General Colin L. Powell has spent the past fifty years dedicating his life to public service. Respected on both sides of the aisle inWashington, D.C., Powell has held senior military and diplomatic positions across four presidential administrations including National Security Advisor under Reagan and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for both George H.W. Bush and Clinton. When in 2001 he was appointed Secretary of State by George W. Bush, it was the highest U.S. government rank ever held by an African-American. The son of Jamaican immigrants, Powell was born in Harlem and raised in the South Bronx where he was educated in New York City public schools. His published works include the autobiography My American Journey and the new collection It Worked For Me: In Life and Leadership.
Roy Eisenhardt practiced law for twelve years in San Francisco and taught at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. He was President of the Oakland Athletics and served as the Executive Director for the California Academy of Sciences. Some of his numerous interviews for City Arts & Lectures include those with Stephen King, Gene Wilder, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Desmond Tutu, and David Remnick.