Originally broadcast at 10:45 a.m. ET Tuesday, July 26, 2022.

This program is made possible by the David and Wendy Barensfeld Lectureship Fund.

Linda Chavez is chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a widely published opinion columnist, and an advisory board member for Republicans for Voting Rights, an initiative of the Republican Accountability Project with the purpose of defending the accessibility, integrity and competitiveness of American elections. It is this work that Chavez will speak to in her return to the Chautauqua Lecture Series, for which she last spoke in 1996 on issues of media bias.

Chavez has held myriad appointed positions and has served on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards. Among her appointed positions has been chairman on the National Commission on Migrant Education (1988-1992); White House Director of Public Liaison (1985); staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1983-1985); and member of the Administrative Conference of the United States (1984-1986). Chavez was also the Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Maryland in 1986 and was elected by the United Nations' Human Rights Commission to serve a four-year term as U.S. Expert to the U.N. Sub-commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.

Chavez is the author of the three books: Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation, An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal, and Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics. She has been honored by the Library of Congress as a "Living Legend" and as nominee for Secretary of Labor by President George W. Bush.

Chavez earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Colorado.

About Chautauqua Institution: Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. As a community, we celebrate, encourage and study the arts and treat them as integral to all of learning, and we convene the critical conversations of the day to advance understanding through civil dialogue. CHQ Assembly is the online expression of Chautauqua Institution's mission.