Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Education Secretary Linda McMahon are among Tuesday’s scheduled participants at the Milken Institute’s 28th annual Global Conference in Beverly Hills.
Johnson will participate in a conversation from 1 to 1:30 p.m. with retired baseball star Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly, the chief correspondent of Bloomberg Originals, “exploring how he is expanding his legacy beyond his basketball accolades to an innovative entrepreneur and philanthropic private sector leader,” according to conference organizers.
The conference will have a three-part session titled “Learning Curves: Reimagining the State of American Education” Tuesday, concluding with McMahon fielding questions from Nina Rees, a senior fellow of the George W. Bush Institute and former president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, from 4:45 to 5 p.m.
McMahon’s appearance comes one day after she sent a three-page letter to Harvard University President Alan M. Garber informing him Harvard would no longer receive grants from the federal government, alleged that Harvard had “engaged in a systemic pattern of violating federal law.”
A Harvard spokesperson slammed McMahon’s directive as retaliation for the university’s lawsuit against the White House last month, calling it the latest attempt to “impose unprecedented and improper control over Harvard University.”
“Harvard will also continue to defend against illegal government overreach aimed at stifling research and innovation that make Americans safer and more secure,” the spokesperson wrote
The session’s first segment will be a conversation with the rapper and charter school network co-founder Pitbull and Richard Ditizio, the Milken Institute’s CEO, from 4 to 4:15 p.m.
Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho will be among the speakers in the second segment, “From Whiteboards to the Workforce: K-12 Education in America,” which runs from 4:15 to 4:45 p.m.
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso and Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez will be among the speakers at a session from 10 to 11 a.m. on how policymakers and investors can collaborate to unlock the full potential of Latin America.
Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, now his nation’s ambassador to the United States, will be among the speakers in a session from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. on improving military readiness for the 21st century.
The session will be moderated by Susan Eisenhower, president of the Eisenhower Group, which provides strategic counsel on political, business and public affairs projects, the author of five books and a granddaughter of President Dwight Eisenhower.
Actress Jessica Alba will be among the speakers at a session titled “The Wellness Revolution: Building Businesses for Impact and Purpose” from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Alba is the founder of The Honest Company, a digital-first consumer goods company.
The theme of the conference is “Toward a Flourishing Future.”
“This conference is where the world comes to connect ideas with capital, science with policy, and vision with action,” Ditizio said in a statement.
“In a time of division and disruption, the Global Conference is a unique space for people who are ready to take nuanced learnings from our dialogues and lead.”
The conference at The Beverly Hilton is expected to draw approximately 5,000 attendees from 80 nations. It began Sunday with 14 invitation-only sessions and three welcoming events and will run through Wednesday.
The conference’s 170 public sessions will be streamed at www.globalconference.org. The livestream schedule is available at milkeninstitute.org/events/global-conference-2025/livestream
The Milken Institute bills itself as a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank focused on accelerating measurable progress on the path to a meaningful life, with a focus on financial, physical, mental and environmental health.