Presidential Lecture Series

The Presidential Lecture Series brings prominent speakers to campus for thought-provoking conversations around an annual theme. These events are free and open to the public. Since 2005, the Presidential Lecture Series has given our community unique opportunities to hear diverse perspectives by hosting a wide variety of famous authors, actors, politicians, athletes, journalists, and activists.

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Alison Gannett - Extreme Skier and Founder of the Save Our Snow Foundation

Wright State University

Alison Gannett's Global Cooling Adventure Show

Alison Gannett is a world-champion big-mountain freeskier, founder of the Save Our Snow Foundation, champion endurance mountain biker, founder of the infamous Rippin Chix Steep Camps, and an award-winning global cooling advocate.

Ski magazine named her "Ski Hero of the 2010," Skiing magazine selected her as "Green Pro Skier of the Year," and Outside magazine named her "Green All-Star of the Year," next to Leonardo DiCaprio and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In addition to tackling first ski descents in places such as Pakistan, Bhutan, Argentina, India, and North America, she photo documents glacial recession on her expeditions.

In addition to jumping off cliffs for a living, she trains hundreds of thousands worldwide on her four-step cost-saving climate change solutions framework—including businesses, schools, events, pro athletes, U.S. Congress, and Al Gore's Climate Project team. An advocate of always "walking the talk," she has reduced her carbon footprint by 75 percent, and most recently moved to an organic farm where she and her husband grow and preserve almost 100 percent of their own food, while showing others how to do the same, and continuing her exciting adventure lifestyle.

In 2006, Gannett founded the Save Our Snow Foundation, with a mission to demonstrate that solutions to climate change can be cost effective, actually increasing profitability while reducing pollution, and increasing energy security and green sector jobs while also saving our snowpack and our planet's ecosystems. According to Gannett, climate change is rapidly altering the future of outdoor sports. In order for future generations to have the same powder ski runs, kayak expeditions, Nordic ski adventures, and ski mountaineering exploits, Save Our Snow encourages people to fundamentally alter their carbon consumption patterns.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault - Award-Winning Journalist and Author

Wright State University

From Jim Crow America to Apartheid South Africa and Beyond: A Journalist's Journey

Charlayne Hunter-Gault is an award-winning journalist and author whose career spans more than 40 years. She has reported on racism, Vietnam veterans, life under apartheid, drug abuse, and human rights issues. She was the first African American woman to enroll in the University of Georgia and was among the first African American women to graduate from the university.

Hunter-Gault gained national recognition after she joined the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in 1978, becoming a national correspondent for its 60-minute MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour in 1983. In 1997 Hunter-Gault left PBS to become the Africa bureau chief for National Public Radio (NPR), and in 1999 she was named Johannesburg bureau chief for CNN, a post she held until 2005.

She is the author of a memoir on the American civil rights movement, In My Place (1992), and New News Out of Africa (2006), a book documenting the many aspects of the African Renaissance.

Her numerous awards include two Emmy awards and two Peabody awards, and in 2005 she was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame.

Please also join us on Tuesday, February 1, for the Wright State University Honors Institute Symposium on Intersections of Memory.
Robin Guenther - Sustainability Expert

Wright State University

Sustainable Health Care Architecture: How Health Care Is Responding to Ideas about Buildings and Health, Both Nationally and Globally

Robin Guenther is an architect who has dedicated her 30-plus-year career to designing health care facilities that are not only conducive to healing but also environmentally sustainable. She has helped shape healthier, more welcoming facilities for nearly every medical institution in New York City, earning Healthcare Design magazine's "#1 Most Influential Designer in Healthcare" in 2009 and winning The Center for Health Design's Changemaker Award in 2005 for her efforts to improve and support change in the healing environment.

Guenther earned her Master of Architecture degree in 1978 from the University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Today, as a principal at the architectural firm of Perkins+Will, she is a national leader in the conversation linking public health, regenerative design, and sustainability. She is particularly skilled at achieving consensus for sustainable ideas, a quality valued by clients as well as the many advocacy groups with whom she works. Guenther joined Perkins+Will when the firm she founded, Guenther 5 Architects, merged with the larger firm's New York office.

