We are thrilled to be celebrating the 22nd year of the Tower Hill Forum! ​

 

​The Forum was established in 1998 by ​the Rappolt family in honor of their children Gabrielle ‘93, Sarah ‘96 and Bill ‘99, and in recognition of the dedication, scholarship and professionalism of the Tower Hill faculty. The Tower Hill community thanks the Rappolts for the legacy of remarkable speakers over two decades. ​

Jason Flom is the Founder and CEO of Lava Records, Lava Music Publishing and Lava Media, LLC. Flom previously served as Chairman and CEO at Atlantic Records, Virgin Records and Capitol Music Group, and he is personally responsible for launching acts such as Katy Perry, Kid Rock, Lorde and Greta Van Fleet. He is a leading philanthropist and expert on criminal justice issues and an internationally recognized and celebrated public speaker. Flom is the founding board member of the Innocence Project and serves on the boards of numerous criminal justice reform organizations. He is the host of the hit podcast, Wrongful Conviction, now in its ninth season, which features interviews with men and women who have spent decades in prison for crimes they did not commit, some even sentenced to death. Flom’s love for animals inspired his latest project, the children’s book Lulu Is a Rhinoceros, co-written with his daughter Allison Flom and released in June, 2018. The book explores social themes addressing individuality, tolerance and, most importantly, acceptance, and launched with partnerships including Bonobos, Zappos and the African Wildlife Foundation.

 

Piper Kerman is the author of the memoir Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison from Spiegel & Grau. The book has been adapted by Jenji Kohan into an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning original series for Netflix. Kerman works with Spitfire Strategies as a communications consultant with nonprofits, philanthropies and other organizations working in the public interest. She is a frequent invited speaker to students of law, criminology, gender and women’s studies, sociology and creative writing, and also to groups that include the American Correctional Association’s Disproportionate Minority Confinement Task Force, federal probation officers, public defenders, justice reform advocates and volunteers, book clubs and formerly and currently incarcerated people. Kerman serves on the board of the Women’s Prison Association, and she has been called as a witness by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights to testify on solitary confinement and women prisoners. She has spoken at the White House on re-entry and employment to help honor Champions of Change in the field. In 2014 Kerman was awarded the Justice Trailblazer Award from John Jay College’s Center on Media, Crime & Justice and the Constitutional Commentary Award from The Constitution Project.