[NEW ALBANY, OH, August 18, 2026] – The New Albany Community Foundation today announced an historic lineup for its 24th annual Remarkable Evening benefit on Tuesday, November 10, 2026. In celebration of the nation’s semiquincentennial, this special edition event—titled “America at 250: Reflections on Leadership and Democracy“—will feature 48th Vice President of the United States Mike Pence, alongside renowned historians and authors Walter Isaacson and Jon Meacham.
The evening also marks the Foundation’s 31st anniversary. Since its inception, the Remarkable Evening benefit has raised nearly $40 million, fueling transformative community investment through grants to local nonprofits, civic projects, and educational and cultural programming.
“We’re excited to present what promises to be an extraordinary conversation in celebration of America’s 250th anniversary,” said Paul Judge, Board Chair of The New Albany Community Foundation. “By bringing together Vice President Mike Pence alongside distinguished historians Walter Isaacson and Jon Meacham to discuss leadership and democracy, we are delivering an evening of storytelling aligned with our mission of promoting lifelong learning.”
“We are honored to host Vice President Mike Pence for his inaugural appearance on our stage,” said Craig Mohre, President of The New Albany Community Foundation. “And we look forward to welcoming Walter Isaacson and Jon Meacham back to New Albany. Both have become perennial favorites of our audience, with Mr. Isaacson making his third appearance and Mr. Meacham his fourth.”
Information on the work of the Foundation and Remarkable Evening sponsorships and tickets can be found HERE.
Lead sponsors for this year’s Remarkable Evening include Gold Sponsors: American Electric Power Foundation, The Judge Family, Meta and OhioHealth and Presenting Sponsors: The New Albany Company, Savko, Turner and VanTrust.
Mike Pence was born in Columbus, Indiana, on June 7, 1959, into a family that epitomized the American Dream, instilling in him values of hard work, faith, and family. After graduating from Hanover College and Indiana University School of Law, he embarked on a multifaceted career, including law practice, hosting a talk show, serving as a Congressman for six terms, and championing limited government and fiscal responsibility.
Pence then was elected the 50th Governor of Indiana, focusing on tax cuts, job creation, education reform, and infrastructure investment while maintaining fiscal responsibility. His accomplishments in Indiana led to his selection as the 48th Vice President of the United States.
Pence’s conservative philosophy, inspired by Ronald Reagan, led to his founding Advancing American Freedom, which continues to advocate for faith, family, and liberty as foundational American values.
Walter Isaacson is a Professor of History at Tulane University and an advisory partner at Perella Weinberg, a financial services firm based in New York City. Isaacson is a graduate of Harvard College and Pembroke College of Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He began his career at The Sunday Times of London and then the New Orleans Times-Picayune. He joined TIME in 1978 and became the magazine’s 14th editor in 1996. He became CEO of CNN in 2001 and the CEO of the Aspen Institute in 2003.
Isaacson’s most recent biography, Elon Musk (2023), is an intimate chronicle based on spending two years by Musk’s side. He is also the author of The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race (2021), Leonardo da Vinci (2017), The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (2014), Steve Jobs (2011), Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003), and Kissinger: A Biography (1992), and coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986). His latest book, The Greatest Sentence Ever Written (Simon & Schuster, 2025), explores the phrase “We hold these truths to be self-evident” from the Declaration of Independence, how it was crafted and why it remains relevant today.
Jon Meacham, Presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, is one of America’s most prominent public intellectuals. A highly sought-after commentator, Meacham regularly appears on MSNBC, CNN, and other news outlets. A skilled orator with a depth of knowledge about politics, religion, and current affairs, Meacham has the unique ability to bring history to life and offer historical context to current events and issues impacting our daily lives – whether we realize it or not – to audiences of all backgrounds and levels of understanding.
He served as Newsweek’s managing editor from 1998 to 2006 and as editor from 2006 to 2010. Meacham is the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers. In 2022, he published And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle, which won numerous awards, including the Lincoln Prize, and spent 16 weeks on the Times bestseller list. His latest book, American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union: An Anthology, is an anthology that illuminates the nation’s complicated past. The rich and diverse collection covers a wide spectrum of history from 1619 to the twenty-first century with his signature commentary on the consequential speeches, letters, and essays that led us to this moment.
Named a “Global Leader for Tomorrow” by the World Economic Forum, he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the Society of American Historians. Meacham is a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University where he holds the Rogers Chair in the American Presidency. In 2024 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Biden and was honored as a Library Lion of the New York Public Library.
Over the years the Foundation has featured many renowned speakers at Remarkable Evening including Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton, Prime Minister Tony Blair, General Colin Powell and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in addition to esteemed historians David McCullough and Doris Kearns Goodwin, among others.