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Laura Bush and Barbara Pierce Bush at FAU

Laura Bush

Former First Lady Laura Bush


By polly burks | 1/4/2023

Florida Atlantic University’s 2023 Alan B. and Charna Larkin Symposium on the American Presidency presents “A Conversation with Laura W. Bush and Barbara Pierce Bush,” on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 4 p.m. The lecture, which will be moderated by presidential historian Timothy Naftali, will take place in the Carole and Barry Kaye Auditorium, FAU Student Union, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton campus. Tickets are $35-125 and can be purchased at or 561-297-6124. Group pricing and student pricing are also available.

Bush served as the first lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009 with former U.S. President George W. Bush, and is an advocate for literacy, education and women’s rights. After leaving the White House, she and the president founded the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas, which is home to the Bush Presidential Museum and Library and the George W. Bush Institute, a public policy center established to solve today’s most pressing challenges by developing leaders, advancing policy and taking action.

Pierce Bush, the daughter of the first lady and president, is an executive-in-residence at Schmidt Futures, a venture facility and foundation for public benefit focused on technology and society, shared prosperity, and scientific benefit. In this role, she supports racial justice, global health and COVID-19 investments and programs, along with some of the world’s most talented entrepreneurs through the Entrepreneur in Residence program.

Pierce Bush is also co-founder and board chair of Global Health Corps (GHC), an organization that mobilizes young leaders to solve the world’s most pressing health issues, serving as its CEO for its first nine years. Since 2009, GHC has placed more than 1,000 young leaders on the front lines of health equity in East Africa, Southern Africa, and the United States, developing a cadre of creative, effective and compassionate change makers.

Naftali is an associate professor at New York University, a CNN presidential historian and also has moderated past Larkin symposiums at FAU. Since its founding in 2007, the Alan B. and Charna Larkin Symposium has welcomed author Doris Kearns Goodwin, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, journalists/authors Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein; Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post; and historian David McCullough.

For more information, visit www.fau.edu/larkin.

-FAU-