Body
A leading commentator on political trends among young voters will deliver the Ninth Annual Culver Lecture at 7 p.m. on Oct. 8, 2019 on the Simpson College campus in Indianola, Iowa.
Kristen Soltis Anderson is a pollster, speaker, commentator, and author of The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials Are Leading America (And How Republicans Can Keep Up).
The Culver Lecture will be held in Hubbell Hall on the second floor of the Kent Campus Center at Simpson. Admission is free and the public is welcome to attend.
“The John C. Culver Public Policy Center at Simpson College is delighted to welcome Kristen Soltis Anderson to campus to deliver the annual Culver Lecture,” remarked Seth Andersen, Director of the Culver Center. “As one of the most insightful and influential analysts of the political behavior of Millennials and Generation Z voters, she brings perspectives that will resonate strongly with Simpson students.”
Kristen Soltis Anderson is the co-founder of Echelon Insights, an opinion research and analytics firm that serves brands, trade associations, nonprofits, and political clients. Through her work at Echelon, she regularly advises corporate and government leaders on polling and messaging strategy and has become one of the foremost experts on the Millennial generation. She is also a frequent speaker to corporate and political audiences about emerging public opinion trends.
Kristen is a regular presence on television news and has served as an ABC News political analyst, participating in their election night coverage in 2016. She regularly appears on programs such as MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Fox News’ Fox News Sunday, CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper and HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher.
Kristen is the host of SiriusXM’s “The Trendline with Kristen Soltis Anderson,” airing weekly on their POTUS politics channel. She also co-hosts the bipartisan weekly podcast, “The Pollsters,” featuring Democratic pollster Margie Omero. She is a regular columnist for The Washington Examiner and has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times and other outlets.
In 2016, Kristen was named one of ELLE’s “Most Compelling Women in Washington,” and in 2013 she was named one of TIME’s “30 Under 30 Changing the World.” She has been featured in Marie Claire’s “New Guard,” Cosmopolitan, and Glamour.
Kristen served as a Resident Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics in 2014 and has been an invited speaker at many colleges and universities. She received her Master’s Degree in Government from Johns Hopkins University (with “Best Thesis in the Area of Democratic Processes” honors) and her Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the University of Florida.
Kristen is currently a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She serves on the advisory boards of a variety of companies as well as a number of nonprofit organizations including ClearPath, Service Year Alliance, the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, and Winning for Women.
The bipartisan Culver Lecture series is one of the highlights of the academic year for the John C. Culver Public Policy Center at Simpson College, established in 2010 to honor the service of former Senator and Congressman John C. Culver of Iowa.
Previous Culver Lecture speakers have included:
- U.S. Senator and 1972 Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern
- Columnist Mark Shields
- New York Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse
- U.S. Senator Alan Simpson
- David Axelrod, political consultant and special assistant to President Obama
- Journalist and political historian Elizabeth Drew
- Former Defense Secretary and U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel
- Democratic strategist Symone D. Sanders
About the John C. Culver Public Policy Center
Simpson College established the John C. Culver Public Policy Center in 2010 to honor the service of John C. Culver, who served the people of Iowa for 16 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Following his death in December 2018, Simpson College established a memorial fund to advance Senator Culver’s legacy of public service.
Simpson College strives to honor the example of John C. Culver by inspiring young people to pursue careers in public service with integrity and moral courage. The Center’s nonpartisan programs seek to educate and inspire young people to actively participate in our democracy and encourage them to consider public service as their life’s work.