Elon University announced its 2025-26 speaker series including Olympian Katie Ledecky, common reading author Alejandra Campoverdi, intelligence officer Ret. Lt. Gen. Robert P. Ashley, scholar Kwame Anthony Appiah, and New York Times columnists Zeynep Tufekci and Frank Bruni.
Executive director of cultural and special programs, Jeff Clark, who spearheads the selection process for the annual speaker series, said he looks for speakers who align with initiatives, developments and themes that are relevant to Elon University.
“I try to look at it as being in alignment with what Elon is doing on campus or in programs or what have you,” Clark said. “Zeynep Tufekci, who is one of the speakers next year, is considered one of the experts on interpreting the AI repercussions for society, which we thought was important to bring here.”
According to Clark, he’s not the only person involved in the selection process. Clark receives suggestions from students, faculty, staff and the local community.
Clark said he is hopeful for students, faculty and staff, and the local community to enjoy every lecture of the speaker series.
Alejandra Campoverdi, who will be speaking during the 2025-26 Common Reading Lecture for her book “FIRST GEN.” In addition to her work as an author, Campoverdi was a White House aide for former President Barack Obama and established the First Gen Fund, which grants hardship grants directly to first-generation college students. The 2025-26 Common Reading Lecture will be held at 7 p.m. Sept. 18 in Alumni Gym.
Olympian Katie Ledecky, the most decorated female athlete with 14 Olympic medals and 21 World Championship titles, will be speaking at Fall Convocation at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 26 in Schar Center. Clark said when it comes to Fall Convocation, he and the rest of the committee look for recognizable figures.
“We're looking for highly successful people,” Clark said. “We're also looking for recognizable names, especially for Fall Convocation, which is also part of family weekend.”
The Carol Ann Walker Lectureship, taking place on Veterans’ Day at 11 a.m. Nov. 11 in McCrary Theatre, will include Ret. Lt. Gen. Robert P. Ashley Jr. Ashley served in the United States Army as an intelligence officer for 36 years and served as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency during President Donald Trump’s first term.
Clark said the committee wanted to bring Ashley to campus because of his connections to North Carolina. Ashley was raised in North Carolina and graduated from Appalachian State University.
Ethicist Kwame Anthony Appiah will be speaking at 6 p.m. Jan. 8, 2026, for the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Address in McCrary Theatre.
Appiah was named one of Foreign Policy’s top 100 public intellectuals in 2008 and was awarded the National Humanities Medal by the White House in 2012. Appiah is also an award-winning author, receiving the Arthur Ross Book Award for his book “Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers.”
New York Times opinion columnist and techno-sociologist, Zeynep Tufekci, will be delivering the Baird Lecture in Alumni Gym at 7 p.m. March 12, 2026, Tufekci was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary in 2022, served as the inaugural director of the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security at Columbia University, and currently works as a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University.
Clark said that having Tufekci come to campus feels very appropriate as the usage of AI increases steadily across the country.
To close out the 2025-26 speaker series, New York Times journalist and author Frank Bruni will be delivering the James P. Elder Lecture in Whitley Auditorium at 6:30 p.m. April 9, 2026.
Bruni served as the White House correspondent for The New York Times for over 25 years, Rome bureau chief, chief restaurant critic and op-ed columnist. Bruni was also the first openly gay op-ed columnist at the Times and is the recipient of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association’s Randy Shilts Award for his contributions to the LGBTQ+ communities and the GLAAD Media Award for outstanding Newspaper Columnist.
Like Ashley, North Carolina connections contributed to Bruni’s selection. Bruni currently works as a journalism and public policy professor at Duke University. Clark also said he thought Bruni had an incredible story to tell about coping with sudden changes.
“He'd lost the sight in one eye,” Clark said. “Woke up one day and he couldn't see out of that eye anymore, and he had a disease that took his sight away in that eye, and it may take this other eye any time.”
While Clark said he hopes the Elon and local community come together and take advantage of the speaker series, he also hopes that these events ignite change.
“I hope they get a good impression of what Elon is about,” Clark said. “What our students and faculty and staff are about and enjoy being with us on campus, and talk about it with other people and initiate discussion in the community.”
All of the speaker series events are free to Elon University students, faculty and staff with a Phoenix Card ID. Tickets for the public are $15 and can be purchased through elontickets.com.