Aspen Institute launches in-person summer lineup this week
Tuesday afternoon talk grapples with post-pandemic public health
One of the Aspen Institute’s first in-person, public events in more than a year won’t shy away from the topical when conversation digs into “The State of Public Health in a Post-Pandemic World” at 3 p.m. Tuesday in the Greenwald Pavilion.
Dr. Ashish Jha — currently the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and the former director of the Harvard Global Health Institute — will discuss America’s standing in public health after the emergence of COVID-19 with Amna Nawaz, a senior national correspondent and primary substitute anchor for PBS NewsHour.
The talk is one of several events marking a live programming comeback at the Aspen Meadows campus this summer.
Other live events in the summer lineup include “Why Politics Are Getting in the Way of Having Real Discourse” with former Texas congressman and CIA clandestine officer Will Hurd (July 16 at 5 p.m., in the Greenwald Pavilion) and “The Ethics of Journalistic Decision-Making” with a panel of media figures (Aug. 4 at 5 p.m., also in Greenwald).
The season is underway with a handful of lectures and conversations in the books and a wrap on the five-day Aspen Ideas Festival, which ran in a hybrid in-person and online format June 27-July 1.
“After a challenging year, the need to bring people together has never been stronger. We’re proud to be restarting our summer programming in Aspen and connecting with communities across the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond,” Aspen Institute President and CEO Dan Porterfield said in a news release.
The Hurst Lecture Series, McCloskey Speaker Series and the Murdock Mind, Body, Spirit Series all return this season alongside additional events hosted by Aspen Institute policy programs, strategy groups and the Society of Fellows. Some events will be offered in person and online; others are exclusively virtual.
Recurring art tours on the campus occur all summer long, some hosted by landscape architect and former Aspen city councilwoman Ann Mullins and others hosted by Aspen Institute Exhibitions and Collections Manager Lissa Ballinger.
A full lineup and registration is available online at aspeninstitute.org/series/summer-in-aspen-2021.
Genstar’s Jean-Pierre Conte sued in Aspen by ex-girlfriend Hillary Thomas
The former girlfriend of Jean-Pierre Conte, the chairman and managing director of the private equity firm Genstar Capital, filed suit Thursday in Aspen claiming that Conte committed assault, battery, and violated the terms of a 2021 separation agreement. Hillary Thomas claims in her lawsuit that during her more than nine years with Conte, she helped parent his four children and her two children “whom they raised in a blended family.”
