Hamilton College will open this year’s Common Ground (https://hamilton.edu/commonground) series with a conversation between U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, a Hamilton alumnus, and U.S. Representative (R-PA) G.T. Thompson, chair of the House Committee on Agriculture, on Tuesday, Sept. 5, at 7 p.m., in Wellin Hall (Schambach Center). This event is free and open to the public.
Common Ground is Hamilton’s multi-format program designed to explore cross-boundary political thought and complex social issues through conversation and presentations. Topics are chosen to foster critical thinking about difficult and often contentious national and global policy issues. The primary theme Common Ground will explore this academic year is climate change, with some events spotlighting other current issues.
Moderated by award-winning, multilingual global journalist and Hamilton alumna Edvige Jean-François, this event will offer a discussion on bipartisanship as well as the two speakers’ respective careers in U.S. agriculture policy and their reflections upon it.
Secretary Tom Vilsack ‘72 was confirmed as the United States Secretary of Agriculture in Feb. 2021, a return to the position after serving as secretary from 2009-2017 under the Obama administration. Prior to returning to the USDA, he served as president and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC). Secretary Vilsack is spearheading a transformation of the food system to ensure that future markets are more resilient and Americans have access to affordable, nutritious food grown closer to home. He graduated from Hamilton with a degree in history and earned a law degree from the University of Albany.
Congressman G.T. Thompson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008 and represents Pennsylvania’s 15th district. He is the chair of the House Committee on Agriculture, and has been a member for more than a decade. He has also served as chair of the subcommittees on conservation and forestry and nutrition, and ranking member of the subcommittee on general farm commodities and risk management.
During her more than 20 years as a journalist and television producer, moderator Edvige Jean François held positions at ABC News in New York, Associated Press Television News in Washington, D.C., and CNN International in Atlanta. Last year she began a career in academia when she was appointed the inaugural executive director of the Center for Studies on Africa and Its Diaspora (CSAD) at Georgia State University’s College of Arts and Sciences in Atlanta. In June 2023, Jean-François was elected to the Hamilton College Board of Trustees.
The College is grateful to Mary Helen and Robert Morris ’76, P’16,’17, Eve Niquette and Charles Pohl, P ’20, ’25, and Lori and David Hess ’77 for their generous support of Common Ground.
