George Mason University

Robert Baker has held an array of positions in the sport industry, including various administrative and coaching roles. His B. S. and M. S. are from Penn State, and his Ed. D. is from William and Mary. He currently serves as the Director of the Center for Sport Management at George Mason University.

• Sports Management and Coaching Education

Steven Barnes is Associate Professor of Russian History and Director of the Program in Russian and Eurasian Studies at George Mason University. He teaches courses on Russian and Soviet history while engaged in research on the history of the Soviet forced labor camp system (the Gulag) and the global history of the concentration camp as a modern form of population control. He is the author of the multi-award winning Death and Redemption: The Gulag and the Shaping of Soviet Society, and is currently completing a book on a Stalinist Gulag camp for women arrested merely for being the wives of men who were themselves unjustly repressed.

• Russia’s War on Ukraine: Origins and Update
• Understanding the Soviet Gulag, Understanding Stalinism
• The Origins of Putinism in 1990s Russia

Johanna Bockman is Associate Professor of Sociology and Global Affairs. Currently, she is teaching courses on Post-Soviet Life, research methods, and globalization. More locally, she is studying gentrification in Washington, DC.

• Socialism (not available until Fall 2023)
• Globalization (not available until Fall 2023)
• Gentrification in Washington, DC

Don Boileau is a retired professor of communication at George Mason University. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Oregon. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Korea in 1968-69. A former department chair of Communication for 13 years, he has served as Parliamentarian for such groups as the U.S. Association for the United Nations, the Association of Teacher Educators, and the international Kappa Delta Pi.

He has won the Distinguished Service award for his state, regional, and national communication organizations. Don was President of the Eastern Communication Association and Chair of the GMU Faculty Senate.

• Lyme Disease
• Lyme Disease: Weaponized for Warfare? Truth or Science Fiction
• Your Neighbor Next Door: How Intercultural Communication Helps One Understand Differences
• Why College?
• Themes in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Sermons

Lisa Breglia is Senior Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Global Affairs in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at George Mason University where she has worked since 2007. Her 2006 book, Monumental Ambivalence: the Politics of Heritage (University of Texas Press), examines the struggle over national patrimony between public interests and private sector development in Maya archaeological sites across the Yucatán Peninsula. Her second book, Living with Oil (2013, UT Press), is an ethnographic investigation of the effects of Mexico’s intensive offshore oil industry on Gulf coast communities. Her current long-term research focuses on the relationship between resource security and citizen security in contemporary Mexico, and her most recent project focused on experiential dimensions of climate change among Maya farmers.

• Lives in Ruins: Life in the Archaeological Site of Chichén Itzá

Dr. Jeremy M. Campbell is a cultural anthropologist who studies land conflicts and environmental change in the Brazilian Amazon. His research explores how Indigenous practices of ownership and belonging are mobilized to counter socio-ecological devastation in the region. Campbell is the author of the award-winning book Conjuring Property: Speculation and Environmental Futures in Amazonia (Univ. of Washington Press, 2015), and since 2014 has collaborated on land-demarcation efforts with the Munduruku people and other traditional communities in Brazil. His academic work has been published in PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, Boletín de Antropología, The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, among other places. His research has been supported by the National Geographic Society, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the Fulbright-Hays Program, and has also been featured in international press outlets such as the Guardian, BBC-Brasil, and Mongabay. Through his work at Mason’s Institute for a Sustainable Earth, Dr. Campbell facilitates research partnerships between Mason faculty and communities in pursuit of sustainability and environmental justice locally and globally.

• Land Back: The Movement for Indigenous Rights and Decolonization throughout the Americas
• Amazon Rainforest: Social and Environmental Dimensions of a Crucial World Region

Ethan Carter is the Associate Director of Programs, Well-Being & Assessment for Mason Recreation and has been a campus recreation professional since 2007. He has a Dual Degree in Athletic Training and Fitness Development, as well as a Masters in Exercise Science.  He is a Certified Athletic Trainer, Group Exercise Instructor, Personal Trainer, and Strength and Conditioning Coach.  Mr. Carter enjoys speaking about leadership and a healthy lifestyle for lifelong health.

• Fitness/Health/Leadership

Rose Cherubin is Associate Professor of Philosophy at George Mason University, and is also a member of the faculty in African and African American Studies and in Women and Gender Studies. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of Visual Arts, New York City, and received her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of the City University of New York in 1996, with a dissertation on the philosopher Parmenides (c.515 – c.450 BCE).

• The Beautiful and the Just: Inquiry, Justice, and Value in Alain Locke and Aristotle (Virtual Engagements Only Spring Semester 2024)
• Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece: Philosophy, Poetry, Drama (Virtual Engagements Only Spring Semester 2024)
• Origins of Philosophy in Ancient Greece (Virtual Engagements Only Spring Semester 2024)
• Ancient Greek Philosophy (Virtual Engagements Only Spring Semester 2024)

Dr. Lawrence J. Cheskin is Professor and Chair, Department of Nutrition and Food Studies in the College of Health and Human Services at George Mason University. He is a practicing physician who founded and directed the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center in Baltimore. He has written several books on weight control, and performs research on effective means of dieting.

• Diet and Obesity

Dr. Christan Coogle is an Associate Professor in the Early Childhood Education Program. Prior to obtaining her doctorate she worked as an early intervention provider, preschool inclusion teacher, and K-5th grade special education teacher. Dr. Coogle also worked at the Florida Center for Reading Research where she supported educators and developed early literacy interventions. She completed her Doctoral Degree at Florida State University as a Fellow in the Leadership in Family Centered Early Intervention Fellowship Program. Her area of expertise is early childhood special education. Dr. Coogle teaches courses in early childhood special education, and her research is focused on bridging the research to practice gap through the use of embedded interventions particularly for children identified with autism spectrum disorder.

• Prevent, Reinforce, and Teach
• Supporting Educator’s Use of Best Practice
• Supporting Parents to Enhance Their Child’s Development

Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera (Ph.D. in Political Science, The New School for Social Research) is Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University. Her areas of expertise are Mexico-U.S. relations, organized crime, immigration, border security, social movements and human trafficking. She was the Principal Investigator of a research grant to study organized crime and trafficking in persons in Central America and along Mexico’s eastern migration routes, supported by the Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

Professor Correa-Cabrera is author of Los Zetas Inc.: Criminal Corporations, Energy, and Civil War in Mexico (University of Texas Press, 2017; Spanish version: Planeta, 2018). She is co-editor (with Victor Konrad) of the volume titled North American Borders in Comparative Perspective (University of Arizona Press, 2020). Her two new books (co-authored with Dr. Tony Payan) are entitled Las Cinco Vidas de Genaro García Luna (The Five Lives of Genaro García Luna; El Colegio de México, 2021) and La Guerra Improvisada: Los Años de Calderón y sus Consecuencias (The Improvised War: Calderón’s Years and Consequences; Editorial Océano, 2021).

Guadalupe is Past President of the Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS). She is Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Non-resident Scholar at the Baker Institute’s Center for the United States and Mexico (Rice University) and Fellow at Small Wars Journal – El Centro. She is also co-editor of the International Studies Perspectives journal (ISP, Oxford University Press).

• Human Trafficking (not available until June 2025)
• Drug Trafficking (not available until June 2025)
• Border Security (not available until June 2025)
• Immigration (not available until June 2025)
• Organized Crime (not available until June 2025)

Tyler Cowen is a professor of economics at George Mason University. He is also the Director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

• Economics of the Arts

Dr. Cuellar, Professor of Health Administration and Policy, has extensive experience collaborating with insurers, physician practices and health systems as well as studying Medicaid, mental health, and justice involved populations. She studies the impact of health care price transparency tools and employer wellness programs. Her contributions also include work on identifying and evaluating health system integration, such as hospital systems and physician alliances, and their effects on quality, efficiency, costs, prices, and technology adoption. In other work she has examined the intersection of behavioral health and the juvenile justice systems and related Medicaid policies. Dr. Cuellar recently served on the National Academy of Medicine study panel on “Culture of Health: Committee on Community Based Solutions to Promote Health Equity in the US.” She also was a member of a national collaborative Mental Health Policy network supported by the MacArthur Foundation and spent the 2005-06 academic year as a visiting economist to the U.S. Department of Justice

• Health Policy

Dr. Charles Davidson is the Executive Director of the Political Leadership Academy and serves as Research Faculty at the Carter School. He is also the founder and President of Innovations in Peacebuilding International (IPI), an organization which works to creatively accompany peace in war-torn countries. His current professional pursuits with IPI include the economic reintegration of former child soldiers in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. He has also worked and/or researched in Iraq, Afghanistan, Uganda, Burundi, Colombia, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia, Indonesia and across Europe.

• Religion and Conflict in the USA (Unavailable Spring Semester 2024)
• New Topics in Political Conflict in the USA (Unavailable Spring Semester 2024)
• Praxis in Peacemaking and Peacebuilding (Unavailable Spring Semester 2024)

Rick Davis is Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts, Executive Director of the Hylton Performing Arts Center, and Professor of Theater. From 1991 until the company’s closure in 2012, he was artistic director of Mason’s professional theater company, Theater of the First Amendment (TFA). Under his leadership, TFA became one of the Washington area’s most respected theaters, winning twelve Helen Hayes Awards and producing more than twenty world premieres.

Before coming to Mason, Rick was Associate Artistic Director of Baltimore Center Stage, and has directed both theater and opera across the country. His books include Calderon de la Barca: Four Great Plays of the Golden Age, as well as two volumes co-authored with Brian Johnston (Ibsen: Four Major Plays and Ibsen In an Hour), and Writing About Theatre with Christopher Thaiss. His translations have been produced in regional theaters and universities from coast to coast. He is the librettist for Stations of Mychal, a song cycle premiering in New York City on the 20^th anniversary of 9/11, with music by Kevin Salfen, and Love’s Comedy, an opera with music by Kim D. Sherman, with whom he also wrote a critically acclaimed oratorio, The Songbird and the Eagle, premiered by the San José Chamber Orchestra.  He has contributed entries to the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World and the Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama, as well as writing essays and reviews for a variety of journals and magazines. He has received the Mason Teaching Excellence Award and was named Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Member of the Year. He holds a B.A. from Lawrence University and an M.F.A. and D.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama.

• The American Theater at a Crossroads: Which Way to Turn?
• The Spanish Golden Age–a Dramatic Legacy
• Ibsen and the Birth of Modern Drama

Dr. Davis, Associate Professor, Emeritus, Department of Social Work is an experienced educator and faculty member.  She has a diverse background in teaching classes on Human Behavior across the Life Course, Human Development and specialized content such as Gerontology, Psychology, and Social Work practice.  She is a speaker and trainer on a number of topics. She has been involved in training professionals in the area of culture and diversity, intergenerational issues and child welfare issues, such as children and families.  Her specialized expertise is on trauma and the life course and ways in which the experience of trauma can be managed to include disaster behavior management. She also speaks on Trauma and Long-Term Care.   Her experience working with Aging and Older Adults and her years of training, research, speaking at professional conferences highlight her background and experience in topics like personal safety risk management in the workplace and addressing issues around social isolation, depression, suicide risk management.  She also has experience working with veteran populations.

