Ross, Appeals Court Judge to Share Lambeth Lecture

Posted on Aug. 31, 2016

Alex Kozinski, former chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and former UNC System President Thomas Ross ’75 (JD) will share the Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Lecture in Public Policy on Sept. 29 in Gerrard Hall.

The lecture will take the form of a conversation between Kozinski and Ross, now president of the Volcker Alliance.

The ninth annual Lambeth Lecture is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. and is open to UNC students, faculty, alumni and friends. A brief reception will follow.

Kozinski, a member of the appeals court since 1985 and its chief judge from 2007 to 2014, often is described as a libertarian. He came to the U.S. at age 12, the son of Romanian refugees and Holocaust survivors. He is noted for having written articulately — and often provocatively — on criminal justice reform, the death penalty, intellectual property law and other topics. Prior to his appointment to the appellate bench, Kozinski served as assistant counsel to President Ronald Reagan from 1982 to 1985 and as chief judge of the U.S. Claims Court.

Prior to his service in the UNC System, Ross served as president of Davidson College, executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, director of the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts, a Superior Court judge and the lead author of North Carolina’s 1994 “structured sentencing” reforms.

The lecture series, presented by UNC’s department of public policy, is named for the 1957 UNC graduate and former executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. It was endowed in 2006 to bring to campus distinguished speakers who are practitioners or scholars of public policy, particularly those whose work addresses education, ethics, democratic institutions and civic engagement.

Lambeth served as administrative assistant to then-Gov. Terry Sanford ’39 (’46 LLBJD) and to then-U.S. Rep. Richardson Preyer. Later, for more than two decades, he was executive director of the Reynolds Foundation. During his tenure, the foundation awarded grants totaling more than $260 million to address many of North Carolina’s most pressing policy issues, particularly social justice and equity, governance and civic engagement, education, community-building and economic development, and protection of the state’s natural environment.

Lambeth is a recipient of the GAA’s Distinguished Service Medal, the University’s Distinguished Alumnus Award and the Davie Award for service to UNC. He is a past chair of the GAA Board of Directors. He now chairs the GAA-sponsored Tar Heel Network, which supports the University’s goals and priorities through advocacy with legislators, and also serves on the GAA Board of Directors.

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