Guenther is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Her many accomplishments include the second LEED® certified health care project in the world, the Patrick Dollard Discovery Health Center in Harris, New York. She was the principal author of the Green Guide for Health Care, the most commonly used method of tracking sustainability in health care spaces today. She is co-author of Sustainable Healthcare Architecture and is currently working with the U.S. Green Building Council to create the LEED® for Healthcare.
Andy Imparato - President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Association of People with Disabilities

Wright State University

The Next Big Thing for People with Disabilities: From Civil Rights to Economic Well-Being

Andy Imparato is the first full-time president and chief executive officer of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), a national nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization of people with disabilities, their family members, and supporters that was founded in 1995. AAPD pursues its mission of political and economic empowerment of all people with disabilities through public policy advocacy and programs fostering leadership development, mentoring, career exploration, voting and civic participation, and member benefits. With more than 100,000 members, AAPD is the largest cross-disability membership organization in the U.S.

Prior to joining AAPD, Imparato was general counsel and director of policy for the National Council on Disability (NCD), an independent federal agency advising the President and Congress on public policy issues affecting people with disabilities. Imparato has also worked as a special assistant to Commissioner Paul Steven Miller at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; as counsel to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Disability Policy, chaired by Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa; and as a Skadden fellow/staff attorney at the Disability Law Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

Imparato, whose perspective is informed by his personal experience with bipolar disorder, is frequently called upon to write, speak, or provide testimony about disability issues. Imparato graduated with distinction from Stanford Law School and is a summa cum laude graduate of Yale College. He lives in Baltimore with his wife and two sons.
Ishmael Beah - Author and Former Child Soldier from Sierra Leone

Wright State University

Ishmael Beah was 11 when his life, along with the lives of millions of other Sierra Leoneans, was derailed by the outbreak of a brutal civil war. His parents and two brothers were killed, and at age 13 Ishmael was forced to fight as a child soldier. For over two years he fought before being removed from the army by UNICEF and placed in a rehabilitation home. After completing rehabilitation in late 1996, Ishmael attended a conference at the United Nations to talk about the devastating effects of war on children in his country. There he met his new mother, Laura Simms, a professional storyteller who lives in New York. In 1998, Beah came to live with his American family, completing high school at the UN International School and subsequently attending Oberlin College in Ohio.

Even while in school, Beah continued bringing attention to the plight of child soldiers and children affected by war around the world. He spoke on numerous occasions on behalf of UNICEF, Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations Secretary General's Office for Children and Armed Conflict, at the United Nations General Assembly. He also served on a UN panel with Secretary General Kofi Annan and discussed the issue with dignitaries such as Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton.

In his book A Long Way Gone, Beah, now 26 years old, tells his riveting firsthand story of how he wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence—and learned that he too was capable of terrible acts. In the end, his story is one of redemption and hope.
Ted Rall - Nationally Syndicated Editorial Cartoonist

Wright State University

Setting himself apart from the herd with a unique drawing style and a take-no-prisoners approach, Ted Rall has been called "the most controversial cartoonist in America" by the editorial cartooning site Cartoon.com. He has also been labeled as the "most annoying liberal" by the Right Wing News website, "treasonous" by the conservative Weekly Standard, and "anti-American" by the Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial page, as well as being named number 15 in Bernard Goldberg's book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America. He has received death threats.

Ted Rall began editorial cartooning in the 1980s when a handful of alternative weekly newspaper editors found his photocopied work hanging from lampposts in New York City. Today, his editorial cartoons for Universal Press Syndicate appear in more than 100 newspapers throughout the United States, from the Washington Post to SF Weekly.

"Editorial cartooning is an intrinsically negative medium," says Rall, "but I'm an optimistic person. My hope is that, by calling attention to hypocrisy in our government and the inward focus of American culture in an amusing way, things will change for the better."

Rall covered the war in Afghanistan in cartoon form, where his harrowing experience—three of the 44 journalists with whom he traveled were killed—led to the critically acclaimed book To Afghanistan and Back. His most recent book is Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East?, a detailed analysis of the region in prose and cartoons. Four collections of Rall's cartoons have also been published, as well as three award-winning graphic novels. Presented in partnership with the AAUP (American Association of University Professors).
John Corvino, Ph.D. - Philosophy Professor and "Gay Moralist"

Wright State University

What's Morally Wrong with Homosexuality?

John Corvino, Ph.D., has been speaking, writing, and demolishing myths about homosexuality and morality since the early 1990s. He has educated and entertained professional organizations, government contractors, churches, and hundreds of college and university audiences, giving some their first-ever inside viewpoint on GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender) issues. His presentation “What’s Morally Wrong With Homosexuality?” (available on DVD) explores the common arguments against same-sex relationships, including those based on nature, religion, and alleged threat to society. The titles of some of his other lectures and presentations include “Born or Made—and What’s the Difference?” “The Boy Scouts and Gay Rights,” and “Homosexuality and Biblical Interpretation.”

This January, Corvino debated the topic of “Marriage and Same-Sex Unions” with National Organization for Marriage President Maggie Gallagher at a formal debate hosted by Oregon State University.

