The Town Hall

Civic Discourse features visionaries and thinkers who explore some of the nation’s most complex challenges—and offer thought-provoking ideas that can help solve them. Panel discussions are followed by lively Q&As from the audience in the hall and those viewing the livestream.

season partners

Recorded Live Oct 27, 2025 / The Town Hall

Dismantling the Stigmas Around Mental Health

This event is presented at The Town Hall in the Dr. Charlotte Frank Patron Lounge.

MODERATOR:

Laura J. Downey, Executive Editor of WebMD’s magazine and its point-of-care products.

PANELISTS:

Darcy Gruttadaro, Chief Innovation Officer at National Alliance on Mental Illness; Maggie Hureau, Director of Social Impact at Mammoth Brands; Wenhua Lu, PhD, Associate Medical Professor in the Department of Community Health and Social Medicine at the CUNY School of Medicine; with Giorgio Sylvestre, student speaker

Learn more & get involved

Recorded Live Feb 17, 2025 / The Town Hall

Revisiting the “American dream” 60 years later

MODERATOR:

Edwidge Danticat, distinguished novelist, poet, and MacArthur Fellow

PANELISTS:

Nicholas Buccola, PhD award-winning author of The Fire Is Upon Us: James Baldwin and the Debate Over Race in America; Brenda M. Greene, PhD, author and literary activist, founder and executive director of the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York; Matt Brim, PhD, Professor of Queer Studies at the College of Staten Island, author of James Baldwin and the Queer Imagination; Frank Leon Roberts, PhD, Founding Executive Director of The Baldwin/Hansberry Project, English and Black Studies Professor at Amherst College

Learn more & get involved

Recorded Live Oct 26, 2024 / The Town Hall

The low-wage work crisis: 3 ideas for a better future

MODERATOR:

Maritza Silva-Farrell, program officer with the Future of Work(ers) Program, leading the worker power and capital strategies portfolio at the Ford Foundation

PANELISTS:

Juliana Bidadanure, Associate Professor of Philosophy and an Affiliate Faculty of the Law School at New York University; Manjari Raman, Senior Program Director of the Project on Managing the Future of Work and Project on U.S. Competitiveness at the Harvard Business School; Lawrence Mishel, Emeritus Fellow at the Economic Policy Institute

Learn more & get involved

Civic Discourse

visionaries and thinkers explore the nation’s most complex challenges with lively q&A from the audience