Jason Riley, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a Wall Street Journal columnist, will deliver the keynote address for Olin Business School’s annual Brauer Lecture Series.
The event will be held at 6 p.m. April 18 in Graham Chapel on Washington University in St. Louis’ Danforth Campus and will include a 45-minute lecture followed by a Q&A. Students, alumni, faculty, staff and members of the greater St. Louis community are invited to attend this free event. Registration is required to ensure adequate seating. The lecture also will be simulcast in Bauer Hall Room 330/Active Learning Lab when Graham Chapel reaches capacity.
Riley has written about politics, economics, education, immigration and social inequality for more than 25 years. He’s also a frequent public speaker and provides commentary for television and radio news outlets.
After joining the newspaper in 1994, he was named a senior editorial page writer in 2000 and a member of the editorial board in 2005. He joined the Manhattan Institute, a public think tank focused on urban issues, in 2015.
Riley is the author of five books. Among them are “Please Stop Helping Us,” about government efforts to help the Black underclass, published in 2014; “False Black Power?,” an assessment of why Black political success has not translated into more economic advancement, published in 2017; and his most recent book, published in 2022, “The Black Boom,” an analysis of Black economic progress prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., Riley earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He previously worked for USA Today and the Buffalo News. He lives in suburban New York City.
Immediately following the event, local food trucks — Kalifornia Cuisine, Go Gyro Go, Taste-D-Burgers, Pappy’s Smokehouse, Blues Fired Pizza and Street Sweetz — will be on site and available for free to students who attended the event.
About the series
The Brauer Lecture Series was created to explore and encourage dialogue on the American free enterprise system. The series supports student growth and development by hosting leading scholars from across the United States.
This lecture series supports Olin Business School’s vision of providing world-changing business education, research and impact.
Made possible by Stephen and Camilla Brauer, the series features highly regarded thought leaders and public figures addressing the positive influences that free-market economics and the American free enterprise system continue to play in economic growth, public policy and world affairs.
Comments and respectful dialogue are encouraged, but content will be moderated. Please, no personal attacks, obscenity or profanity, selling of commercial products, or endorsements of political candidates or positions. We reserve the right to remove any inappropriate comments. We also cannot address individual medical concerns or provide medical advice in this forum.