Campus Life

Forum Speaker schedule for 2013-14 announced

Urban revitalization strategist Majora Carter will kick off the series on Sept. 5. Credit: Lydia Vandenbergh / Penn StateCreative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Speakers have been announced for the 2013-14 Penn State Forum Speaker Series.

Co-sponsored by the Penn State Bookstore and the Offices of the Executive Vice President, the Provost and the Senior Vice President/Treasurer for Finance and Business, the luncheon runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at either The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel or the Nittany Lion Inn.

The Penn State Faculty/Staff Club began the forum in 1996 to introduce members of the University community to notable leaders and policy makers in their respective professions. Modeled after the National Press Club, the Penn State Forum includes lunch, followed by remarks from the distinguished speaker. After the presentation, a facilitator poses questions submitted by members of the audience to the speaker.

To listen to past speaker sessions through the WPSU archive.

All Penn State Forum events are open to the public; tickets are $19 each and include a buffet lunch. Tickets may be purchased at the Penn State id+ Office in Room 103 of the HUB-Robeson Center. Call the id+ office at 814-865-7590 to check availability.

Scheduled to speak are:

Majora CarterUrban revitalization strategist  "Home(town) Security"Sept. 5, President's Hall, The Penn StaterIntroduction/moderator: President Rodney Erickson, Patty Satalia

Majora Carter is an internationally renowned urban revitalization strategy consultant, real estate developer and Peabody Award-winning broadcaster. She is responsible for the creation and successful implementation of numerous green-infrastructure projects, policies, and job-training and -placement systems.

After establishing several local and national organizations to carry on that work, she built on this foundation with innovative ventures and insights into urban economic developments designed to help move Americans out of poverty. Her list of awards and honorary degrees include accolades from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., John Podesta's Center for American Progress and Goldman Sachs, as well as a MacArthur "genius" Fellowship. Her 2006 TED talk was one of the first six videos to launch the groundbreaking website.

She has continually set new standards of excellence with projects in her South Bronx community, while expanding her reach nationally and internationally. Her philanthropic pursuits and business interests have all pointed toward greater self-esteem and economic potential for low-income people everywhere.

Pedro NogueraPeter L. Agnew Professor of Education at New York University"Education, Racial Inequality and the Future of American Democracy"Sept. 13, President's Hall, The Penn StaterIntroduction/moderator: President Rodney Erickson, Katie O'Toole

Pedro Noguera holds tenured faculty appointments in the departments of Teaching and Learning, and Humanities and Social Sciences at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Development at NYU. He is also the executive director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education and the co-Director of the Institute for the Study of Globalization and Education in Metropolitan Settings. Noguera is the author of seven books and more 150 articles and monographs. His most recent books are "Creating the Opportunity to Learn" with A. Wade Boykin (ASCD, 2011) and "Invisible No More: Understanding and Responding to the Disenfranchisement of Latino Males" with A. Hurtado and E. Fergus (Routledge, 2011).  Noguera appears as a regular commentator on educational issues on CNN, National Public Radio and other national news outlets. From 2009-12 he served as a trustee for the State University of New York as an appointee of the governor. He serves on the boards of numerous national and local organizations including the Economic Policy Institute, the Young Women's Leadership Institute, The After School Corp. and The Nation Magazine.

Victoria Browning WyethLecturer on the Art of the Wyeth Family"The Life and Work of Andrew Wyeth"Oct. 4, President's Hall, The Penn StaterIntroduction/moderator: Nicholas Jones, Katie O'Toole

Wyeth, the only grandchild of iconic artist Andrew Wyeth, is the daughter of Nicholas and Jane Wyeth. Her father is a private art dealer, and her mother is an art adviser who was trained as an art historian. Wyeth is the great-granddaughter of illustrator N.C. Wyeth and the niece of contemporary realist Jamie Wyeth.

A 1997 graduate of the Nightingale-Bamford School in New York, Wyeth earned a bachelor or arts in American cultural studies in 2001 from Bates College, in Lewiston, Maine. During her senior year there, she organized and curated her first museum exhibition. The exhibition, at the Bates College Museum of Art and titled “Andrew Wyeth: Her Room,” demonstrated, from initial preparatory sketches to the final 1963 tempera “Her Room,” how the artist made a painting.

Wyeth studied the history of psychology as a visiting graduate student at Harvard University before earning a master of arts degree in psychology from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. The emphasis of her study was on both clinical psychology and the history of clinical psychiatry. Following her academic studies, she worked for several years as a therapist at a Pennsylvania state psychiatric hospital, where she currently works part-time as a research assistant for a clinical psychiatrist.

