New
York Times bestselling author, educator, business advisor, and Ball
State University graduate Stedman Graham ’89
will be the next featured speaker in the David Letterman Distinguished
Professional Lecture and Workshop Series at Ball State.
Mr.
Graham’s lecture, titled “Identity Leadership,” is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Oct.
19 at Sursa Performance Hall. Free tickets for Ball State students,
faculty and staff, and the general public are available online, or by visiting or calling the University’s College of Fine Arts box
office in Sursa Performance Hall, at 765-285-8749. The College of Fine
Arts box office is open from noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Chairman
and CEO of S. Graham and Associates, Mr. Graham’s “Identity Leadership” concept
is based on the philosophy that people cannot lead others until they first lead
themselves. His book about this concept, also titled Identity Leadership,
was published in 2019.
As
an educator, Mr. Graham has been a distinguished visiting professor at numerous
colleges and universities around the nation. Mr. Graham, who earned his
master’s degree in Education from Ball State in 1989, is a former adjunct
professor at the Northwestern Kellogg School of Business, where he taught the
course, “The Dynamics of Leadership.”
“We are excited
to have Mr. Graham as our next guest in the David Letterman Distinguished
Professional Lecture and Workshop Series, and we look forward to having him
back on campus,” said Dr. Paaige Turner, dean of Ball State’s College of
Communication, Information, and Media (CCIM),
which coordinates this series. “As an American educator, Mr. Graham has a vast
array of unique knowledge, experience, and insights that can be beneficial to us
all.”
The David Letterman Distinguished Professional Lecture
and Workshop Series was established in 2008 through a generous gift from Mr.
Letterman, a 1969 Ball
State graduate. The series brings major business, media,
and academic figures to campus to engage students in discussions about the
latest issues in communications, emerging media, and cultural forces shaping
our society.
Guests have included
legendary newscaster Ted Koppel, Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts, innovator Tom
Kelley, award-winning journalist John Quiñones, and author and public policy
expert Kathleen Hall Jamieson. Tiara Thomas, a 2012 Ball State University graduate
and Grammy and Oscar award-winning singer-songwriter, was the Fall 2021 guest.
Mr. Letterman has personally invited and hosted conversations with media
icon and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, MSNBC
primetime host Rachel Maddow, and filmmakers Spike Jonze and Bennett Miller.