The 35th John M. Ashbrook Memorial Dinner, hosted through the Ashbrook Center, will be welcoming the 70th Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo as the keynote speaker.

Before Pompeo became Secretary of State, he served as a congressman for the fourth district of Kansas from 2011-2017. After serving as a congressman for six years, Pompeo became Director of the CIA from 2017-2018.

Pompeo was then nominated by former US President Donald Trump to serve as the 70th Secretary of State.

At this year’s Ashbrook Memorial Dinner, Pompeo will be speaking on the challenges that America is facing, focusing on the civic education crisis and the overreach of government in education. The title of his address is “A Freedom Agenda”.

“We try first, and foremost to bring in a significant national, public figure who would be great for the Ashbrook Scholars to engage with,” Dr. Jeff Sikkenga, executive director of the Ashbrook Center said. “Not necessarily someone to agree with, but someone who has a really interesting experience in public life.”

In the past, the Ashbrook Memorial Dinner has welcomed many well-known figures in public life from Ronald Reagan to Margaret Thatcher to Tucker Carlson.

Mike Pompeo will join “the wall” of great speakers at this event on Oct. 28 from 7-9 p.m. in the John C. Myers Convocation Center. Tickets for the event are available at ashbrook.org till Oct. 22.