• Disaster Behavioral Health
• Trauma Across the Life Course
• Understanding Culture and Difference: A New Approach
• Personal Safety Risk Management

Lawyer in private practice; general counsel NSA; senior counselor to the direct CIA; professor of public policy.

• Foreign Intelligence

Dr. Betsy DeMulder is a tenured Professor and Academic Program Coordinator of Transformative Teaching, a master’s degree program for practicing PreK-12 teachers, in the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University. Dr. DeMulder earned a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from St. John’s College, Cambridge University, England. She was a Staff Fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health and joined George Mason University in 1994 under the auspices of the National Science Foundation’s Visiting Professorships for Women program. Dr. DeMulder’s research concerns the study of interpersonal relationships in educational contexts, risk and protective conditions in children’s development and early education, and teacher professional development. Dr. DeMulder has published her research in a variety of professional journals.

• Teacher Professional Development

Robert Ehrlich is a professor of physics at George Mason University, where he has chaired the department. He began his career after receiving a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University in 1964. Prior to joining George Mason, he held faculty positions at the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, and the State University of New York at New Paltz, where he chaired the physics department for five years. Dr. Ehrlich has authored or edited twenty books, two of his recent efforts being “Nine Crazy Ideas in Science,” and “Eight Preposterous Propositions,” both by Princeton University Press. He has also authored around 100 articles on subjects such as particle physics, science education, and nuclear arms control. He is currently doing research on tachyons — hypothetical particles that travel faster than light. More information can be found at http://ehrlich.physics.gmu.edu.

• The Only Way to End the Risk of Nuclear War
• Good News and Bad News on Climate Change
• The World’s Oldest Game
• The Science of Climate Change
• Where Are the Time Travelers?

Heba F. El-Shazli is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Mason University’s The Schar School of Policy and Government (formerly the School of Policy, Government and International Affairs (SPGIA) and an adjunct faculty at Georgetown University’s Master’s Degree Program at the Center for Democracy. She is also an affiliate faculty at the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies (AVACGIS) at George Mason University. She teaches courses on governments and politics of the Middle East and North Africa, Islam and politics, international relations theory, Israeli-Palestinian politics, and role of civil society in democratization. Professor El-Shazli earned a Ph.D. in political science from Virginia Tech (VT) School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA).

She was the Regional Program Director for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) programs at the Solidarity Center (SC), AFL-CIO from September 2004 until June 2011. El-Shazli was also the Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) from 2001 until 2004. Before joining NDI, El-Shazli worked at the American Center for International Labor Solidarity working in Central and Eastern Europe from 1987 to 1994.

Dr. El-Shazli has 28 years of experience in civic and union organizing, institution building, leadership skills training, labor education and training methodologies, political advocacy, and development, implementation and management of international programs. She is fluent in Arabic and English and speaks French very well. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

• The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) – Everything You Wanted To Know But Were Afraid To Ask (Not available until September 2024)

Professor Craig Esherick came to Mason from NYU where he taught in their Master’s Sports Management program for two years.  Previously Professor Esherick served as the vice president for Athletic Relations for CBS College Sports TV Network and still serves as a color commentator for college basketball games. Professor Esherick was a basketball coach for 25 years after graduating from Georgetown University with a J.D. and undergraduate finance degree. Craig is married with two children and the author of five textbooks, numerous chapters, and articles on various topics in the sports industry.  Professor Esherick has eight years of experience as a sport diplomat for the US Department of State, including part of the management team of the Sport Visitors Program.

• Sports Industry, NCAA, Sport Governance, Olympics, Sport Management, Sport Diplomacy and Coaching

Lewis E. Forrest II, is currently an Associate Dean for University Life at George Mason University. The division of University Life cares for the whole student by promoting inclusive well-being and fostering lifelong learning to prepare ethical leaders for the world. Within University Life, Lewis supervises three units – Mason Recreation, The Early Identification Program (EIP), and The Office of International Programs and Services; along with awareness and education responsibilities specific to campus Well-Being and student engagement. He was previously served as the Executive Director of Mason’s Early Identification Program and has experience working with first-generation college students.

He is an Alum of Mason (1996) receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in English with a minor in African-American Studies. In 2005 he received his Master’s degree in Counseling and Development and was recognized by the College of Education and Human Development for outstanding achievement and academic excellence. He also has several years of experience as a Professional School Counselor in Prince William County Public Schools.

• College Access

Rebecca K. Fox, Ph.D. is Professor of Education and Division Director of the Advanced Professional Teacher Development and International Education (APTDIE) in the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She also serves as faculty in the Ph.D. in Education Specialization in Teaching and Teacher Education. Bilingual in French, she taught French in K-16 settings for many years prior to her career in teacher education.

In her 22nd year at GMU, Dr. Fox teaches graduate and doctoral courses in second language acquisition research, teacher research, education and culture, and reflective practice, with a critical focus on global perspectives in teacher education. She mentors and works with doctoral students and is actively involved in ongoing research with educators in P-12 settings and university faculty both domestically and abroad. In addition to her teaching and administrative roles at the university, she is an active researcher with over 100 publications, a co-authored book and one in development, and over 200 scholarly presentations and teacher professional development workshops conducted in national and international contexts. Her areas of research focus on educator professional development and critical reflection, international-mindedness and intercultural competence, and second language acquisition research in global settings. She is the recipient of the 2010 Mason Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2010, she was also recognized by the French government and awarded Chevalier des Palmes Académiques for her service to education and France.  The two overarching areas of her research and scholarship are 1) advanced teacher professional learning and teacher research, particularly the role and development of critical reflection in teacher education; and 2) world language teaching and second language acquisition research in global settings, with a particular interest in the critical role that language and culture play in the development of teachers’ international mindedness and inter-cultural competence. Her work with international teachers and faculty, as well as her ongoing work with U.S. K-12 teachers, continue to provide a broadened context for the application of her research, publications, and scholarly presentations.

Author of over 100 publications, including one co-authored book and a book in progress, and over 250 invited and keynote addresses, and peer-refereed presentations, in national and international locations. Dr. Fox currently serves as PI on a grant for Russian teachers,, Russian-US Teachers ((RUST) for STEM Education; she is also serving as faculty on a U.S Department of State grant in Uzbekistan (with J. Shin, PI, and TESOL International), English Speaking Nation. Dr. Fox has recently concluded her work as PI on a US Department of State University Partnerships grant  with  the University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan; she has also served as Co-PI , researcher, and faculty on over $2 million of grants and funded projects, among them, Pakistan,  Russia, Greece, Taiwan, China, Russia, Greece, France.  She has also worked with and K-12 and university educators in 21 countries.Dr. Fox has led several international grants and directed multiple international teacher education professional development programs. She served as PI of the recently completed GMU-UMT Collaboration for Faculty Excellence in Teaching and Research, a three-year grant (2015-18) funded by the U.S.-Pakistan University Partnerships Program of the U.S.-Pakistan Academic Linkages Program of the U.S. Department of State Public Affairs Section, U.S. Embassy, Islamabad. She was Co-PI of the US State Department-funded program, US-Russia Teacher Professional Development (2009-2011), with W. Frazier, that involved secondary teachers of Language, Science, Technology, and Mathematics in Primorsky Krai, Far East Russia. She was Director of the Taiwan World Language Teacher Professional Development Program (Summers 2010, 2011, 2012), the Beijing Normal University Faculty Professional Development Program (2013), and recently also provided faculty professional development to Pakistani professors from the National University for Science and Technology (2013), Islamabad. She was faculty and researcher on the Greek Teacher Professional Development Program, a grant funded by the Fulbright Foundation and the U.S. Department of State.  She developed and directed the Madrid Bilingual Coordinators Program in summer 2015 and is past chair of the NorthEast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (NECTFL).  Selected recdent international grants and funded project involvement include:

• Co-PI, Russian-US Teachers (RUST) for STEM Education, U.S. Russia Foundation (2019-2021)
• PI, US Department of State, University Partnerships Program, Mason-University of Management and Technology, Lahore: Collaboration for Faculty Excellence inTeaching and Research (2015-2018)
• Director, Madrid Bilingual Coordinators Professional Development Program (2015)
• Director, Beijing Normal University World Language Faculty Professional Development Program (2013)
• Researcher, Faculty, Pakistan Faculty Professional Development Program, National University of Science & Technology (NUST), Islamabad  (2013)
• Director, Taiwan World Language Teacher Professional Development Program (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013)
• Co-PI, U.S. Department of State U.S. Russia Teacher Professional Development Grant (2010-2012)
• Researcher and Faculty, U.S. Department of State U.S. Greek Teacher Grant, (2009-2011)

Dr. Fox is an active member and leader in the professional community where her outreach includes service to professional organizations. For the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), she has chaired numerous committees (Chair/ member of the Pimsleur Award Committee, (2012, 2013, 2016); Chair/ ACTFL/MLJ Birkmaier Award for the Outstanding Dissertation Committee; past Chair of the ACTFL SIG on Research).  She is currently (2019 –) an elected member of the ACTFL Board of Directors and serves as an appointed member of the national ACTFL NCATE Program Audit Board (2006-present). She serves as 2016 Conference Chair and Chair of the Board of the NorthEast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (NECTFL). She has has numerous roles in the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF) and currently is serving on the AATF Task Force Rewriting the K-16 Student Standards.

• Meeting the Needs of English Language Learners in Our Schools: Toward a Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

Don Gallehr retired in June 2021 after having taught at Mason since 1966. He directed the Northern Virginia Writing Project from 1978 to 2011. His scholarly interests include the use of secularized koans in the teaching of writing, strategies for using writing to grieve the loss of a loved one, and ways to help teachers become better teachers of writing. He is the recipient of the David J. King Award for 2008.

• Writing and Meditation
• Using Writing to Grieve the Loss of a Loved One
• Teaching Writing and Using Writing to Learn

Dr. Harold A. Geller is Associate Professor Emeritus, Physics and Astronomy, George Mason University. He is an at-large Director on the Board of the GMU Alumni Association. He was the GMU Observatory Director from 2007 to 2020. He also served as co-Investigator for the Virginia Initiative for Science Teaching and Achievement (VISTA), the largest educational grant ever awarded Mason, from 2011 through 2015. Since 2012 he has served as a Solar System Ambassador for the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In 2009 and 2010 he shared in six Telly Awards for online educational videos in association with Astrocast.TV. In 2008 he received the Mason Faculty Member of the Year Award. From 2006 to 2008 he served as the Associate Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Other past achievements include President of the Potomac Geophysical Society; tour guide and lecturer with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; producer of educational multimedia CDROMs; faculty at Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC); doctoral fellow of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV); and, lecturer/operator at the Einstein Planetarium, National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC. He has authored books, contributed to edited volumes, and has published over 100 papers in education, astrobiology, astrophysics, and biochemistry. Dr. Geller has been interviewed or quoted in the USA Today, Washington Post, Huffington Post, The Arts and Entertainment Magazine, Astrocast TV, WTOP News Radio, News Channel 8, and The Skeptic.

