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Please join us from 5:00 to 6:00 PM on Monday, January 22, 2024 for an online talk with Cleveland East-Sider Michael Gwin, now Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the U.S. Treasury. Before taking up his post at Treasury, Mike worked in the West Wing of the White House as Director of Rapid Response. Other positions he has held have been Press Secretary for Cordray-Sutton Ohio, Special Assistant to the U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman in the Obama Cabinet, and advance man for Presidential events during Obama’s last year in office. Michael is a graduate of Georgetown University where he earned a BSFS degree in International Politics. 

You can register here.

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Please join us from 5:00 to 6:00 PM on Tuesday, September 19 for an hour with Washington Post reporter Laura Meckler, author of the new book Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equality.

Laura grew up in Shaker Heights, graduated from Shaker Heights High School and specializes in education issues for the Washington Post. She has also worked for the Associated Press and the Wall Street Journal and has been distinguished with a Neiman Fellowship, a Livingston Award for National Reporting and, as part of a team, the George Polk Award for Justice Reporting. She has also covered the White House, presidential politics, immigration and health care.

Laura will discuss integration and education issues in Shaker Heights, education issues nationally, and aspects of a journalist’s life in Washington, D.C. Cleveland-area members make note that Laura will be at Loganberry Books in Shaker Heights on August 22, at the Cuyahoga County Library in Beachwood on August 26, and the Shaker Heights Public Library on August 26.

Washington-area members make note that Laura will be at Politics & Prose on August 30 and the National Press Club on September 13.

More information about Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equality is available here. Learn more about Laura at her website.

You can register here.

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Please join us for a “Google Meet” call with best-selling author and Akron native Dan Moldea on Thursday, June 8 from 5:00 to 6:00PM.

The subject is “The Mob in Cleveland and other Exposures of Crime and Corruption.” Since 1974, Dan has specialized in investigations of organized crime. He is a nationally recognized expert on the Mafia, writing books about the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, the murder of Robert Kennedy, the death of Vincent Foster and more. He is the author of ten books, including those exposing organized crime’s influence on professional football, the police investigation of O. J. Simpson, corruption in Hollywood and corruption in U.S. higher education. A list of his books can be viewed on his website www.moldea.com.

Dan was born in Akron, was student-body president at the University of Akron and did post- graduate work at Kent State. He has lived in Washington, D.C., since 1976 and still has family in both Akron and Cleveland.

He is a member of The Authors Guild and Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE). He has served as the president of Washington Independent Writers. He is also a registered private investigator.

Dan has lectured at over a hundred colleges and universities about organized crime and has appeared on numerous national television and radio programs.

Please register to join us for insights on topics normally far below the radar of civic discussion.

You can register here.

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Please join us on March 22 from 5PM to 6PM for a virtual meeting with Guardians Senior VP of Public Relations Bob DiBiasio. Bob grew up in Lakewood and has been in the Indians/Guardians front office for 44 seasons. He hosts “At the Ballpark w/Bobby D” that airs pre-game Sundays on the Guardians Radio Network; the show features colorful personalities and memorial moments in Cleveland baseball. Bob is president of Cleveland Guardians Charities as well as president of the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame and serves on the board of (among others) the Baseball Heritage Museum at League Park. Bob and his family live in Solon.

Kindly join what will prove a very informative session about Cleveland baseball past, present and future.

You can register here.

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Please join us on March 14 from 5PM to 6PM for a virtual meeting with Congresswoman Shontel Brown of Cleveland. Rep. Brown represents Ohio’s 11th Congressional District, which comprises Cleveland’s East Side, Downtown, and much of its West Side. Rep. Brown holds degrees in business and organizational management from Cuyahoga Community College and Wilberforce University. Before her election to public office, Congresswoman Brown worked in the private sector as a marketing professional. She also founded a small business, based in Northeast Ohio, that provides technology solutions to regional clients. In 2017, she was elected chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party. Before being elected to Congress in 2021, Rep. Brown served on the Warrensville Heights City Council and the Cuyahoga County Council.

Please note that since our last announcement, Rep. Brown’s House committee assignments and caucus memberships have changed. They can be found here.

