Previous Season 2019

Two Thousand Twenty: 20/20 Hopes and Predictions
DATE: Sunday, March 17 @ 3pm
VENUE: Loyola University
McGuire Hall
Andrew White Student Center
4501 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21210
Directions & Parking Info

Panelists discuss the upcoming 2020 Presidential Election with their predictions and the knowledge that hindsight is 20/20.

 

PANELIST Chris Matthews

Host of Hardball on MSNBC

Chris Matthews has been following American politics since the first Eisenhower campaign. As a very young teenager, he became enthralled with the historic rivalry of John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. It was a time of big downtown rallies and ticker tape parades on Wall Street, when supporters wore boater hats and bright campaign buttons.

Hardly a decade later he was engaged in American politics professionally. Back home from the Peace Corps in Africa, he was working in the US senate. Then came his tour in the White House as a presidential speechwriter, followed by his front-row seat as top aide to the legendary Speaker of the House, Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, Jr.

In the late 1980s, Chris switched to full-time journalism, serving as Washington Bureau Chief for the San Francisco Examiner. In this capacity he covered some of the great historic events of the late 20th century, including the fall of the Berlin Wall and the first all-races election in South Africa.

He began his career on television in 1994 as host of a two-hour nightly program on the NBC-owned America’s Talking network. Three years later, he launched Hardball, now on MSNBC, which was the title of his best-selling handbook on real-life politics published in 1988. He has been on the air every weekday night since.

In all the years Chris has been involved in the country’s public life he’s kept an abiding faith in electoral politics, his quadrennial hope that the American people will make the best judgment on who should lead. He has kept that faith through war and peace, good times and bad, through great leaders and not-so-great. He has never lost his vigorous love of democracy and how it can serve to make this country, through all its challenges, a more perfect union.

He is the author of eight books: “Hardball: How Politics is Played, Told by One Who Knows the Game”; “Kennedy & Nixon: The Rivalry that Shaped Postwar America”; “Now, Let Me Tell You What I Really Think”; “American: Beyond our Grandest Notions”; “Life’s a Campaign”; “Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero”; “Tip and The Gipper: When Politics Worked”; and “Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit”.

 

PANELIST Robert Ehrlich

The Honorable Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. is senior counsel in the Government Advocacy practice at King & Spalding. He advises clients on a broad array of policy matters and their interactions with the federal government. Having served as Governor, U.S. Congressman, state legislator, and civil litigator, he counsels clients on an array of government matters, with particular expertise in health care, finance and economic development.

As Maryland’s first Republican Governor in 36 years when elected in 2002, he improved Maryland’s fiscal condition by turning $4 billion in inherited budget deficits into $2.3 billion in surpluses. His pro-growth economic policies helped create 100,000 new private sector jobs. He is an advocate for Maryland’s world-renown technology economy, enacting policies that positioned Maryland as a national leader in education, biotechnology, health care, and minority business advancement. He made record investments in public schools and authored Maryland’s first public charter schools law, enabling more than 7,000 students to attend 30 new public charter schools. He doubled funding for need-based college scholarships, helping college enrollment reach an all-time high.

Governor Ehrlich authored the historic Chesapeake Bay Restoration Act to restore America’s largest estuary. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation called it, “the most important environmental achievement in twenty years.”

Governor Ehrlich launched construction on 123 statewide transportation projects in four years, and managed the most successful military base realignment and closure strategy in the nation. He toughened penalties for sex offenders, drunk driving, and witness intimidation and established Maryland’s first Office of Homeland Security.

Governor Ehrlich earned national commendation for empowering individuals with disabilities. He created the nation’s first cabinet-level Department of Disabilities, for which he earned the “Highest Recognition Award” from the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, among other awards.

Prior to serving as Governor, Congressman Ehrlich won four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. In Congress, he served as a member of the House Majority Whip team, wherein he helped pass comprehensive tax relief, greater access to health care, federal education reform, and the first balanced budget in a generation.

He also served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1986 to 1994, representing Baltimore County. He served on the House Judiciary Committee and was instrumental in shaping state policy on tort reform, juvenile justice, and child abuse and neglect.

