Richard D. Heffner Open Mind Lecture

In keeping with Professor Heffner’s lifelong concerns, the lecture series aims to identify how our sense of what it means to be human has been molded by history, politics, culture, and print, electronic, and cybernetic media. Richard Heffner sought “meaningful insights” into the values that shape contemporary society, through connections between individual lives and great issues of morality, politics, justice, and scientific, humanistic, and artistic knowledge. He believed in an informed citizenry and active participation in public policy. The lecture series is devoted to the broad questions and challenges he raised through his work, and to particular issues such as free and fair speech, privacy concerns, media regulation and ownership, and the role of the public intellectual, scholar, and teacher. 

Richard D. Heffner (1925-2013) was University Professor of Communication and Public Policy at Rutgers, widely known for his courses, “Communication and Human Values” in the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program and “Mass Communication and the American Image” in the School of Communication and Information. 

He created and hosted the public television interview show The Open Mind, which began broadcasting in 1956, and which he continued to host for more than fifty years until his death. 

Richard Heffner was born in New York City in 1925 and received his B.A. and M.A. from Columbia University. It was as the host of The Open Mind that Heffner was known best, interviewing luminaries from Margaret Mead and Elie Wiesel, to Bill Moyers, and President Jimmy Carter. In 1963, after the assassination in Mississippi of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, he sat down with four civil rights leaders—Wyatt Tee Walker, James Farmer, Alan Morrison and Malcolm X—to discuss the state of race relations in America. Richard Heffner’s careful listening and probing questions were familiar to his students. His colleagues noted, “What he loved most was teaching. Great students were his inspiration and his joy.”

---

9th Richard D. Heffner Open Mind Lecture: Ambassador Jeff Flake

Tuesday, September 23, 5:30pm

New Jersey Law Center
One Constitution Square, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
In partnership with the Rutgers Democracy Lab

Shuttle Transportation is available to Rutgers students from Woodlawn Mansion (Douglass) to the venue. 
Woodlawn Mansion -- 191 Ryders Lane, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8557
Shuttle departs at 5:10 PM. 

Register to Attend

 For more than 10 years, the Richard D. Heffner Open Mind Lecture series has illuminated critical areas of public policy for the Rutgers University community. To mark the milestone, this year’s lectures – featuring former U.S. Senator and Ambassador Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Sept. 23 and former U.S. Senator and attorney Doug Jones (D-Ala.) on Feb. 26 – are adding a new layer of student civic engagement.

The series honors the legacy of former Rutgers professor Richard D. Heffner, creator of what remains the longest-running public affairs series, The Open Mind, which began broadcasting in 1956. The show has continued with his grandson, Alexander Heffner, as host since 2014. 

“Over a decade, formidable leaders across American culture, law, religion, journalism, and philanthropy have advanced my grandfather's commitment to public knowledge,” said Alexander Heffner. “Senators Jones and Flake continue a tradition of deep, meaningful and constructive insights, considering the importance of communications in our representative democracy and the future of civil society.”

AMBASSADOR JEFF FLAKE

Ambassador Jeff Flake recently served as the United States Ambassador to The Republic of Türkiye. Prior to his ambassadorial service, Ambassador Flake represented Arizona in the United States Senate from 2013 to 2019. He also represented Arizona in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013.

Before entering Congress, Ambassador Flake served as Executive Director of the Goldwater Institute in Arizona, and he directed the Foundation for Democracy in Namibia during that nation’s transition to independence. Ambassador Flake holds a BA degree in International Relations and an MA degree in Political Science from Brigham Young University.

Ambassador Flake has guest lectured at Stanford, Princeton and Yale, and he was a Resident Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics. Ambassador Flake delivered the 2018 commencement address at Harvard Law School, and is a frequent guest on the Sunday morning political talk shows.

Ambassador Flake currently serves as the Director of the Institute of Politics (IOP) at Arizona State University, and as Chairman of the Board of World Trade Center Utah. He also serves as a Visiting Fellow at Brigham Young University.

In January of 2025, Ambassador Flake was knighted by the Swedish Government, receiving the “Royal Order of the Polar Star” for his pivotal role in securing Sweden’s accession to NATO while serving as Ambassador to Türkiye.

He is the author of the New York Times best seller Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle.

Ambassador Flake and his wife, Cheryl, are the parents of five grown children.

---

Previous Lectures