Jim Leach, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will be giving a talk on Civility in a Troubled Economy on Friday, September 30 at 4:00 p.m. in the U.S. Bank Theatre, Ohio Union. President Gee will introduce Leach. There will be a reception immediately following the presentation. Leach launched a fifty-state tour in November 2009 to call attention to the need for civility in public discourse. The event is free and open to the public. Reservations required. Register here.

UPDATE: NEH chairman Jim Leach will be the guest on WOSU "All Sides with Ann Fisher," Tuesday, September 27 at 11:40 a.m., 820 AM

Leach is the ninth chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Prior to being nominated by President Obama for the post of director of the NEH, Leach was the John L. Weinberg Visiting Professor of Public and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University. Before rejoining the Princeton faculty, Leach served for a year as the Interim Director of the Institute of Politics and Lecturer at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Leach served 30 years as a representative in Congress where he chaired the Banking and Financial Services Committee, the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. He attended Princeton, the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins, and the London School of Economics. He holds eleven honorary degrees, has received decorations from two foreign governments, and is the recipient of the Wayne Morse Integrity in Politics Award, the Adlai Stevenson Award from the United Nations Association, the Sidney R. Yates Award from the National Humanities Alliance, the Edger Wayburn Award from the Sierra Club, the Norman Borlaug Award for Public Service, the Wesley Award for Service to Humanity, and a Woodrow Wilson Award from Princeton.

Leach is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Council on Foreign Relations, and formerly served as a trustee of Princeton University.