A docent of Wyeth art since the summer after her sophomore year in high school, Wyeth began giving gallery talks at the Farnsworth Art Museum, near her parents' summer home in Maine, when she was 16. From 2004-11, Wyeth conducted gallery talks twice a day, five days a week, at the Brandywine River Museum, in Chadds Ford, Pa.

Wyeth intersperses her discussions of subject matter and technique with quotes to her from the artists. To her personal memories and family stories, she adds insights gained through years of conversations with her grandfather and her uncle about their work. Wyeth continues to lecture extensively throughout the United States and abroad.

Wyeth is a gifted photographer; the Philadelphia Museum of Art used her photographs of her grandfather for publicity purposes for their 2006 retrospective, “Andrew Wyeth: Memory and Magic.” Moreover, her photographs of the artist were exhibited in conjunction with his shows at the Bates College Museum of Art, in Lewiston, Maine; the Mississippi Museum of Art, in Jackson, Miss.; the High Museum of Art, in Atlanta; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Joel MyersFounder and president, AccuWeather Inc."The Digital Revolution: Transforming Higher Education"Oct. 25, Ballroom, Nittany Lion InnIntroduction/moderator: President Rodney Erickson, Katie O'Toole

Joel N. Myers launched AccuWeather in 1962 at his kitchen table. Beyond starting a business -- one that blossomed into an international media company that, by year's end, will reach one and a quarter billion people -- he actually created an entire industry. AccuWeather holds more than 40 patents and is known and respected around the world as a leader in forecast accuracy. Under Myers' leadership, AccuWeather supplies weather applications in 48 languages for mobile handset manufacturers who ship more than 85 percent of the mobile devices sold each year. AccuWeather.com and AccuWeather.com Mobile rank globally among top news destinations.

The company's detailed, accurate weather forecasts also now appear on the latest Internet-connected SmartTVs and digital tablets, including the Apple iPad. AccuWeather also serves more than 200 television stations, 650 radio stations and 600 newspapers, and provides content to an additional 72,000 websites.

The company is the leading provider of pinpoint weather forecasts and warnings to save lives, protect property and help business enterprises prosper, numbering 222 of the Fortune 500 list among its customers. A frequent speaker on the practice of entrepreneurship, Myers was selected by Entrepreneur Magazine's Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs as one of the greatest entrepreneurs in American history, and is one of fewer than 50 living members of that list.

Myers' personal contribution to the science of meteorology has been recognized by his election as a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). In 2010, AccuWeather received the Corporate Award from the AMS for "nearly 50 years of exceptional innovation and leadership in weather applications and communication." His numerous awards and recognitions also include the National Weather Association Individual Achievement Award and election to the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. In 1992, he cofounded the American Weather and Climate Industry Association and continues to serve as a board member. 

Myers has authored numerous articles on a wide range of technical and business subjects, has appeared on the “ABC Nightly News” and “Larry King Live,” and has been quoted in Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, National Geographic, The Economist, USA Today, Reader's Digest, Forbes and more than 500 other magazines and newspapers. He is considered the nation's most respected source on the business of meteorology, having once been named "the most accurate man in weather" by The New York Times.

Myers received his bachelor of science, master of science and doctorate degrees in meteorology from Penn State. He continues his lifelong interest in education as a Penn State University Trustee, a position he has held for 31 years, having been elected 11 times by the University's alumni. His many philanthropic efforts include a gift of more than $2 million to Penn State for the creation of the Joel N. Myers Weather Center, a state-of-the-art teaching center for tomorrow's meteorologists. Since 1998, Myers has also served on the Board of Directors of Team Pennsylvania, a position to which he has been appointed by four Pennsylvania governors. Myers also has a lifelong interest in business and investments. He is a certified Commodity Traders Advisor and operates a hedge fund as the principal of Weather Prophets Inc.

Joseph GallowayMilitary correspondent and author"War and Peace: Too Much of the Former, Not Enough of the Latter"Nov. 19, Ballroom, Nittany Lion InnIntroduction/moderator: President Rodney Erickson, Patty Satalia

Joseph L. Galloway recently retired as the senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers. Before that he held an assignment as a special consultant to Gen. Colin Powell at the State Department.

