Best-Selling Author Wes Moore Slated to Visit ESU on Tuesday, November 19, at 7:30 p.m.

Wes Moore, noted author, decorated Army veteran and community activist, will speak at East Stroudsburg University on Tuesday, November 19, at 7:30 p.m. in the Abeloff Center for the Performing Arts about his New York Times bestseller, The Other Wes Moore.

East Stroudsburg University president Marcia G. Welsh and ESU’s One Book, One Campus committee are inviting students, faculty, staff and community members to a special public appearance by the noted author, decorated Army veteran and community activist Wes Moore.  He will speak at ESU on Tuesday, November 19, at 7:30 p.m. in the Abeloff Center for the Performing Arts.

Moore, a best-selling author, has taken many leadership roles as an Army officer, Rhodes Scholar, White House fellow, youth advocate and business leader.  Raised in a single-parent household in Baltimore, Moore was drawn toward trouble as a child, enough so that his mother eventually enrolled him in a Pennsylvania military school. This single, determined choice effectively changed the course of her son’s life.

Moore will address this very issue of choice in his compelling keynote lecture at ESU as he refers to his New York Times bestseller, The Other Wes Moore. In his book, he tells the fascinating story of another Wes Moore—a man who shared his name and much of his personal history. About the same age and raised in the same neighborhood by a single mother, this “other Wes Moore” arrived at a starkly different fate: he now serves a life sentence without parole on murder charges. Compelled by their similar upbringings, Moore penned his book in an effort to discover how small choices make big differences in life.

A young adult version of the book, titled Discovering Wes Moore, was published in 2012, and movie rights to The Other Wes Moore have been optioned by Oprah Winfrey and HBO Films.

Moore presents the compelling argument that it is support systems—dedicated networks of families, mentors, teachers, friends, colleagues—who have the most profound and lasting impact on one’s life. Drawing on his experiences as a leader in the military, in business and as a White House fellow—as well as his work in helping large corporations become more involved in their communities—Moore stresses the vitality of leadership in every community, from the smallest school up to the largest Fortune 500 corporation.

Moore graduated as a commissioned officer from Valley Forge Military College in 1998 and from Johns Hopkins University in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in international relations. At Johns Hopkins he was honored by the Maryland College Football Hall of Fame. He completed an MLitt in international relations from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 2004.

He was a paratrooper and Captain in the United States Army, serving a combat tour of duty in Afghanistan with the elite 1st Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division in 2005-2006. He spearheaded the American strategic support plan for the Afghan Reconciliation Program that unites former insurgents with the new Afghan Government. He is recognized as an authority on the rise and ramifications of radical Islamism in the Western hemisphere.

A White House Fellow from 2006-2007, Moore served as a Special Assistant to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Following his time at the White House, he became an investment professional in New York at Citigroup, focusing on global technology, where he left as a vice president. In 2009 he was selected as an Asia Society Fellow and was named one of Crain’s New York Business’ 40 Under 40 Rising Stars. Two years prior, he was selected as one of Ebony’s Top 30 Leaders Under 30.

Moore is passionate about supporting U.S. veterans and examining the roles education, mentoring and public service play in the lives of American youth. He serves on the board of the Iraq Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) and founded an organization called STAND! through Johns Hopkins that works with Baltimore youth involved in the criminal justice system. A featured speaker at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Moore has also spoken at the Southern Regional Conference of the National Society of Educators; the education reform session of the third annual Race & Reconciliation in America conference; NBC’s Education Nation; and the first 9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance. He has been featured through such media outlets as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Charlie Rose, Meet the Press, The View, and The New York Times, among others.

Welsh hopes the One Book, One Campus program will continue for many years to come.  Copies of ESU’s One Book, One Campus selection, The Other Wes Moore:  One Name, Two Fates are available online and in bookstores nationwide. For more information about Moore’s visit to ESU, which is open to the public at no cost, contact Peter Pruim, Ph.D., ESU professor of philosophy and religious studies, at 570-422-3529.

Search

Recent Posts