Retired Gen. David Petraeus and former U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch will headline the New Albany Community Foundation's 14th lecture series. The opening session is Sept. 15 at the Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts.
The 7 p.m. event is the first of five sessions stretching through April 2027, each featuring nationally known speakers at the McCoy Center, 100 E. Dublin-Granville Road in New Albany. New York Times op-ed columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Bret Stephens will moderate the opening night discussion on national security.
"It's a really strong opening to the season … We also try to leverage these sessions, so we'll have a reception for current and former military members at the lecture, which is really nice," Craig Mohre, president of the New Albany Community Foundation, told the Columbus Jewish News.
Petraeus served more than 37 years in the U.S. Army, including command of the Surge in Iraq and Coalition Forces in Afghanistan. He also served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Yovanovitch spent 34 years as a U.S. diplomat and served as ambassador to Ukraine, the Kyrgyz Republic and Armenia. Her memoir, "Lessons From the Edge," was a New York Times bestseller.
Mohre said the foundation begins recruiting speakers each January, working with six or seven agencies to build a lineup around timely topics.
The full 2026-27 schedule
Jan. 28, 2027: America's 250th anniversary. Historians Annette Gordon-Reed and Doris Kearns Goodwin, moderated by historian Mark Updegrove.
Feb. 24, 2027: Civil discourse and debate. Former U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina state representative, moderated by Katty Kay, U.S. special correspondent for BBC Studios.
March 3, 2027: Health and wellbeing. Author and social scientist Arthur Brooks, interviewed by Doug Ulman, Pelotonia vice chair and founder of Orli.
April 20, 2027: The economy. Andrew Ross Sorkin, co-anchor of CNBC's "Squawk Box" and editor-at-large of DealBook at the New York Times, in conversation with Rana Foroohar, associate editor of the Financial Times.
The series traces its roots to 2002, when the foundation brought Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough to New Albany for a library fundraiser. Past speakers have included George Bush, Peyton Manning and Robin Roberts, according to the foundation's website.
Students from New Albany and schools across central Ohio attend alongside the general public. Tickets for individual sessions and season subscriptions are available through CAPA.
