The New Albany Lecture Series - Civil Discourse and Debate

Through The New Albany Lecture Series, The New Albany Center for Civil Discourse and Debate has presented leaders of opposing viewpoints for discussions that cover some of the most important public policy matters of our time.

Claire McCaskill
Claire McCaskill has spent her career as a prosecutor and elected official devoted to public service and earned a reputation in the U.S. Senate as a plain-spoken, independent, and effective champion for Missourians and all Americans.

Born and raised in the Show-Me state, Claire attended college and law school at the University of Missouri and began her career as an assistant prosecutor in Kansas City, specializing in prosecuting arsons and sex crimes.

Claire was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives and made history when she became the first woman elected Jackson County prosecutor, where she launched one of the nation’s first drug courts and established a first-of-its-kind domestic violence unit. Claire continued raising the level of accountability in Missouri as the state’s Auditor and later took on her own party establishment, becoming the first person to ever defeat a sitting Missouri Governor in a primary election.

In 2006, Claire became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Missouri – winning the seat once held by Harry Truman – and was resoundingly re-elected in 2012.

Claire’s background as a prosecutor and auditor deeply informed her work in the Senate, where she championed a six-year-long battle to rein in wasteful wartime contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan and addressed tens of billions of wasted taxpayer dollars. She fought to curb sexual assault in the military and on college and university campuses, and led a historic, bipartisan investigation into online sex trafficking on the website Backpage and passed legislation to give law enforcement tools to prosecute websites like it.

Claire launched the largest congressional investigation into the business practices of opioid manufacturers and worked across the aisle to pass legislation to lower the price of prescription drugs. The daughter of a World War II veteran, she fought tirelessly for vets, including passing into law a bill to deliver decades-old relief to veterans who were exposed to mustard gas during World War II. Known for her work on behalf of consumers, Claire spearheaded efforts to improve consumer protections against robocalls, recalled vehicles, and sky-high cable bills. Always one to seek out the concerns of her constituents, Claire was known as the “town hall Senator,” after holding more than 50 town halls in one year in every corner of rural Missouri.

Claire and her husband Joseph live in St. Louis and have a blended family of seven children and fourteen grandchildren.

Ben Sasse
Ben Sasse, former U.S. Senator for Nebraska, joined the University of Florida as professor and 13th president of the 170-year-old institution in February 2023.

A husband, father, historian, Uber driver, and football addict, Ben is committed to guiding Gator Nation through this era of rapid change in the nature of work, technology, and higher education.

A two-time New York Times national best-selling author, Ben's career has spanned the private and public sectors. As a turnaround guy working for the Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey and Company, and private equity firms, Ben has built dozens of teams that built winning strategies. Having taught at Yale, the University of Texas, and Midland University in his Nebraska hometown, Professor Sasse has won teaching awards and holds a history PhD from Yale, where his dissertation won both the Egleston and Theron Rockwell Field best dissertation prizes.

In the U.S. Senate, his work on the intelligence, finance, and judiciary committees focused on the future of work, the future of war, and the First Amendment. A sharp critic of our increasing tribalism, he became both the most censured officeholder in the history of Nebraska – and also by far the highest vote-getter in the history of Nebraska.

Ben believes in pluralism, free speech, and the power of ideas to build strong and vibrant communities in our digitally disrupted future. In his Senate farewell address, he praised Americans’ tradition as “builders” – of churches and synagogues, schools and little leagues, businesses and “the million and one other associations and organizations and clubs and groups through which we live and pass along our life together.”

Ben and his wife, Melissa, have two college-age daughters and an 11-year-old son. Ben, Melissa, and Breck live on campus in The Dasburg House with multiple dogs and Breck’s iguana, Dart, who is delighted now to call humid subtropical Gainesville home.

Linsey Davis
Linsey Davis is currently an anchor for ABC News Live Prime, which is ABC News Live’s first-ever streaming evening newscast, and weekend World News Tonight on Sundays. She is a correspondent filing reports for World News Tonight, Good Morning America, 20/20 and Nightline.

Davis has received several honors for her reporting, including two Emmy® Awards and a regional Edward R. Murrow Award.

Davis earned her undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Virginia and a Master of Arts degree in communications from New York University.