Civic Leadership Program: Activities: Meeting with the Burkhardts

Meeting with the Burkhardts, Champaign: February 2006

"Arrivin' and Thrivin' in Capital Cities"

such as Washington D.C.

Craig and Barbara Burkhardt of Washington, D.C. returned to their alma mater Friday, February 3 to talk students campuswide about how to get into the Washington, D.C. game. The Civic Leadership Program sponsored the event, which filled the South Lounge of the Illini Union.

A Presidential appointee, Craig is the No. 2 lawyer at the US Department of Commerce. Barbara is a writer and professor of English at UI-Springfield. Barbara's recent book, William Maxwell: A Literary Life, received rave reviews in the New York Times and is in its second printing already.

Following the afternoon session with students, Craig and Barbara joined the Civic Leadership Fellows and Friends of the Fellows such as former foreign correspondent Bob Aaron of Bloomington, Illinois and professor and director emeritus of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs (IGPA) Sam Gove at the Beckman Center for Advanced Studies. CLP Senior Fellow and high tech development entrepreneur Peter Fox and wife Kim and present IGPA Director Robert Rich also participated in the dinner. IGPA is a collaborator in many of the Civic Leadership activities.