Learning Beyond the Classroom: Three Inspiring Voices 

This fall, Fort Worth Country Day will welcome three exceptional speakers whose experiences span military history and leadership, human spaceflight and innovation, and global service. Through their stories and accomplishments, Rick Atkinson, Cooper Burleson ’15 and Salva Dut will explore how curiosity, perseverance, leadership and service shaped their lives.

RSVP to [email protected] and let us know which speaker you plan to see. We hope you choose them all.

Rick Atkinson is a best-selling author, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and former Washington Post journalist. He is the author of the New York Times best-selling The British Are Coming, the first volume of his acclaimed Revolution Trilogy, which has earned numerous honors including the George Washington Prize and the New York Historical Society’s Zalaznick Book Prize. The second volume in the trilogy, The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780, continues the sweeping narrative of the American Revolution, capturing the conflict’s critical middle years with vivid storytelling and deep historical insight. Atkinson also serves as a historical advisor for Ken Burns’ PBS documentary series The American Revolution, which commemorates the Revolution’s 250th anniversary.

He is also the author of the Liberation Trilogy, a definitive narrative history of Europe’s liberation in World War II. Its third volume, The Guns at Last Light, became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller in 2013 and was hailed as “history written at the level of literature.” Exclusively represented by Leading Authorities Speakers Bureau, Atkinson shares compelling stories and insights drawn from military history, illuminating timeless lessons about leadership, sacrifice, and democracy’s enduring demands.

Acclaimed for works such as An Army at Dawn (Pulitzer Prize, History), The Day of Battle, and The Long Gray Line, Atkinson has built a body of work that combines meticulous research with elegant prose. His other books include Crusade, In the Company of Soldiers, and Where Valor Rests: Arlington National Cemetery. Among his many accolades are the Pulitzer Prizes for history, national reporting, and public service; the George Polk Award; the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement; and the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize. He has served as the Omar N. Bradley Chair of Strategic Leadership at the U.S. Army War College and remains on its adjunct faculty.

A former Assistant Managing Editor for Investigations at The Washington Post, Atkinson reported from Berlin, Somalia, Bosnia and Iraq, earning a reputation as one of America’s most incisive chroniclers of war and leadership. Born in Munich and raised on military posts, Atkinson holds a master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Chicago and an Honorary Doctorate from Norwich University.

Cooper Burleson ’15 serves as Mission Integration and Operations Supervisor for Barrios Technology at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston and Director of the Barrios LAUNCH Internship Program. An FWCD graduate, Burleson earned a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering Technology and an M.S. in Aerospace Management from Purdue University. His expertise includes mission planning and operations, human spaceflight, and the commercialization of Low Earth Orbit.

Before joining Barrios Technology, Burleson worked in Washington, D.C., with the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, where he contributed to commercial space policy related to the International Space Station. At NASA Johnson Space Center, he served as a Lead Increment Engineer for the International Space Station and as a Program Integrator for the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program.

In his current role, Burleson leads a team of more than 35 professionals supporting human spaceflight programs in and around NASA’s Mission Control. As Director of the Barrios LAUNCH Internship Program, he also helps develop the next generation of aerospace, systems and integration engineers.

Salva Dut was born in a rural village in southwestern Sudan to the Dinka tribe. At 11 years old, the Sudanese Civil War reached his village and separated Dut from his family. He joined thousands of boys, famously known as the Lost Boys of Sudan, on their journey on foot to seek safety in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. After living in refugee camps for 10 years, Dut was given the opportunity to move to the United States, where he was embraced by a family in Rochester, New York. Several years later, Salva learned that his father was still alive in Southern Sudan but was suffering from a disease caused by waterborne parasites. His father’s illness inspired Dut to help both his father and his country by bringing clean water to those in need. This was the beginning of Water for South Sudan (WFSS). Dut’s story is told in the New York Times bestseller A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park.

Since the 2022-23 academic year, FWCD sixth graders and their teachers, Shari Lincoln and Anne-Lise Knecht Woods ’85, have turned a lesson about global challenges into an opportunity to make a tangible difference. FWCD’s relationship with WFSS began in 2023 through the organization’s Iron Giraffe Challenge, a school-based fundraising initiative. FWCD was named the challenge’s 2023 Super School Winner after sixth graders raised more than $40,000. WFSS subsequently featured FWCD in its “Why We IGC” series, highlighting the School’s integration of the organization’s mission into its curriculum and service-learning program. As part of winning the challenge, FWCD students had the opportunity to speak virtually with Dut and WFSS Country Director Ajang “AJ” Agok. Since that first Water Walk, the effort has grown into an annual sixth grade tradition with a measurable impact. The Classes of 2029, 2030, 2031 and 2032 raised over $190,000 for WFSS, helping fund six new wells, two well rehabilitations, and multiple hygiene trainings in South Sudan. 

RSVP to any of these events at [email protected].