Meet Our Speakers:
Robert “Bob” Rivard is a veteran American journalist whose 46-year career has spanned Texas, Latin America, and beyond. He co-founded the Rivard Report (now the San Antonio Report) with his wife, Monika Maeckle, in 2012, growing it into San Antonio’s leading nonprofit news organization before retiring in 2022.
Rivard began his career on the Texas-Mexico border and went on to work for several Texas newspapers, serve as a foreign correspondent and chief of correspondents for Newsweek, and become executive editor of the San Antonio Express-News from 1997 to 2011.
His journalism has earned numerous honors, including Editor & Publisher’s “Editor of the Year” and Columbia University’s prestigious Maria Moors Cabot Award for his reporting on Latin America and the U.S.-Mexico border. He is also the author of Trail of Feathers, a nonfiction account of journalist Philip True’s disappearance and murder in Mexico.
Today, Rivard hosts bigcitysmalltown, a podcast featuring people shaping San Antonio’s future.
Our Special Guest:
Christopher Phillips is an internationally acclaimed author, scholar, and open-society advocate devoted to fostering civil discourse and helping people discover uncommon common ground. He is best known as the founder of Socrates Cafe, a global initiative that brings diverse communities together through philosophical inquiry and meaningful dialogue.
His work includes Socrates Cafe, Democracy Cafe, Constitution Cafe, Philosophers’ Club, and other customized civil discourse programs for colleges and communities. Through these initiatives, Phillips encourages curiosity, empathy, self-discovery, and greater civic participation.
A former Network Fellow at Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Phillips was also the first Senior Education Fellow at the National Constitution Center and a senior writing and research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of several books, including Soul of Goodness, and has been praised by Dr. Cornel West as “the greatest living embodiment of the Socratic spirit.”
Phillips travels internationally as a roving ambassador for open, inclusive, and connected societies, convening conversations that inspire people to question deeply, think independently, and pursue arête—a life of excellence and purpose.
Registration Now Open!
Event Schedule
Date: Monday, October 12, 2026
Doors open: 6:00 p.m.
Discussion: 6:30 p.m. –
Location:
Alamo Area Council of Governments (AACOG)
San Antonio Room
2700 NE Interstate 410 Loop
San Antonio, TX 78217
If you have any questions, please email miranda@wacofsa.org
