President’s Speaker Series and Distinguished Lecture Series

Driven by a desire to connect with community and inspire meaningful dialogue, the President’s Speaker and Distinguished Lecture Series provide opportunities to cultivate engaging, relevant, civil discourse.

Launched in 2021, the President’s Speaker Series has proven to be a popular and effective way of bringing the Pepperdine community together, inviting students, staff, and faculty alike to learn about a broad range of topics presented in a manner that encourages discussion, understanding, and curiosity. Hosted by University president Jim Gash, the series has invited innovative thinkers and leaders from around the world to join in conversation with Gash about a wide range of topics, from international politics, philosophy, and classic literature to the Olympic games, virtual reality, and even hamburgers. Bringing such names to campus as Cornel West, Jonathan Haidt, Liz Truss, Palmer Luckey, Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the number of registrants has often required organizers to move the conversation to a larger venue. 

Like its speaker series’ counterpart, the W. David Baird Distinguished Lecture Series has also fostered meaningful and productive discussion among the Pepperdine community. Endowed by Richard and Melanie Flamminio and administered under the jurisdiction of Seaver College, the Baird Lecture Series has hosted renowned experts speaking on matters of science, politics, faith, history, human rights, technology, diversity, nature, and psychology, to name just a handful, for more than two decades of Pepperdine’s history.

Similarly the University’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology hosts its own Margaret J. Weber Distinguished Lecture Series, and the School of Public Policy presents the Augustus and Patricia Tagliaferri Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series. University Libraries selects annual speakers to deliver an inspiring message at both its Frank Pack and William M. Green Distinguished Christian Scholar Lecture programs, and the Office of Church Relations hosts the popular Harbor: Pepperdine Bible Lectures each spring. The spirit of interdisciplinary discourse and presentation is one that honors one of Pepperdine’s key affirmations “that truth, having nothing to fear from investigation, should be pursued relentlessly in every discipline,” and the University’s leadership is pleased to continue to seek after truth through its diverse range of guest speakers.