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HomeSpeaker Series



PROGRAMS

Throughout the year, the Palo Alto League of Women Voters hosts programs and speakers on topics of interest to our members and community.

Programs are recorded and available on our YouTube Channel.

Sometimes the League co-sponsors events with other allied organizations, when the goals/mission/values of the organizations align with League positions (US, California, regional and local) and the support or opposition of political parties or candidates is not the organization's primary mission.

Interested in future programs? Join or Renew in the League of Women Voters of Palo Alto and be in the know!

VIDEO ARCHIVE: Watch recordings of past events.

2.24.26:
Immigration, Congress and Common Sense - Can Everyday Americans Move Action Forward in These Times?

10.4.25: Stanford professor ERIK JENSEN on the Rule of Law

10.2.25: LWVPA Water Symposium - where does our water come from, and how is it managed?

9.9.25: County League forum on Executive Power, with Stanford Law Professor PAMELA KARLAN and Santa Clara University Law Professor DAVID SLOSS.

4.23.2025: ADAM DAWES, CEO of Embarcadero Media - Local News in Crisis: Does It Have a Future on the Peninsula?

10.6.24 - Voting Under Pressure What We Can All Do - PAMELA KARLAN, Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law and a founder and co-director of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic at Stanford Law School, shares her thoughts on the various ways democracy and the right to vote are under pressure and provide suggestions on what we can all do beyond voting.

3.27.24 - Free Speech in the Digital Age and Mass Extinction of American Journalism. KQED's RACHAEL MYROW discusses the state of journalism, the larger trend lines, as well as the challenges in the digital age.

10.19.23 - How is Palo Alto Upgrading Our Electrical Grid for an All-Electric Future? City of Palo Alto Utilities Director DEAN BATCHELOR, Home Electrification experts TOM KABAT and COOPER MARCUS. View the folder with presentation materials HERE.  

8.23.23 - How is Our Department Prioritizing Service to Palo Alto - Andrew Binder, Palo Alto’s 11th Police Chief

4.25.23 - Preventing Gun Violence: What Parents Can Do To Help - Dr. ERIN HOLSINGER, Stanford pediatrician and noted gun violence researcher; CHLOE CHAN, PAHS student; STACEY ASHLUND, LWVPA’s Gun Violence Prevention Committee co-chair and Moms Demand Action volunteer

12.7.22 - Judge LaDoris Cordell Discusses Her Book Her Honor

10.2.22 - Voting Rights Film Suppressed & Sabotaged: The Right to Vote & Discussion - KEMI ANIKE OYEWOLE, PhD student Stanford University 

6.22.22 - Affordable Electrification for Everyone with DIANE BAILEY, Executive Director, Menlo Spark and BRUCE HODGES, Founder, Carbon Free Palo Alto. Slide decks here (Bailey) and here (Hodges)

5.14.22 - Progress Report on City Priorities - ED SHIKADA, Palo Alto City Manager 

3.9.22 - The Road to Democracy Runs Through the Classroom with SUSIE RICHARDSON, Facing History  & Ourselves Board Member and JENNIFER DIBRIENZA, PAUSD Board of Education 

12.9.21 - Language of Leadership (for all) with LORI NISHIURA MACKENZIE, Lead Strategist, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Stanford Graduate School of Business 

10.13.21 - Improving Democracy One Conversation at a Time: How Young People are Fighting for Better Politics with MANU MEEL, CEO, BridgeUSA 

8.2.21 - How to Repair American Democracy with Dr. LARRY DIAMOND, top scholar in Democracy Studies 

5.15.21 - Power of Community – with Rev. KALOMA SMITH, leader of the University AME Zion Church in Palo Alto and Chair, Palo Alto Human Relations Committee 

3.10.21 - Climate Crisis Call to Action: Think Globally/Act Locally with CHRISTINE LUONG, Sustainability Manager, City of Palo Alto and NICOLE ANGIEL, Food Systems Director, Acterra 

12.3.20 - The K-12 Opportunity Gap and Its Effect on Equal Access to Education - KRISTEN CLARK, President and Executive Director, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and GENEVIEVE BONADIES TORRES, Associate Director, Educational Opportunities Project 

9.2.20 - Housing in the Bay Area: How We Got Here and What Will Bring About Change – with RANDY TSUDA, President and CEO, Alta Housing 

6.24.20 - The Personal and the Political: What COVID-19 Reveals and How We Might Respond with JULIE LYTHCOTT-HAIMS, author, speaker, activist, and board member of Black Women’s Health Imperative, Narrative Magazine, and California College of the Arts; she serves on the advisory boards of LeanIn.Org, Sir Ken Robinson Foundation, and Baldwin for the Arts. 

4.29.20 - How is the COVID-19 Crisis Impacting American Democracy? With DIDI KUO, Associate Director, Research and Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University 

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