you're far right with gleaves whitney, who is the executive director of the gerald ford presidential foundation. and should be familiar to most of you. and if you look at your fliers, you can see the biographies of both our speakers and i should point out that this is at best a kind of thumbnail sort of accomplish moments of both of them. i spent some time in preparation for this googling miss alexander and just a staggering list of accomplishments and achievements. really incredible experiences next to graves is paige alexander, who is the chief executive officer of the carter center, and she contacted us a while ago and told us that she'd be in grand rapids and we'd like to get together. and we immediately saw the opportunity and said, well, if we can put her on our stage, we should definitely be putting her on our stage. and we're like, well, in late august, will it work? and lo and behold, that has worked so thank you, paige, for coming to grand rapids and welcome to the ford museum. we're thrilled to have you here. i'd like to begin tonight's panel with just a few comments, and

you're far right with gleaves whitney, who is the executive director of the gerald ford presidential foundation. and should be familiar to most of you. and if you look at your fliers, you can see the biographies of both our speakers and i should point out that this is at best a kind of thumbnail sort of accomplish moments of both of them. i spent some time in preparation for this googling miss alexander and just a staggering list of accomplishments and achievements. really incredible experiences next to graves is paige alexander, who is the chief executive officer of the carter center, and she contacted us a while ago and told us that she'd be in grand rapids and we'd like to get together. and we immediately saw the opportunity and said, well, if we can put her on our stage, we should definitely be putting her on our stage. and we're like, well, in late august, will it work? and lo and behold, that has worked so thank you, paige, for coming to grand rapids and welcome to the ford museum. we're thrilled to have you here. i'd like to begin tonight's panel with just a few comments, and

well, as our c-span audience everywhere, i'm gleaves whitney executive director of the gerald r ford presidential foundation. and it's my honor to be your host, along with a lot of good people today, and to welcome to our 2023 edition of america's first ladies luncheon. this year's event is centered around a theme first ladies pat nixon and betty ford lives of leadership, courage and, grace. three great words to describe these remarkable women are our foundation's long running first ladies series is the brainchild of the first daughter, susan ford bales, who's here with us from texas. susan, thank you so much for your dedication after all these years. and joining susan are number of special guests. so i'd like you to hold your applause to the end, please. president mrs. nixon's son in law, ed cox, is with us. he joins us in lieu of his son, christopher, who was originally on the program but could not make it today. and then we have mrs. nixon's and mrs. ford's chief communication. patti mattson. thank you much for being here. leaders and, board members of the white house historical a

well, as our c-span audience everywhere, i'm gleaves whitney executive director of the gerald r ford presidential foundation. and it's my honor to be your host, along with a lot of good people today, and to welcome to our 2023 edition of america's first ladies luncheon. this year's event is centered around a theme first ladies pat nixon and betty ford lives of leadership, courage and, grace. three great words to describe these remarkable women are our foundation's long running first ladies series is the brainchild of the first daughter, susan ford bales, who's here with us from texas. susan, thank you so much for your dedication after all these years. and joining susan are number of special guests. so i'd like you to hold your applause to the end, please. president mrs. nixon's son in law, ed cox, is with us. he joins us in lieu of his son, christopher, who was originally on the program but could not make it today. and then we have mrs. nixon's and mrs. ford's chief communication. patti mattson. thank you much for being here. leaders and, board members of the white house historical a

go to start on my far right, you're far right, gleaves whitney was executive director of the gerald r. ford presidential foundation, and should be familiar to most of you. and if you look at your flyers you can see the biographies of both our speakers. and i should point out that this is at best a kind of thumbnail, sort of accomplishments of both of them. i spent some time in preparation for this googling, ms. alexander, just a staggering list of accomplishments and achievements. really incredible experiences. next to a gleaves is paige alexander visit chief executive officer of the carter center, and she contacted us a while ago and told usnd that she would ben grand rapids and like to get together and we immediately saw the opportunity and said well, it with the putter on our state we should definitely be putting her on our stage. well, late august, what were? lo and behold it has worked. so thank thank you, page,g to grand rapids and welcome to the ford museum. we're thrilled to have you here. i would like to begin two nights panel with just a few comments and then going to ask qu