Prior to running for public office, Ehrlich was associated with the Baltimore law firm of Ober, Kaler, Grimes and Shriver, where he practiced civil litigation for eleven years. He served as a founding Member and Partner at the law firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLC in Baltimore.

He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Politics from Princeton University in 1979, where he captained the freshman and varsity football teams, and his Juris Doctorate from Wake Forest University in 1982.

Governor Ehrlich has been recognized on many occasions for his outstanding public service including in 2009, when he became one of a handful of U.S. Citizens to receive the Order of Diplomatic Service award from the Government of Korea.

 

PANELIST Lisa Desjardins

Lisa Desjardins is a correspondent for PBS NewsHour, where she covers news from the U.S. Capitol while also traveling across the country to report on how decisions in Washington affect people where they live and work. She specializes in breaking down complex stories and political disagreements into the key pieces that matter, often translating numbers and fiscal information into accessible stories for the audience.

Prior to joining NewsHour, Desjardins spent nearly ten years with CNN as a senior correspondent and Capitol Hill reporter.

Prior to CNN, she reported for the Associated Press, WBTW-TV, WIS-TV, WTS-TV, Reuters, and The Sun News. Desjardins earned a bachelor’s degree at the College of William and Mary and a master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She also received a first level graduate degree in Russian Studies from the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia.

Desjardins is the recipient of a Peabody Award for CNN’s coverage of the 2008 election and a Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi award for national breaking news for coverage of the Haiti earthquake.

 

 

 

MODERATOR Dan Morhaim

Dan Morhaim is a board-certified physician with over 35 years front-line Emergency Medicine experience, and he continues to work ER shifts at a Baltimore hospital. From 1981-1994, he chaired the Department of Emergency Medicine at Franklin Square Hospital while building a 90-doctor 120-employee group staffing 6 Maryland hospitals. Other clinical experience includes Maryland’s medical mission to Kuwait following Gulf War 1, the Indian Health Service (Navajo area), Health Care for the Homeless (Baltimore), ambulance company medical director, and medical director for the 1993 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Orioles Park.

He was elected to the Maryland General Assembly’s House of Delegates for 6 terms and served there for 24 years, from 1995-2019. Delegate Morhaim successfully sponsored numerous bills with bi-partisan support focusing on health care, environment, consumer protection, and improving efficiency in government operations. He served as Co-Chair for the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) Innovations in Health Care Task Force and the National Council of Physician Legislators, a bipartisan organization of physicians holding state office.

As faculty at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Dan taught graduate students. He has served on various boards, including the National Board of Physicians and Surgeons, University of Maryland Biotech Institute (UMBI), Maritime Medical Systems, Brick Mental Health Foundation, Unified Community Connections, Baltimore Humane Society, and Health Care for the Homeless.

He has published numerous articles, both medical and non-medical, and he is a frequent guest on radio and TV. His book “The Better End: Surviving (and Dying) on Your Own Terms in Today’s Modern Medical World” (Hopkins Press) is endorsed by Maya Angelou, Dr. Ben Carson, Hopkins Dean Michael Klag, and others.

He has been recognized for his medical, academic, and legislative work by numerous organizations, including environmental groups, Maryland nurses, physicians, minority business groups, architects, retailers, and many others.

Dan is married to writer and film producer Shelley Cole Morhaim, and they have three adult children and two grandchildren.

 

 

Pleasures or Poisons: The Science & Culture of Food
DATE: Wednesday, April 17 @ 7pm
VENUE: DoubleTree by Hilton Baltimore North
1726 Reisterstown Rd
Pikesville, MD 21208

Food is sustenance, food is obsession, and food is fun. What food means to us—from the mouths of seasoned experts.