• A Holocaust Story and the Mothers of Maria
• Renewable and Non-Renewable Energy Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
• Nuclear Energy in the 21st Century
• UFOs: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
• Looking for Life in All the Wrong Places – The Search for Life in the Universe

Edward Gero is a 30 year veteran of Washington stages having appeared in over 100 productions, most recently seen as Justice Antonin Scalia in the world premiere of The Originalist at Arena Stage. Earlier he appeared as Mark Rothko in the Goodman Theater and Arena Stage production of RED, Scrooge in Ford’s Theater A Christmas Carol, Antonio Salieri in Amadeus, Donny in American Buffalo, Sweeney in Sweeney Todd, and Gloucester in King Lear. He is a four time Helen Hayes Award winner and fourteen time nominee in both leading and supporting roles in the classics, contemporary plays and in musicals, and four time recipient for performances as Lead Actor for his work as Tom Sargaent in Skylight at the Studio Theater, and Supporting Actor for Bolingbroke in Richard II with Richard Thomas, Hotspur in Henry IV, and Macduff in Macbeth, all at Washington’s prestigious Shakespeare Theatre. His other nominated performances include Richard Nixon in Nixon’s Nixon at Roundhouse Theatre in Bethesda and Macheath in The Beggar’s Opera. Recipient of the 2015 Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship.

He has worked on film and television in New York and Los Angeles, and can be seen in House of Cards, TURN: Washington’s Spies, Die Hard 2, Striking Distance, and heard narrating for Discovery Channel documentaries. He is an Associate Professor of Theatre at George Mason University and guest lectures for The George Washington University’s Academy of Classical Acting at the Shakespeare Theatre and the Opera Studio at the University of Maryland.

He has done extensive work in public policy for the Arts, serving on the National Committee for Standards in the Arts, National Assessment for Educational Progress Planning Committee, consulted for the Getty Center for the Arts, The Edison Project and various panels for the National Endowment for the Arts. He was invited to speak at the National Book Fair on the Mall in the fall of 2003 and to perform at the White House in 2004, both at the invitation of First Lady Laura Bush. He has consulted for members of Congress, CEO’s, the National Teacher of the Year, and many others.

He received his training at Montclair State University in Speech and Theatre and studied privately in New York with Ada Brown Mather, formerly of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He lives in Bethesda with Marijke. Their son, Christian, lives and works in Chicago

In 2015, Mr. Gero was named a Lunt-Fontanne Fellow, a groundbreaking national program designed to strengthen the ability of actors and theatres to enrich people’s lives in communities throughout the country. Lunt-Fontanne Fellows do this as artists, as mentors, as teachers, and as leaders in their communities.

• Scaling Scalia
• Myths, Archetypes, Campbell and Jung: An Actor’s Tools in Creating Arc of Character
• My Year with Rothko
• Acting Shakespeare

Justin Gest is an Associate Professor of Policy and Government at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government. He studies immigration and the politics of demographic change. He is the author of six books:

• Apart: Alienated and Engaged Muslims in the West (Oxford University Press/Hurst 2010)
• The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality (Oxford University Press 2016)
• The White Working Class: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press 2018)
• Crossroads: Comparative Immigration Regimes in a World of Demographic Change (Cambridge University Press 2018)
• a textbook, Mass Appeal: Communicating Policy Ideas in Multiple Media (Oxford University Press 2020)
• Majority Minority (Oxford University Press 2022)

He also co-edits the Oxford University Press book series, “Oxford Studies in Migration and Citizenship.” He has authored peer-reviewed articles in journals including Comparative Political Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, the International Migration Review, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and has edited special issues of Citizenship Studies and Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

He has provided reporting or commentary for ABC, BBC, CBC, CNN, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, NPR, The New York Times, Politico, Reuters, Vox, and The Washington Post. In 2014 and 2020, Professor Gest received Harvard University’s Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize and the George Mason University Teaching Excellence Award, respectively each university’s highest award for faculty teaching. In 2013, he received the 2013 Star Family Prize for Student Advising, Harvard’s highest award for student advising. In 2007, he co-founded the Migration Studies Unit at the London School of Economics (LSE).

• Current Events (not available until September, 2025)

Jonathan Gifford is an internationally recognized authority on transportation and public policy. He directs Mason’s Center for Transportation Public Private Partnerships Policy and has written widely on transportation funding, finance, the Interstate Highway System, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), transportation and land use, technological standardization, and information systems strategic planning. He has more than 30 years of experience in research and teaching in transportation and public policy. Areas of interest include public private partnerships, infrastructure banks, secondary road policy, transportation planning and urban development, environmental impact, and decision making. He earned his master’s and Ph.D. in transportation engineering (minor fields in economics and urban planning) from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BS in civil engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

• Transportation Public-Private Partnerships (P3)
• Urban and Metropolitan Affairs
• Highways, Land Use, Transit and Transportation Policy, Planning & Finance

Daniel Greenberg teaches game design topics in the Computer Game Design program, with a focus on history and analysis. His research tackles the emerging topics surrounding digital games, including their defined role as an art form, the language used to describe them, the manner in which they convey narrative, patterns for developing game literacy, codifying game appreciation, comparing games to other established forms, contributing to the preservation and curation of existing works, and using new media to both illustrate and educate on gaming topics. He has spoken on topics, ranging from transmediation of games and opera to pursuing game literacy, at various national game conventions. He is also the founder of Winterion Game Studios, based in Clifton, Virginia

• Various Game Topics

Jhumka Gupta, ScD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Global and Community Health within the College of Health and Human Services. Her research program applies a social epidemiology framework towards advancing the science of gender-based violence against women and girls (e.g. intimate partner violence, sex trafficking). Specifically, she investigates the mental and reproductive health implications of gender-based violence, and conducts intervention studies aimed at reducing violence against women. Her primary focus is with vulnerable populations, both within and outside of the United States, and includes refugees, immigrants, and communities impacted by conflict. She has authored or co-authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications on these topics.

• The Public Health Impacts of Gender-based Violence against Women

Highly accomplished Technology and Security Officer with proven ability to lead successful corporate information security and technology operations and facilitate corporate growth through technology-business alignment. Special expertise in cybersecurity, solution development, organizational excellence, program management, and process improvement. Doctoral, MBA, and multiple certifications, including CISSP, CRISC, CISM, PMP/RMP, and ISSA member. Adept at directing multinational teams and administering multi-million dollar budgets. Extensive familiarity with education, software development, transportation, health-care, financial, and technology sectors. Excellent presentation, problem-solving, and technical skills.

• The Effects of HIPAA on Privacy and Security
• Defining the role of Health Informatics

Karla Hoffman is an Emeritus Professor in the Systems Engineering and Operations Research Department of the School of Information Technology and Engineering of George Mason University where she had been Chair for five years ending in 2001.  Previously, she worked as a mathematician in the Operations Research Department of the Center for Applied Mathematics of the National Institute of Standards and Technology where she served as a senior consultant to a variety of government agencies.  She received her BS in mathematics from Rutgers University in1969, and an M.B.A. and a D.Sc. in Operations Research from the George Washington University in 1971 and 1975, respectively.

AWARDS:
National Institute of Standards and technology (NIST) Applied Research Award, Commerce Department Silver Medal, George Mason University’s Distinguished Faculty Award(1989), The Volgenau School of Engineering Outstanding Research Award (2010), and the Institute of Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Kimball Medal (2005) and Harvey Greenberg Service Award (2009) and the Omega Rho Plenary Speaker (2008). She is a Fellow of the Institute of Operations Research and the Management Sciences. She has given multiple plenary talks for INFORMS and its associated Optimization and Computing Societies, for the Military Operations Research Society (MORS) and for the EURO Conference in Pozdam. She was part of a team that won the 2018 Edelman Prize for their work on the FCC Spectrum Incentive Auction.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:
Dr. Hoffman served as President of INFORMS in 1999 and is currently on the Administrative Council of the International Federation of Operations Research Societies (IFORS) as the Vice President of the North American Operations Research Societies. She has served on the Boards of INFORMS, The Operations Research Society of America (ORSA), and The Mathematical Programming Society. She has served as Treasurer and Secretary of the Parkinson Foundation of the National Capital Area.

RESEARCH AREAS:
Dr. Hoffman’s primary areas of research are combinatorial optimization and auction design and applications. She consults to the Federal Communication Commission on auction design and testing. She has consulted to multiple federal agencies including DOT, DOE, NASA, and DHS. She has consulted to a variety of corporations on the routing and scheduling of ships, trucks and buses. Including U.S. Airways, Delta Airlines, Northwest Airlines, and American Airlines on fleet assignment and crew-scheduling problems. She has worked with the Disney Corporation and Florida Rock Industries and GrubHub on real-time scheduling. She has served as a consultant on combinatorial optimization problems for telecommunications, transportation, postal services and military organizations and has consulted on auction design related to telecommunications. She has served on the editorial boards of:   Annals of Operations Research, Computational Optimization and its Applications, Information Systems Frontiers, INFORMS Journal on Computing and the SIAM Journal on Optimization.

• Impact of Operations Research on U.S. Industry
• Auction Use by the Federal Government
• Application of Math Modeling in the Airline Industry

Mr. Holder has more than 30 years’ experience in program management. He has successfully led complex information technology software and enterprise infrastructure programs for various clients. Mr. Holder has managed performance-based initiatives in support of the federal government within the Intelligence Community, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as Federal Law Enforcement. He has demonstrated success in directing, managing and leading critical, highly-visible software development and information systems programs and projects both in the federal government and in private industry. In addition, he is considered an industry expert on performance-based contracting (PBC) and Earned Value Management (EVM) delivering against PBC and EVM standards and methodologies. He possesses exceptional abilities in leading diverse groups of personnel, fostering teamwork, partnering with his customer, building consensus, motivating staff, and Customer Relationship Management. Mr. Holder has a MPA from Golden Gate University, San Francisco, CA and a BA in Communications from Howard University in Washington, DC. In addition, he possesses Lean Six Sigma training, Project Management Professional (PMP) certified, ITIL V3 certified. Adjunct Professor (Leadership Studies) George Mason University 2005-Present.

