Noted historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose recent book on Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet inspired the critically acclaimed movie “Lincoln,” will be the featured speaker at the R. Dan Boulware Convocation on Critical Issues at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 22 in the M.O. Looney Complex arena. The Convocation is free and open to the community. Goodwin’s Convocation speech is titled “Team of Rivals: The Leadership Lessons from Abraham Lincoln.”

“Doris Kearns Goodwin is a gifted storyteller who vividly brings the past to life, and I know our students, faculty, staff and the community will be delighted by her presentation,” said Dr. Robert Vartabedian, Missouri Western’s president.

Following her presentation, Goodwin will be the guest of honor at a luncheon in the Fulkerson Center.

Goodwin is the author of several books and has written for leading national publications. She appears regularly on network television programs and was an on-air consultant for PBS documentaries on Lyndon B. Johnson, the Kennedy family and Franklin Roosevelt, as well as Ken Burns’ “The History of Baseball.” She was the first female journalist to enter the Red Sox locker room.

Goodwin was born and raised in Long Island, N.Y. She received her bachelor’s degree from Colby College and her doctorate in government from Harvard University. After teaching government at Harvard, Goodwin served as an assistant to Lyndon Johnson in his last year in the White House. She later assisted Johnson in the preparation of his memoirs.

In 1976, Goodwin authored “Lyndon Johnson and The American Dream,” which became a New York Times bestseller. She followed up in 1987 with the political biography, “The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys,” which stayed on the bestseller list for five months and was later made into a six-hour ABC miniseries. Her next book, “No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The American Home Front During World War II,” was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1995.

Her most recent work, a monumental history of Abraham Lincoln titled “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” was published in 2005 and reached No. 1 on the New York Times Bestseller List. “Team of Rivals” earned the 2006 Lincoln Prize for an outstanding work about the president and/or the Civil War, the New York Historical Society Book Prize, the Richard Nelson Current Award and the New York State Archives History Makers Award. A feature film based on “Team of Rivals,” directed by Steven Spielberg, premiered in 2012. “Lincoln” opened to rave reviews and received seven Golden Globe and 12 Oscar nominations.

Goodwin is currently at work on a new book about the Progressive Era, Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft and the golden age of journalism.

The Convocation is sponsored by the Missouri Western Foundation.