About this episode

The episode features a conversation with Anthony W. Marx about his transformative leadership at the New York Public Library and his experiences in education and social justice.

In this episode of Capital for Good, we speak with Tony Marx, the president and CEO of the New York Public Library, the nation's largest library system and the world's preeminent public research library. Marx's reimagination of this storied institution builds on his transformative leadership in higher education when he served as president of Amherst College. A distinguished scholar and political scientist, Marx's education — in the power of education — was forged by his experience in South Africa in the 1980s. We begin this wide ranging conversation with Marx's beginnings: his childhood in New York City's Inwood neighborhood, high school at Bronx Science, the intellectual care and attention he received from professors at Wesleyan and Yale, and his early passion for political science, inspired by his involvement in the anti-apartheid movements on campus and the "excitement of being involved in something bigger than myself, and thinking about social justice at scale." Marx would soon move to South Africa, where he helped create Khanya College, a free, residential liberal arts college for Black South Africans to prepare them for entry and success in the country's top universities…

People in this episode

Guest: Anthony W. Marx

Topics covered

• transformative leadership
• education
• social justice
• library systems
• political science
• anti-apartheid movements

Keywords

• transformative leadership
• New York Public Library
• education
• social justice
• anti-apartheid
• Khanya College
• political science

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The New York Public Library, Amherst College, Khanya College, Wesleyan, Yale

Places: South Africa, Inwood, Bronx Science

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