Inaugural Democracy Speaker Series Concludes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JUNE 11, 2025; 8:00AM MST

Flagstaff, AZ – With support from the Dr. Richard D. Young endowment, the first Democracy Speaker Series concluded it’s final lecture this semester. The speaker series invited elected officials and respected community leaders across Arizona to speak to students in Dr. Stephen Nuño’s Campaigns and Elections course. Participants gave their talk about their personal journeys to elected office and gave students a unique insight into their every day responsibilities.

Beginning with Dr. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt’s renowned book, How Democracies Die, the theme of the series was to illustrate how shared values and mutual trust are important pillars of a healthy democracy. “By introducing them to the every day people who help run our government, it was important to me to spend a lot of time exposing the students to our elected representatives and their personal stories so they could experience who these civic servants are first hand, rather than the highly politicized view they get every day from the media,” said Dr. Nuño.

Participants included:

Stephanie Berger, Founder of Berger & Hirschberg Strategies

Audrey Sondenregger, Coconino County Recorder

Sarah Benatar, Coconino County Treasurer

Haley Creighton, Candidate for State Legislator District 6

Maiah Jaskoski, Professor and expert on Authoritarian regimes in Latin America

Jonathan Nez, Former President of Navajo Nation and candidate for Congressional District 2

Cesar Aguilar, Arizona State Legislator, District 26

Jeronimo Vasquez, Coconino Board of Supervisors, District 2

Anthony Garcia, City of Flagstaff Council

Abigail O’Brien, Arizona State Director for  Senator Ruben Gallego

Walter Blackman, Arizona State Legislator, District 7

Randy Parraz, Organizer and author of Dignity by Fire

Jared Gorshe, Americans for Prosperity

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