• Leadership

John D. Hollis lists 17 years of daily newspaper experience, including nearly 10 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he covered college football and basketball, the Atlanta Hawks, the Atlanta Falcons, and high schools. He has authored two previous books, including the 2013 hit with former professional wrestler Lex Luger called “Wrestling with the Devil: The True Story of a World Champion Professional Wrestler – His Reign, Ruin, and Redemption.” Over his career, Mr. Hollis has covered the Super Bowl, the Olympics, five college basketball Final Fours, the College World Series, the NBA, and the NFL among other things and served as a daily beat writer covering college football and basketball within both the ACC and SEC. The University of Virginia and Woodberry Forest School alum is currently working as Media Relations Manager at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia

• Medal of Honor Recipient Sgt. Rodney M. Davis (USMC)

Alex Iszard is the Assistant Vice President of Planning, Design and Construction within Facilities at George Mason University. Alex manages the office to include: implementation of capital and non-capital projects, project management, graphic design, major maintenance projects, and interior design. Alex has been associated with Mason for more than 19 years, first as a student, then as a student intern, and for the last 14 years as an employee.

Alex received both his Bachelors (2008) and Masters (2010) of Science in Civil Engineering from George Mason. During his undergraduate time Alex also served in the Facilities Internship Program where he worked assisting Project Managers and Engineers. Following his graduation in 2008, Alex was hired in Facilities as a Project Engineer, a Project Manager, a Senior Project Manager, and was promoted to Director, Contracts and Capital Finance in 2016. Prior this current position, Alex also served as AVP, Business Services for Facilities. He was instrumental in standardizing construction procurement and project management by authoring a Manual and leading in the implementation of a web-based project management software. He also personally managed the addition of 550 thousand square feet of new space valued at over $250 million. His diverse construction management experiences include academic, health care, parking, laboratory, athletic, and utility infrastructure projects. Alex also holds his Professional Engineer License (Civil) in Virginia and is a Virginia Construction Contracting Officer.

• George Mason University Capital Project Highlights

Dr. Izmirli has been teaching in the Statistics Department at George Mason University for the past twelve years. Before then, he taught mathematics and statistics courses at The American University, Washington D.C.

His major research interests are mathematics education; statistics education; history of statistics; history of mathematics; relations between mathematics and other disciplines, such as physics, philosophy, and music; and chaos theory. Dr. Izmirli has presented numerous papers on these and related topics at international conferences throughout the world.

When not teaching classes or conducting research, Dr. Izmirli can be found taking long walks with his dogs or playing an instrument called the alto balalaika with The Washington Balalaika Society Orchestra and the folk music ensemble, Samovar. He also composes music and does some orchestral arrangements.

• Teaching Introductory Statistics
• Philosophy of Mathematics
• Mathematics and Music

Lawrence M. Jackson is an Associate Professor of Dance at The George Mason University School of Dance where he teaches courses in Contemporary, Jazz, Dance History, and Choreography. Professionally, Lawrence devoted several years with the internationally acclaimed modern dance company, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble. Additionally, he has performed as a guest artist in a variety of national and international concert dance venues. Choreographically, he has produced over 95 original choreographic works. Most recently, Lawrence choreographed an off-Broadway production, Separate and Equal, which was subsequently nominated for an AUDELCO Award for Best Choreography. As a scholar, he has published in scholarly journals in the field of Black Dance. Most notably, he authored, co-edited, and published a special edition devoted to Black Dance in the Journal of Pan African Studies, the second occurrence in history, where an academic journal edition was committed solely to Black Dance.

• Black Dance: Housing the Past and the Present

Since 2014, Ambassador Richard Kauzlarich has been Co-Director of the Center for Energy Science and Policy at George Mason University. As a Distinguished Visiting Professor, he also teaches courses on the Geopolitics of Energy Security and Policy Communication at Mason’s Schar School of Policy and Government. From 2011 to 2013, he was Deputy Director of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) in Mason’s School of Public Policy. He served as National Intelligence Officer (NIO) for Europe on the National Intelligence Council (NIC) from September 2003 to April 2011. Before his service on the NIC, he was Director of the Special Initiative on the Muslim World at the United States Institute of Peace. Ambassador Kauzlarich joined the Institute in spring 2002 after a 32-year career in the Foreign Service. He served as United States Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1997-99 and Azerbaijan in 1994-97. He was Senior Deputy to the Secretary of State’s and the President’s Special Representative to the Newly Independent States (NIS) in 1993-94. He was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European Affairs in 1991-93, responsible for relations with the former Soviet Union and economic ties with the European Union. Ambassador Kauzlarich also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs in 1984-86 and as Deputy Director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff in 1986-89, handling global and international economic issues. He was also Director of the Department of State’s Operations Center 1983-84. Ambassador Kauzlarich has served at US Embassies in Ethiopia, Israel, and Togo.

In December 2001, the Century Foundation published his report, “Time for Change? US Policy in the Transcaucasus.” He is a co-author of “Aid During Conflict: Interaction Between Military and Civilian Assistance Providers in Afghanistan, September 2001-June 2002,” published by RAND in 2004. He also co-authored “Strategic International Engagement at the Local & Regional Level: The Case of Northern Virginia,” published by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in 2021. Ambassador Kauzlarich received his AA from Black Hawk College, his BA from Valparaiso University, and his MAs from Indiana University and the University of Michigan. He was a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in the Foreign Policy Program with the Center on the United States and Europe. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Joint Forces Staff College of National Defense University. He is a member of the National Council of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Cyber Operations/IT Advisory Council at Valparaiso University and a member of the advisory board of Clean Trade. He served as Board Chair of Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area.

• Foreign Policy

Jody Keenan is Managing Director, Mason Enterprise Center and State Director, Virginia Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) Network, hosted by George Mason University.

The Mason Enterprise Center is an organization of regional incubators and statewide business assistance programs assisting entrepreneurs and small business owners with business and strategic planning, government contracting, access to capital, marketing, commercialization and innovation, international trade, and incubation.

The Virginia SBDC network, a program of the Mason Enterprise Center, is the most extensive business development program in the Commonwealth providing business advising, mentoring, training and connections to other useful resources to small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs. The SBDC network is a partnership between the U.S. Small Business Administration, George Mason University-Mason Enterprise Center and 15 other organizations, including institutions of higher education, chambers of commerce, and economic development organizations across Virginia.

• Local and Regional Small Business and Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Traci Kendall is the executive director for the Office of Community and Local Government Relations at George Mason University. Ms. Kendall began her career with the university in 1996 and is responsible for the strategic direction of community and local government relations at George Mason University, including tactical partnership and relationship development, outreach programs/initiatives, and regional economic development and multi-jurisdictional collaboration. The mission of the office is to communicate the university’s future plans and current goals and objectives to its various external communities, develop long term partnerships, programs, and information exchange opportunities between the university and its multiple constituencies, and promote Mason’s resources to external audiences.

Over the years, Ms. Kendall has served on the Board of Directors for Leadership Fairfax, Inc., the Central Fairfax Chamber of Commerce, and Volunteer Fairfax, as well as serving on a number of boards and commissions for Fairfax County including the Commission for Women, Millennium Steering Committee, and the 2007 Jamestown Anniversary Community Programming committee.

Ms. Kendall received her BA in public relations and speech communications at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA.

• Discover Mason: A guide to Mason’s Services and Resources for the Community

Dr. Kinter is Director of the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (COLA) which conducts basic and applied climate research on climate predictability on sub-seasonal and longer time scales, focusing on phenomena such as monsoons, El Niño, and climate change. Dr. Kinter is also a Professor in the department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences and the Climate Dynamics Ph.D. Program of the College of Science. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on climate dynamics, predictability and climate change. After earning his doctorate in geophysical fluid dynamics at Princeton University in 1984, Dr. Kinter served as a National Research Council Associate at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and as a faculty member of the University of Maryland prior to helping to create COLA in 1993. Dr. Kinter has published over 110 peer-reviewed papers in academic journals and he is frequently called to serve on advisory boards and review panels for scientific research and supercomputing program.

• Climate Change: Preparing for the New Normal in Virginia

Professor Lair’s work examines warfare and its relationship to American society and culture, with particular emphasis on how knowledge and memories of the past are constructed and disseminated over time. She is the author of Armed with Abundance: Consumerism and Soldiering in the Vietnam War, which examines the non-combat experiences of American soldiers in Vietnam. Her current projects examine Vietnam War soldier photography and legacies of the Vietnam War, in particular how ideas about veteranhood have been constructed and changed over time. Professor Lair’s teaches courses on historical methods, war and American society, and the Vietnam War in the Department of History & Art History.

• Civil War Memorials in Washington, DC (no speaking engagements through August 2024)
• History, Lessons and Legacies of the Vietnam War (no speaking engagements through August 2024)
• War Memorials on the National Mall (no speaking engagements through August 2024)

Professor of School of Computational Fluid Dynamics Uses supercomputers to model and simulate complex natural and man-made phenomena. He simulated the World Trade Center bombing and explosions at American Embassy in Nairobi and the Challenger Space Shuttle. His simulations of the flow of blood through arterial junctions have helped surgeons improve the way they join arteries together in heart by- pass surgery. During the Covid-19 pandemic carried out many simulations and experiments to assess air flow and UV radiation and their effect on the transmission and mitigation of pathogens in the built environment. Active areas of research include fluid-structure interaction, optimal shape and process design, the use of graphics cards within field solvers, compressible and incompressible flow solvers, as well as thermal, control and dispersion solvers. Also active in the simulation of large crowds. Strategic areas of the CFD team include: blast-structure interaction, free surface hydrodynamics, contaminant transport, haemodynamics (bloodflow), optimal shape and process design, and computational crowd dynamics.

• High Fidelity Modeling of Pathogen Movement, Transmission and Mitigation in the Built Environment
• Computing in Science and Society
• Computational Sciences: The Third Pillar of Empirical Science

Dr. Maddox is a health services research and health care administrator with over 30 years of experience. She came to GMU in 1997 from the Nationals Institutes of Health. She is a sought after speaker and prolific author in contemporary health management and cutting edge health policy problems. She holds a doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University. Subject matter expert on: Medical Disasters and Emergency Planning Problem of Uninsurance for health care Health workforce shortages Public Health Planning/Management Health care safety/quality.

• Why Everyone Should Care About the Problem of the Healthcare Uninsured
• The Disaster/Emergency Preparedness of Professional Nurses
• Health Workforce Shortages

Patricia A. Maulden is Associate Professor of Conflict Resolution, Director of the Dialogue & Difference Project, and the Student Engagement Coordinator at the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. Her research and field activities include: youth/child disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration in Sierra Leone; community based peace education in Sierra Leone and Burundi; youth focused palaver management in Liberia; reconciliation and the role of the arts in Kosovo; socio-territorial development, local power, and social justice in Salvador, Brazil; human rights, power, and culture in Bahia, Brazil; conflict resolution and natural resource exploitation in Colombia; incorporating dialogue to explore ongoing political, social, and economic concerns in Ukraine; and inclusive dialogue in University Peace Clubs in Ethiopia. Currently she is researching the theory and practice of civil death in the United States, the implications for the carceral state, mass conviction and mass incarceration, education inside prison, post-incarceration re-entry, and prison abolition. She has conducted practice-focused workshops on dialogue, conflict analysis and resolution, peaceful leadership, building peace, environmental conflicts, and political conciliation in Brazil, Liberia, Columbia, Turkey, and Morocco. Dr. Maulden has trained in restorative justice, problem solving workshops, sustained dialogue, and the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, the pedagogy and practice teaching inside prison with half incarcerated and half outside students. She is also the co-founder of the Praxis Conference.

