Madison Vision Series to focus on ‘Fighting the Rise of Hate’

Harrisonburg, Virginia — Author, foreign policy strategist and former diplomat Farah Pandith will discuss the growing threat of violent extremism and what can be done to combat it during the final Madison Vision Series event of the 2021-22 school year. 

Scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, April 18 in Wilson Hall Auditorium, “How We Win: Fighting the Rise of Hate” will be the first in-person Madison Vision Series event in more than two years. It will also be livestreamed on JMU YouTube and Facebook. 

Pandith is a world-leading expert and pioneer in countering violent extremism, a frequent media commentator and public speaker. She is the author of the book "How We Win: How Cutting-Edge Entrepreneurs, Political Visionaries, Enlightened Business Leaders, and Social Media Mavens Can Defeat the Extremist Threat." 

Pandith served as a political appointee under Presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and most recently was the first-ever Special Representative to Muslim Communities under Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. 

She has served on the National Security Council, at the U.S. Department of State and in the U.S. Agency for International Development in various senior roles. She has also served on the Department of Homeland Security’s Advisory Council, chairing its task force on countering violent extremism. 

She is currently a senior fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School, an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the senior advisor for thought leadership at the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream. 

In the fall of 2020, the Muhammad Ali Center named Pandith the first-ever Muhammad Ali Global Peace Laureate for her proven track record of and commitment to promoting diversity, cohesion and respect. 

The Madison Vision Series honors James Madison’s conviction that cultivating an informed and educated citizenry is essential to the health of our republican democracy. By hosting these timely speakers, students, faculty and staff, and members of the community have easy access to a variety of topics and influencers. The speakers afford students the opportunity to learn and experience what life in their field may look like and provide dialogue for both sides of an issue. 

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Contact: Ginny Cramer, cramervm@jmu.edu, 540-568-5325