Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman joins NIU lecture series

DeKALB – The Northern Illinois University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will host a discussion featuring former EPA administrator and New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman as part of its Rebuilding Democracy Lecture Series.

The free lecture will be held at 6 p.m. Feb. 20 online via Zoom. Registration is required to attend and due before Feb. 20. To register, visit go.niu.edu/Rebuilding-Democracy-RSVP.

The lecture will feature a discussion between Whitman and Dean Robert Brinkmann covering topics such as democracy’s current state, centrist dialogue and bipartisanship, civic engagement, and the state and federal government’s environmental justice role. The lecture also includes a moderated question and answer session.

Whitman was elected as New Jersey’s first female governor from 1994 to 2001. She served as president George W. Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator from January 2001 to June 2003. Whitman was a Voter Protection Project advisory board member and Republicans and Independents for Biden chair during the 2020 election cycle. She was awarded the Eisenhower Medal for Leadership and Service in 2017 and Panetta Institute’s Jefferson-Lincoln Award in 2018. Whitman currently serves as the Whitman Strategy Group president, the Trustees of the Eisenhower Fellowships vice-chairman, the National World War II Museum executive committee, and the World Food Program USA and Meridian Institute’s board of directors member.

The Rebuilding Democracy Lecture Series showcases how the liberal arts and sciences are at the center of a healthy democracy. The series addresses various aspects of building a stronger democracy and bringing together a fractured society.