• Dialogue & Facilitative Leadership
• Civil Death, Incarceration, and Their Effects in the United States

Jeremy D. Mayer is an expert on American presidential elections, public opinion, racial politics, and U.S. foreign policy. He is the author of several books, including Running On Race: Racial Politics in Presidential Campaigns 1960-2000, American Media Politics in Transition, and 9-11: The Giant Awakens. He has spoken on behalf of the U.S. State Department in several countries, and trains U.S. diplomats at the Foreign Service Institute. He has appeared on many international, national, and local television programs, including the PBS Newshour, Fox News, CNN, and others.

• Polarization’s Children: Political Socialization in the Age of Hatred

Laura McCloskey is an Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of West Georgia (since 2019) and has been a regular instructor of history and art history at George Mason University since 2008. She conducted her Ph.D. studies at Trinity College Dublin and was a recipient of an Irish Research Council Postgraduate Scholarship and a predoctoral fellowship in Byzantine studies at Dumbarton Oaks.

Laura specializes in Irish history and art history, focusing on the artistic connections between the medieval Mediterranean and Ireland and the relationship between historiography, artistic expression, and nationalism in Ireland in the modern period. Additional areas of research include Japanese art and spirituality, particularly Zen Buddhism, and socio-cultural exchange between Japan and Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries as evidenced in visual art and literature.

She is on the Executive Board of Southeastern Medieval Association, she was on the editorial board of the journal Eolas, and she has also served as a lecturer for the Smithsonian Associates program in Washington, D.C.

• Japanese Art (Remote Speaking Engagements Preferred)
• Celtic Drawing (Remote Speaking Engagements Preferred)
• Irish History, Art, and Literature (Remote Speaking Engagements Preferred)

Mary McCutcheon taught in the George Mason University anthropology department from 1988 to 2004. Before that Ms. McCutcheon worked at the Smithsonian in the Directorate of International Affairs. Before that she taught at the University of Guam.

Ms. McCutcheon does research on land and marine resource ownership in the Palau Islands of Micronesia. Over the years she taught at Mason, Ms. McCutcheon refined her lecture topics which are relevant today and which have been popular with the audiences. In addition to continuing her work in Micronesia, Ms. McCutcheon is spending her retirement trying to understand the surge of religiosity in our society.

• Utopian Communities
• Scientific Racism: Is this an Oxymoron?
• Hiawatha in History, Legend and Poetry
• Creationism
• Communicating Evolution

John Milliken is currently a Senior Fellow in Residence at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia, having concluded more than five decades of service as a public official and private attorney.

Beginning in 1975, he served as Chief of Staff to Virginia’s Congressman Joseph L. Fisher and was elected in 1980 a Member of the Arlington County Board, stepping down in the middle of his third term to accept the position of Secretary of Transportation in the Administration of Governor Doug Wilder. During his years on the Arlington Board, he was a Member of the WMATA Board and the Transportation Planning Board of the Council of Governments. More recently, he served as Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Virginia Port Authority under six Virginia Governors concluding his service in 2022.

He is the co-editor of “The New Dominion: Twentieth Century Elections that Shaped Modern Virginia,” published by UVA Press, and as an adjunct professor teaches Virginia Politics – 1902-2024 at George Mason University.

• 20th and 21st Century Virginia Politics

Tom Moncure retired from service to the Commonwealth in September of 2017 as Senior Assistant Attorney General and University Counsel for George Mason University. He previously held elected public offices as Clerk of Court for Stafford County, as a member of the House of Delegates, and on Colonial Beach Town Council. He retired from service as a career commissioned Military Police Officer following 26 years in the Army Reserves and Virginia Army National Guard.

• Who is this Lady?
• The Ladies Mason – George’s Two Anns
• George Mason the Man

Dr. Muir is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at George Mason University, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in Rhetoric and Communication, and his research now focuses on the impact of new media on attention and focus.  Star has received numerous teaching and service awards, and most recently was awarded George Mason’s David King Award for career contribution to the teaching and learning environment at the University.  A debate coach for almost 20 years, and a consultant to federal agencies on plain language writing, science writing and infographics, he has recently served as the President of the National Communication Association.

• Understanding Digital Natives
• Managing Technostress
• Critically Assessing Public Information
• Computers and Communication

Amy Murphy, MPP, joined the Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence (ACE!) in 2009. Amy serves as Project Director for the RNR Simulation Tool, an online suite of tools that operationalizes the Risk-Need-Responsivity principles. Amy’s additional projects at ACE include SOARING 2, an eLearning curriculum for criminal justice supervision officers, JSTEPS, an implementation study on contingency management in justice settings, and STRIDE, a randomized trial on the use of medication-assisted treatment among opioid-dependent individuals living with HIV. Prior to joining ACE!, Amy worked with the Center for Evidence-Based Corrections at the University of California, Irvine and with the Criminal Justice Research Division of the San Diego Association of Governments. Amy holds a master’s degree in Public Policy from Duke University, and her primary interest is in applied research for policy application.

• Crime and Public Policy

My research centers on advancing our understanding of how cities interact with the atmosphere in the context of a changing climate, and the impacts these interactions have on people and infrastructure. My work considers cities as complex systems of environmental, human, and engineered domains, and aims to consider all three as critical to understanding the impacts of climate change as well as adaptation and mitigation strategies. I earned my PhD in 2018 from the City College of New York studying building-atmosphere interactions under extreme heat. I then joined the Urban Systems Lab at The New School from 2018 to 2021, where I worked on socioeconomic impacts of climate change in cities across the Americas. Before joining George Mason University in 2022, I completed an appointment with the Office of the US Secretary of Transportation, where I worked on climate policy, environmental justice, and environmental permitting transparency.

• Extreme Heat in Cities: Drivers and Solutions

Mercedes Price is the Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at George Mason University. In this role, she supports partnership development and fundraising efforts with corporations and foundation across the Mason community. Prior to joining Mason, Mercedes spent 13 years working in the international nonprofit realm. Her most recent position was with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, where she focused on business development and fundraising with federal and private philanthropic entities. She is a Maryland native and currently lives in Reston, VA with her family.

• Partnering with Mason, Where Do I Start?

Dr. Rabin received her B.A. in Spanish and French from Pomona College in 1986 and her Ph.D. in Spanish from Yale University in 1993. She has taught at George Mason in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages since 1992. Her current research is on tof post-World War II educational documentaries in the United States.

• Latin American Film

David Rehr is a CEO with over 25 years experience in federal policy, fundraising, and association management. He currently serves as a Professor and Director for The Center for Business Civic Engagement at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is cofounder of The Robotic Process Automation Initiative. Prior to joining Mason, David served as the President and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). Before joining the NAB, Rehr was President of the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA). Under his leadership, NBWA’s visibility in the advocacy community soared, and the association was ranked as one of the top ten most influential lobbying organizations by Fortune magazine.

Rehr, who has a doctorate in Economics from George Mason University, has been named to Washington Life magazine’s Power 100 list, and is annually listed as a Top Association Lobbyist by one of Congress’ “must read” publications, The Hill. Rehr regularly contributes research and analysis on television, radio and print operations all over the globe. His extraordinary skill set of experience and education has made him a nationally recognized leader in business advocacy in Washington, DC.

• Effective Nonprofit leadership
• Communicating with Congress
• Influencing Congress

Dr. Rhodes is an Emeritus faculty member of Mason’s Schar School of Policy and Government, with a focus on American foreign and national security policy. Prior to joining Mason in 2010 as Dean of the School of Public Policy, Dr. Rhodes was on the faculty of Rutgers University, serving as founding Director of the Rutgers Center for Global Security and Democracy and as Dean of the Social and Behavioral Sciences.

• America and the World: The Challenge of Foreign Policy

Dr. Roess is a professor of Global Health and Epidemiology at George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services, Department of Global and Community Health. She is an epidemiologist with expertise in infectious diseases epidemiology, multi-disciplinary and multi-species field research and evaluating interventions to reduce the transmission and impact of infectious diseases. Dr. Roess currently oversees several longitudinal studies to understand emergence and transmission of zoonotic infectious diseases globally, including the emergence and transmission of Campylobacter (with support from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), MERS-CoV (with support from the US National Science Foundation), development of COVID-19 in the first year of life, and the development of the microbiome during the first year of life. She is also leading a number of other COVID-19 projects. She studies breastfeeding patterns and their association with future health disparities and has also studied the impact of hurricanes on morbidity and mortality in the United States, links between food animal production and emerging infectious and zoonotic disease emergence globally, and mHealth (especially apps) technology integration and evaluations to reduce the impact of infectious diseases outbreaks, promote health care and health reduce disparities.

Dr. Roess holds a PhD in global disease epidemiology and control from Johns Hopkins University. Her current studies are in the US, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Ethiopia. Prior to joining academia, Dr. Roess served as the Science Director for the Pew Commission on Industrial Food Animal Production at Johns Hopkins, and was an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer at the CDC. She has served as consultant for the United States Agency for International Development, the World Bank, and Westat Inc. She has a master degree from the UMDNJ/ Rutgers University School of Public Health.

• Emerging Infectious Diseases

Author of nine books on various topics in American politics, including the presidency, religion and politics, media and politics. Selected Past Media Appearances and Interviews: National/International. ABC “Nightline,” ABC “World News Tonight,” ABC “World News Sunday,” ABC “Good Morning America”, NBC “Today Show,” NBC “Nightly News,” CBS “Evening News,” CNN “Inside Politics,” CNN “Headline News,” NPR “All Things Considered,” BBC, CBC, Religion and Ethics News Weekly (PBS), Reuters, Reuters America TV, Associated Press, Knight-Ridder, Gannet News Service, ABC Radio, CBS Radio, NBC Radio, Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, National Journal, Legal Times, National Law Journal, The Hill, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, L.A. Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Milwaukee Journal, St. Petersburg Times, Houston Chronicle, Newsday, Charlotte Observer, Atlanta Journal & Constitution, Philadelphia Inquirer, Minneapolis Tribune, Detroit News, U.S. News & World Report, Des Moines Register, London Independent, London Financial Times, Toronto Globe & Mail, Le Presse, Tokyo Shinbun, National Post of Canada, among others.

• Demographic Change and the Transformation of US Politics
• What is the Political South?