Corvino’s column “The Gay Moralist” appears every Friday at LOGO Online’s 365gay.com (“America’s Most Read Gay News Source”). He has been a guest on MSNBC’s “Scarborough Country” and on numerous radio programs.

Corvino holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin, and is an associate professor of philosophy at Wayne State University in Detroit. He is the editor of Same Sex: Debating the Ethics, Science, and Culture of Homosexuality and the author of over 100 articles and opinion pieces, which have appeared in regional and national print media, at the online Independent Gay Forum (www.indegayforum.org), and in numerous academic journals and anthologies.

An award-winning teacher, he was also the recipient of a 2004 Spirit of Detroit Award from the Detroit City Council for his work on behalf of GLBT rights.
Frans Johansson - Author of the bestseller The Medici Effect

Wright State University

Frans Johansson is an author, speaker, and entrepreneur. His bestselling book The Medici Effect was selected as one of the top 10 best business books by Amazon.com and named one of the best innovation books of the year by several organizations. It has been translated into 17 languages.

The Medici Effect explores the concept of cross-field and cross-cultural combinations and offers clear guidance on how to make such an approach work effectively. Johansson spent three years talking to individuals and teams at the intersection of different disciplines and cultures. He combined the results from those interviews with decades of existing research in psychology, economics, and management of creativity and innovation. Johansson explains that three driving forces—the movement of people, the convergence of scientific disciplines, and the leap in computational power—are increasing the number and types of intersections we can access. From CEOs, derivative traders, scientists, fashion designers, authors, and public health administrators, Johansson shows audiences how to find the intersection and unleash the Medici Effect.

Johansson has been living in the intersection most of his life. He was raised in Sweden by his African American and Cherokee mother and Swedish father. Johansson earned his B.S. in environmental science at Brown University and his M.B.A. at Harvard Business School. Johansson founded both a Boston-based software company and a medical device company operating out of Baltimore, Maryland, and Stockholm, Sweden. He has written articles on health care, information technology, and the science of sport fishing. He has been featured on CNN’s AC360, ABC's Early Morning Show, and CNBC’s The Business of Innovation series along with Jack Welch and Muhammad Yunus.
Greg Mortenson - Co-author of Bestseller Three Cups of Tea

Wright State University

Promoting Peace through Education

Co-author of the number-one bestseller Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time, Greg Mortenson is a humanitarian, international peacemaker, former mountaineer, and co-founder of the nonprofit Central Asia Institute, which promotes education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Mortenson’s phenomenal story began in 1993 on K2, the world’s second highest mountain, after rescuing another climber. On his descent, the exhausted Mortenson got lost and was aided by the people of a Pakistani village called Korphe. While there, he saw a group of children writing with sticks in the sand, so in gratitude for the villagers’ hospitality, he promised to return and build a school. That rash promise grew into a remarkable humanitarian campaign to which Mortenson has dedicated his life: to promote education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Mortenson has gone on to establish more than 90 schools in rural and often volatile regions of those two countries. Through his nonprofits, the Central Asia Institute and Pennies for Peace, Mortenson has built schools that provide a rare opportunity for education to more than 38,000 children, including 27,000 girls.

Three Cups of Tea has sold more than three million copies in 34 countries. It has been used in more than 90 colleges and universities as a freshman, honors or campus-wide read, including as Wright State’s common text for incoming freshmen for the 2009–2010 academic year. His newly released book, Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, is a sequel to Three Cups of Tea.
Charlie Engle - Ultra-edurance Athlete and Humanist

Wright State University

Adapt and Overcome: Turning Adversity to Your Advantage

Charlie Engle is an ultra-endurance athlete whose running shoes have left imprints across the Gobi Desert, the Amazon jungle, and the vast Sahara Desert. But despite his amazing achievements of physical endurance and stamina, the television and film producer, motivational speaker, and passionate humanitarian does not count those as his greatest achievements. Instead, Engle says his greatest achievement has been his incredible recovery from alcohol and drug addiction.

For 10 years, Engle was dominated by substances, until he reclaimed his life on July 23, 1992—a date he uses as a great personal motivator. And if Engle is anything now, he ismotivated! “I love adventure,” he admits, “and I challenge myself regularly to do things that test my ability, both physically and mentally.” Along with two teammates, Engle also became one of only three people in history to run across the entire Sahara Desert—more than 4,500 miles. He averaged more than 42 miles per day for 111 consecutive days while crossing the most forbidding terrain on Earth.

