Elizabeth Dole donates papers to KU, will visit campus to launch new Women in Leadership lecture series; Discussion groups break down Trump’s first 100 days

photo by: Mike Yoder

Former Sen. Bob Dole, his wife Sen. Elizabeth Dole, observe events during the dedication of the Dole Institute at Kansas University, July 22, 2003.

Former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole has gifted her career papers to the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas, KU announced this week. Along with that news, the Dole Institute also announced it is creating an annual lecture called the Elizabeth Dole Women in Leadership Lecture in her honor. Dole herself will deliver the inaugural lecture at 4 p.m. April 30 at the Dole Institute, 2350 Petefish Drive.

The creation of the new lecture series “fulfills a longstanding strategic objective of the Dole Institute,” director Bill Lacy said in the announcement.

Ensuing lectures will take place in the fall beginning in 2018 and will, according to the Dole Institute, “feature women who break barriers, make significant contributions to their fields and reach positions of leadership.” Speakers will be leaders who “exemplify perseverance, motivation, innovative thinking and the ability to overcome challenges.”

Starter money enabling this new lecture series came courtesy of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who received the Dole Leadership Prize and spoke at KU in November 2015. According to Dole Institute officials, Clinton chose to donate back his $25,000 prize to fund a new women and leadership lecture series that was expected to launch in the next couple of years.

The Dole Institute has a crowdsourcing fundraiser going on now, at www.launchku.org/dole, with the stated goal of completing the endowment for the Elizabeth Dole Women in Leadership Lecture. The Launch KU description doesn’t mention Clinton but does thank Don and Kay Brada and Martha Hodgesmith with the John E. McElroy Trust for helping raise more than 80 percent of the institute’s goal for the fund. It’s asking for $25,000 more to complete “a robust endowment of $150,000, guaranteeing that women’s leadership will have a permanent place at the Dole Institute.”

Elizabeth Dole, of course, is the wife of the Dole Institute namesake, former U.S. Sen. Robert J. Dole of Kansas.

She served as commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, U.S. Secretary of Labor, president of the American Red Cross and a U.S. senator representing North Carolina, according to the Dole Institute announcement. In 2012, Dole founded the Elizabeth Dole Foundation to support America’s 5.5 million military and veteran caregivers.

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There is no lack of things to talk about when it comes to the opening act of Donald Trump as POTUS. A KU alumni couple are the Dole Spring Fellows this semester, leading a series of discussion groups under the theme, “President Trump: The First 100 Days.”

Discussion groups — oriented toward students but open to the public — launched last week. Remaining discussions are scheduled for 4 p.m. at the Dole Institute on the following Wednesdays this semester: March 15 and 29; April 5, 19 and 26; and May 3.

Here’s more information about the fellows, Henry “C.J.” Jackson and Johanna Maska, according to bios provided by discussion group student coordinators:

Jackson is author of Politico’s definitive evening wrap on the 2016 presidential race, the 2016 Blast. He also co­teaches a class on covering presidential elections in University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications. Before Politico, Jackson wrote for the Associated Press — in Des Moines where he covered the beginnings of former President Barack Obama’s Iowa campaign, then in Washington, D.C., covering Congress, politics and a variety of policy beats. Jackson is a New Jersey native who went to KU for journalism school. (He’s also a former colleague of mine — we both worked at The Kansas City Star before he headed to AP. Hi, C.J.!)

Maska was director of press advance for Obama, managing the president’s public image on trips across the United States and to 40 countries. She played a role in both of Obama’s successful presidential elections, starting in Iowa in 2007 and concluding in early 2015. Maska left the White House and was recruited by Los Angeles Times publisher Austin Beutner to serve on the newspaper’s executive team, resigning after Tribune execs fired Beutner. She currently works with early stage companies as a growth and strategy advisor and lectures at USC. Maska, from Galesburg, Ill., also graduated from KU.

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• I’m the Journal-World’s KU and higher ed reporter. See all the newspaper’s KU coverage here. Reach me by email at sshepherd@ljworld.com, by phone at 832-7187, on Twitter @saramarieshep or via Facebook at Facebook.com/SaraShepherdNews.