Spring 2026 Lectures

LOCATION

Spring lectures will be held in-person at OLLI: 4801 Massachusetts Ave. NW in Room A on the first floor. Lectures are on Fridays from 1:30-2:30 PM.

Registration

Registration is required to attend in-person lectures and will open at 10:00 AM on the Friday prior to each in-person lecture. Registration is via an event on the OLLI website events calendar. The direct registration link will be included in the Friday newsletter the week prior to each lecture. Lectures are free and open to the public, but you must have an OLLI account to register. If you do not have one, you can create an account when going to register. Each registrant may reserve up to two seats. Your name must be on the list of registrants to enter the lecture and you must be in your seat five minutes before the lecture starts to guarantee your seat.

Lectures

Jennifer Steele, Resilience in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
March 6
1:30 PM
In-Person at OLLI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a “future” scenario—it is unfolding in real time, raising urgent questions about the place of humans in the age of automation. Dr. Jennifer L. Steele, a professor in American University’s School of Education and affiliate faculty in Public Administration and Policy, will explain what we mean by “AI,” what makes it different from other kinds of machines, and how it is reshaping the modern economy. Drawing on her research on educational opportunity, school-to-workforce transitions, and the labor market effects of AI—as well as her experience as a former RAND policy researcher and K–12 teacher—she will also discuss the skills we can strengthen as thinkers, mentors, and citizens to remain resilient in a rapidly shifting world.

Dan Glickman, Detoxifying American Politics
March 13
1:30 PM
In-Person at OLLI

Dan Glickman, former US Secretary of Agriculture, served in Congress representing Kansas from 1977 to 1995. He is the former executive director of the Aspen Institute Congressional Program and a former chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America. He is currently a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, chairman of the board of Hunger Free America, and serves on several boards, while also advising The Russell Group and APCO Worldwide and teaching as an adjunct professor at Tufts University.

Richard Kahlenberg, Class Matters: A Book Talk about Race, Class, Colleges, and American Politics
March 20
1:30 PM
In-Person at OLLI

As DEI faces backlash and Democrats lose working-class voters, a new approach is needed. In Class Matters, Richard Kahlenberg argues that higher education should prioritize economic disadvantage rather than race to achieve real racial and economic diversity. He contends that race-based admissions have often shielded systems that favor wealthy students while excluding talented working-class applicants. A leading advocate of class-based affirmative action, Kahlenberg played a key role in debates leading up to the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision ending racial preferences. A Harvard-educated scholar and Progressive Policy Institute director, he has been described by The New York Times as a “liberal maverick.”

Tom Green and Nathaniel Zelinsky, Defending the Rule of Law
March 27
1:30 PM
In-Person at OLLI

Tom Green is President of the Washington Litigation Group and a member of its steering committee. A former partner at Sidley Austin, he has represented public officials in major national cases, including Watergate, Iran-Contra, and the prosecution of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. A Dartmouth and Yale Law graduate, he is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a Vietnam veteran who served as an Army artillery officer with the First Air Cavalry Division.

Nathaniel Zelinsky is Senior Counsel and a steering committee member of the Washington Litigation Group, overseeing daily operations and litigating major First Amendment and separation-of-powers cases. He argued Barnes v. Felix before the Supreme Court in 2024, winning a unanimous decision, and previously served as a special prosecutor in the George Floyd criminal prosecutions. A former Supreme Court and appellate associate, he clerked on the DC and Sixth Circuits and holds degrees from Yale and Cambridge.

John Aldock is Secretary, General Counsel, and a steering committee member of the Washington Litigation Group. A retired Goodwin Procter partner, he previously served as the firm’s General Counsel and led its DC office, and he chaired the Advisory Committee on Rules of the US District Court for the District of Columbia for more than four decades. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a nationally recognized business litigation lawyer, honored by Chambers USA and Best Lawyers in America.