His evident passion makes him a popular motivational speaker on the international lecture circuit. But he claims many other achievements as well: he has worked as a film and television producer (most notably for ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition); and along with actor Matt Damon, Engle helped found H2O Africa, a charity to raise awareness for clean water on the African continent. His message is inspirational, with massive doses of humor thrown in. Engle sums up his mission in life with these three words: “Do something now!”

Co-sponsored by the Wright State Outdoor Resource Center and Five Rivers MetroParks
James Fallows - National orrespondent for The Atlantic and Award Winning Writer

Wright State University

Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China

A national correspondent for The Atlantic, James Fallows is one of America’s most respected journalists. Whether writing about politics, national security, the economy, or foreign policy, Fallows strives to do one thing: “Make the important interesting.” For his always-perceptive, sometimes-prescient writing, he has won the National Book Award, the American Book Award, and been a finalist for the National Magazine Award five times, winning once. Writing from China since 2006, he is now chronicling that country’s explosive growth and its staggering ramifications for America and the world.

Fallows has covered the major foreign policy stories of our time—from Iraq to North Korea to Iran to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and beyond. In his lectures, he delivers an unsparing look at the challenges to American foreign policy posed by our actions in various regions, how other countries perceive us, and how upheavals overseas will impact us.

In his more than 25 years working for The Atlantic, Fallows has been based in Washington, DC, Seattle, Berkeley, Austin, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, and now Beijing. In addition to working for The Atlantic, he has spent two years as chief White House speechwriter for Jimmy Carter, two years as the editor of US News & World Report, and as a program designer at Microsoft. He received his undergraduate degree in American history and literature from Harvard, and received a graduate degree in economics from Oxford.

In addition to his latest book, Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China, Fallows is also the author of Breaking the News, about the crisis facing contemporary news media, and Blind into Baghdad, about the lead-up to the War in Iraq (now required reading in many military programs).

Please also join us on Wednesday, February 17, for the Wright State University Honors Institute Symposium on Connecting with China.
Mary Frances Berry, Ph.D., J.D. - Author, Educator, and Historian

Wright State University

Healing, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation: Reclaiming the Lost Arts

There are few like Mary Frances Berry. For over four decades, she has been one of the most recognized and respected voices in our nation's civil rights, gender equality, and social justice agendas. Fighting for fairness and justice under four presidential administrations, she led the way as chairperson of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission for many years. Berry also served as assistant secretary for education in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. One of the founders of the Free South Africa Movement, she was the first woman of any race to head a major research university, the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Lauded by many honorary degrees and awards, including one of "America's Women of the Century," from the Women's Hall of Fame, Berry is never one to rest on her laurels. She continues to speak boldly for those who can't speak for themselves. Her vision of social freedom and equality, her wisdom and candor, ensure her place in the future agenda of America.

Now the professor of American social thought at the University of Pennsylvania, she teaches history and law. Her most recent book, And Justice for All: The United States Commission on Civil Rights and the Continuing Struggle for Freedom in America, tells the inspirational story of the Civil Rights Movement and the Commission's role in leading us to where we are today. With fierce determination, Berry never backs down. She educates, transforms, and inspires us all. Her clarion call challenges everyone to stand up, get it, and don't give up the fight.

Co-sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education and Human Services, Department of Music, and WSU Multicultural Center*

In celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

*Includes the Asian and Native American Center, the Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center, and the Women's Center.
Peter Hancock D.Sc., Ph.D. - Expert on Human-technology Relations

Wright State University

Mind, Machine, and Morality

Presented in partnership with the President's Office and the Center for Human-Centered Innovation, Department of Psychology, and Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Peter Hancock, D.Sc., Ph.D., studies human relations with technology—how we shape it, and how it is shaping us. He poses that technology "is the gatekeeper that acts to decide who shall have and who shall have not... Whatever we are to become is bound up not only in our biology but critically in our technology." The possible futures of this symbiosis is the subject of his latest book, Mind, Machine and Morality: Toward a Philosophy of Human-Technology Symbiosis.

Hancock is the head of the Minds in Technology/Machines in Thought (MIT²) laboratory at the University of Central Florida, where he is also Provost Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Institute for Simulation and Training. In 2009, he was named University Pegasus Professor, the highest award given by the university. He also holds a courtesy appointment as a Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Hancock is the author of over 600 refereed scientific articles and publications and has edited numerous books, including Stress, Workload, and Fatigue in 2001, Human Performance and Ergonomics in 1999, and Essays on the Future of Human-Machine Systems in 1997. He has been continuously funded by extramural sources every year of his professional career, including support from NASA, NIH, NIA, FAA, FHWA, the U.S. Navy the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Army.

