The Hall Family Speaker Series
Created in 2019, The Hall Family Speaker Series invites thought leaders to Rivers to share their research, writing, or activism in the realm of civic and community engagement. While their interests and topics are diverse, what they have in common is a desire to positively influence public life and to inspire the students and adults in our community to use their own positive influence here on campus and in the wider world.
2025-2026
Monday, April 27, 2026
Janet Singer Applefield
Janet Singer Applefield is a Holocaust survivor, author, and speaker. For over four decades, she has served as a powerful voice in Holocaust education, reaching hundreds of thousands of people through her speaking engagements. Born Gustawa Singer on June 4, 1935, in Kraków, Poland, Applefield experienced the devastation of Nazi occupation as a young child. At just four years old, she was separated from her parents and spent years in hiding, living under false identities to escape Nazi persecution.
Janet Singer Applefield
Janet Singer Applefield is a Holocaust survivor, author, and speaker. For over four decades, she has served as a powerful voice in Holocaust education, reaching hundreds of thousands of people through her speaking engagements. Born Gustawa Singer on June 4, 1935, in Kraków, Poland, Applefield experienced the devastation of Nazi occupation as a young child. At just four years old, she was separated from her parents and spent years in hiding, living under false identities to escape Nazi persecution.
Following the war, Applefield immigrated to the United States, where she rebuilt her life with extraordinary determination. She pursued higher education at Boston University, earning a Master of Social Work, and dedicated over two decades to clinical social work practice in the Greater Boston area. Beyond her professional achievements, Applefield recognized the imperative to bear witness—to share her survival story so that the horrors of the Holocaust would never be forgotten or repeated. Applefield’s influence extends beyond the podium through her advocacy efforts, including her pivotal role in advancing the Massachusetts Genocide Bill, reflecting her commitment to systemic change and educational reform. Her recently published memoir, Becoming Janet: Finding Myself in the Holocaust, serves as both personal testimony and historical document.
Sunday, September 28 and Monday, September 29, 2025
Arn Chorn-Pond
Arn is the first of three Hall Family Speakers who will guide us this year through our Equity & Engagement theme: Courageous Voices, Global Impact: Leading with Integrity for a Just World. As part of his Spring 2025 Tour: Commemorating 50 Years of Healing Through the Arts, Arn will share his extraordinary journey: from surviving the Khmer Rouge as a child, to arriving in the U.S. as a refugee, to returning to Cambodia to found Cambodian Living Arts (CLA). What began as a mission to preserve Cambodian performing arts has become a global cultural movement, inspiring new generations of artists and communities.
Widely recognized for his human rights and cultural work, Arn has received the Reebok Human Rights Award, Amnesty International Human Rights Award, the Kohl Foundation International Peace Prize, and the Spirit of Anne Frank Outstanding Citizen Award.
Arn Chorn-Pond
Arn is the first of three Hall Family Speakers who will guide us this year through our Equity & Engagement theme: Courageous Voices, Global Impact: Leading with Integrity for a Just World. As part of his Spring 2025 Tour: Commemorating 50 Years of Healing Through the Arts, Arn will share his extraordinary journey: from surviving the Khmer Rouge as a child, to arriving in the U.S. as a refugee, to returning to Cambodia to found Cambodian Living Arts (CLA). What began as a mission to preserve Cambodian performing arts has become a global cultural movement, inspiring new generations of artists and communities.
Widely recognized for his human rights and cultural work, Arn has received the Reebok Human Rights Award, Amnesty International Human Rights Award, the Kohl Foundation International Peace Prize, and the Spirit of Anne Frank Outstanding Citizen Award.
Past Speakers
Monday, March 3, 2025
Anthony Abraham Jack
Anthony Abraham Jack is an award-winning author, sociologist, and scholar. He is the Inaugural Faculty Director of the Boston University Newbury Center and Associate Professor of Higher Education Leadership at Boston University. His research documents the overlooked diversity among lower-income undergraduates: the Doubly Disadvantaged—those who enter college from local, typically distressed public high schools—and Privileged Poor—those who do so from boarding, day, and preparatory high schools.
Anthony Abraham Jack
Anthony Abraham Jack is an award-winning author, sociologist, and scholar. He is the Inaugural Faculty Director of the Boston University Newbury Center and Associate Professor of Higher Education Leadership at Boston University. His research documents the overlooked diversity among lower-income undergraduates: the Doubly Disadvantaged—those who enter college from local, typically distressed public high schools—and Privileged Poor—those who do so from boarding, day, and preparatory high schools.
