Wednesday, August 12 at 2:00 pm
Speaking in Maine returns to The College of the Atlantic’s Champlain Institute which is holding its sessions in a virtual environment. This year the Champlain Institute is exploring the future of US diplomacy, climate change policy, income inequality, national security, the Second Amendment, the Supreme Court, coronavirus, and other issues that will be critical national topics leading up to the presidential elections in November.
On May 25, George Floyd died at the hands of the Minneapolis police—and the world has not been the same since. COVID isolated for months, tens of thousands of people flooded the streets of cities and towns all over America to protest police brutality, systemic racism, and white supremacy. In Five Days, his new book about the Baltimore riots in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray, Wes Moore examines the warning signs, analyzes the consequences, and calls out the root causes of violence and intergenerational poverty. Moore, who is CEO of Robin Hood, one of the largest anti-poverty forces in the nation, will talk about solutions that can help to restore America’s promise of opportunity for all.
Wes Moore:
Wes Moore is the CEO of Robin Hood, one of the largest anti-poverty forces in the nation. He is a bestselling author, a combat veteran, and a social entrepreneur. Moore’s first book, The Other Wes Moore (2010), a perennial New York Times bestseller, captured the nation’s attention on the fine line between success and failure in our communities and in ourselves. That story has been optioned by executive producer Oprah Winfrey and HBO to be made into a movie. He is also the author of the bestselling books The Work (2015), Discovering Wes Moore (2012), and This Way Home (2015).
Moore’s latest book, Five Days (2020), explores the uprisings in Baltimore in 2015 after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody through a kaleidoscope of perspectives and examines critical questions about the deeper causes of violence and poverty.
Moore grew up in Baltimore and the Bronx, where he was raised by a single mom. Despite childhood challenges, he graduated Phi Theta Kappa from Valley Forge Military College in 1998 and Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hopkins University in 2001. He earned an MLitt in International Relations from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 2004. Moore then served as a captain and paratrooper with the US Army’s 82nd airborne, including a combat deployment to Afghanistan. He later served as a White House fellow to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Before becoming CEO at Robin Hood, Moore was the founder and CEO at BridgeEdu, an innovative tech platform based in Baltimore addressing the college completion and job placement crisis by reinventing freshman year for underserved students. BridgeEdu was acquired by Edquity, a Brooklyn-based student financial success and emergency aid firm, in June 2019.
Moore has also worked in finance as an investment banker with Deutsche Bank in London and with Citigroup in New York. Moore has served on numerous nonprofit and social-impact boards and is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations. The joy of Moore’s life are his two children and his wife, Dawn.
Source: College of the Atlantic – Champlain Institute
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