(TOMS RIVER, NJ) -- On Monday, November 16, join the Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts at Ocean County College for an informative, timely, and free virtual discussion entitled “Election 2020: Where Do We Go From Here? A Historical Perspective” with Doris Kearns Goodwin, world-renowned presidential historian, public speaker, Pulitzer Prize winner, and New York Times #1 best-selling author. 

Advance registration is required for the talk, which begins at 11:00am. Click here to register.

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s career as a presidential historian and author was inspired when, as a 24-year-old graduate student at Harvard University, she was selected to join the White House Fellows, one of America’s most prestigious programs for leadership and public service. Goodwin worked with President Lyndon Baines Johnson in the White House and later assisted him in writing his memoirs.

She then wrote Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, a critically acclaimed national bestseller. The book was re-released in 2019 with a new foreword highlighting LBJ’s domestic affairs accomplishments that have stood the test of time.

Goodwin was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II, and her sixth book, The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism, won the Carnegie Medal and is being developed into a film. The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys was adapted into an award-winning five-part television miniseries, and Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln served as the basis for Steven Spielberg’s hit film Lincoln and, in addition, was awarded the prestigious Lincoln Prize, the inaugural Book Prize for American History and the Lincoln Leadership Prize. 

Her seventh book, Leadership in Turbulent Times, was published in September 2018 to critical acclaim and became an instant New York Times bestseller. A culmination of Goodwin’s five-decade career studying the American presidents, and focusing on Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Johnson, the book provides an accessible and essential road map for aspiring and established leaders in every field and for all of us in our everyday lives.

Goodwin is also frequently seen in documentaries, including Ken Burns’ The History of Baseball and The Roosevelts: An Intimate History; on news and cable networks; and on shows including Meet The Press and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She played herself as a teacher on The Simpsons and a historian on American Horror Story. In 2020, she served as the executive producer for the History Channel’s miniseries, Washington, which delves into the lesser-known details of America’s first president and shows the arc of his developments as a leader.

Goodwin graduated magna cum laude from Colby College, and earned a doctorate in Government from Harvard, where she taught Government, including a course on the American presidency. Among her many honors and awards, Goodwin was awarded the Charles Frankel Prize, the Sarah Josepha Hale Medal, the New England Book Award and the Carl Sandburg Literary Award. Recently, she founded Pastimes Productions with Beth Laski to develop and produce film, television and digital projects.

Goodwin lives in Boston, Massachusetts. She was the first woman to enter the Boston Red Sox locker room in 1979, and is a devoted fan of the World Series-winning team. Her memoir Wait Till Next Year is the heartwarming story of growing up loving her family and baseball.

This virtual event is sponsored by the Blauvelt Speaker Series, which is funded in part by the generosity of the late Bradford Thomas & Eleanor G. Blauvelt and The Wintrode Family Foundation.  

The Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts is located on the campus of Ocean County College in Toms River, New Jersey. Located at the heart of the famous Jersey Shore, a “night out” to see a show is only enhanced by the excellent food and lodging Ocean County has to offer.