Keynote Speakers

Nancy Gustafson (GMu80)
Opera Singer, Artist-in-Residence, Northwestern University School of Music

The role of Musetta in a Northwestern production of Puccini's La Bohème helped launch soprano Nancy Gustafson's career and brought her additional raves at her Metropolitan Opera debut. She has since won international acclaim for excellence in a wide repertoire.

She has appeared at The New York Philharmonic, The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago. In Europe she has performed in Vienna, Munich, Hamburg, Geneva, Rome, La Scala, Covent Garden, and Paris's Opéra Bastille. She has worked with such conductors as Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, Sir Simon Rattle, Leonard Slatkin, Christian Thielemann, and the late Marcello Viotti.

Future projects include Peter Grimes (Vienna), Lohengrin (Dallas), a new production of Arabella (Hamburg), and revivals of Lorin Maazel's 1984, which she premiered at Covent Garden opposite Placido Domingo. She appears on major recordings for the Decca, Teldec, and Telarc labels.

Honors include the title of Kammersaengerin, bestowed by the Austrian government, and an honorary doctorate from Mount Holyoke College.

The Honorable Richard Gephardt (C62, H92)

A former House of Representatives Majority and Minority Leader and two-time Democratic presidential candidate, Richard Gephardt (C62, H92) has been an outspoken advocate on issues of economic fairness and opportunity.

Elected to Congress in 1976, Gephardt served 14 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. As a House freshman, he served on the Ways and Means and Budget committees, and became a national leader on health care, trade and tax fairness.

In 1984, Gephardt was elected chair of the House Democratic Caucus, the fourth-ranking leadership position in the House. The first Democratic candidate to enter the 1988 presidential race, Gephardt won the Iowa Democratic Caucus and helped frame the economic issues that dominated the election. In 1989, he was elected by his House colleagues to serve as Majority Leader and in 1994, was elected House Democratic Leader, the top Democratic Leadership position in the House. In 2003, he made a second run for the presidency, promoting a form of universal health care. He retired from Congress in January 2005 after serving Missouri's Third Congressional District for 28 years.

A native of St. Louis, Gephardt earned his bachelor's degree from Northwestern's School of Communication and law degree from the University of Michigan School of Law.

Currently the CEO of Gephardt and Associates, LLC, a privately held consulting firm, Gephardt is also a consultant to Goldman Sachs, and senior counsel at DLA Piper Law Firm. He is also honorary chair of The Gephardt Institute for Public Service at Washington University in St. Louis.