The Presidential Lecture Series was created by President Heidi M. Anderson in 2025 to bring thought leaders, scholars, innovators, and change agents to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore so that the UMES community can engage in ideas that are timely, meaningful, and transformative. Its simple-but-profound purpose is to ensure that UMES remains a place where intellectual curiosity is celebrated, dialogue is welcomed, critical thought is encouraged, and where students and scholars are prepared to not only succeed in the world, but to change and to shape it.

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