Lecture - A Conversation About Immigration with Andrew Tisch '71 and Rovika Rajkishun

Join us at The Cornell Club-New York for a conversation on immigration with Andrew Tisch '71 and Rovika Rajkishun, Deputy Director of the American Business Immigration Coalition. Andrew is the author of Journeys: An American Story, which celebrates the glorious and sometimes not so glorious history of immigration to America, featuring seventy-two essays about the different ways we got here and our experiences in becoming citizens.

Andrew H. Tisch is Co-Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Loews Corporation. He holds a B.S. degree from Cornell University (1971) and a M.B.A. from Harvard University (1977).  In addition to Loews, he serves on the Board of Directors of CNA Financial Corporation.

He is former Vice-Chairman of the Board of Cornell University where he remains actively engaged as Chairman of the Dean's Board of Advisors of the S.C. Johnson School of Business, a member of the Executive Committee of the Weill Cornell Medicine Board of Fellows and a member of the Cornell Tech Council. He has been a member of the Dean's Board of Advisors of Harvard Business School and is Co-Founder of the Student Leadership Network. Mr. Tisch is Chair of the Dean's Council's Board of Advisors at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

Mr. Tisch is one of the founders of The No Labels Coalition and Vice Chairman of the Center for U.S. Global Leadership.  He participates in many civic organizations including the Economic Club of New York (Past Chairman), The Brookings Institution (Trustee), NY Historical Society (Chair of Executive Committee), and the Council on Foreign Relations.  He serves on the boards of the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Foundation, Wildlife Conservation Society, Museum of the Moving Image, and is former Chairman of NYC Police Foundation.

He is author of the book, Journeys:  An American Story that focuses on immigration to America over the centuries. Mr. Tisch is married to journalist and educator Ann Rubenstein and lives in New York.

Rovika Rajkishun, Deputy Director of the American Business Immigration Coalition, is a senior nonprofit executive with two decades of experience especially in fundraising, communications, and organizational growth.

Most recently she was the Interim Co-Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC). Before being appointed to this position, Rovika served as the Vice President of Development and Communications, leveraging a statewide rapid-response fundraising campaign in the wake of the 2016 presidential election to more than triple the organization's budget in just four years and win key legislative victories including restoring driver's licenses access to every New Yorkers regardless of immigration status. She also served as Interim Co-Executive Director of NYIC Action, the NYIC's sister 501(c)4.

During her tenure as Co-Executive Director, the NYIC worked on many successful advocacy campaigns including the inclusion of mixed status families in stimulus payments, a Federal Small Business Administration program for $100 million for nonprofits working with small businesses, fixes to the PPP Program to be more inclusive of small businesses, and a New York State excluded worker's fund of $2.1 billion, a first-of-its-kind in the country.

Rovika serves on the Board of Directors of Girls for Gender Equity and Neo Philanthropy Action Fund, and was the Chair of the Brooklyn Community Board 7 Committee on Census 2020. Rovika was named as a City and State's 2021 Power 100  and 2021 Nonprofit Power 100.

Born and raised in Guyana, Rovika immigrated to Brooklyn, NY at age ten and was undocumented for a decade. As a member of an extended mixed status family, she brings lived experience and the hopes and aspirations of her family to her work. Rovika has lived with her husband in Sunset Park, Brooklyn for 20 years where they are now raising three children. Rovika is a graduate of Barnard College of Columbia University.

6:00pm reception; 6:30pm lecture, gratis. Advance registrations required.