His many awards include the Sir Frederic Taylor Award of the Ergonomics Society of Great Britain for lifetime achievement. He plays a number of team sports, as well as coaching youngsters, and collects and studies antique maps.
JD Talasek - Director of Cultural Programs, National Academy of Sciences

Wright State University

Presented in partnership with the President's Office, STEAM3 (Science/Technology/Engineering/Art/Mathematics/Medicine/Music), CELIA (Collaborative Education, Leadership, and Innovation in the Arts), the Department of Art and Art History, and the Department of Music

JD Talasek is the director of cultural programs of the National Academy of Sciences, a program that is focused on the exploration of intersections between science, medicine, technology, and visual culture. He was the creator and organizer of the recent international online symposium on Visual Culture and Bioscience and co-editor of the published transcripts (distributed by D.A.P., March 2009). Talasek holds an M.F.A. in studio arts from the University of Delaware, an M.A. in museum studies from the University of Leicester, and a B.S. in photography from East Texas State University. He has taught photography at the University of Delaware as well as Essex and Howard Community Colleges, and is currently on the faculty at The Johns Hopkins University in the Museum Studies Master’s Program.

Talasek has curated several exhibitions at the National Academy of Sciences, including Visionary Anatomies, which toured through the Smithsonian Institution in 2004 through 2006; Absorption + Transmission: Work by Mike and Doug Starn; The Tao of Physics: Photographs by Arthur Tress; and Cycloids: Paintings by Michael Schultheis. At the University of Delaware, he organized and curated Observations in an Occupied Wilderness: Photographs by Terry Falke and LightBox: The Visual AIDS Archive Project.

He is the art advisor for Issues in Science and Technology magazine, published by the University of Texas at Dallas and The National Academies. Talasek serves on an advisory panel that is exploring the creation of an art exhibition program at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.

JD Talasek was born in 1966 in Dallas, Texas.
Richard Pimentel - Expert on Disability and Diversity Issues in the Workplace

Wright State University

Innovative Strategies for Employing Veterans and People with Disabilities

Presented in partnership with the President's Office, the Office of Disability Services, and the EmployAbility Conference 2009

Richard Pimentel is one of the leading experts on innovative strategies for employing people with disabilities, with a special focus on veterans with disabilities. Praised for his use of humor, metaphor, and storytelling in his work as a consultant and trainer, Pimentel also brings his insights as a disabled Vietnam veteran to topics as diverse as the future of disability management, attitudinal change in health and human services, and overcoming challenges of returning combat veterans.

Pimentel is a senior partner in the consulting/training firm of Milt Wright & Associates, Inc. An expert on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), he has authored and co-authored numerous books and professional publications, including What Managers and Supervisors Need to Know About the ADA, Making the ADA Work for You, The Workers Compensation ADA Connection, and Taking Control of Workers Compensation Disability Costs.

Pimentel is the past chairman of the Veterans Advisory Committee on Rehabilitation and advisor to the secretary of Veterans Affairs on all veterans’ rehabilitation issues. In the past year, Pimentel was a keynote speaker and trainer/consultant to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Mental Health Services and Department of Veterans Affairs Vocational Rehabilitation.

Pimentel is also the key author of the highly acclaimed and widely used Windmills program, designed to change the attitudes and behavior of supervisors who hire and promote employees with disabilities. Windmills is used by many of America’s largest and most prestigious government and employer organizations, as well as Fortune 100 companies.

Pimentel recently was given an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities from Portland State University. His story was dramatized in the 2007 film Music Within.
Christopher Sacca - Former Head of Special Initiatives at Google

Wright State University

Presented in partnership with the President's Office and Enrollment Management, with support from the Raj Soin College of Business

A self-proclaimed adventure junkie, Chris Sacca has also been recognized by the Wall Street Journal as “possibly the most influential businessman in America” and honored as one of 20 of the world’s most promising leaders and public servants under the age of 45.

As the former head of special initiatives at Google Inc., Sacca worked on highly visible projects including Google’s 700MHz and TV white spaces spectrum initiatives, the company’s groundbreaking data center in Oregon, and Google’s free citywide WiFi network in Mountain View, California. He also spearheaded Google’s business development and merger and acquisition transactions.

These days, Sacca is a venture investor, private equity principal, company advisor, and an entrepreneur managing a portfolio of over a dozen consumer web, mobile, and wireless technology start-ups as well as an array of mature enterprises through his holding company, Lowercase Capital. Among his current holdings is Twitter Inc., where Sacca was among the first investors and works with the company every week as a strategic advisor.

