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Keynote Speakers

Opening Keynote Address:

Steve Murdock, Director
U.S. Census Bureau

President George W. Bush nominated Steve H. Murdock for director of the U.S. Census Bureau on June 18, 2007, and the Senate confirmed him unanimously on Dec. 19, 2007. He replaced Louis Kincannon, who retired on Jan. 3, 2008, after nearly six years as director and a combined 29 years at the Census Bureau.

The first official state demographer of Texas, Murdock headed the Texas State Data Center and Texas Population Estimates and Projections Program for more than 25 years taking a leadership role in the State’s activities in the 1980, 1990, and 2000 decennial censuses. 

Murdock received his bachelor’s degree from North Dakota State University and his master’s and doctorate from the University of Kentucky. He taught at North Dakota State in his home state before joining the faculty of Texas A&M University in 1977.

He joined the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2004, becoming the Lutcher Brown Distinguished Chair in Demography and Organizational Studies. In 2007, he went to Rice University in Houston as the Allyn and Gladys Cline Chair in sociology specializing in applied demography, migration, rural sociology, and socioeconomic impact assessment.

Murdock is the author of 12 books and more than 150 articles and technical reports. He received a Faculty Distinguished Achievement Award from Texas A&M University, the Excellence in Research Award from the Rural Sociological Society and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Sociology at the University of Kentucky.

Texas Business named him one of the 50 most influential Texans in 1997, and Texas Monthly named him as one of the 25 most influential persons in the state in 2005. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Eta Epsilon national honor societies.

Murdock is a member of several professional associations including the Population Association of America, the Rural Sociological Society, the Southern Regional Demographic Association, the Southwestern Sociological Society and the Southern Sociological Society.

He is married to Mary Zey, a professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and they have one son and one grandson.

Luncheon Speakers:

Sandy Baruah, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development
U.S. Department of Commerce – Economic Development Administration

Sandy K. Baruah (Bah-roo-ah) was nominated by President Bush on September 6, 2005 to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 17, 2005. Mr. Baruah has served the Bush Administration since 2001. Prior to his nomination and confirmation as the Assistant Secretary, he served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program Operations and Chief of Staff at the Economic Development Administration (EDA).

As Assistant Secretary, Mr. Baruah’s role is to lead and manage the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, the domestic economic development arm of the Commerce Department. The mission of EDA is to lead the federal economic development agenda by promoting innovation and competitiveness, preparing American regions for growth and success in the worldwide economy. EDA’s annual investment budget for fiscal year 2006 is over $200 million and the bureau has an investment portfolio under active management of $1.5 billion. In addition to its headquarters in Washington, D.C., EDA has six regional offices across the nation with 175 professional employees.

Assistant Secretary Baruah represents the agency before the White House, the Congress, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, France, and other forums on a broad range of economic development issues. Mr. Baruah also served as the Commerce Department’s senior representative to President Bush’s post-Hurricane Katrina Lessons Learned Exercise that examined the federal response to the 2005 hurricane and made significant recommendations for improvements in how the federal government handles future significant disasters.

Working with his predecessor, David A. Sampson (now Deputy Secretary of Commerce), Assistant Secretary Baruah helped lead significant accomplishments for EDA, including the agency’s induction into the Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame, passage of EDA’s Congressional reauthorization, the agency’s inclusion in President Bush’s Executive Order which established the Preserve America Initiative, and achieved the second-highest effectiveness ranking from the White House’s Office Management and Budget.

Prior to joining President Bush’s team at the Commerce Department, Sandy spent seven years with Portland, Oregon-based corporate management consulting firm Performance Consulting Group. As a business consultant, he worked on engagements with clients such as Walt Disney World, Intel, Key Bank, Citizens Bank and others.

Sandy Baruah’s previous government service includes work with U.S. Senator Bob Packwood and service to President George H.W. Bush, with positions in the office of the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of the Interior. Mr. Baruah holds a B.S. from the University of Oregon and earned an M.B.A. from Willamette University.

Thomas DeFrank, Washington bureau chief
New York Daily News

His reporting has been praised as "riveting." ABC News calls him "excellent, well-connected and influential," and "legendary."  The American Journalism Review has rated him "one of the unsung stars of Washington journalism."  The New York Times ranked him as one of the country's best political ghostwriters. And former President Gerald R. Ford calls him "one of the finest journalists I have ever known. Everyone I know feels the same way: you are fair, trustworthy and professional."          

One of Washington's most respected President-watchers, Tom DeFrank is a veteran political journalist and author.  As Washington bureau chief of the New York Daily News, he directs coverage of the nation's capital for the country's third-largest metropolitan daily newspaper.          

The 2004 Presidential campaign was the tenth he has covered in 37 years as a Washington reporter.  He has also covered the resignation of one President, the impeachment of a second, and was an eyewitness to two assassination attempts against a third.           

DeFrank was Newsweek's senior White House correspondent for a quarter century and also served as deputy chief of the magazine's Washington bureau for twelve years.  Assigned to the White House beat since 1970, DeFrank has covered seven Presidents: Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush. He is second only to Helen Thomas in terms of longevity on the White House beat and still spends most of his time reporting on the White House. He has had 22 interviews with President George W. Bush, whom he has covered since 1987.           

DeFrank is the co-author of Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms, the 1996 best-selling memoir of controversial Republican political consultant Ed Rollins.  He also co-authored The Politics of Diplomacy, the memoirs of former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, and Quest for the Presidency 1992, Newsweek's critically-acclaimed, behind-the-scenes look at the Clinton-Bush election, published in 1994.           

DeFrank has appeared on several public affairs television programs, including Washington Week in Review, Larry King Live, The Beltway Boys, Fox News, The Charlie Rose Show, Inside Politics and C-SPAN.           

He has been a student of the Presidency since 1968, when he took his first Presidential trip with Lyndon Johnson as a Newsweek intern. He traveled extensively with Richard Nixon from 1970 to 1972 and was assigned to cover Vice President Gerald Ford in the fall of 1973.  A few months before Nixon's resignation, he was reassigned to the White House and remained when Ford became President in August 1974. He was an eyewitness to both assassination attempts against Ford in 1975.           

He has covered 16 United States - Russian summits beginning with the historic 1974 Ford-Brezhnev meeting at Vladivostok.  He has traveled to all 50 states and 48 countries as a White House reporter and is a former president of the White House Correspondents' Association.           

DeFrank has reported on congressional and military affairs, and in 1973 covered the return of U.S. prisoners of war from Vietnam at Clark Air Base in the Philippines.  He also reported extensively on the Persian Gulf War, traveling to Saudi Arabia with President Bush in November 1990 and Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and General Colin Powell in December 1990.         

He is the only newsmagazine correspondent to win both of the White House Correspondents' Association awards for distinguished Presidential reporting.  He has also shared in several other reporting awards, including the Overseas Press Club's award for his reporting of the 1987 Reagan-Gorbachev summit and Newsweek's National Magazine Award for the 1992 Presidential campaign.           

DeFrank was on active duty at the Pentagon from 1968 to 1970 as a public affairs officer. Before joining Newsweek, he was a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Bryan (Texas) Daily Eagle, and Minneapolis Star.     

DeFrank is currently working on a new book about Gerald Ford, covering the late President's many private interviews which reveals for the first time his views on Richard Nixon, other U.S. and foreign leaders, politics, the Iraq war, and the world at large. As of yet the book is untitled and due to release in the fall of 2007.           

A native of Arlington, Texas, DeFrank is a 1967 high honors graduate of Texas A&M University, where he edited the campus newspaper, and has a master's degree from the University of Minnesota.