Please join us for what will prove to be a highly informative discussion of Northeast Ohio and national issues.

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Please join us on December 6 from 5PM to 6PM for a video call discussion with President and CEO of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society. Jane Campbell was the 56th and first female mayor of Cleveland (2002 2006). She is a graduate of Shaker Heights High School. She founded Women’s Space, a coalition of women’s organizations that helped battered women as well as promote women for community and government leadership. She served six terms in the Ohio House of Representatives, then was elected Cuyahoga County Commissioner. Governing Magazine honored Campbell as 2000 Public Official of the Year.

As mayor of Cleveland she emphasized orientation to Lake Erie as a valuable asset, developed Steelyard Commons, the Gordon Square Arts District, and the Euclid Avenue rapid transit corridor. After a fellowship at the Harvard Institute of Politics, in 2009 she became the Chief of Staff to Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and as such helped Louisiana recover from Hurricane Katrina and oil spills. In 2013-14 she led the Senate Small Business Committee. She led the Washington office of the National Development Council. Campbell sits on the Board of the Faith and Politics Institute and the Association for Enterprise Opportunities. She is on the Steering Committee for the National Democratic Institute’s effort to support women mayors around the globe and is the immediate past president of the Women Impacting Public Policy.

You can register here.

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Please join us for a one-hour video phone call with Washington Post’s Mary Jordan on November 15 from 5PM to 6PM.

Jordan was born in Cleveland and was graduated from St. Joseph’ Academy on the West Side. She earned her undergraduate degree at Georgetown University, then a journalism degree from Columbia. She was awarded a Nieman Fellowship to study at Harvard University. She has reported from 40 countries, most notably Ireland, Japan and Mexico. It was from Mexico that she and her husband Kevin Sullivan wrote articles on that nation’s criminal justice system which won them jointly the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. They were finalists for the award in 2009 for their reporting on the tribulations of women around the world.

Back in Washington, Jordan helped found and moderate Washington Post Live, which organizes forums and debates. She has interviewed many national and international politicians and persons of influence from Paul McCartney to Jimmy Carter, Tony Blair and Gabriel Garcia Marquez as well as a Mexican drug lord. In 2016, the Post presented her with its Eugene Meyer Award for distinguished service to the newspaper. Her books include one on the 2002-2013 kidnapping of three girls in Cleveland and one on Melania Trump.

You can register here.

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Please join us on October 25 between 5PM and 6PM for a video call discussion with Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley.

Ambassador Abercrombie-Winstanley grew up in Cleveland Heights and graduated from Cleveland Heights High School. She earned an AB from George Washington University and then an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University. She volunteered for the Peace Corps and was assigned to Oman. She joined the Foreign Service in 1985 and was posted to Iraq. Subsequently she held diplomatic posts in Indonesia, Egypt, and Israel. She was a fellow on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the then Ranking Member Joe Biden. During the last two years of the Clinton Administration she served on the National Security Council. From 2002 to 2005 she was the first woman U. S. consul general in Saudi Arabia, where she survived the 2004 al-Qaeda attack on the consulate and was commended for her “acts of courage.” Subsequently, she was director of Middle East Area Studies for the Foreign Service Institute and deputy coordinator for counterterrorism. From 2012 to 2016 she served as ambassador to Malta.

In April of 2021, Secretary of State Blinken swore her in as Chief of Diversity and Inclusion at the Department of State.

Ambassador Abercrombie-Winstanley has spoken before the German Marshall Fund, the World Affairs Council, the Council on Foreign Relations (of which she is a member), the City Club of Cleveland and many others.

She has served on the board of the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art and College Now Greater Cleveland. She also sings with the Washington Performing Arts Society.

Ambassador Abercrombie-Winstanley has been a strong advocate in the United States and in other countries for women and minorities. She is married to Gerard Winstanley.

You can register here.