Sacca has held a number of roles at one of the world’s largest streaming and digital media distribution companies, Speedera Networks (acquired by Akamai Technologies), and was responsible for their legal and corporate development efforts. Prior to Speedera, he was an attorney with a Silicon Valley law firm, handling venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, and licensing transactions for technology giants.

In addition to graduating cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center, Sacca also graduated from their Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (cum laude) and was an Edmund Evans Memorial Scholar. Sacca lives in San Francisco and is an avid Pacifica surfer, San Mateo kitesurfer, Lake Tahoe skier, and Ironman Triathlete.
Alison Bechdel - Author of Fun Home and Award-winning Cartoonist of the Comic Strip Dykes to Watch Out For

Wright State University

Presented in partnership with the Rainbow Alliance

Alison Bechdel, author of the critically acclaimed Fun Home (called "one of the very best graphic novels ever" in Booklist) and of the syndicated comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For (DTWOF), has become a cultural icon for lesbians and discerning non-lesbians all over the planet. Since drawing her first DTWOF 25 years ago for New York's feminist monthly Womanews, Bechdel has seen her comic strip become syndicated in over 50 alternative newspapers and publications and printed in 12 book-length collections. At the podium, Bechdel redefines race and gender roles while taking aim at some of the most controversial topics of the day.
Reza Aslan - Author of No god but God and Expert on Islam

Wright State University

In partnership with the Quest for Community: A Call to Action Conference

The first young Muslim intellectual to come on the scene in years, Reza Aslan brings a new, passionate, and much-needed perspective to the national discussion regarding Islam. Aslan is a fellow at the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy and Middle East analyst for CBS News. In his internationally acclaimed book No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, as in his lectures and writings, Aslan explores the intricate interplay between faith and politics in the Muslim world, presenting Islam as an ever-evolving faith and culture currently in the midst of a cataclysmic internal battle for reform and modernization.

Arrangements for the appearance of Reza Aslan made through Greater Talent network, Inc., NY, NY.
Stephen Dubner - Bestselling Co-author of Freakonomics

Wright State University

In partnership with University College’s First Year Experience

Award-winning author, journalist, and TV personality Stephen Dubner is the co-author of the international bestseller Freakonomics. Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Dubner shows how economics is, at root, the study of how people get what they want, especially when other people want the same thing. Dubner spent several years at the The New York Times as an editor and writer, and has also written for The New Yorker and Time. He has written two previous bestselling books, Choosing My Religion and Confessions of a Hero-Worshipper. Dubner and economist Steven Levitt are currently working on another book, tentatively titled Superfreakonomics.

For more information on this speaker please visit www.apbspeakers.com
Angela Davis, Ph.D. - Feminist Scholar, Writer, and Social Activist

Wright State University

Angela Davis has been deeply involved in our nation's quest for social justice through her decades of activism and scholarship. As a professor of history of consciousness and of feminist studies at University of California, Santa Cruz, Davis emphasized the struggle for economic, racial, and gender equality. Once on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted List," Davis focuses on the social problems associated with incarceration and the criminalization of communities most affected by poverty and racial discrimination. The author of eight books, including Abolition Democracy, Are Prisons Obsolete?, and Women, Race and Class. She is currently completing a book on prisons and American history.

For more information on this speaker please visit www.apbspeakers.com
Ann Bancroft - Polar Explorer, Educator, and Lecturer

Wright State University

Presented as part of The Adventure Summit, co-sponsored by the WSU Outdoor Resource Center and Five Rivers MetroParks.

Ann Bancroft is one of the world’s preeminent polar explorers and an internationally recognized leader who is dedicated to inspiring women and girls around the world to follow their dreams. Through her various roles as an explorer, educator, sought-after speaker, and philanthropist, Bancroft believes that by sharing stories related to her dreams of outdoor adventure, she can help inspire a global audience to pursue their individual dreams.

Bancroft’s teamwork and leadership skills have undergone severe tests during her polar expeditions and provided her with opportunities to shatter female stereotypes. The tenacity and courage that define her character have earned Bancroft worldwide recognition as one of today’s most influential role models for women and girls. She has been named among Glamour magazine’s “Women of the Year” (2001); featured in the book Remarkable Women of the Twentieth Century (1998); inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame (1995); named Ms. magazine’s “Woman of the Year” (1987); and honored with numerous other awards for her accomplishments.

Bancroft’s passion for exploring our natural world is matched by her enthusiasm for teaching children. After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education from the University of Oregon, Bancroft taught physical and special education at schools in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, and coached various high school sports. She currently is an instructor for Wilderness Inquiry, an organization that helps disabled and able-bodied individuals enjoy the wilderness year round.

