Upcoming and Past Speakers

2025-2026 Speakers

October 16, 2025

ANNA QUINDLEN: WOMEN IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Anna Quindlen is a prolific bestselling author, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and social critic.

She is renowned for her nationally syndicated columns offering insightful and reflective commentary on social and political issues ranging from gender equality to current events that

seemed to speak to readers directly and help them make sense of their lives. Anna was the third woman to ever become a recurring op-ed columnist at the New York Times and the third woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for commentary.  She is the first author to have books on the New York Times Best Sellers lists for fiction, nonfiction, and self-help. She was named one of the “100 Outstanding Journalists in the United States in the Last 100 Years” and the New York Times Book Review has deemed her “one of our most astute chroniclers of modern life.”

Website

IMPORTANT NOTE: For this meeting only, since it is a celebration of FWLF's 90th anniversary, an RSVP is needed for both the lecture and the luncheon. Please RSVP here by October 2, 2025.

January 15, 2026

OLIVER PREZANT: INTRO TO OPERA

For twenty-eight years, Oliver Prezant has drawn on his background as a conductor, violist, composer and arts educator to bring opera to life for thousands of music lovers of all ages at the Santa Fe Opera. His many lecture venues include the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Opera Southwest, Chamber Music Albuquerque, National Hispanic Cultural Center, and the Georgia O’Keefe Museum.   Prezant is the Executive and Artistic Director of Opus OP Arts and Education Projects: providing programs for listeners, musicians, and teachers.  During this interactive talk he will explore the music and staging of key moments from operas by Mozart, Verdi, and Puccini.

Website

February 19, 2026

CAROL BERKIN: 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

Until her recent retirement, Carol Berkin was the Presidential Professor of History at Baruch College and a member of the history faculty of the Graduate Center of CUNY. She has worked as a consultant on several PBS and History Channel documentaries, including, “The Scottsboro Boys,” which was nominated for an Academy Award. She has appeared on screen in the PBS series by Ric Burns, “New York”, the Middlemarch series “Benjamin Franklin” and “Alexander Hamilton” on PBS, and the MPH series, “The Founding Fathers.” She serves on the Board of The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the Board of the National Council for History Education.

March 19, 2026

CHRISTINE BRENNAN: WOMEN IN SPORTS: NIL AND THE CAITLIN CLARK EFFECT

Christine Brennan is an award-winning national sports columnist for USA Today, a commentator for CNN, ABC News, PBS NewsHour, and National Public Radio, a best-selling author, and a nationally known speaker. Repeatedly named one of the country’s top 10 sports columnists by the Associated Press Sports Editors, she has covered the last 21 Olympic Games, summer and winter. Brennan was the first woman sportswriter at the Miami Herald in 1981 and the first woman to cover the Washington Redskins as a staff writer at the Washington Post in 1985. She was the first president of the Association for Women in Sports Media and started an internship-scholarship program that has honored nearly 200 female students over the past two decades. She is the author of eight books. Her 1996 best-seller, Inside Edge, was named one of the top 100 sports books of all-time by Sports Illustrated.  Christine’s latest book is ON HER GAME: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women’s Sports.

Website

April 16, 2026

DR. OWAIS DURRANI: MEDICAL MISINFORMATION: HOW SOCIAL MEDIA CAN SAVE LIVES

Dr. Owais Durrani is a STEM education advocate, medical analyst, TV Host, speaker and practicing board-certified emergency medicine physician in Houston. He frequently serves as a medical contributor in print media and is a regular independent medical contributor on CNN, MSNBC, BBC, CBS, NBC and other networks. His interests include advocacy, STEM education, technology (AI, blockchain, telehealth) and careers in healthcare—he’s on the advisory board for Acoer—a blockchain healthcare organization—inequities in medicine and social media in medicine. He hosts for a children’s television series, “STEM City”, on the Houston NBC affiliate. He recently published Basketball, Sciences and Rockets—a book that demonstrates the diversity of pathways children can take into fulfilling STEM careers.

Website

Past Speakers

Below is an alphabetical list of past speakers.