Former Secretary of Labor and UC Berkeley professor Robert Reich to speak at Whitman College

Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton and Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, will be at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. during the last week of April. Reich has worked in the administrations of Presidents Carter, Ford and Clinton, and is an economic and public policy expert.

A screening of the documentary film “Inequality for All,” presented by Reich, will take place on Apr. 27. On Apr. 30, Reich will deliver a lecture titled “Why Worry about Inequality?” which will address income inequality in the United States.

“Whether as Secretary of Labor under President Clinton, as Professor of Economics, or as a best-selling author, Robert Reich has been arguing on behalf of the American middle class for most of his life,” said Lee Sanning, assistant professor of economics at Whitman College.

“We are excited to have him present at Whitman and share his ideas concerning income distribution and the struggling middle class in the United States. For those across the political spectrum, the evening promises to be an engaging conversation about the current state of our economic system and possibilities for change that shouldn’t be missed.”

The film “Inequality for All,” a 2013 documentary film directed by Jacob Kornbluth which examines widening income inequality in the United States, won a U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Achievement in Filmmaking at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and is presented by Reich.

Reich distills the story through the lens of widening income inequality—currently at historic highs—and explores what effects this increasing gap has not only on the U.S. economy but American democracy itself. At the heart of the film is a simple proposition: What is a good society and what role does the widening income gap play in the deterioration of the nation's economic health?

A screening of “Inequality for All” will take place in Maxey Auditorium at 2 p.m. on Apr. 27. Robert Reich’s lecture takes place on Apr. 30 at 7 p.m. in Cordiner Hall on the Whitman College campus. Both events are free and open to the public.