Bancroft’s other achievements include founding and leading the Ann Bancroft Foundation, a nonprofit organization that celebrates the existing and potential achievements of women and girls.

Photograph by Bancroft Amesen Explore
Nicholas Kristof - Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, New York Times columnist

Wright State University

Presented as part of the University Honors Program's 2009 Honors Institute

Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times, writes frequently on global health, poverty, and women’s rights in the developing world. He was one of the first to sound the alarm on the genocide in Darfur, visiting that region nine times and earning a Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for his efforts to call attention to the crisis. He has also led the fight against sex trafficking in countries such as Cambodia, India, and Pakistan.

Kristof grew up on a sheep and cherry farm near Yamhill, Oregon, and, in 1981, graduated from Harvard College in just three years. He then studied law at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. Kristof later studied Arabic in Cairo and Chinese in Taipei, and he has backpacked around Africa and Asia while writing articles to cover his expenses. He has lived on four continents, reported on six, and traveled to more than 120 countries. During his travels, he has had unpleasant experiences with wars, malaria, mobs, and an African plane crash.

Joining The New York Times in 1984, Kristof has served as business correspondent in Los Angeles and as bureau chief in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Tokyo. In 1990, Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, also a Times journalist, became the first married couple to win a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of China’s Tiananmen Square democracy movement. The couple are coauthors of China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power and Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia.

The first blogger at The New York Times, Kristof still actively blogs at http://www.nytimes.com/ontheground and holds an annual contest to choose a university student to take with him on a reporting trip to the developing world.
Danny Glover - Acclaimed Actor & Producer, and Leading Social Activist

Wright State University

Presented in partnership with the Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.*

Actor, producer, and humanitarian Danny Glover has been a commanding presence on screen, stage, and television for more than 25 years, with film credits ranging from the blockbuster Lethal Weapon franchise to smaller independent features, some of which Glover also produced. At the same time, Glover has also gained respect for his wide-reaching community activism and philanthropic efforts, earning him the 2003 NAACP Chairman's Award and the 2006 Director's Guild of America Honors in recognition of his lifetime dedication to public service. Glover has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program and currently serves as UNICEF Ambassador.

Photograph by Chris Buck

Arrangements for the appearance of Danny Glover made through Greater Talent Network, Inc., NY, NY

*Additional support provided by the College of Education and Human Services, the Office of Student Activities, and the Department of Theatre, Dance, and Motion Pictures.
Michael Bérubé, Ph.D. - Professor of Literature and Author of What's Liberal About the Liberal Arts?

Wright State University

Presented in partnership by the WSU American Association of University Professors

Michael Bérubé, Ph.D., called “one of the 101 most dangerous academics in America” by right-wing activist/commentator David Horowitz, is an avid defender of freedom of academic inquiry in his literature classes at Penn State, on the National Council for the American Association of University Professors, and as an influential blogger on his website. www.michaelberube.com

Bérubé is the author of What’s Liberal About the Liberal Arts? Classroom Politics and “Bias” in Higher Education (W. W. Norton, 2006), and his seventh book, The Left at War: Cultural Studies and Democratic Internationalism After 9/11, will be published in 2009 by NYU Press.

His earlier work Life As We Know It: A Father, A Family, and an Exceptional Child (Pantheon, 1996; paper, Vintage, 1998) is Bérubé’s personal account of raising a son with Down’s syndrome. It won the 1996 New York Times Notable Book of the Year and was chosen as one of the best books of the year by National Public Radio’s Maureen Corrigan.

Bérubé is also the editor of The Aesthetics of Cultural Studies (Blackwell, 2004), and, with Cary Nelson, of Higher Education Under Fire: Politics, Economics, and the Crisis of the Humanities (Routledge, 1995). He has written numerous essays for a wide variety of academic journals such as American Quarterly, the Yale Journal of Criticism, and Modern Fiction Studies, as well as more popular venues such as Harper’s, the New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, and The Nation.
Bertice Berry, Ph.D. - Best-selling Author and Entertainer

Wright State University

NO ONE DEFIES STEREOTYPES, generalizations, or clichés more than Dr. Bertice Berry. Growing up poor in Wilmington, Delaware, Berry was told by a high school teacher that she was “not college material.” Fortunately, there was another teacher who believed in her, and Berry applied to several schools without any idea how she would pay her tuition. The day her application arrived at Jacksonville University in Florida, a wealthy benefactor called the Admissions Department looking for a student “who could swim if they had the right backing,” and might sink without it.

