Former Defense Secretary and CIA director Leon Panetta is scheduled to receive the Frank and Bethine Church Award for Public Service Monday night, at a dinner honoring him in the Boise State University Stueckle Sky Center.
Panetta’s appearance is in conjunction with the Frank Church Conference that began in Boise Friday.
Reservations are required for the dinner.
Panetta is scheduled to hold a news conference late Monday afternoon.
Panetta is an attorney and professor who served as President Obama’s CIA Director from 2009 to 2011, and as Defense Secretary from 2011 to 2013. He also was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993, and served as Office of Management and Budget Director from 1993 to 1994.
The Conference is sponsored by the Frank Church Institute.
This year’s theme is “Clash of Cultures: The Middle East in Turmoil.”
The Frank Church Institute was established in 1982 as the Frank Church Chair of Public Affairs at Boise State University, “to honor the achievements and to carry forward the principles of one of Idaho’s most distinguished native sons, (the late) Senator Frank Church,” according to a BSU news release.
The Institute, housed within the School of Public Service at Boise State University, emphasizes to its students those ideas which the Senator held dear -– “a strong belief in the rule of law, eloquence firmly based on reason, and an unwavering faith in the American political system,” the news release said.
