David Axelrod — former chief strategist and senior advisor to President Barack Obama — will join the lineup of speakers for the CSU Spur Water in the West Symposium, to be held virtually Nov. 18-19, the CSU System announced on Thursday.
Mr. Axelrod, a political strategist and commentator, currently serves as the founding director of the University of Chicago’s nonpartisan Institute of Politics and as a senior political commentator for CNN. He is also the host of The Axe Files, a top-rated podcast featuring in-depth conversations with public figures across the political spectrum.
The annual Water in the West Symposium is a convening of water experts across diverse platforms, and is meant to providemultidisciplinary networking and solution-based thinking. A dialogue between Mr. Axelrod and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on Nov. 19, will conclude the Symposium.
“David Axelrod brings an astute and experienced voice in helping understand not only what happened with an election but as importantly what will happen as a result of an election. His insight will help set the stage for what Colorado and the West can expect as we tackle the challenge of water in the West,” Vilsack said.
Since beginning in 2018, the Symposium has drawn experts ranging from former Whole Foods’ CEO Walter Robb and Claudia Ringler with the International Food Policy Research Institute to Coca-Cola’s Bruce Karas and Ted Kowalski of the Walton FamilyFoundation’s Colorado River Initiative. The event is an annual offering of the future CSU Spur campus that will be complete in2022 in north Denver, and will be a hub for education, innovation, and collaboration around the issues of water, food, and health.
