LOUISVILLE, Ky.–Leon Panetta, U.S. Secretary of Defense, will speak to students and community members March 1 at the University of Louisville.
His free, public talk through the McConnell Center is scheduled to begin at 7:15 p.m. in Cardinal Arena on the Floyd Street side of UofL’s Swain Student Activities Center.
Panetta was sworn in as the nation’s 23rd defense secretary in July. He previously served as U.S. Central Intelligence Agency director. He also served as President Clinton’s White House chief of staff from 1994 to 1997 after two years as Office of Management and Budget director.
From 1977 to 1993, he represented California’s 16th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, rising to House Budget Committee chairman in his final four years in Congress.
A Monterey, Calif., native born to Italian immigrant parents, Panetta holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a law degree, both from Santa Clara University.
In 1998, he and his wife founded the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy at California State University, Monterey Bay, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit center that helps prepare students for public service careers.
Tickets for his talk are free and can be requested at www.louisville.edu/mcconnellcenter