Galloway, a native of Refugio, Texas, spent 22 years as a foreign/war correspondent and bureau chief for United Press International, and previously, nearly 20 years as a senior editor and senior writer for U.S. News & World Report magazine. During the course of 15 years of foreign postings -- including assignments in Japan, Indonesia, India, Singapore and three years as UPI bureau chief in Moscow in the former Soviet Union -- Galloway served four tours as a war correspondent in Vietnam and also covered the 1971 India-Pakistan War and half a dozen other combat operations.

In 1990-91 Galloway covered Desert Shield/Desert Storm, riding with the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) during the assault into Iraq. Galloway also covered the Haiti incursion and made trips to Iraq in 2003 and 2005-06.

Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf called Galloway "the finest combat correspondent of our generation -- a soldier's reporter and a soldier's friend."

On May 1, 1998, Galloway was decorated with a Bronze Star Medal with V (valor) for rescuing wounded soldiers under fire in the Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam, in November 1965. His is the only medal of valor the U.S. Army awarded to a civilian for actions during the Vietnam War.

Galloway is co-author, with retired Lt. Gen. Hal G. Moore, of the national best-seller "We Were Soldiers Once-And Young," which is presently in print in six different languages with more than 1.2 million copies having been sold. The book has been made into a critically acclaimed movie, "We Were Soldiers," starring Mel Gibson.

Galloway also co-authored "Triumph Without Victory: The History of the Persian Gulf War" for Times Books, and in 2008, he and Moore published their sequel to “We Were Soldiers,” a work titled: "We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam.”

David FerrieroArchivist of the United States  "A Conversation with David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States"Dec. 4, Ballroom, Nittany Lion InnIntroduction/moderator: President Rodney Erickson, Katie O'Toole

The Honorable David S. Ferriero was sworn in as 10th archivist of the United States on Nov. 13, 2009. The Archivist of the United States, appointed by the President of the United States, is the head of the National Archives and Records Administration, an agency of the Executive Branch of the Government. The agency is responsible for providing guidance to the White House and the Executive Branch agencies and departments on the creation and maintenance of their records. It oversees the transfer to the National Archives of the permanently valuable records of the federal government and makes them available for study. Those records include the Oaths of Allegiance signed by George Washington and his troops at Valley Forge, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. 

This collection translates into about 12 billion sheets of paper, 40 million photographs, miles and miles of video and film, and more than 5.3 billion electronic records. The records are housed in facilities around the country, from Anchorage, Alaska, to Atlanta -- including two Washington, D.C., area buildings, 14 Regional Archives, 17 Federal Records Centers and 13 Presidential Libraries, and the National Personnel Records Center. Previously, Ferriero served as the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the New York Public Libraries (NYPL). In this position he was part of the leadership team responsible for integrating the four research libraries and 87 branch libraries into one seamless service for users, and was in charge of collection strategy; conservation; digital experience and strategy; reference and research services; and education, programming and exhibitions.

Before joining the NYPL in 2004, Ferriero served in top positions at two of the nation's major academic libraries: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., and Duke University in Durham, N.C.

Ferriero earned bachelor’s and master's degrees in English literature from Northeastern University in Boston and a master's degree from the Simmons College of Library and Information Science, also in Boston. He served as a hospital corpsman in the Navy during the Vietnam War.

David TeplicaPlastic Surgeon and photographer"Architecture of the Body, Anatomy of Gender and the Art of Surgical Pleasure"Jan. 23, Ballroom, Nittany Lion InnIntroduction/moderator: President Rodney Erickson, Patty Satalia

Dr. David Teplica received the Trustee's Scholarship to complete the master of fine arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. During the same two-year time period between general surgery and plastic surgery training at the University of Chicago, Teplica received a Surgical Scientist Training Grant from the National Institutes of Health and worked in the laboratory at night doing anatomic research. 

"My dual obsessions are both about perception of the body. In photography -- in two dimensions -- I'm concerned about how light plays off of body surfaces and changes the way a person or situation is perceived. Form, symmetry and composition can all be used to evoke specific emotional or psychological responses from the viewer. In the three-dimensional field of plastic surgery, form is altered so that a patient sees himself differently. Interestingly, society may or may not see the changes, but often reacts more favorably to a post-surgical patient who carries himself more confidently through life's daily routine."

Teplica manages a busy private plastic surgical practice in Chicago with patients who travel from across the country and from abroad. His photography has been widely reproduced, the images are exhibited worldwide and prints are held in many museum, corporate and private collections.

