Big Change Baltimore 2014: Connect to the Power of Change

Join Open Society Institute–Baltimore at its second Big Change forum for connecting ideas—and some key solutions already in place—to people who are committed to powerful change. A range of provocative speakers will address some of the key challenges that are preventing cities like Baltimore from being as great as they could be.

Big Change Baltimore 2014 takes place at Center Stage and the program will be punctuated with a range of thought-provoking experts and visionaries. Read more about the event and purchase tickets at bigchangebaltimore.org.

Watch a live webcast of the event here.

Speakers

• Piper Kerman is the author of Orange is the New Black, which inspired the award-winning original series for Netflix. She currently works with Spitfire Strategies as a communications consultant. Piper serves on the board of the Women’s Prison Association and she has been called as a witness by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights to testify on solitary confinement and women prisoners.
• Bill Keller, former executive editor of of the New York Times, is now editor-in-chief of The Marshall Project. The Marshall Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization focused on crime and punishment in the United States. Keller joined the venture in 2014 after 30 years at the New York Times as a correspondent, editor and, most recently, an op-ed columnist.
• Ian Haney López is one of the nation’s leading thinkers on how racism has evolved in the United States. In his most recent book, Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class, he lays bare how conservative politicians exploit racial pandering to convince many voters to support policies that ultimately favor the very rich and hurt everyone else.
• Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, president of UMBC, is one if the nation’s most prominent educators. He was recently named by President Obama to chair the newly created President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. He has been named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by TIME and one of America’s Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report.
• Tom Hall (emcee) has been a dynamic force in Maryland’s creative community for over 30 years as a performer, broadcaster, lecturer, writer, and educator. He is the arts and culture editor for Maryland Morning and the host of Choral Arts Classics on WYPR.
• Diana Morris (emcee), a lifelong social justice advocate, has led the Open Society Institute–Baltimore since the office opened in 1998. She was recently named as one of the Daily Record’s Most Admired CEOs.