weber has worked with a number of state, national and international classical liberal organizations, including the Institute for Humane Studies, Atlas Economic Research Foundation, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty. In 1992 he traveled throughout Latin America, consulting with think tanks in six countries. Weber also helped organize an institute in Ecuador and worked with Junior Achievement Argentina in Buenos Aires.

Weber has over 80 published newspaper commentaries, which have appeared in The Oregonian and numerous other Oregon publications, as well as The Orange County Register (California) and The Houston Post. He also has 150 radio commentaries to his credit.

Weber was graduated from Western Michigan University with dual degrees and honors in finance and public administration. He holds a masters degree in international relations from Thomas Jefferson’s university, the University of Virginia.