Bob ZellnerCivil Rights Activist and Freedom Rider  "50th Anniversary of the Freedom Riders"Feb. 4, President's Hall, The Penn StaterIntroduction/moderator: Nicholas Jones, Patty Satalia

Bob Zellner was born on April 5, 1939, and raised in south Alabama, the second of five boys born to a Methodist minister and school teacher. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Ala., in 1961 with highest honors in sociology and psychology. After teaching at Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tenn., Zellner was the first white southerner to serve as field secretary for SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Arrested 18 times in seven states, he organized in Macomb, Miss.; Albany, Ga.; Danville, Va.; Talladega, Montgomery and Birmingham, Ala.; as well as New Haven, Conn.; and Boston. Zellner was charged with everything from criminal anarchy in Baton Rouge to "inciting the black population to acts of war and violence against the white population" in Danville, Va. From 1963 to 1965, Zellner studied race relations in the Graduate School of Sociology at Brandeis University. During Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964 he traveled with Rita Schwerner while taking part in SNCC's and Congress of Racial Equality’s investigation of the disappearance of her husband, Mickey, and James Chaney and Andrew Goodman.

When SNCC became an all-black organization in 1967, Zellner and his wife, Dottie, joined the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF) to organize an anti-racism project for black and white workers in the Deep South called Grass Roots Organizing Work (GROW). GROW built a residential educational facility in New Orleans and began organizing the Gulf Coast Pulpwood Association while working in Laurel, Miss., where a wildcat strike involving black and white Masonite factory workers and woodcutters spread across the southern states. Zellner spent six weeks in China visiting paper plants, studying pulpwood harvesting and lecturing at the National Institute for Minorities in Peking on SNCC, SCEF and multicultural work in the white community.

Beginning in the mid-sixties Zellner worked on documentary and feature films, traveling to Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and Mexico. Zellner toured college campuses lecturing on how J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI his Zellner's friend and mentor, Martin Luther King, and launched the Counter Intelligence Program to destroy the Freedom Movement.

In the early 1990s, studying at Tulane University for a doctorate in history, Zellner wrote a dissertation on the Southern civil rights movement. While working on the dissertation, he taught the History of Activism at Rosemont College in Pennsylvania and Southampton College of Long Island University. Julian Bond, then-NAACP chairman, and Zellner organized the National Civil Rights Coordinating Committee. Zellner works with the Eastern Long Island Branch of the NAACP and with the Southampton Town Anti-Bias Task Force.

As co-chair of the Town of Southampton Anti-Bias Task Force in 2000, Zellner's right elbow was broken when he mediated a dispute between the police and the Shinnecock Nation. Troopers attacked Zellner and members of the tribe who were protecting ancestral burial grounds from developer's bulldozers. All who were injured were charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. A federal jury, in 2007, agreeing with civil rights attorney Frederick Brewington, ruled that Zellner and the Shinnecock were victims of false arrest, malicious prosecution and denial of civil rights. They were awarded compensatory and punitive damages.

In 2005, Bob Zellner was a featured Civil Rights luminary in the award-winning documentary “Come Walk in My Shoes.” Zellner's memoir, “The Wrong Side of Murder Creek, A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement,” with Constance Curry, was published by New South Books in 2008.

Teeny TuckerBlues recording artist  “Michael Cloeren Productions Presents Women In The Blues with Teeny Tucker"Feb. 18, President's Hall, The Penn StaterIntroduction/moderator: President Rodney Erickson, Patty Satalia

The daughter of bluesman Tommy "Hi-Heel Sneakers" Tucker, this Dayton, Ohio, native began singing in the church choir. A 1994 performance at the Apollo Theatre earned her a standing ovation, and Teeny started her professional singing career in November 1996 when she caught the attention of a German blues promoter and manager who had promoted European tours for her father. Her musical journey has seen Teeny performing at many of the major blues festivals in the U.S., Sweden, France, Switzerland, Belgium and Italy. Teeny was chosen for the cover of July/August 2004 edition of King Biscuit Time Magazine accompanied by a featured story of her musical journey.

Teeny has been invited to appear on the same bill with blues artists such as B.B. King, KoKo Taylor, Etta James, Buddy Guy, The Holmes Brothers, Calvin Owens, Robert Cray, Keb Mo, Deanna Bogart, Kenny Neal, Bobby Rush and John Mayall.

Teeny wrote the lyrics for eight of the 11 songs on her second CD, titled “First Class Woman,” which received substantial airplay on XM Satellite, Music Choice and blues radio stations all over the country. Her songwriting abilities earned Teeny a place as a top 10 finalist in the International Songwriting Competition. Teeny is a two-time, top 3 finalist in the International Blues Challenge, which is held annually in Memphis, Tenn.