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Cleveland Rocks! Join us on March 15 from 5 to 6 PM with Rock & Roll Legend Jules Belkin, who with his brother Mike beginning in the 1960s brought R&R concerts to Cleveland and promoted the city for the location of the R&R Hall of Fame (Jules is on the Board). If you attended a concert at the classic Cleveland rock venues in the 60s, 70s or 80s, it was probably produced by Belkin Productions. So . . . Live from Cleveland, join us for an hour of backstage stories and tales from R&R legends with Jules Belkin and his wife Fran. Dig out those concert t-shirts. Want more? Check out Fran Belkin’s book Rock This Town!

You can register here.

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Please join us on February 9 from 5PM to 6PM for an interesting discussion of Cleveland past and present with Professor John Grabowski of CWRU. Born, raised and educated in Cleveland, Prof. Grabowski holds a joint appointment with the CWRU History Department and the Western Reserve Historical Society specializing in Cleveland’s immigration and ethnicities, public histories, and museums. Three of his major publications are: Encyclopedia of Cleveland History; Cleveland: A History in Motion; and Identity, Conflict and Cooperation: Central Europeans in Cleveland 1850-1930. Two topics Prof. Grabowski will address on February 9 will be: Why John D. Rockefeller Money Did Not End Up in Cleveland, and the Origins of and Current Trends in Cleveland Neighborhoods. Please join us for what will prove to be an educational and enlightening discussion.

You can register here.

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Please join us at 5:00-6:00PM on Tuesday, November 30 for a virtual meeting with author Luke Epplin discussing his new book Our Team about the 1948 Indians and their improbable run to baseball’s championship.

You can register here.

Our Team’s subtitle is The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series that Changed Baseball. Epplin’s four men are Satchel Paige, Bob Feller, Larry Doby and Bill Veeck.

Recovering from World War II, taking baby steps with racial integration, the nation looked to baseball for entertainment but got plenty of life’s lessons as well as amusements. Paige was a legend of the Negro Leagues, freshly signed by the Indians and already 42 years old. Feller had been a teenage prodigy from the cornfields of Iowa who resigned baseball for the Navy the day after Pearl Harbor. Doby was a soft-spoken racial pioneer who recovered from a disappointing rookie year to stardom during the Indians’ run for the pennant. Veeck was the most flamboyant and imaginative owner/manager in baseball.

Luke Epplin grew up in rural Illinois and now lives in New York City. He has written for the New Yorker and the Atlantic. None other than recent Club speaker Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown wrote a cover blurb for Our Team: “If you love baseball, Our Team is a three-run walk- off homer in Game 7 of the World Series. And if you care about justice, Epplin’s book is a crucial lesson in the fight for civil rights in post-World War II Cleveland.”

Please join us on November 30 for what will prove to be an educational and inspirational hour.

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Please join us for a remote meeting with Michael Deemer, president and CEO of Downtown Cleveland Alliance, on October 28 from 5:00 to 6:00 PM.

You can register here.

Established in 2005 as the largest Special Improvement District in Ohio, Downtown Cleveland Alliance (DCA) works to improve quality of life and attract investment to the core business district of Cleveland. DCA works with property owners, business leaders, foundations, and civic leaders to build a more robust downtown via strategic initiatives and advocacy efforts.

Michael Deemer first joined DCA ten years ago as Vice President for Development after gaining extensive experience in state government. He served as the Economic Policy Advisor to the Ohio Governor’s Office, notably prioritizing transportation projects that advanced economic development. He was recognized by the Ohio Senate for outstanding service to Ohio as well as receiving other awards and commendations.

After getting to work at DCA, Deemer was instrumental in growing downtown private sector jobs and increasing the downtown resident population to 20,000. He is an International Downtown Association (IDA) Emerging Leaders Fellow and a graduate of Cleveland Leadership Center. He holds degrees from Notre Dame, Ohio University and Ohio State University’s law school.

You can learn more about Michael Deemer and DCA at the DCA website www.downtownnow.city.

Please join us on October 28 for what will prove to be an educational and inspirational hour.

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The Cleveland Club is pleased to be meeting with entrepreneur and baseball enthusiast Niv Shah on September 28 from 5:00 to 6:00 PM. The discussion will be conducted using Google Meet. Please RSVP here to attend.

