2025 Matsui Lecture: Lessons from a Lifetime of Public Service

Monday, March 17, 2025

12:00pm to 1:15pm

Hybrid Event

Event Contact: Ezra Bristow ([email protected])

The Robert T. Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service is pleased to announce that Former United States Representative Anna Eshoo will be the 2025 Matsui Lecturer.
Every year the Matsui Center invites a distinguished former Member of Congress to the Berkeley campus for the Matsui Lectureship (alternating between Republicans and Democrats). During their residency, the Matsui Lecturer meets with students, faculty and researchers, speaks to classes, participates in the intellectual life of the Matsui Center and the Cal campus, and is the featured speaker at a major public event on critical issues of the day.

About the Speaker:

Anna Eshoo, a Democrat, served as a Member of the U. S. Congress for 32 years (January, 1993 to January, 2005), representing her Silicon Valley district. Her district, often referred to as the innovation capital of the U.S., saw its values reflected in her groundbreaking legislation. She is a national leader on healthcare, technology, and environmental policy and was one of the most effective Democratic Members of Congress, known for her ability to build bipartisan consensus in her legislative work.

Throughout her tenure, Rep. Eshoo successfully passed 68 bills and had them signed into law by five Presidents, while two-thirds of her career was serving in the minority. She was a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee for 30 years and served as the Chair of the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee from 2018 to 2022 and as Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee from 2011 to 2016. She was the first woman to hold those positions.

Highlights of her legislation include the creation of two federal advanced research centers for biosafety and medical cures, the Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority (BARDA) and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H); health insurance coverage for breast reconstructive surgery; and the U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide. She was also instrumental in the passage of the Telecommunications Act, the Affordable Care Act, and the Violence Against Women Act.

During her three decades in Congress Rep. Eshoo received dozens of awards (list attached) for her groundbreaking work in health, science, technology, national security, and civil rights. She was named one of the most powerful women in Silicon Valley by the Mercury News in 2016, and one of the 100 most influential people in Artificial Intelligence by Time Magazine in 2023. 

Rep. Eshoo made history in 1992, the ‘Year of the Woman,’ when she became the first woman and the first Democrat to represent her district in Silicon Valley. Prior to her Congressional career, she served ten years on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors from 1982 to 1992. Eshoo is a graduate of Cañada College and the CORO Foundation. She was awarded an Honorary Degree by Menlo College.

Rep. Eshoo was born in New Britain, Connecticut, of Assyrian and Armenian heritage. She is the proud mother of two children, Karen and Paul.

Host or Publisher Institute of Governmental Studies