Richard E. Rubenstein is University Professor Emeritus of Conflict Resolution and Public Affairs in the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. Education: Harvard College, B.A. 1959 in History and Literature Oxford College, M.A. 1961 in Jurisprudence (Rhodes Scholar) Harvard Law School, J.D. 1963 Employment: University Professor of Conflict Resolution and Public Affairs, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, 1987-present University Professor, Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, George Mason University, 1988-1991 Professor of Law, Antioch School of Law, Washington, D.C., 1979-1987 Associate Professor of Political Science, Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois, 1970-1979 Assistant Director, Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs, Chicago, Illinois, 1967-1970 Attorney, Steptoe & Johnson, Washington, D.C., 1963-1967 Books Authored: Rebels in Eden: Mass Political Violence in the United States (Boston: Little, Brown, 1970; London: Macdonald, 1970) Left Turn: Origins of the Next American Revolution (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973) Alchemists of Revolution: Terrorism in the Modern World (New York: Basic Books, 1987; London: I.B. Tauris, 1988; Barcelona and Buenos Aires: Granica, 1988) Comrade Valentine: The Story of Azef the Spy (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1993; Warsaw: Bellona, 2001) When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1999; Paris: Editions Decouvertes, 2001; Rio de Janeiro: Fisus Ltda., 2002; Mexico City: Oceano, 2003) Aristotle’s Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Middle Ages (New York: Harcourt Books, 2003; ; Seoul: Mimusa, 2004; Taiwan: Renew, 2004) Thus Saith the Lord: The Revolutionary Moral Vision of Isaiah and Jeremiah (New York: Harcourt Books, 2006) Reasons to Kill; Why Americans Choose War (London and New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2010) Resolving Structural Conflicts: How Violent Systems Can Be Transformed (London: Routledge, 2017).  Books Edited: Conflict Resolution After the Pandemic: Building Peace, Pursuing Justice (with Solon Simmons) (London: Routledge, 2021).

• Critical Race Theory: What Is All The Controversy About?
• War and Peace in an Age of Empire: What About China?
• Political Tribalism in America: Causes and Cures.
• Religious Conflicts and Their Resolution
• Poverty, Inequality, and Conflict

Danielle S. Rudes, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Criminology, Law and Society and the Deputy Director of the Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence (ACE!) at George Mason University (gmuace.org). She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Rudes is an expert qualitative researcher whose methods include ethnographic observation, interviews, and focus groups with over 20 years of experience working with corrections agencies at the federal, state, and local county levels including prisons, jails, probation/parole agencies and problem-solving courts. She is recognized for her work examining how social control organizations and their middle management and street-level workers understand, negotiate, and at times, resist change. Dr. Rudes experience includes working with community corrections agencies during adoption, adaptation and implementation of various workplace practices and reforms including: contingency management (incentives/rewards/sanctions), risk-needs assessment instruments and motivational interviewing. Dr. Rudes serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment  and on the Editorial Board of the journals Criminal Justice & Behavior, Law & Policy, and Victims & Offenders and publishes regularly in journals such as Criminal Justice & Behavior, Federal Probation, Punishment & Society, Law & Policy, Law & Society Review, and Justice Quarterly. Dr. Rudes is also the 2012 winner of the Teaching Excellence Award, the 2015 Mentoring Excellence Award, the 2016 Emerging Researcher/Scholar/Creator Award, and the 2019 Sustaining Mentoring Award at George Mason University, the 2018 Teaching Award from the American Society of Criminology and the 2021 Mentoring Award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. Her forthcoming book, Surviving Solitary: Living and Working in Restricted Housing Units is due out in spring 2022 with Stanford University Press.

• Implementing Policy/Practice Reform in U.S. Corrections Agencies

Stephen Ruth is Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University, and director of the International Center for Applied Studies in Information Technology (ICASIT). His research interests are focused on the problems of policy and strategic planning associated with leveraging the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in large organizations, with particular emphasis on Telework, Green IT, and the Return on Investment for E-Learning. He has received a Distinguished Professor award at George Mason University, and was a Virginia Outstanding Professor honoree.  Dr. Ruth received his BS from the U.S. Naval Academy and MS from the Navy Postgraduate School, and served twenty- three years in the Navy, retiring with the rank of Captain. His PhD is from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He is author or co-author of over one hundred published articles and four books.

• Civil Rights in Biblical Times: What Was It Like Then and Does Anything from That Era Apply Today?
• Familiar Apocalyptic Themes: Modern Speculations about Famous Biblical Threats and Curses
• Prayer in America— an important part of our history, or a distraction?
• Seeing Bible Stories Through a Theatrical Lens
• Powerful Bible Women — Models for Today?

Paolo Saguato specializes in financial regulation and international finance. His research interests encompass the intersection of banking, securities, and derivatives markets ad regulation; the international and comparative dynamics and regulations of financial institutions; financial innovation and technology; and corporate law and theory. His recent scholarship has been published in the Yale Journal on Regulation; the Stanford Journal of Law, Business and Finance; the Virginia Business & Law Review; the Journal of Corporate Law Studies; and The Oxford Handbook of Financial Regulation. He is the co-editor of the first book on the infrastructure of financial markets, published by Oxford University Press. He currently serves as an expert on the Policy Committee on Central Clearinghouses of the European Securities Markets Authority. Before joining Antonin Scalia Law School, Professor Saguato was a Research Fellow at the Georgetown Law Center (Institute of International Economic Law) and a Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he received the Teaching Excellence Award. Before that, he was a Global Hauser Fellow at New York University School of Law where he was affiliated with the Center for Financial Institutions. Professor Saguato earned a BA (Laurea in Scienze Giuridiche) and a JD (Laurea Magistrale in Giurisprudenza) summa cum laude at the University of Genoa (Italy) and a Ph.D. in Private, Business, and International Law at the same university. In addition, he holds an LLM from Yale Law School, which he attended as a Fulbright Scholar, focusing his studies on financial markets regulation and corporate law, and was a senior editor of the Yale Journal on Regulation.

• Brexit, Climate Change, FinTech

Sergei A. Samoilenko, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at George Mason University. He is a co-founder and the director of Mason’s Lab for Character Assassination and Reputation Politics. He teaches courses on variety of topics including: political communication, crisis communication, reputation management, cancel culture, and many others. His research focuses on issues in public relations, reputation management, crisis communication, and post-socialist studies. He is an author and co-editor of Routledge Handbook of Character Assassination and Reputation Management, Handbook of Research on Deception, Fake News, and Misinformation Online, Character Assassination and Reputation Management: Theory and Applications, and Media and Public Relations Research in Post-Socialist Societies.

• Cancel Culture as a New Social Conflict: Reputation Management Lessons

Bill Schneider is Professor Emeritus at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He was the Cable News Network’s senior political analyst from 1990 to 2009. He has been a visiting professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, Boston College, and Brandeis University.

Schneider is the author of Standoff: How America Became Ungovernable, published by Simon & Schuster in 2018. He is also an Opinion contributor to The Hill, a Washington newspaper and website, and a contributing analyst to Hill.TV and Al Jazeera English television.

Schneider has covered every U.S. presidential and midterm election since 1976 for The Los Angeles Times, the Atlantic Monthly, CNN, and Al Jazeera English. Schneider has been labeled “the nation’s electionmeister” by The Washington Times and “the Aristotle of American politics” by The Boston Globe. Campaigns and Elections Magazine called him “the most consistently intelligent analyst on television.” He was a member of the CNN political team that won an Emmy for its 2006 election coverage and a Peabody for its 2008 coverage.

Schneider received his B.A. from Brandeis University and his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University. From 1990 through 1995, he was the Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. Visiting Professor of American Politics at Boston College. In 2002, he was the Fred and Rita Richman Distinguished Visiting Professor at Brandeis University.

In 2003, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University awarded Schneider its Centennial Medal for contributions to society. In 2001, he received the Julian P. Kanter Award for Excellence in Television from the American Association of Political Consultants. He is also the recipient of an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Brandeis University in 2008.

In 2009, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems presented Schneider with a special award “for his extensive coverage and keen insight of the 2008 United States presidential elections . . . showcasing democracy in action” to the world.

Bill Schneider is co-author, with Seymour Martin Lipset, of The Confidence Gap: Business, Labor and Government in the Public Mind. He has also written extensively on politics and public opinion for The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Politico, Reuters, National Journal, NBC News Think, HuffPost, and The Hill.

• Divided We Stand
• What’s Ahead in Politics

Linda J. Seligmann is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at George Mason University. She is a specialist in Latin America with research interests in agrarian issues, political economy, informal economies, and the dynamics of gender, class, and ethnicity, especially in the Andean region. She has published Peruvian Street Lives: Culture, Power and Economy among Market Women of Cuzco and Between Reform and Revolution: Political Struggles in the Peruvian Andes, 1969-1991, the edited volumes, Women Traders in Cross-Cultural Perspective: Mediating Identities, Marketing Wares and The Andean World (with Kathleen Fine-Dare), as well as numerous articles. Her forthcoming book is entitled Quinoa: Food Politics and Agrarian Life in the Andean Highlands. Seligmann also published Broken Links, Enduring Ties: American Adoption across Race, Class and Nation, based on first-hand research on family-making through transnational and transracial adoption in the U.S. and on changing configurations of American families. Seligmann served as Director of the Center for the Study of the Americas at George Mason, was a faculty fellow in Yale University’s Program in Agrarian Studies, and Associate Director of the National Resource Center of Latin American and Iberian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

• Andes, Quinoa
• Transnational and Transracial Adoption and the Changing Faces of American Families
• Peru, Indigenous Populations, Conflict
• Andean Markets

Dr. Amarda Shehu is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science in the College of Engineering and Computing at George Mason University, where she is also Associate Vice President of Research for the Institute of Digital InnovAtion. Shehu obtained her Ph.D. from Rice University in 2008, where she was also an NIH predoctoral fellow in the Nanobiology Program and was dually trained in AI and Molecular Biophysics. Shehu’s research is at the intersection of AI/ML and scientific enquiry across disciplines. In particular, her laboratory has made significant contributions to uncovering the relationship between macromolecular sequence, structure, dynamics, and function. Shehu has published over 160 technical papers with postdoctoral, graduate, undergraduate, and high-school students. She is a 2022 Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and has received several awards, including the 2022 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, the 2021 Beck Family Presidential Medal for Faculty Excellence in Research and Scholarship, the 2018 Mason University Teaching Excellence Award, the 2014 Mason Emerging Researcher/Scholar/Creator Award, the 2013 Mason OSCAR Undergraduate Mentor Excellence Award, and the 2012 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award. Her research is regularly supported by various NSF programs, the Department of Defense, as well as state and private research awards. Shehu is currently the chair of the steering committee of the ACM/IEEE Journal on Transactions in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, where she is also an associate editor. Shehu served as an NSF Program Director in the Information and Intelligent Systems Division of the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate during 2019-2022. She was also an Inaugural Founding Co-Director of George Mason University’s Transdisciplinary Center for Advancing Human-Machine Partnerships.