A graduate of Hawken School (’00) on Cleveland’s East Side, Niv became a Cleveland Indians fan while developing computer skills he honed later at Tufts University and Silicon Valley. Over the past 10 years, Niv has developed arguably the most popular and best fantasy baseball site on the Internet. Called Ottoneu after Otto Neu a player on the 1917 St. Louis Browns roster one day but who never got to bat, the site allows players to act as a team General Manager, building a team over multiple years against other GMs in leagues that are very competitive. Using real-time statistics of real players, an Ottoneu GM takes chances on young players, trades away or for expensive ones, makes deals in the off-season and so on; the 2003 book Moneyball was an inspiration.

Ottoneu now has 4,000 active “GMs” building their teams. Ottoneu is so good that many players have moved on to Major League Baseball front offices, and the Indians’ manager Mike Chernoff reached out to Niv with compliments and advice. Niv and Ottoneu were the subject of an April 13 story in the Washington Post. The success of Ottoneu has allowed Niv to run the site full time, and he is developing similar games based on football and basketball.

Please register to join us at the pinnacle of baseball season for a stimulating discussion with one of the region’s most successful Internet sports developers.

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Please join us in launching the 65th year of The Cleveland Club of Washington, D.C., with guest Sherrod Brown, Ohio’s Senior Senator, on Tuesday, September 14 at 5:00PM. The discussion will be conducted using Google Meet. Please RSVP here to attend.

Senator Brown is Chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. He also serves on the Finance Committee, the Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee.

Senator Brown was born in Mansfield and served in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1974 to 1982. He was elected and reelected Ohio’s Secretary of State in 1982 and 1986, during which time he concentrated on voter registration outreach. He then was elected to represent Ohio’s 13th Congressional District six times. He was first elected to the U. S. Senate in 2006 and has been reelected twice.

Senator Brown is a liberal Democrat and makes his Ohio residence in Cleveland. A more complete biography and his legislative goals can be had at his Senate website: brown.senate.gov.
Owing to time constraints, Senator Brown will have to wrap up his meeting with the Cleveland Club at 5:35PM, so be sure to join the meeting on time.

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Please join us on Tuesday, April 20 from 5:00 to 6:00 PM for a conversation with Kyle Kondik, the Managing Editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, which is the University of Virginia Center for Politics newsletter on campaigns and elections.

Sabato’s Crystal Ball is a nonpartisan report and considered around the nation as authoritative. Kyle is the Center’s Communications Director and runs the newsletter out of the Center’s Washington, D. C., office. Previously, Kyle served as the director of policy and research for former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray and has been a frequent guest on major media outlets commenting on contemporary politics. On April 20 he will share his thoughts with the Club on recent developments in politics along with what the future might hold.

Kyle is a native of Independence. He is a 2006 graduate of the Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University where he ran the student newspaper. He started professionally on local newspapers in NE Ohio. 

Kyle has authored several books on politics both by himself and with Larry Sabato. Two recent solo books have been The Bellwether (Ohio University Press 2016), on Ohio’s presidential voting history, and The Long Red Thread: How Democratic Dominance Gave Way to Republican Advantage in U. S. House Elections (Ohio University Press, 2021).

Please join us for what will prove to be a very elucidating conversation about politics with Kyle Kondik.

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Guhan Venkatu, Group Vice President in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, will discuss the regional and national economy with the Club from 5:00 to 6:00PM on Wednesday, February 17.

Mr. Venkatu will discuss the role of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland in the nation’s economy and compare the economy of the Cleveland Fed’s jurisdiction (Ohio, eastern Kentucky, western Pennsylvania, and the panhandle of West Virginia) with that of the nation’s. Guhan Venkatu is originally from Stow, Ohio, and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Economics from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio). His tenure with the Cleveland Fed began in 1998.

Please join us for what will prove to be a very elucidating presentation and discussion.

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The Cleveland Club’s hour with Len Downie, Jr. will take place on Tuesday, January 12, 2021 at 5:00-6:00PM.

