LIFE Lectures & Talks

When Angela Onwuachi-Willig arrived at Grinnell College as a first-year student, she could not have known that she would one day become a law school dean, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Grinnell trustee, and one of the nation’s most influential legal scholars. Like many Grinnellians, she arrived with questions about her future, her purpose, and her place in the world. Grinnell became one chapter in a journey that led her to reshape national conversations about race, equality, and justice while opening doors for countless others, especially her students and Black women in the legal academy. In her Tutorial Address, Onwuachi-Willig will reflect on what it felt like to be a first-year Grinnell student facing an uncertain future; how the people, ideas, and opportunities she encountered here helped to shape a life of extraordinary impact; why finding the mentors who teach, guide, and sponsor mentees can be critical to the making of a life; and how her mentors throughout her life, including those at Grinnell College, opened not only her mind but also doors to a career she never imagined. Her story is a powerful reminder that Grinnell students are already in the midst of becoming the people they will be one day, that the questions they are asking today may be the first steps toward achievements they cannot yet imagine, and that there are many within the Grinnell community who can help guide them to and through new pathways and experiences. Angela Onwuachi-Willig ’94 is Dean and Ryan Roth Gallo Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law.

During the summer of 1955, when Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of 14-year-old Emmett Till, sent her only son down to Mississippi to spend time with family, she had no idea that she would have to endure the excruciating pain of losing her child and that she would be forced to rise, through her pain, to the moment. Neither did Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, in 2012; or Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor, in 2020; or any other “Mothers of the Movement.” This presentation examines race, racism, “policing,” trauma, and resiliency through the tradition of the “Talk,” the conversation that many parents of Black children have with their kids about how to interact during a police encounter. It examines how law, or rather the failures of law, produce intergenerational racial harm not only through dramatic acts of exclusion, but also through the ordinary, normalized practices that emerge as ways of surviving racism. In so doing, it asks, “How does the tradition of ‘The Talk’ require parents to become active leaders to prepare their children for navigating everyday systemic, racial bias, and what are the harms of that work? What can we learn from mother-leaders like Till-Mobley, Fulton, and Palmer, who rose (through their pain) to the moment and were drafted into leadership by grief?” Angela Onwuachi-Willig ’94 is Dean and Ryan Roth Gallo Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law.

Mary Zheng ’15, recently a fan favorite on Survivor 48, is a substance abuse counselor, social worker, therapist, artist, and adventurer! In this presentation, Mary will encourage you to be delusional and take a chance! She’ll show you how doing has been better than planning, and she’ll convince you of the need to romanticize the struggle. Mary will share her mantra that “Everything is a win when the goal is experience.” She’ll base all these lessons to both her experience on Survivor and the rest of her life. Q&A will follow. Come meet Grinnell’s Survivor!

Mary Zheng ’15, recently a fan favorite on Survivor 48, is a substance abuse counselor, social worker, therapist, artist, and adventurer! Mary will help you see that you don’t always need to know what you’re doing or where you’re going because sometimes, the plan is that there is no plan. By sharing both her experiences during Grinnell and after (including that time she couch-surfed abroad for almost a year because she had no idea what she wanted to do with her life), she’ll show you that in order to figure out what you want, sometimes you need to figure out who you are first.

From the bestselling author of The Hidden Agenda and the mind behind Mastercard’s iconic ‘Priceless’ campaign comes an engaging perspective on the role of emotional intelligence in storytelling. Kevin Allen takes us on a journey from humanity’s first stories painted on cave walls to the split-second narratives that dominate social media today. Drawing on decades of experience in branding, psychology, and narrative design, this talk reveals how empathy, authenticity, and emotional resonance are the timeless forces that drive influence — in classrooms, communities, and culture at large. Walk away with fresh insight into how to craft stories that don’t just inform, but truly connect.

The Sweet Feminist, a.k.a Becca Rea-Tucker ‘ 15, is an author, baker, and abortion rights advocate who has gathered an online following by creating spaces where people who have abortions feel supported. Her second book will be available fall 2025. Becca will share how she built her personal brand and recount the challenges and joys of getting to where she is now.

This public lecture explores how art can be utilized as a tool to build community and collective power. The conversation will expand on the collaborations in their artistic practice and community organizing with the fronteristxs, a collective of artists and writers fighting for migrant justice and the abolition of the prison industrial complex across the Southwest region. 

In this conversation, hazel batrezchavez shares their experience before, during, and after Grinnell College. Recounting their experience navigating college as a first-generation individual, understanding and overcoming imposter syndrome, applying to graduate school, and building a collaborative network that came to ground their identity as an artist, educator, and community organizer. 

A Rhodes Scholar, David White ’90 is a graduate of Grinnell College and Stanford Law School. His accomplished career includes being the CEO of the Screen Actors Guild, the Chair of a Federal Reserve Bank, and a former Chair of Grinnell College trustees. White currently runs his own executive leadership consulting firm. His convocation will challenge us to expand our ideas about “fighting the world’s fight,” and how to employ our liberal education to positively impact business and society.

David White ’90 is a Rhodes scholar and after Grinnell graduated from Stanford Law School and Oxford University (Queens College). White is the immediate past national executive director and chief negotiator of Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and continues to serve as a strategic advisor to the world’s largest entertainment and media union. He is a Life Trustee and former Chair of our Board of Trustees. Currently, White is a strategy and leadership consultant. He will talk to Tutorial students about embracing challenges, and he is excited to share how his liberal arts education empowered him to face challenges in a variety of roles in the for-profit and non-profit sectors.

Deqa has worked for some of the biggest multilateral organizations and ran small grassroots-level enterprises, where she learned life-changing insights about how to forge an impact-driven career. She wants to share how Grinnell College’s resources and community influenced the trajectory of her career, helped her grapple with complex questions about “positive change”, and made her believe that being an agent of change is bringing your authentic self to the community.

What leadership skills do you already possess? What leadership skills do you need to develop? Hurson will show you how to conduct an intuitive analysis of almost any problem or opportunity you face. Tim Hurson is an innovative thought leader/educator and author of Think Better: An Innovator’s Guide to Productive Thinking (McGraw Hill 2007).

Learn to apply important skills to turn almost any adversity into success, moving from a reactive mindset to a creative mindset that leverages the elements of adversity and turns them into advantages. Tim Hurson is an innovative thought leader/educator and author of Think Better: An Innovator’s Guide to Productive Thinking (McGraw Hill 2007).