• AI (Artificial Intelligence) after ChatGPT (Unavailable April – November, 2024)

Susan Shields is a choreographer and teacher. She has been commissioned by numerous ballet companies throughout the country including, Ballet West, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Richmond Ballet, American Repertory Ballet, Washington Ballet, and Boston Ballet II. Most recently, an evening of her work was produced at the George Mason University Center for the Arts. She has performed internationally with many modern and ballet companies. She was a member of Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, and an eight year member of the Lar Lubivitch Dance Company, where she danced principal roles. She has also performed with Mark Morris Dance Group, Eliot Feld, and The Washington Ballet.

• The Art of Choreography
• How Do You Choreograph a Dance?

George is a coach, mentor and adviser to startup founders, growth and venture Company CEOs and their teams serving as a Senior Business Adviser and Counselor at the George Mason’s Enterprise Center’s Small Business Development Center. George has advised hundreds of companies on Lean Start Up Principles, business strategy, strategic marketing, customer acquisition, sales development, channel management, leadership, team building, financial projections, investor preparations and organizational design and much more. George also is an Adjunct Professor at George Mason University’s School of Engineering where he has led a required course entitled “Entrepreneurship for Engineers and Scientists. Professor Siragusa also holds the position as “Mentor-in-Residence” for students and staff George Mason’s Horizon Hall at the central Fairfax campus.

George’s vast and deep experience spans two parallel 30+ year careers as both a former Global C-Suite Executive at ExxonMobil, and as a commissioned U.S. Naval Officer with command leadership positions (Captain, retired both U.S. Navy active and reserve tours), including a tour with a Naval Component Command of NATO. George has served as adviser and mentor for three Northern Virginia Area Accelerators (Smart City Works, Inova Health Personal Health Care and Mach 37) and has been an entrepreneur himself serving on the board of a small, boutique marketing consulting firm in Florida.

George is an engineering graduate of the United States Naval Academy, with a Master’s Degree from Central Michigan University. He is a certified Growth Wheel International Business Adviser and has advanced expertise in International Marketing from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business and International Leadership Studies at Thunderbird University for Executive Leadership. George is a Greenbelt in Lean 60 Process Management and has 11 years of university teaching experience. George also has been a Certified Track and Field Official in Northern Virginia for 24 years.

• Buidling your Business Performance Dashboard Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (1-hour minimum presentation)
• Exploring the Many Sources of Innovation (1-hour minimum presentation)

Sita Nataraj Slavov is a professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government, where she specializes in public finance and the economics of aging (including older people’s work and retirement decisions, Social Security, and tax reform). She has previously served as a senior economist specializing in public finance issues at the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers. She was also a member of the 2019 Social Security Technical Panel on Assumptions and Methods, and she has taught at Occidental College.

Professor Slavov has testified before Congress on issues relating to Social Security, and her work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Health Economics, the Journal of Public Economics, the Journal of Human Resources, the Review of Economic Studies, and the Journal of Public Economic Theory. In addition to her scholarly work, she has been published in the popular press, including in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, RealClearPolicy, RealClearMarkets, US News & World Report, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Professor Slavov received her Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University and her B.A. from the College of William and Mary.

• Social Security and Retirement Policy

Paula Sorrell is the Associate Vice President of Innovation and Economic Development at George Mason University. She oversees an extended team of 200 across Virginia that include the Office of Technology Transfer, the federal and state programs that provide counseling and training to small business and entrepreneurship (SBDC, PTAC, WBC, CDFI, ICAP, ICORPS and others), regional investor events, six business incubators in Northern Virginia, and the maker spaces and entrepreneurial programming at Mason.

She joined after a position as Director of the Economic Growth Institute at the University of Michigan and taught ‘Technology Commercialization’ and ‘Reimagining Companies through Innovation’ in the University of Michigan College of Engineering’s Center for Entrepreneurship. At U of M, she developed and oversaw award-winning programs (IEDC, APLU) to build lab-to-market activities in partnership with 15 public research universities, resulting in 213 new products launched and a $133 ROI. She also was the Principal Investigator for research in economic development, including mapping the entrepreneurial ecosystem, best practices in the development of commercial ethnic districts, and national best practices in technology commercialization.

She served for four years as Vice President of Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Venture Capital for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, overseeing $1B under management and $110 Million in new investments to build Michigan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, including university research and tech transfer programs, technology service providers, tech incubators across the state, seed funding programs, portfolio investments and fund of funds. She developed a series of programs to increase lab-to-market activities, resulting in an expansion of tech start-ups and funding mechanisms that resulted in a 32:1 return on investment for public dollars. She created programs to draw more than $600M of capital and talent to Michigan’s tech economy, and turned around a 65,000 square foot biotech incubator into a profitable entity.

She has held senior management roles at seven early technology companies, holding the chief marketing position. All start-ups resulted in successful sale of the company, or are still a going concern. She was an early founding member of the 20-year-old SBDC Tech Team, a business consulting group that helps early stage companies raise $70 Million each year.

Paula serves on the governing boards of the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority and the American Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Institute, several local economic and innovation-focused advisory boards, and the leadership committee of the State Science and Technology Institute, and is a National Science Foundation reviewer. She holds bachelor and master degrees in business from Central Michigan University, and a certified board member through Harvard Business School’s executive education.

• Technology Commercialization
• Entrepreneurship

Dr. Matthew P. Steinberg is an Associate Professor of Education and Public Policy in the College of Education and Human Development and the Schar School of Policy and Government and the Director of EdPolicy Forward: The Center for Education Policy at George Mason University. Dr. Steinberg is an Affiliated Researcher with the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research, a Faculty Affiliate with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University and an IUR Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Urban Research. Dr. Steinberg’s research addresses issues of educational significance at the intersection of the economics of education and education policy, including: teacher evaluation and human capital; urban school reform; school discipline and safety; and school finance. His work aims to inform local and national policy discussions on the impact of education policies and practices on the distribution of teacher effectiveness and the educational outcomes of students, particularly the most disadvantaged among the population.

• Education Policy

Full time faculty member who specializes in nursing and management; certified in Perioperative nursing and Critical Care; a retired Navy nurse with a vast array of experiences around the world.

• Management in Health Care

June Price Tangney received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from UCLA. After teaching for two years at Bryn Mawr College, she joined the Psychology Department at George Mason University in 1988, where she is currently Professor of Psychology. In 2007, she was honored to become University Professor at GMU. A Fellow of APA’s Division of Personality and Social Psychology and the American Psychological Society, Professor Tangney is coauthor (with Ronda Dearing) of Shame and and co-editor (with Mark Leary) of the Handbook of Self and Identity. She serves as Editor for Self and Identity. Her research on the development and implications of moral emotions has been funded by NIDA, NICHD, NSF, and the John Templeton Foundation. Currently, her work focuses on moral emotions among incarcerated offenders. A recipient of GMU’s Teaching Excellence Award, she strives to integrate service, teaching and clinically-relevant research in both the classroom and her lab.

• Humility: The Forgotten Virtue (Unavailable Spring Semester 2023)
• Shame and Guilt: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly (Unavailable Spring Semester 2023)
• New Approaches to Treatment During Incarceration (Unavailable Spring Semester 2023)

Tojo Thatchenkery (Ph.D. Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University) is an internationally known speaker, consultant, and educator. He is professor and director of the Organization Development and Knowledge Management program at George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia. He is also a member of the NTL Institute of Applied Behavioral Science and the Taos Institute. Thatchenkery is the author of over a dozen books and hundreds of articles. One of them, Appreciative Intelligence: Seeing the Mighty Oak in the Acorn was a Harvard Business Review recommend book. In it he states that the secret to success lies in something that everyone has the ability to do: reframe reality to reveal the hidden potential often present in the most challenging situations. Appreciative Intelligence also helps others to accept the present moment as full of promises, a key ingredient to mindfulness. In another book, Making the Invisible Visible Thatchenkery introduced the concept of quiet leadership as a key driver for innovation in organizations. The quiet leader mindfully observes what’s around her and builds on the strengths of the team. He has also written books on appreciative inquiry, knowledge management, sustainable development, social capital, postmodernism, and information technology and economic development.

Thatchenkery has extensive consulting experience in change management, leadership development, organization design and strategy, diversity, and knowledge management. Past and current clients include Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, IBM, Fannie Mae, Booz Allen, Deloitte, PNC Bank, Lucent Technologies, General Mills, 3M, British Petroleum, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, United States Department of Agriculture, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, USPS OIG, U.S Department of Treasury, Akbank (Turkey), and the Tata Consulting Services (India). His research and consulting also focuses on Asian Americans and organizational mobility. Starting with his special issue of the Journal of Applied Behavioral Sciences on this topic, he is one of the first researchers to analyze the human and social capital dynamics unique to Asian Americans in federal agencies and corporate America. Thatchenkery regularly consults and offers workshops to public and private sector organizations on this topic.

Thatchenkery has over twenty-five years of experience in teaching at various Public Policy, MBA, Organization Development, and executive development programs in the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Behavioral Sciences and the Journal of Organizational Change Management and is the past Program Chair of the Research Methods Division of the Academy of Management (http://aom.org/). He also founded the Organizational Learning Laboratory at the George W. Johnson Learning Center and served as its director from 1995 to 2000. During this time the facility was featured as one of the leading laboratories for organizational learning and knowledge management by the Academy of Management and the Project Management Journal and served clients such as Fannie Mae.

For more information about Thatchenkery, please visit www.appreciativeintelligence.com

• Mindful Leadership for Innovation
• Appreciative Inquiry for Organizational Change and Development
• Appreciative Intelligence®: Develop Leadership, Transform Difficult Conversations, and Discover Common Ground
• Strategies for Thriving in a Changing Environment
• Quiet Leadership: Discovering the New Strategic Advantage and the Hidden Talent in Your Organization

Phil Thomas is an Adjunct Faculty Member at the Schar School of Policy and Government and the Honors College at GMU since 2013 where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on the causes and effects of global hunger and the interrelationship between food security and national security, conducted research, and authored food security related articles. While at GMU, he has organized a series of summits on global food aid and food security while increasing the profile of global food security issues throughout the University. From 1972 to 2013, Phil was an international affairs specialist and Assistant Director with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) where he directed numerous reviews of US international food assistance, Global Food Security Programs, and UN operations. His congressionally mandated reviews and investigations resulted in significant management reforms on the national security implications of global food aid and food security issues in Sub-Saharan Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Central America, and Russia. He also served as a senior member of the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee Task Force on the Iraq Oil-for-Food Scandal. He was elected to the Falls Church, Va. City Council in 1990 as a non-partisan candidate and served from 1992-1994 as Vice Mayor. He earned his bachelor’s and two-year master’s degree in international affairs from California State University in Sacramento. A U.S. Navy veteran, Thomas served from 1963 to 1965 as a Chaplain’s assistant at the US Naval Station in Annapolis and aboard the USS Shenandoah home ported in Norfolk, Va.