Mr. Downie was the Executive Editor of The Washington Post from 1991 to 2008 about his new book All About the Story: News, Power, Politics and The Washington Post and related current issues about the role of the news media in our democracy. During Mr. Downie’s editorship, The Washington Post won 25 Pulitzer Prizes, a national record for a single editorship. Some of the major stories Mr. Downie wrote about or oversaw were Watergate, the Jonestown Massacre, the impeachment of President Clinton, the Unabomber Manifesto threat, the Gore-Bush 35-day election recount, Sept. 11, the Iraq War and much more. Mr. Downie was born and raised on Cleveland’s West Side and graduated from John Marshall High School, where he was already a budding newspaper man. Then it was Ohio State and an internship at The Washington Post in 1964, where he remained and rose steadily. He is the author of five other nonfiction books and one novel. Watch for further announcements about how to register to join this discussion.

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The Cleveland Club’s hour with Capricia Penavic Marshall will take place on Thursday, December 3, 2020 at 5:00-6:00PM. Please RSVP here to attend.

Ambassador Marshall served as the White House Social Secretary in the Clinton Administration and later as the State Department Chief of Protocol when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State for President Obama. She began her Washington, D.C., career working as an aide to Hillary Clinton in the 1992 Bill Clinton for President campaign. She has since traveled the world smoothing relations with world leaders of many stripes.

Born to immigrant parents in Cleveland, she graduated from Beaumont School and later earned her JD from Case Western Reserve Law School. She recently published Protocol: The Power of Diplomacy and How to Make it Work for You, a book packed with intriguing stories of dealing with world leaders and sane advice on working with persons and social situations in general.

She is now Ambassador-in-Residence at The Atlantic Council in Washington and partner in Pine Island Capital Partners.

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Justin Bibb was a Cleveland Club of Washington, D.C., member when he worked for Gallup in Washington from 2015 to 2018 at which time he returned to live in downtown Cleveland. The Club will talk to Justin via a Google Meet call on September 10 from 4 to 5 PM.

Justin is well positioned to give insight into what has been going on in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio.  He grew up in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood and graduated from Trinity High School in Garfield Heights. He earned his B.A. degree in urban studies from American University here in Washington, and then a General Course Degree with an emphasis on Social Policy and Economics from the London School of Economics. He returned to Cleveland for JD and MBA degrees from CWRU. In Washington, he headed the Global Cities group at Gallup and in Cleveland he has served as Vice President for Corporate Strategy at KeyBank.

In 2018 Justin was named to the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority. He also sits on the boards of Destination Cleveland and Teach for America Greater Cleveland. Currently he is the chief strategic officer of Urbanova, a national public-private partnership dedicated to helping make cities safer, smarter and healthier. In addition, Justin is founder of Cleveland Can’t Wait, which is dedicated to revitalizing Cleveland through civic technology and entrepreneurship.

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The Cleveland Club of Washington, D.C., has arranged a Google Meet (similar to Zoom) call with Amanda Shaw Kain, the Legislative Director of Cong. David Joyce (R-14th District; Mayfield Heights east to the Pennsylvania line) on Tuesday, August 11 from 4 to 5 PM. Please set aside time to meet Amanda Kain, learn more about Cong. Joyce and their views on issues important to Northeast Ohio and the nation.

Congressman Joyce is a graduate of the University of Dayton and was elected to Congress in 2012. Previously he served as Geauga County Prosecutor for over 20 years. He is a member of the House Appropriations Committee, on which he serves as the Ranking Member for the Interior & Environment Subcommittee. Beyond his committee work to restore and protect the Great Lakes and other precious natural resources across the nation, Congressman Joyce serves on several caucuses, including:

• The Bipartisan Task Force to End Sexual Violence

• U. S. Congressional International Conservation Caucus

• The Bipartisan Heroin and Opioids Task Force

• The Problem Solvers Caucus

• The Buy America Caucus

• The Addiction, Treatment and Recovery Caucus

Dave is the U. S. Chamber of Commerce’s 2020 inaugural recipient of the Jefferson-Hamilton Award for Bipartisanship. He and his wife Kelly have three grown children and reside in Chagrin Falls with their dog, Winnie.

Amanda Shaw Kain was born and raised in Hudson, Ohio. Her work focuses on foreign affairs and the judiciary but on the 11th will discuss a variety of issues and take questions.