Our Exciting Lecture Season Is Underway
Naples United Church of Christ
5200 Crayton Road, Naples
3:45 and 7:30 pm (except as otherwise noted)
In person and livestreamed
Our Enduring Global Crises
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February 9: “To Dare Mighty Things: U.S. Defense Strategies Since the Revolution, and Lessons for Today”. Michael E. O’Hanlon, Brookings Institution.
February 23: “Advances in Chinese Military and Uncrewed Technology”. Tim Ditter, Senior Research Scientist, U.S. Center for Naval Analyses.
March 9: “Diplomacy and Negotiation: Cuba and Latin America”. Prof. Paul Webster Hare, Master Lecturer, Boston University.
March 23: "High Latitudes and High Stakes: Economics, Environment and Security in an Accessible Arctic". Louis Mead Treadwell, 11th Lieutenant Governor of Alaska and Former Chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission.
April 7, TUESDAY: "A Global National Security Conversation". Ambassador Douglas Lute (usa ret.), assistant to President Bush and National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan
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Videos are available in NCWA archives: November 3: “Conflict: Iran”, Distinguished Fellow Barbara Slavin of the Stimson Center in Washington.
November 17: Edward Luce, National Editor of the Financial Times, Author of "ZBIG", a Cold War biography of Zbigniew Brzezinski.
December 8: "Russia's War on Ukraine: an Update". William Taylor [U.S. Ambassador ret. Ukraine], Distinguished Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.
January 12: "The Middle East at a Hinge Moment". Mona Yacoubian, Senior Advisor and Director, Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and international Studies.
January 26: One session, “Issues Impacting the Global Economy”. Daniel Alpert, The International Club of Business Economics, and distinguished panelists.
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Lecture Guests Can Sign Up Online
We've made it easier to tell others about the gem that is NCWA! Guests at our lectures can register themselves online.
Easy! All members have to do is tell their friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and other like-minded people about the superior quality of our adult and youth programs and how it helps them to better understand our rapidly changing world. Don't forget to tell them that we're nonpartisan, non-profit and a place where friendships are built. Then send them to the NCWA website's home page to register. Guests can reserve their free passes for one
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or two persons by clicking here. Or they may scan the QR code below:
Guests can reserve a seat to attend one lecture during the season for themselves and one other person. Guests are limited to only one free lecture per season, after which we hope they will consider membership.
Great Decisions group leaders welcome guests.
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Mimi Gregory Receives Honor from WACA Board of Directors
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Mimi Gregory receives the 2025 WACA Chairman's Individual Award from Matthew Hughes, president and CEO of WACA.
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Mimi Gregory, NCWA Vice President of Programs, has received the Chairman's Individual Award for 2025 from Glenn Creamer, chairman of the board of directors of the World Affairs Councils of America (WACA). Last year she completed a term as vice chair of the WACA Board. The award was presented at WACA's national conference and again last weekend during a visit by three WACA leaders to Naples to attend the lecture of Mona Yacoubian on the Middle East. Mona is a WACA board member. Presenting the award in Naples was Matthew Hughes, president and CEO of WACA. Also attending was Stephen Lackey, WACA treasurer and Board member. Mimi has committed decades of service to World Affairs Councils in Boston and Naples, as well as to WACA.
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NCWA Adopts Vision and Values Statements
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NCWA's Board of Directors has adopted statements of its long-term Vision and Core Values to support its existing Mission Statement. The new statements describe our intentions for our role in the Southwest Florida community
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and the values we bring to that role as we inform adults and help create the leaders of tomorrow. Click here to view the complete version of our Vision, Mission and Core Values.
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Officers Leading Our Board for the Season
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Mark Schwab, President
Gunther Winkler, President-Elect
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Mark Schwab is continuing this season as president of NCWA.
President-Elect is Gunther Winkler, who is returning to the Board after time away when he was president of Greater Naples Leadership. He will become president in April.
To view information on other Board members, click here.
Did You Miss a Lecture? The lecture archive is available for members.
To access the archive, first sign in.
Then, click this link
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America/New_York
March 02, 2026
Great Decisions meetings began January 19
Middle School Academic WorldQuest February 28
Model UN competition at FGCU March 2-3
Great Decisions meetings end March 13
High School Academic WorldQuest March 21
Final lecture April 7
Annual Meeting and election of new
Board members April 7
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NCWA Book Club
Explores Foreign Policy
February 3 at 12:30 pm: Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis by Robert D. Kaplan, an urgent exploration of a world in constant crisis, where every regional disaster threatens to become a global conflict, with lessons from history that can stop the spiral.
March 3: TBD
April 7: TBD
The club meets via Zoom, usually from 12:00 to 1:30 pm, on first Tuesdays of the month during the season. To get on the mailing list, click here. For Zoom link and more information, contact Bill Korstad at bkorstad@mac.com or go to our Book Club page. Past Book Club topics: November 4: ZBIG: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, America's Great Power Prophet by Edward Luce
December 2: The Man Who Would Be King: Mohammed bin Salman by Karen Elliot House.
January 6: 2025 National Security Strategy. The recent update to U.S. security strategy is a dramatic departure from the liberal internationalist foreign policy in place the last 80 years. Perhaps it's time for a change. The Book Club will discuss the side of the story that is not being widely told.
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Dedicated Leader Passes Away Mo Winograd, forme r NCWA Board member and a dedicated leader in the Great Decisions and Southwest Florida Model UN programs, died in September after a long struggle with cancer. To access our page in memory of her many contributions to NCWA and area students, as well as for instructions on how to donate to a scholarship fund in her name, please click here.
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