Ambassador Dennis Ross, an esteemed diplomat, scholar and foreign policy expert with more than two decades of experience in Middle East and Soviet policy, is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. For more than twelve years, Ambassador Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process, dealing directly with the parties as the U.S. point person on the peace process in both the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations. He has written extensively and speaks widely on the history of the peace process in the Middle East and current Middle East developments, including the war in Iran.

Dr. Marcia McNutt was elected in 2016 as the first female president of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), which is a private, nonprofit institution established by Congress to advise the nation on issues related to science and technology; and she was subsequently reelected for a second term in 2022. Dr. McNutt is a distinguished geophysicist who previously served as Editor-in-Chief of the Science journals, the premier U.S. scientific journals, and before that as director of the U.S. Geological Survey. During her tenure at the NAS, she has focused on strengthening U.S. science leadership, advancing climate change solutions, and fostering scientific accountability.

Professor Samuel Issacharoff is a leading figure in the development of constitutional law. He has written extensively on the structure of constitutional democracy and the limits of judicial intervention in the political process, and his scholarship is widely regarded for its clarity, depth and insightful analysis. He is currently the Reiss Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law, where he specializes in constitutional law, civil rights, and the intersection of law and politics.

Professor Samuel Issacharoff speaks about the role of our constitution in our unique democracy.