Speaker Series 2025-2026

Theme: Citizens of the World

At Hopkins School, inviting guest speakers to campus to share real-world experiences and impart time-tested wisdom is a longstanding tradition. During the 2025–2026 academic year, Hopkins is elevating this tradition by bringing together a group of dynamic speakers to discuss a wide variety of topics. The goal of the series is simple:  To bring the world to Hopkins.

The lineup, which includes several Hopkins alums, reflects the School’s mission to foster intellectual curiosity, civic engagement, and critical thinking.

Have a look below! Check back throughout the year as we add more speakers to the roster.

Scheduled Speakers

List of 5 items.

  • Monday, December 1 | Ben Rubenstein '01

    Morning Assembly, Athletic Center, 8:00 am

    Ben Rubenstein from the Hopkins Class of 2001, has a long career of entrepreneurship, building large tech companies, and job creation.
     
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  • Saturday, December 13 | Etana Solomon '14

    Academic & Performing Arts Center, 2:00–4:00 pm
     
    Social impact strategist Etana Solomon ’14 presents a screening and panel discussion of her mini-documentary A Good Run: Finding Peace with Parkinson’s. A brief reception will follow. 

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  • Tuesday, January 27, 2026 | Mark Gorenberg '72 and Jon Levin '90

    Evening Talk, Academic & Performing Arts Center, 7:00 pm

    AI and the Future of Education: Two Hopkins Grads, Two Top Universities, One Big Question

    Two Hopkins alumni are now leading two of the world’s most tech-savvy universities at the forefront of the AI revolution—and they’re returning to campus to share what comes next. Join us for AI and the Future of Education with Mark Gorenberg ’72 (MIT Board Chair and AI investor) and Jon Levin ’90 (Stanford President and renowned economist).
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  • Monday, April 20, 2026 | Sarah Merriam '89

    Morning Assembly, Athletic Center, 8:00 am

    Judge Merriam grew up in New Haven.  She attended Hopkins School from 1983 until her graduation in 1989, then went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from Georgetown University in 1993. She began her legal education at the University of Connecticut School of Law, then transferred to Yale Law School after her first year and received her law degree from Yale in 2000. In 2018, Judge Merriam received an LLM in Judicial Studies from Duke Law School.
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  • Friday, May 1, 2026 | Misha Body '98

    Morning Assembly, Athletic Center, 8:00 am
    Misha Body has 25 years of experience working in zoos, aquariums, and cultural institutions, all with the intention of impacting wildlife conservation. Misha’s strengths include actively identifying and empowering the diversity of skills and perspectives amongst her team members to achieve strategic goals; modeling and coaching a leadership style that embraces empathy, compassion, and accountability; and creating and nurturing connections and networks to expand the impact on organizational mission. Her personal mission is to collaboratively create environments in which mission-driven conservation professionals can achieve their greatest successes.
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Catch Up on the Series So Far...

Jesmyn Ward 
September 12, 2025

On Friday, September 12, Hopkins welcomed acclaimed author Jesmyn Ward to campus as part of the School’s Visiting Writer Series. Ward, a two-time National Book Award winner and MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient, spent the day engaging with the Hopkins community. Ward read and spoke at an all-school assembly, led breakout discussions with students and faculty, and concluded with a public evening reading in the Academic and Performing Arts Center.

Ward is the first woman and the first Black American novelist to win the National Book Award for Fiction twice—for Salvage the Bones (2011) and Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017). Praised for her fearless lyricism, Ward’s work explores themes of race, family, grief, and resilience in coastal Mississippi. She is also the author of the memoir Men We Reaped and the nonfiction book Navigate Your Stars.

In preparation for her visit, students in grades 10–12 read Sing, Unburied, Sing as part of their summer reading assignment, while students in grades 7–9 studied Navigate Your Stars in English class. Faculty and staff also joined in by reading her work ahead of the event. Click here to read the full recap and see photos/video




Laurie Santos 
October 17, 2025

When addressing the Hopkins community on the science of happiness, psychologist Dr. Laurie Santos did not begin by talking about positive emotions, but rather how to engage with the negative ones.

On Friday, October 17, the Hopkins community held on to every word as Santos explained the importance of normalizing negative emotions and introducing mindfulness practices to process negative feelings in healthy ways. According to her research in positive psychology, the behavioral change of accepting negative emotions leads to a happier and more fulfilling life.

“I think particularly for the young people in the room, it’s worth acknowledging how normal it is to feel overwhelmed at a high-performance school like Hopkins, where you have a lot on your plate,” Santos said at the beginning of her presentation. “So what’s our move?”

Click here to read the full story. 



Andy Huszar
November 7, 2025

At an all-school assembly on Friday, November 7, the Hopkins community welcomed Fall Fellow Andy Huszar ’91, co-founder and CEO of Marcella, a global designer fashion brand empowering women and girls through its design philosophy, production approach, sustainability, and social impact.

Huszar began by sharing a humorous ninth-grade memory—the time he dressed as Superman with underwear over his tights to promote the Hopkins Canned Food Drive—from the very same podium where he now stood. The story set the stage for two lessons that have shaped every step of his career.

The first, he said, was “fearless curiosity,” which he says began to take shape at Hopkins.

As he noted in his speech, there were moments during his time on the Hill when, despite his best efforts, Huszar didn’t know all the answers—and learning that this was “okay” became a turning point. Being “humbled” here meant he was never afraid to say he didn’t know something, which in turn, as he put it, “freed me to try new things over and over again.”

Click here to read the full story.


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