Presidential Conversation
Saturday, October 24, 2026 | 10:00 am - 11:15 am
Sadler Center, Commonwealth Auditorium
What will the future demand of American leadership and how do we prepare the next generation to meet that responsibility? President Katherine A. Rowe and Chancellor Robert M. Gates ’65, L.H.D. ’98 will explore these questions amid competition with China, tensions with Iran and Russia, and the implications of artificial intelligence for national security. Drawing on the Chancellor’s extraordinary career in public service, this conversation will ask what the Alma Mater of the Nation owes the nation’s future — and how William & Mary prepares civic leaders across professions with the wisdom and sense of duty to serve something larger than themselves.