The World Leaders Forum

CAROLINE KENNEDY

Author, Diplomat, and First Female Ambassador to Japan

Bestselling Author, Attorney, and Diplomat Caroline Kennedy was the 29th United States Ambassador to Japan. Nominated by President Barack Obama, she was the first female Ambassador to Japan. During her tenure she helped realize the United States military's return of land on Okinawa to the Japanese government, the largest land transfer since 1972, became an advocate for Japanese women in business and politics, and played a pivotal role in President Obama’s historic visit to Hiroshima.

The eldest child of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Caroline is President and Director of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and a member of the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 1989, she established the Profile in Courage Award which honors elected officials who have shown political courage.

From law and politics to education reform and charitable work, Ambassador Kennedy has committed her life to public works, serving as a member and founder of numerous non-profits, boards, and foundations. She publicly endorsed Barack Obama for president by penning the essay A President Like My Father for The New York Times and later became the co-chair of his vice-presidential search committee.

From 2002-2011, Kennedy was Vice Chair of the Fund for Public Schools, dedicated to engaging the private sector in school reform. She was also the director of the Office of Strategic Partnerships for the New York City Department of Education from 2002 to 2004. There, she helped to raise over $60 million for the city’s public schools.

Kennedy has authored, co-authored, or edited more than a dozen books on American history, politics, constitutional law and poetry. Among her 10 New York Times bestsellers are She Walks in Beauty: A Woman’s Journey Through Poems; A Family of Poems, and The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Fascinated with constitutional law, Caroline co-wrote In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action with fellow law graduate Ellen Alderman in honor of the two-hundredth anniversary of the Bill of Rights.

She is an Honorary Chair of the Senior Advisory Committee of the Harvard University Institute of Politics and a member of the national board of directors for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Kennedy holds a B.A. in Fine Arts from Harvard University and a J.D. from Columbia University.

ERIC METAXAS

Author and Radio Host

Eric Metaxas is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Martin Luther, If You Can Keep It, Bonhoeffer, Amazing Grace, and Miracles. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the New Yorker, and Metaxas has appeared as a cultural commentator on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. He is the host of The Eric Metaxas Show, a nationally syndicated daily radio show. Metaxas is also the founder and host of Socrates in the City, the acclaimed series of conversations on “life, God, and other small topics,” featuring Malcolm Gladwell, Dick Cavett, and Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, among many others. He is a senior fellow and lecturer at large at the King’s College in New York City, where he lives with his wife and daughter.