|
The Progressive Forum premiered on June 13, 2005, with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Houston Mayor Bill White at The Hobby Center, Sarofim Hall, in a program called, “Our Environmental Challenges.” The year before in June, 2004, founder Randall Morton saw Robert Kennedy on Larry King Live and called one of Houston’s fine speaker organizations and suggested they present Kennedy but nothing came of it. Morton had created and hosted another speaker series in the oil industry, a client base for his advertising and public relations agency. Dismayed after the elections of November 2004, he called Mr. Kennedy’s representatives who were responsive to Kennedy appearing at a new event series. The Kennedy-White event broke-even, and the audience excitement showed the forum was viable. Six months later, the Forum opened its first spring season in 2006 with Jared Diamond, Seymour Hersh, and Molly Ivins. Al Gore appeared June 7th in a sell-out event launching An Inconvenient Truth at The Progressive Forum, his first U.S. book event (photos on the archive page), the same week the movie premiered in Houston. The Forum presented seven events in its first year which also included George Soros, Edward O. Wilson, and Frank Rich in the fall.
Susan Bischoff is president of the Houston Public Library Foundation where she works to heighten awareness of the Houston Public Library and, of course, raise funds. Formerly a long-time Houston Chronicle editor, she worked on the Unique Lives Series which presented leading female speakers at Jones Hall, and many other community projects and boards. Currently, Ms. Bischoff is a board member of the A+ Challenge and Aids Foundation/Houston. She is married to Jim Barlow, the former Chronicle business columnist. [send email]
Rodi Franco is director of communications at the Alley Theatre where she is responsible for marketing, public relations, and front-of-house operations including house management and box office. For six years, she served as marketing director for Houston Grand Opera. She began her career with New York City advertising agencies and moved to Houston to work for McCann Erickson. She’s also been an independent consultant serving performing arts companies, newspapers, and business-to-business organizations. She is a past president of the Houston Chapter of the American Marketing Association where she will serve as vice present of programming next year. [send email]
Amy Hopper is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Nova Arts Project, a Houston theater company dedicated to recreating classics and inspiring new works in a fearlessly theatrical way. She received her BFA in theater from the University of Oklahoma and her MFA in directing from the University of Houston. Nova Arts Project opened its debut production in May 2006, and Amy hopes to grow the company into a major playor in American avant-garde theater. She and her husband, Clinton, also a PF volunteer, have a dog, Radar, and love spending time on outdoor activities or watching OU football. Amy is responsible for coordinating volunteers. [send email]
Rich Levy is executive director of Inprint, a nonprofit organization that champions creative writing and reading in Houston. Inprint produces Houston's leading reading series with the world’s most acclaimed poets and fiction writers, primarily at the Alley Theatre. Mr. Levy has served on the boards of the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County and Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts. He holds an MFA in English from the Iowa Writers Workshop, and his poems appear in many publications. An avid jazz fan, he and his wife, Katie, an attorney and songwriter, have three children, two dogs, and one sleepy cat. [send email]
Suzanne Longley is owner of Suzanne Longley Landscapes, Inc., a totally organic landscape company. She also owns Suzanne Longley Farms in Brenham, a wholesale tree nursery. She is a frequent speaker at garden clubs on organic practices and gardening tips. In an earlier career, she was prima ballerina with the Houston Ballet, from which she retired in 1985. She is married to board director, Randall Morton, and they have two children. [send email]
Randall Morton is founder and president of The Progressive Forum. He has owned Randall Morton International, Inc., for 30 years, an advertising and public relations agency primarily serving oil equipment companies in the U.S., Japan, Mexico, and Europe. Mr. Morton created and hosted The Oilfield Breakfast Forum, which grew into the petroleum industry’s largest speaker platform whose surplus went to the SEARCH-Homeless Project. While earning his degree in government at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., he served as an issue writer for the Democratic National Committee. At Georgetown, he was ranked third nationally as a pass receiver in nonscholarship football. He earned another B.A. degree in communications from Tulsa University, where he later served as adjunct professor teaching advertising design and copy. He is married to board director, Suzanne Longley, and they have two children. He likes to cook, read, and take long walks at their farm with his Australian Shepherd dog, Max. [send email] |