Berry graduated magna cum laude from Jacksonville, and subsequently earned a Ph.D. in sociology from Kent State University at age 26. She became one of Kent State’s most popular teachers by using humor to address such difficult subjects as racism and sexism. Upon leaving academia, she became an award-winning entertainer, lecturer, comedian, and television host, creating a niche as both a gifted speaker with a comic edge and a comic with a serious message.

Dr. Berry is the best-selling author of the inspirational memoir I’m On My Way, But Your Foot Is On My Head. Her first work of fiction, Redemption Song, was also a bestseller. Her other works include Jim & Louella’s Homemade Heart-Fix Remedy, and When Love Calls, You Better Answer. She has graciously donated all of the royalties from the sales of her books to organizations that help families in transition, raise funds for scholarships, and provide resource information to low-income families.
Elijah Anderson - Professor of Sociology at Yale University

Wright State University

Against the Wall: Poor, Young, Black, and Male

ELIJAH ANDERSON is the William K. Lanman Professor of Sociology at Yale University. Before joining the Yale University faculty in July 2007, Dr. Anderson was the Charles and William L. Day Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences, with a secondary appointment in the Wharton School, at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Anderson is one of the nation’s most respected scholars in the field of urban inequality. His books include Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City (1999), winner of the 2000 Komarovsky Award from the Eastern Sociological Association;Streetwise: Race, Class, and Change in an Urban Community (1990), winner of the American Sociological Association’s Robert E. Park award for the best published book in the area of Urban Sociology; and the classic sociological work, A Place on the Corner: A Study of Black Street Corner Men (1978; 2nd ed., 2003).

He has also written numerous articles on the black experience, including "Of Old Heads and Young Boys: Notes on the Urban Black Experience' (1986), commissioned by the National Research Council's Committee on the Status of Black Americans; "Sex Codes and Family Life among Inner-City Youth" in the January 1989 issue of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science; and "The Code of the Streets," which was the cover story of the May 1994 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, which was published in expanded form in his book Code of the Street. Dr. Anderson also authored the introduction to the 1996 edition of The Philadelphia Negro by W.E.B. DuBois (1996).
Cheryl Townsend Gilkes - Professor of African-American Studies and Sociology

Wright State University

Connections and Voices:Translating W.E.B. Du Bois’s Feminism for the 21st Century

CHERYL TOWNSEND GILKES (Pronounced “Jillks”) is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of African-American Studies and Sociology and director of the African American Studies Program at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. She is also assistant pastor for special projects at the Union Baptist Church (Cambridge, Massachusetts).

Dr. Gilkes holds degrees in sociology from Northeastern University (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.) and has pursued graduate theological studies at Boston University’s School of Theology. Her research, teaching, and writing have specially focused on the role of African American women in generating social change and on the diverse roles of black Christian women in the 20th century. She is currently at work on several projects, one of which is tentatively titled I’m Building Me a Home: The Black Church as a Cultural Production. She has lectured and presented papers at colleges, universities, and scholarly conferences in the United States, Canada, Germany, England, and South Africa.

Dr. Gilkes is active in several scholarly organizations, holding leadership positions in the American Sociological Association, the Association of Black Sociologists, the American Academy of Religion, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, and the Eastern Sociological Society. Some of her essays and articles are gathered in her book If It Wasn’t for the Women: Black Women’s Experience and Womanist Culture in Church and Community (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2001). Several of her journal articles have been reprinted in anthologies, such as African American Religious Thought: An Anthology, edited by Cornel West and Eddie Glaude (Philadelphia: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004). Her published sermons have appeared in The African American Pulpit and elsewhere.
Tukufu Zuberi - Host of History Detectives and director of the Center for Africana Studies

Wright State University

Doing Sociology in Public

TUKUFU ZUBERI, host of PBS’s popular History Detectives, and director of the Center for Africana Studies and chair of the Sociology Department at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Zuberi, whose distinctions include the Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations, joined UP faculty in 1989, and has been a visiting professor at Makerere University in Uganda and at the University of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania. Dr. Zuberi has sought to allow the public to view everyday life in the broader social and historical context. He stars in History Detectives, a nationally syndicated PBS series that seeks to uncover the mysteries of America’s past.

As an internationally known social scientist, Dr. Zuberi has made important contributions in the study of sociology, population studies, and Africana studies. He is the author or editor of seven books or edited journal conference volumes, including most recently an edited volume entitled Demography of South Africa which is the first volume of a series entitled A General Demography of Africa, and the edited volume entitled White Logic, White Methods: Racism in Methodology. He has received awards for his academic work from the National Institutes of Health, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Dr. Zuberi received his B.A. from San Jose State University in 1981, his M.A. from California State University, Sacramento, in 1985, and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1989.