Erin Freeman and Dana Marsh, Performance Practices of the Bach B Minor Mass
April 3
1:30 PM
In-Person at OLLI

Erin Freeman is a conductor and artistic leader serving as Artistic Director of the City Choir of Washington and Wintergreen Music, Director of the Saint Louis Symphony Chorus, and Principal Conductor of the Richmond Ballet. She has appeared with major orchestras and ballet companies across the US and internationally at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Musikverein in Vienna, and has led GRAMMY-nominated recordings. A finalist for Performance Today’s Classical Woman of the Year, Freeman holds degrees from Northwestern University, Boston University, and the Peabody Conservatory.

Dr. Dana T. Marsh has served as artistic director of the Washington Bach Consort since 2018 and is praised by The Washington Post as a “superb choral conductor.” Trained as a chorister at St. Thomas Choir School and Salisbury Cathedral, he holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Oxford. Marsh has collaborated with leading early-music ensembles in the US and UK, appeared as guest conductor at Washington National Cathedral, and has recorded for major international labels. He is a music professor and director of the Historical Performance Institute at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

Richard Bell, The American Revolution and the Fate of the World
April 17
1:30 PM
In-Person at OLLI

In The American Revolution and the Fate of the World, Professor Richard Bell reframes the Revolution as a global conflict stretching from India and Africa to Central America and Australia, showing how it reshaped trade, punishment, migration, and daily life worldwide, even triggering the first global refugee crisis. Told through vivid stories of individuals often left out of traditional histories, the book offers a striking new perspective on America’s founding. Bell is a professor of history at the University of Maryland and the award-winning author of four books, including Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped Into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home.

Jeffrey Rogg, The Revolution Sub Rosa: America’s Shadow War for Independence
April 24
1:30 PM
In-Person at OLLI

Dr. Jeffrey Rogg is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of South Florida’s Global and National Security Institute and previously taught at the Joint Special Operations University, The Citadel, and the US Naval War College. He serves as vice president of the Society for Intelligence History and assistant editor of Intelligence and National Security. His scholarship and commentary have appeared in leading journals and outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of The Spy and the State: The History of American Intelligence (Oxford University Press, 2025). He holds degrees from Swarthmore College, Villanova University, Georgetown University, and The Ohio State University, and served six years in the Massachusetts Army National Guard as an infantryman.

Scott Tucker and Theodore Thorpe III, Sacred Music in the Western Classical and African-American Traditions
May 1
1:30 PM
In-Person at OLLI

Theodore Thorpe III is a dynamic force in Washington’s music community—conductor, vocalist, pianist, organist, composer, arranger, and choral master. He has appeared as artistic director, conductor, and soloist at venues such as the Carnegie Hall and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He serves as music director at Alfred Street Baptist Church, an artistic director for Washington Performing Arts, and director of choral activities at Alexandria City High School, where his ensembles earn top ratings and national recognition. A Yamaha “40 Under 40” music educator (2023), Thorpe is celebrated for inspiring students and leading performances for nationally televised events and historic occasions.

Scott Tucker is an accomplished choral conductor known for preparing choruses for leading orchestras and conductors worldwide. As Artistic Director of the Choral Arts Society of Washington (2012–2022), he led more than two dozen collaborations with the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, earning critical acclaim, including for Britten’s War Requiem. He has also prepared choruses for appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Tucker conducts a broad repertoire spanning major choral masterworks and distinctive contemporary pieces.

Marian Flaxman, Food as Medicine—the Microbiome and How it Impacts All Aspects of Our Well-Being
May 8
1:30 PM
In-Person at OLLI

Marian Flaxman is the Communications and Advocacy Lead and host of Conversations from the Precision Nutrition Kitchen at the Cornell Joan Klein Jacobs Center for Precision Nutrition and Health. Inspired by her childhood experience with obesity and her daughter’s severe food allergies, she has dedicated nearly two decades to advancing nutrition and health policy. After a decade in natural food industry management, she studied public health at American University and earned an MS in Biomedical Science Policy and Advocacy from Georgetown University School of Medicine, focusing on the gut microbiome and chronic disease prevention. She continues her work in Washington, DC, championing microbiome science and “food as medicine” policy, inspired daily by her three daughters.