Book Launch: David Booth's "Stay Calm"
Thursday, September 10, 2026
5 p.m.
The University of Kansas Conference Center
David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium
815 Fambrough Drive, Lawrence, KS 66045
Dimensional Fund Advisors and the University of Kansas host an engaging discussion with David Booth, founder and chair of Dimensional Fund Advisors and KU alumnus, legendary KU men’s basketball coach Bill Self, and KU alumnus and NBA champion, Mario Chalmers, to celebrate the launch of David’s highly anticipated book, “Stay Calm: Learn to Embrace Uncertainty in Investing and Life.”
In “Stay Calm,” Booth uncovers the principles that reward patient, disciplined investing that also serve as a framework for living with clarity, purpose and meaning. Booth, Self and Chalmers, with moderator and CBS Business News Analyst Jill Schlesinger, will explore what it means to embrace uncertainty in investing, in sports and in life.
All attendees will receive a complimentary copy of “Stay Calm.”Â
Reservations are required. Space is limited.
Speakers
David Booth
Founder and Chairman
Dimensional Fund Advisors
David Booth is chairman of Dimensional Fund Advisors, a firm he founded in 1981.
Under David’s leadership, Dimensional has grown from a fledgling business operating out of the spare room of his Brooklyn brownstone apartment to a global investment manager with more than 1,600 employees and $853 billion in assets under management. David led Dimensional as CEO and later Co-CEO until 2017, when he stepped back from the daily management of the firm. He remains closely involved in strategic initiatives at Dimensional.
A trailblazer in the financial world, David helped create one of the world’s first index funds in the 1970s and launched the first passively managed small company strategy in the early ’80s. He has spent his career applying groundbreaking financial theory and research to the practical world of asset management, working closely with renowned academics to develop innovative investment strategies that he believed could outperform index funds, pioneering what would later be called factor investing.
David received a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1968 and a master’s degree in business in 1969 from the University of Kansas. In 1971, he received an MBA from the University of Chicago. Over the years, David has been a benefactor to both schools. Upon announcing a gift from the Booth family to the business school at Chicago in 2008, David cited his education there as being instrumental to his later success with Dimensional. The University of Chicago Booth School of Business is named in David’s honor, and the gift has helped to advance its field-defining research and to support the school’s faculty, a number of whom have had close ties to Dimensional. David has also donated to support athletics at the University of Kansas-as a boy, he ushered there at football games-and he is a vocal advocate of the role sports play in keeping alumni connected to a school.
An avid art collector and enthusiast, David has participated in and donated to artistic initiatives across the US, and the David Booth Conservation Center and Department is responsible for the preservation of the Museum of Modern Art’s collection in New York.
Mario Chalmers
Kansas Jayhawks National Champion and two-time NBA Champion
Mario Chambers built his basketball career on performing when the spotlight was brightest. From one of the most iconic shots in NCAA Tournament history to winning multiple NBA Championships alongside some of the game’s greatest players. Chalmers established himself as a proven winner at every level of basketball.
Known for his toughness, leadership, and ability to deliver in pressure situations. Mario became a key contributor to championship teams throughout his career.
Bill Self
Head Men’s Basketball Coach
University of Kansas
Bill Self is just the eighth head coach in Kansas men’s basketball history. Last season, Self concluded his 22nd season at KU as the school’s winningest coach, currently at 609-156. He passed Phog Allen’s 590 wins while at KU. Also last year, Self eclipsed 800 career wins in 32 seasons as a head coach. With an 816-261 all-time record, Self became the 16th all-time and third active coach in NCAA Division I to reach 800 career wins.
While at Kansas, Self has won two national championships, in 2008 and 2022, 16 regular-season Big 12 titles, which included tying an NCAA-record 13-straight from 2005-17, and eight league tournament championships. He is 331-21 (94.0%) all-time in Allen Fieldhouse.
Enshrined as a first-ballot honoree in the Class of 2017 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, in 2016, Self was named the National Coach of the Year for the second time, also earning the honor in 2009. He is a nine-time conference coach of the year, eight of which have been while at Kansas.
Self has coached eight league players of the year and more than 80 all-conference performers, including five All-Big 12 selections in 2023 and 2024. In the classroom under Self, Kansas has 61 Academic All-Big 12 selections, including 51 first-team honorees.
Also while at Kansas, Self has been head coach of two gold medal-winning USA teams – in 2018 at the FIBA Americas U18 World Championships and in 2015 at the World University Games.
Self came to Kansas from the University of Illinois, where he guided the Fighting Illini to two Big Ten regular-season championships, a Big Ten Tournament title and three-straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
Prior to his stint at Illinois, Self coached at Tulsa from 1998 to 2000, where he led the Golden Hurricane to the NCAA Tournament in 1999 and 2000. Tulsa went 32-5 in 2000, setting a school single-season record for victories.
Self began his head coaching career at Oral Roberts, where he resurrected the program. Self’s first ORU team managed just six victories in 1993-94 and three seasons later, in 1996-97, ORU registered a 21-7 mark and received an invitation to the NIT.
A native of Edmond, Oklahoma, prior to his appointment at ORU, Self spent seven seasons as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Oklahoma State, where he was a guard from 1982 to 1985. Self’s first coaching job was the 1985-86 season on Larry Brown’s coaching staff at Kansas.
Special thanks to the Lawrence Public Library for their support of this event!