• International Food Assistance, Food Security, and National Security

Susan (Susie) Tomasovic is a Visiting Instructor in the Communication Department. Her BS is in Communication & Theatre Arts from the University of Missouri – Columbia, an MA in Communication from George Mason University, and a post graduate certificate in performance from drama school, (University of London, London, England).  Professor Tomasovic teaches presentation and performance intensive courses in Business and Professional Communication, Oral Interpretation, Performance for Communication Arts, Radio/Television Broadcasting, and Public Speaking. She has a background in film, radio, television, and theater. Some of her professional memberships include, Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, National Communication Assn, and the Virginia Assn of Communication Arts & Sciences (VACAS). Professor T. is the Internship Coordinator for the George Mason University Communication Department. Other courses taught are Rhetorical Criticism, Small Group Communication, Interviewing, and Persuasion. In addition, Professor T. is the advisor for the George Mason University Chapter of the National Communication Honor Society, Lambda Pi Eta. She is also VACAS Immediate Past President and Archivist.

• Back to Basics: Strengthening Speaking Skills for a Professional Performance
• Impact Performance in a Media World
• Boosting Teacher Effectiveness through Performance

Mohan Venigalla specializes in transportation systems analysis and planning with an emphasis on sustainable transportation. His early career (for 12 years) was primarily in engineering consulting and research. He has been engaged in his present teaching and academic research career since 2000.

Venigalla’s expertise includes modeling of transportation systems encompassing travel behavior analysis, travel demand modeling, traffic simulation, network analysis, and intelligent transportation systems. His current and prior works covered a range of topics on transportation planning, air quality, transit-oriented developments, shared mobility, and urban freight planning. His skill set includes traditional quantitative and statistical methods, geographic information systems, data mining, and big data analytics. He has developed and applied numerous computer models for solving various transportation planning and traffic engineering problems.

Venigalla’s research on air quality received national acclaim and was recognized by the National Academy of Sciences with the prestigious Pyke Johnson Award. He was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and is a registered professional engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

• Micromobility
• Transportation Planning
• Transportation and Air Quality

Colleen K. Vesely, Ph.D. is an associate professor and Graduate Coordinator of the Early Childhood Education program in the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Her work examines the experiences of diverse, marginalized and minoritized young children and their families. Dr. Vesely’s scholarship also focuses on family engagement, particularly among families from diverse racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, linguistic, and ability backgrounds. Dr. Vesely’s most recent work uses a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach to understand immigrant families’ experiences accessing early care and education, while negotiating parenthood in the US, such that attuned, aligned, and responsive systems for family partnership can be developed. A second area of work is focused on anti-racism and equity in education. In collaboration with colleagues and students in CEHD, Dr. Vesely developed a course equity audit tool for university instructors to examine anti-racism opportunities in their individual courses. Dr. Vesely also contributed to creating tools to examine college-level equity data specific to race and gender. Also, Dr. Vesely co-leads work with ECE faculty members focused on developing preservice teachers’ knowledge, skills, and abilities for implementing antiracist pedagogy in their early childhood classrooms. A third area of work, funded by the Center for the Advancement of Well-being at George Mason University is focused on early childhood education teachers’ psychological and financial well-being, and how this shapes teachers’ interactions with young children. Dr. Vesely’s work is published in Early Childhood Education Journal, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Journal of Early Childhod Teacher Education, Journal of Family Theory & Review, and Journal of Marriage and Family. Her work has been funded by Fairfax County Office for Children, Bruhn Morris Family Foundation, Office for Child Care in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a Child Care Scholar, and the Bernard van Leer Foundation. Dr. Vesely teaches courses focused on family engagement in early care and education, family processes and dynamics, as well as research methods. Dr. Vesely is the creator of the Raising Unicorns website (www.raisingunicorns.org) focused on raising gender expansive children in a gender binary world. Raising Unicorns provides resources for parents, teachers, and caregivers to support and affirm gender expansive children. Dr. Vesely received her PhD in Family Science from the University of Maryland- College Park in 2011.

• Transgender and Gender Expansive Children in Families and Schools
• Immigrant Families
• Sustainable and Accountable Family Engagement in Education

Jennifer Nicoll Victor is Associate Professor of Political Science at George Mason University’s Schar School Policy and Government. She studies the U.S. Congress, legislative organization and behavior, social network methods, political parties, campaign finance, and interest groups and lobbying. Her current book project explores the conditions for bipartisan cooperation among members of Congress. She is the co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Political Networks (2017). She is the co-author (with Nils Ringe) of Bridging the Information Gap: Legislative Member Organizations in the United States and the European Union (U. Michigan Press 2013). Professor Victor has published research in the American Journal of Political Science, the British Journal of Political Science, American Politics Research, Party Politics, Interest Groups & Advocacy, P.S.: Political Science and Politics, and elsewhere. She was awarded the George Mason University Teaching Excellence Award in 2019. She is a co-founding contributor to the political science blog “Mischiefs of Faction,”, and has written for the New York Times, Time Magazine, Politico, Gen by Medium, The Conversation, OUP Blog, LSE US Politics blog. She serves on the Board of Directors of the non-partisan, non-profit Center for Responsive Politics, and is a past-president of the National Capital Area Political Science Association.

• How Did Face Masks Become a Partisan Symbol? (And Other Questions You Didn’t Learn in School)
• Elections and Voting in America
• The State of U.S. Democracy

John Villanueva is the chief strategy and revenue officer at ArmorText. He also chairs the ArmorText board of outside advisors. ArmorText Secure Teams is a proprietary business communication platform built to serve the national security, defense, and critical infrastructure communities. Previously, John served as the director for executive education seminars and national security studies at Williamson College; senior defense policy and technology advisor to the Department of Defense; senior defense strategist for crisis management and continuity of government for the Office of the Secretary of Defense; CEO for a foreign affairs and national security consultancy that provided advice and consultation to the United States intelligence community and its NATO allies, and the chief intelligence advisor for worldwide psychological operations. John is also a highly decorated U.S. Army combat veteran, having earned 36 awards and citations throughout his 21-year career. In addition, John sits on the advisory boards of several companies and lectures on Criminology, Law, and Society at George Mason University.

• Failure of Leadership
• The Threat to American Democracy and Civil Society: Understanding Influence Operations, Violent Extremism, and the Fractures Spawned by Political Partisanship
• The Restoration of Character: A Primer for Leaders
• The Great Facade: How Surveillance Capitalism Almost Toppled the World’s Greatest Democracy and the European Union
• Criminal Justice Reform: Understanding the Root of the Problem and the Cost of the Cure

Steven H. Weinberger is an associate professor of linguistics in the department of English at George Mason University. He earned his PhD in linguistics in 1988 from the University of Washington, and has taught at George Mason University since 1989. He teaches graduate and undergraduate level courses in phonetics, phonology, second language acquisition, and psycholinguistics. His principle research deals with language sound systems, adult second language learning, and foreign accents. He has published extensively and has given numerous papers on second language pronunciation and linguistic theory.

• Foreign Accent
• Alien Language

Philip Wilkerson III. Philip has nearly 10 years of experience in higher education, including financial aid and admissions in addition to career counseling. Philip attended James Madison University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History in May 2008, and began his journey into Higher Education in 2009. While in graduate school obtaining his Master’s in Education with a concentration in counseling from George Mason University, Philip took a career counseling course. It was there that he fell in love with professional development and self-discovery through one’s own professional path. To further strengthen his passion for career counseling, Philip conducted an internship at George Mason Career Services.

After graduation Philip worked at Northern Virginia Community College’s Office of Financial Aid as a Financial Aid Counselor, George Washington University as a Career Coach, and Virginia Commonwealth University as a Transfer Admissions Counselor for the Northern Virginia Region.

Currently, Philip is an Employer Engagement Consultant at George Mason University Career Services. He oversees all industries that fall under the Creative Industries umbrella. Examples of this at Mason include Media, Performing and Visual Arts, Entertainment, Journalism, Public Relations, and Graphic Design. This role serves both student and employer stakeholders, meaning Philip both collaborates with employers to make them aware of the talented students at Mason through invitations to visit campus for fairs, workshops, and unique events and meets with students to market their creative skills through personal branding (resumes, cover letters, LinkedIn profiles, etc.).

One major project Philip oversees is an annual industry week for the Creative Arts. During this week, he coordinates and manages a series of workshops and panels, highlighted by the Arts in the Real World Fair held in conjunction with the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Philip embraces social media engagement by connecting with students and employers via twitter (@PhilipW_GMU) and through an industry specific LinkedIn group page he moderates for students at Mason.

Philip is married to Maggie Wilkerson, a school social worker for Fairfax County Public Schools and has two young children (Bennett, 3 years old and Miles 8 months old). In his spare time, Philip is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, Fraternity Inc. and is affiliated with the Theta Rho Lambda Chapter and host of his own podcast Positive Philter, which discusses such topics as career development, mental health, family, relationships, and positive reframing of everyday situations.

• Developing Your Personal Brand and Using LinkedIn to Network with Others
• Mentorship is Essential to Professional and Personal Growth
• A Strong Leader is a Kind Leader
• Different Styles of Leadership
• Power of Visualization for Long-Term Goal-Setting

Dr. Patrice Winter, PT, DPT, MHA, FAAOMPT, is a Professor at George Mason University in the Department of Global and Community Health where she teaches health related curriculum with emphasis in public health, disease, healthy living and aging well. She is Practicum Coordinator for the Masters of Public Health program placing students regionally as well as internationally.  She was the Life Planning/Eldercare Coordinator at Mason from 2007-2014. She continues to be actively involved in health promotion programs across the university. Dr. Winter practiced physical therapy for over 35 years and was a spokesperson for the American Physical Therapy Association for almost twenty years. She currently holds an appointed position on the Fairfax County Health and Human Services Council.

• Joint Health: You Rest, You Rust (virtual engagements only)
• Healthy Desk Mechanics: Get Fit While You Sit (virtual engagements only)
• Balance: Shuffle Now, Fall Later (virtual engagements only)
• Aging Well (virtual engagements only)
• Aging in Place: Do Not Blame the House (virtual engagements only)

James Witte is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Director of the Institute for Immigration Research (IIR). Witte, who earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1991, has been a professor at Clemson University and Northwestern University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Carolina Population Center and a lecturer in sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Witte has written numerous articles that have appeared in journals such as The European Sociological Review, Population and Development Review, The Russell Sage Foundation Journal, and Sociological Methods and Research. He has also published three books, Labor Force Integration and Marital Choice, the Internet and Social Inequality and The Normal Bar. The Normal Bar, co-authored with Chrisanna Northrup and Pepper Schwartz, was released in 2013 and made the New York Times bestseller list. Dr. Witte came to Mason in the fall of 2009. Major projects have included the privately funded Institute for Immigration Research, the National Science Foundation funded Digital Archive Project, and the University Partnership with the University of Karachi funded by the U.S. State Department, and attitudes of and toward immigrants in seven U.S. metro areas.

• U.S. Immigration Today: Data and Policy