Friday Keynote Speaker
Kay C. James has served as the president of The Heritage Foundation, America’s premier conservative think tank, since 2018. She has also served as a trustee of the board since 2005. Throughout her tenure at Heritage, she has been dedicated to helping formulate and promote solutions to the many issues Americans face—from fighting poverty to improving our schools and our health care system to reducing the size and scope of government. These public policy solutions are developed under her direction as president and are based on the principles of individual freedom, limited government, free enterprise, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.
Born in Portsmouth, Virginia, and raised in her early years in Richmond’s housing projects to a single mother in the segregated South, Mrs. James was one of the first children to take part in a historic experiment to desegregate Virginia’s all-white schools. She would go on to achieve the American dream, graduating from the historically black Hampton University; serving four U.S. presidents; dining with princes, prime ministers, and other world leaders; and helping America chart a path for recovery from the devastation of COVID-19 as the chairman of the National Coronavirus Recovery Commission. Read more about Mrs. James.
Saturday Speakers
Luke Bolar is a Managing Director at ClearPath where he leads external relations and communications. Before joining ClearPath, Luke was a Senior Vice President of the Energy and Environment practice at Edelman PR leading communications strategy and public affairs campaigns for energy companies, trade associations and government entities. Luke also worked for more than a decade on Capitol Hill where he served as Chief of Staff and Communications Director for several Members of Congress and two U.S. Senate Committees.
Hannah Cox is a libertarian-conservative writer and activist. She’s the Content Manager and Brand Ambassador for the Foundation for Economic Education, and the host of the podcast Based.
Stephen Kent is a communications and public relations professional in the Washington D.C. area. He serves as the spokesperson and head of PR for Young Voices, a non-profit public relations firm aimed at elevating next-generation leaders in conservative and libertarian public policy, academia, and media. Stephen pitches and prepares young commentators and political writers for TV news, talk radio, and also consults on podcast creation and personal brand marketing. Stephen has booked with Fox News, Newsy, Cheddar, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox Business, i24 News, Spectrum News, WJLA, Fox 5 DC, WUSA 9, BlazeTV and numerous nationally syndicated talk radio programs. He is a recurring commentator on Fox Business, The Glenn Beck Radio Program, and does entertainment commentary for WUSA 9, Fox 5 DC, and is a contributor to the Washington Examiner. His written work has also appeared in USA TODAY, The Federalist, The News & Observer, Charlotte Observer, RealClearPolitics, and The American Conservative.
Douglas Murray is a bestselling author, an award-winning political commentator, and a senior fellow at National Review Institute. He previously founded the Centre for Social Cohesion, a think tank studying extremism and terrorism in the UK. Murray has spoken at the British and European Parliaments and the White House and appears often on the UK’s top political debate programs such as BBC’s Newsnight and Question Time. He has written books on neoconservatism, terrorism and national security, and freedom of speech. His latest book, The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity was published on September 17, 2019 by Bloomsbury Continuum. He is also the author of The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam (Bloomsbury Continuum, 2018), Neoconservatism: Why We Need It (Social Affairs Unit, 2012) and Bloody Sunday: Truths, Lies and the Saville Inquiry (Biteback Publishing, 2012).
Jay Nordlinger is a senior editor of National Review and a fellow at National Review Institute. He writes about a variety of subjects, including politics, foreign affairs, and the arts. He is the music critic of The New Criterion. Since 2002, he has hosted a series of public interviews at the Salzburg Festival. He writes a column called “Impromptus” for NationalReview.com and is the host of two podcasts: “Q&A” and “Music for a While.” In 2011, he filmed “The Human Parade, with Jay Nordlinger,” a TV series bringing hour-long interviews with various personalities. He is the author of two books: Peace, They Say, a history of the Nobel Peace Prize (Encounter Books, March 2012) and Children of Monsters: An Inquiry into the Sons and Daughters of Dictators (Encounter Books, September 2015). His journalism has been collected in two books: Here, There & Everywhere (National Review Books, January 2007) and Digging In (National Review Books, December 2016). A native Michigander, Nordlinger lives in New York.
Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a libertarian-conservative journalist and Policy Correspondent at the Foundation for Economic Education. His work has been cited by top lawmakers such as Senator Rand Paul, Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Pat Toomey, Congresswoman Nancy Mace, Congressman Thomas Massie, and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, as well as by prominent media personalities such as Sean Hannity, Dave Rubin, Ben Shapiro, and Mark Levin. Brad has also testified before the US Senate, appeared on Fox News and Fox Business, and written for publications such as USA Today, National Review, Newsweek, and the Daily Beast. He hosts the Breaking Boundaries podcast and has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.