Brené Brown
Research Professor, University of Houston
Van Jones
CNN Contributor, Author and Social Entrepreneur
Leadership Across Divides · Justice Reform · Social Impact
Speaking Fee
Fee on request
Based In
United States
Signature Topic
Working With People You Disagree With
Format
Keynote and Moderated Conversation
About Van
Van Jones is on this roster for one capability that is genuinely scarce: he has repeatedly built working coalitions with people who oppose him on almost everything else, and he can explain how.
He is a CNN political contributor who joined the network in 2012 and launched The Van Jones Show in 2018. He holds an Emmy for The Messy Truth VR Experience. Before television he spent more than two decades in advocacy, co-founding the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, ColorOfChange, Green For All and the organization now known as Dream.org.
The clearest example of the coalition work is the First Step Act, the federal criminal justice reform bill passed in 2018, which the New York Times described as the most substantial changes in a generation to national crime and sentencing laws. Jones and his organization worked with the Trump White House to help pass it, and he took sustained criticism from parts of his own coalition for doing so.
That is the material. Not civility as a virtue, but the specific and uncomfortable mechanics of getting something done with people whose politics you reject: what you concede, what you refuse, how you absorb being attacked by your own side, and how you tell the difference between a coalition and a capitulation. For a leadership audience in a polarized organization or industry, that is a more practical session than most things offered under the same heading.
He is a strong fit for leadership summits, conferences on social impact and justice, and events wanting a serious conversation about division that does not resolve into platitudes. He is the wrong booking for an organization that wants a politically neutral speaker, because his record is public and his positions are known, and pretending otherwise serves nobody.
Keynote Topics
Working With People You Disagree With
Criminal Justice Reform and the First Step Act
Leading in a Polarized Environment
Social Entrepreneurship and Building Movements
Best For
- Leadership summits and executive conferences
- Social impact, justice and philanthropy events
- Diversity and belonging programming with substance
- University and civic programs
- Moderated conversations on polarization
Booking Van Jones: Frequently Asked Questions
What is Van Jones's speaking fee?
Van Jones's fee is not published here and is quoted per event. What moves it is format, whether the booking is a keynote, a moderated conversation or both, along with the date, travel from Los Angeles, and whether a reception or smaller executive session is attached. Submit an inquiry with those details for a current quote and availability.
What makes his perspective on division different?
It is mechanical rather than aspirational. Van Jones worked with the Trump White House to help pass the First Step Act in 2018 and took sustained criticism from parts of his own coalition for it. The session is about what you concede, what you refuse, and how to tell a coalition from a capitulation, rather than about civility as a virtue.
Is he a politically neutral booking?
No, and an organization should not book him expecting that. His positions and his record are public and well known. The reason to book him is that he has worked successfully across a divide while holding those positions, which is a different and more useful thing than neutrality. Decide that fits before booking rather than after.
What is the First Step Act?
A federal criminal justice reform bill passed in 2018, which the New York Times described as the most substantial changes in a generation to national crime and sentencing laws. Van Jones and his organization were central advocates for it and worked with the Trump White House on its passage.
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Van Jones
CNN Contributor, Author and Social Entrepreneur
Fee on request
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