Speaker Series

WACLV Speaker Series

The World Affairs Council of Las Vegas Event & Speaker Series host networking events featuring country leaders, distinguished authors, international policymakers and thought leaders. Our events provide members and our guests an opportunity to connect with other Las Vegans while getting “behind the scenes” insight on important topical issues in international affairs.

WACLV Upcoming Speaker Event

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Featured Speaker Bio: Pat Hickey

Pat Hickey was born in Carson City and grew up in Lake Tahoe, the place where his Irish ancestors settled in the 1870s. Pat has been a ski bum, a seeker, a reporter, an assemblyman, an education advocate, and a proud parent and grandparent. His “Memo from the Middle” Sunday column is carried in the Reno Gazette Journal.

Pat received his Master’s Degree from the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada. His lifelong interest in life after death is matched only by his fascination with the lives he and other Nevadans are currently leading.

Featured Speaker Bio: Sigmund Rogich

Honorable Sigmund ‘Sig’ Rogich is a former United States Ambassador to his native country of Iceland and served as Senior Assistant to President George H.W. Bush in the White House in charge of new initiatives and public events from 1989-1992. During his time in the White House, Rogich traveled with President Bush to over 40 countries and at the request of the President, accompanied then Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev on his nationwide tour of the United States.

Active in local and national politics, Rogich has worked in a senior capacity on over 600 elections including the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush and presidential hopeful, Senator John McCain. Rogich has also been active in several congressional, gubernatorial and state political races, including those of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid; Senator Dean Heller, Congressman Joe Heck; former Congressman Jon Porter as well as former Governors Paul Laxalt, Kenny Guinn, and Jim Gibbons.

Moderator Jill Tolles Bio: Jill Tolles is the Executive Director of the Kenny Guinn Center for Policy Priorities. She has taught at the University of Nevada since 2005, where she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Communication Studies. She is on the faculty of the National Judicial College, where she teaches judges from around the nation and the world courtroom management, collaborative decision-making, and procedural fairness.

Prior to joining the Guinn Center, Ms. Tolles served three terms in the Nevada Legislature as the Assemblywoman for District 25, where she has served on the Education, Judiciary, Commerce and Labor, and Ways and Means Committees. Additionally, she served in two special sessions and three interims on the Interim Finance Committee, Legislative Committee on Education, Legislative Committee on Energy, and the Nevada Sentencing Commission. Ms. Tolles has given back to the community by serving on numerous boards and commissions over the years. She is currently an Education Alliance Board member, recent Vice Chair of the Attorney General’s Statewide Substance Use Response Working Group, Chair of the Northern Nevada Sex Trafficking Task Force, Junior Achievement Hall of Fame Recipient, Aspen Institute Rodel Fellow, FBI Citizen’s Academy Graduate, and member of the International

Women’s Forum.