FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) The 23rd season of the Omnibus Lecture Series at IPFW will welcome accomplished authors, advocates and even an astronaut.

Astronaut Capt. Mark Kelly, art preservation advocate Robert Edsel, author and business leader Wes Moore and women’s equality activist Lilly Ledbetter will each appear at IPFW as part of the 2017-2018 Omnibus Lecture Series, the university announced Tuesday.

The series begins Oct. 12 with Kelly’s talk. Tickets go on sale Sept. 25 at 12:30 p.m.

Kelly is a retired NASA space mission commander who, along with his twin brother, Scott, has laid the groundwork for future space exploration as subjects of an unprecedented NASA study on the effects of space on the human body. His talk will include discussion about the resilience of his wife, Gabby Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt in Tucson, Arizona, in January 2011.

Edsel will lead a discussion titled, “The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History” on Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets go on sale Oct. 30 at 12:30 p.m.

A former nationally ranked tennis player and oilman, the world-travelling Edsel is now a renowned art preservation advocate. His New York Times best-selling book, The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, was the basis for the 2014 film George Clooney wrote, directed, and starred in.

Moore will share his story of overcoming adversity through education and embracing personal responsibility during his lecture, “From Troubled Teen to Rhodes Scholar: The Transformative Power of Education.” Tickets for the Feb. 7, 2018, talk go on sale Jan. 22 at 12:30 p.m.

Moore, a decorated veteran, Rhodes Scholar, White House Fellow, and business leader, is the subject of a major motion picture, The Other Wes Moore, from executive producer Oprah Winfrey. He authored New York Times bestsellers The Other Wes Moore and The Work.

Ledbetter will share her fight for women’s equality in her March 20, 2018, talk, “Grace and Grit: How I Won My Fight at Goodyear and Beyond.” Tickets go on sale March 5, at 12:30 p.m.

A long-time supervisor at Goodyear, Ledbetter brought an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against the tiremaker after she suspected she wasn’t getting paid as much as male counterparts – and won – only to have it overturned by the Supreme Court. The fight did not go unnoticed, however, and in 2009, then-President Barack Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which makes it easier for women who have experienced pay discrimination to fight back.

Tickets for each lecture are free and available at the Larson Ticket Office in the Gates Athletics Center, online at ipfw.edu/box-office or at the Rhinehart Music Center one hour before the lecture. Each lecture takes place in The John and Ruth Rhinehart Music Center’s 1,600-seat Auer Performance Hall on the IPFW campus.