Jack’s research and writing, as well as biographical profiles of his experiences as a first-generation college student, have been featured in many leading publications, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Vox, and NPR, to name a few. He is the author of two books: The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students, (2018) and Class Dismissed: When Colleges Ignore Inequality and Students Pay the Price (2024).
Monday, March 4, 2024
Sonia Nazario
Sonia Nazario is an award-winning journalist whose stories have tackled some of this country’s most intractable problems, including hunger, drug addiction, and immigration. She is best known for "Enrique's Journey," her Los Angeles Times series about a Honduran boy’s struggle to find his mother in the U.S. The series won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 2003 and was later turned into a best-selling book. Nazario’s human-rights efforts have also earned her numerous awards. A graduate of Williams College, she has a master’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Nazario, who grew up in Kansas and in Argentina, began her career at the Wall Street Journal and later joined the Los Angeles Times. She is at work on her second book.
Sonia Nazario
Sonia Nazario is an award-winning journalist whose stories have tackled some of this country’s most intractable problems, including hunger, drug addiction, and immigration. She is best known for "Enrique's Journey," her Los Angeles Times series about a Honduran boy’s struggle to find his mother in the U.S. The series won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 2003 and was later turned into a best-selling book. Nazario’s human-rights efforts have also earned her numerous awards. A graduate of Williams College, she has a master’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Nazario, who grew up in Kansas and in Argentina, began her career at the Wall Street Journal and later joined the Los Angeles Times. She is at work on her second book.
Friday, April 28, 2023
Dr. Marisa Franco
A professor, psychologist, leading expert on human connection, and New York Times bestselling author, Dr. Marisa Franco speaks frequently on the topic of fostering belonging and improving mental health. The author of Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make—and Keep—Friends, she has studied connection internationally through a National Institute of Health grant. Her presentations challenge audiences with fresh evidence-based ideas about connection while giving them practical tools they can implement immediately. Dr. Franco received a BS from New York University and a PhD in counseling psychology from the University of Maryland.
Dr. Marisa Franco
A professor, psychologist, leading expert on human connection, and New York Times bestselling author, Dr. Marisa Franco speaks frequently on the topic of fostering belonging and improving mental health. The author of Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make—and Keep—Friends, she has studied connection internationally through a National Institute of Health grant. Her presentations challenge audiences with fresh evidence-based ideas about connection while giving them practical tools they can implement immediately. Dr. Franco received a BS from New York University and a PhD in counseling psychology from the University of Maryland.
Monday, April 11, 2022
Yair Rosenberg
About:
Yair Rosenberg is a writer at The Atlantic, where he covers the intersection of politics, culture and religion. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian, and his writings have received awards from the Religion Newswriters Association and the Harvard Center for Jewish Studies. He has covered everything from national elections in America and Israel, to observant Jews in baseball, to the translation of Harry Potter into Yiddish, and in his spare time, composes original Jewish music and creates bots that troll anti-Semites on Twitter. His latest project, Anti-Semitism, Explained, a Youtube video series tackles the biggest questions about anti-Jewish prejudice.
Yair Rosenberg
About:
Yair Rosenberg is a writer at The Atlantic, where he covers the intersection of politics, culture and religion. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian, and his writings have received awards from the Religion Newswriters Association and the Harvard Center for Jewish Studies. He has covered everything from national elections in America and Israel, to observant Jews in baseball, to the translation of Harry Potter into Yiddish, and in his spare time, composes original Jewish music and creates bots that troll anti-Semites on Twitter. His latest project, Anti-Semitism, Explained, a Youtube video series tackles the biggest questions about anti-Jewish prejudice.
October 21, 2021
Dr. Jamil Zaki: On Empathy
A professor of psychology at Stanford University and the director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. Using tools from psychology and neuroscience, he and his colleagues examine how empathy works and how people can learn to empathize more effectively.
(www.warforkindness.com)
(www.warforkindness.com)
October 3, 2020
Eric Liu: Citizenship and Political Empowerment
Co-founder and CEO of Citizen University, which works to build a culture of powerful and responsible citizenship in the United States.
(www.citizenuniversity.us)
(www.citizenuniversity.us)
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