Need a Speaker?

1889 Institute is comprised of scholars and researchers with expertise in numerous policy areas.   

Speakers are available for club meetings, conferences, events, and more. To book speaking engagements, please use our contact below. 

Speaking engagements may be booked free of charge, unless travel is required. 

For booking, email [email protected] or call (405) 646-3272. 

Our Team

Director at the 1889 Institute and Scholar-in- Residence at the Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise at Oklahoma State University

Byron has researched and written broadly in public policy in areas as diverse as economic development, transportation, public education, welfare, health care, government finance and transparency, regulation, and occupational licensing. He has appeared in print, radio, and TV media nationally and locally. 

Byron can address many topics, including: 

 

  • Why health care is so expensive and what to do about it
  • Public education – reform, finance, and school choice
  •  Technological disruption of higher education – making it work for us
  • Why government is often inefficient and dysfunctional
  • Occupational licensing – how it hurts us all and what to do about it
  • How government economic development schemes harm economic development

Land Use Fellow at the 1889 Institute and Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise at Oklahoma State University

Over his career, Brad has covered a broad portfolio of public policies throughout the western United States. He has worked for two state legislatures and as a senior staff member for a state Governor advising on public policy and writing speeches. Most recently, he served as the regional advocacy director for a national nonprofit working with state governments to pass student-centered education reform.   

Brad can address many topics, including: 

 

  • The inherent problems with comprehensive city planning
  • The discriminatory, exclusionary history of zoning in the United States 
  • Alternatives to centralized comprehensive planning and land use control
  • The pivotal role of government transparency in a republican state
  • Empowering parents and children through educational choice and innovation
  • The crucial role of the rights enshrined in the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution in preserving liberty

Research Fellow at the 1889 Institute and Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise at Oklahoma State University

Mike has researched and assisted in strategy development in both state and federal constitutional law litigation against governmental overreach with previous experience at the Nevada Policy Research Center and the Institute for Justice. 

 

 

Mike can address many topics, including: 

 

      • The dangerous novelty of modern public nuisance suits
      • Eminent domain’s proper role 
      • Problems created by occupational licensing, and the small gains recouped in return
      • Perverse incentives of civil asset forfeiture 
      • Why government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers 
      • Government accountability – why it is owed, how it was lost, and how it can be revived