In 2008, Teeny Tucker was invited to appear on the main stage of the Monterey Blues Festival. She also was nominated for the 2008 Best Female Blues Artist of the year by BluesBlast Magazine. Teeny's album “Two Big M's,” was ranked in the 15 spot on the Bob Davis list of 2008 Top 25 releases, and reached the No. 6 spot on the Living Blues chart. “Two Big M's” was selected by the Blues Foundation as one of the six finalists for Best Self-Produced Blues CD of the Year. In 2010, she released "Keep the Blues Alive” and recorded a “Sun Sessions" episode for PBS that aired in 2011.

Kenneth WomackSenior associate dean for Academic Affairs, professor of English & Integrative Arts at Penn State Altoona, 2013-14 Penn State Laureate"The End: Authorship, Nostalgia and the Beatles"March 6, President's Hall, The Penn StaterIntroduction/moderator: President Rodney Erickson, Katie O'Toole

Kenneth Womack is the author of two novels: “John Doe No. 2 and the Dreamland Motel” (2010), which earned ForeWord Reviews' Bronze Award for Literary Fiction, and “The Restaurant at the End of the World” (2012), which won the Gold Medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards for Regional Fiction. He is also the author or editor of numerous works of nonfiction, including “Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles” (2007) and “The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles” (2009), which was named as The Independent's "Music Book of the Year."

Ken's latest novel, “Playing the Angel,” will be published in the fall. His next Beatles-related work, “The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four,” will be released in February in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' legendary appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

Ken is professor of English and integrative arts at Penn State Altoona, where he also serves as senior associate dean for Academic Affairs. He is editor of Interdisciplinary Literary Studies: A Journal of Criticism and Theory, published by Penn State University Press, and co-editor of Oxford University Press's prodigious “Year's Work in English Studies.” He has earned numerous awards, including Penn State Alumni Teaching Fellow Award (2006), Northern Illinois University's Golden Anniversary Alumni Award (2009), Penn State Altoona's Honorary Alumni Award (2009) and the Kjell Meling Award for Distinction in the Arts and Humanities (2010). In 2013, Ken was selected to serve as the sixth Penn State University Laureate.

In addition to studying Russian language and literature at the Moscow Institute of Communications, Ken earned bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees in English from Texas A&M University and a doctorate in English from Northern Illinois University. He lives in Altoona with his wife, Jeanine, and their family.

Inge AuerbacherHolocaust survivor and author   "Memories of a Child Survivor of the Holocaust"April 2, President's Hall, The Penn StaterIntroduction/moderator: Nicholas Jones, Patty Satalia

Inge Auerbacher was born Dec. 31, 1934, in Kippenheim, Germany, as the last Jewish child born in the village. She experienced Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) as a 3-year-old child. Her father was a disabled war veteran from World War I and awarded the Iron Cross, which did not save him from being deported to the Dachau concentration camp on Nov. 10, 1938. Her grandfather suffered the same fate, but luckily they both were released from their torture after a few weeks. She was imprisoned from 1942-45 in the Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. Inge and her parents survived, but at least 13 immediate members of her family were killed and many more distant relatives bringing the total to at least 20. Inge is the only child survivor from the State of Wuerttemberg who was deported from Stuttgart, Germany, to the concentration camps.

Inge and her parents immigrated to the United States in 1946. She suffered many years from tuberculosis -- the result from the terrible conditions in the concentration camp. Years of hospitalization, chemotherapy and the loss of eight years of schooling followed. Despite all this, she graduated from Queen's College in New York City with a bachelor of science degree in chemistry. She worked for 38 years as a chemist in medical research and clinical work. She is retired and travels to many countries to speak about the Holocaust, tolerance and human rights. She has been the subject of documentary films and the recipient of many honors including New York State Woman of Distinction, Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Long Island University, New York City, Ellis Island Medal of Honor, Louis E. Yavner Citizen Award from the Board of Regents of New York State and Queens College Alumni Star Award.

Inge is the author of “I Am A Star: Child of the Holocaust,” “Beyond the Yellow Star To America,” “Running Against the Wind,” “Finding Dr. Schatz: The Discovery of Streptomycin and a Life it Saved,” “Highway To New York” and “Children of Terror.” Many of her poems are published and set to music.

 

Last Updated January 9, 2015