Lt. General James Clapper to speak at Roanoke College Thursday, March 22nd

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper will be speaking on campus Thursday, March 22^nd at 7:30 p.m. in the Bast Center. Tickets are complimentary and can be picked up at the Colket Center info desk or reserved online.

Lieutenant General Clapper was nominated in 2010 by President Barack Obama to serve as U.S. Director of National Intelligence and was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate.  He served in that position until 2016.  He held a variety of defense and intelligence positions previously and worked in private military consulting. He also served as Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Intelligence at Georgetown University.

Clapper's appearance on campus was made possible by connections to the local community and is part of the Henry H. Fowler Program and the Delta Gamma Ethics in Leadership Program. General Clapper will speak on ethics and the current and future importance of intelligence gathering, continuing this year's academic theme, The Next America. 

Established in 2016, Roanoke College is one of 20 campuses across the country with a Delta Gamma Lectureship. Roanoke College alumna and member of the Gamma Pi chapter of Delta Gamma Debbie Downard '73 promoted the lectureship and initiated a challenge grant to establish the series on campus. The series received support from the College, the Delta Gamma foundation, and from a number of alumnae of the Gamma Pi chapter of Delta Gamma at Roanoke College, thanks to Downard's challenge grant and the efforts of current Gamma Pi members.

"It is an honor for us to be a part of this Lectureship Series," says sophomore Tori Dunn, director of lectureships for Delta Gamma, Gamma Pi. "Only twenty are able to have a lectureship out of 150 chapters. Even though our Gamma Pi chapter is half the size many established lectureship chapters, we are able to be one out of those twenty. A lot of hard work from many people have gone into making the lectureship a reality."

Delta Gamma partnered with the Fowler Public Affairs Lecture Series in making the event happen. Since 1983, the Fowler program has brought a number of national and international leaders, journalists, authors and thinkers to campus.

Past speakers include Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and author Doris Kearns Goodwin. A large turnout is expected and tickets are required.