 

PANELIST Michael Jacobson

Michael F. Jacobson, who holds a Ph.D. in microbiology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is co-founder (1971) and long-time executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a nonprofit health advocacy organization supported largely by its 500,000 members. In 2017 he stepped down from being executive director and took on the role of Senior Scientist. CSPI focuses primarily on nutrition and food safety. It publishes Nutrition Action Healthletter, the nation’s largest-circulation nutrition newsletter, as well as numerous studies and reports. CSPI is a key player in efforts to prevent diet-related chronic diseases and food-borne illnesses. CSPI both educates consumers and encourages government and corporations to take steps to protect the public’s health.

Since 1971, Jacobson and CSPI have used education, legislation, and litigation to win important reforms. CSPI led efforts to win passage of laws requiring nutrition information on most food labels and calorie information on chain-restaurant menus, a 1990 law to define “organic foods,” and an FDA regulation requiring that trans fat be listed on food labels. CSPI’s studies on the nutritional quality of restaurant meals generated worldwide interest and spurred major chains to add more healthful items to their menus. CSPI also has halted numerous deceptive food labels and ads, through formal complaints to government agencies, discussions with companies, and litigation. Jacobson and CSPI have long been concerned about junk-food marketing aimed at kids, the nutritional quality of school meals, and food safety.

Jacobson is author or co-author of numerous publications, including: Six Arguments for a Greener Diet (2006, CSPI); Restaurant Confidential (2002, Workman Publishing); Marketing Madness (1995, Westview Press); What Are We Feeding Our Kids? (1994, Workman); The Fast-Food Guide (1986, 1991 Workman); The Complete Eater’s Digest and Nutrition Scoreboard (1986; Doubleday & Co.); and Salt: The Brand Name Guide to Sodium (1983, Workman). Jacobson’s two groundbreaking reports, “Salt: the Forgotten Killer” and “Liquid Candy: How Soft Drinks are Harming Americans’ Health,” catalyzed national action on salt and soft drinks. He also led national efforts to get the FDA to ban partially hydrogenated oil (trans fat).

Jacobson is the recipient of the Food and Drug Administration’s Commissioner’s Special Citation and Harvey W. Wiley Medal, Food Marketing Institute’s Esther Peterson Consumer Service Award, American Diabetes Association’s C. Everett Koop Medal for Health Promotion and Awareness, CDC-Foundation’s Hero award, and American Public Health Association’s David P. Rall Award for Advocacy in Public Health.

Dr. Jacobson’s numerous media appearances include many major television and radio news shows. He has published numerous technical papers and letters in the Journal of Molecular Biology, New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, American Journal of Public Health, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. His popular articles have appeared in Smithsonian, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, Christian Science Monitor, TheHill, and other periodicals.

 

PANELIST Alan Hirsch

A life-long Baltimorean, Alan attended Baltimore Polytechnic and then the Johns Hopkins University. He was the editor of the student newspaper there which led to his co-founding the Baltimore City Paper and the Washington City Paper. After selling those, he took time off to tend to his young children and then decide where his passion lay.

The answer was food. He co-founded Donna’s with Donna Crivello in 1993. After 26 years, Alan and Donna closed their last location this past December. Two days after the closing, Alan took on the responsibility of General Manager at Il Paliio, a contemporary Italian restaurant in Foundry Row in Owings Mills, adjacent to Wegmans. Alan was also co-founder of Cosima, the Sicilian fine-dining restaurant in Hampden that has also won much acclaim.

Alan now lives in Owings Mills with his wife, having successfully launched 3 children.

JMore Article – Alan Hirsch: The Authentic Entrepreneur
Baltimore Sun Article – Donna’s Cross Keys

 

 

 

 

PANELIST Chef Malcolm Mitchell

Chef Malcolm Mitchell of Food Network Star (Season 8 finalist), Beat Bobby Flay, NDTV Celebrity Chef Chinese Competition, currently Chef Mitchell is creating a new culinary concept Locality by Malcolm Mitchell, a casual café the feature local ingredients. Serving sandwiches soups & salads, looking to launch in DC & Baltimore.

Thrown into the kitchen at the age of 12, alongside his Charleston-born mother of West Indian descent, Malcolm began his love affair with Southern-Caribbean (what he calls “Geechee”) cuisine. After spending four years traveling the world in the Navy, Malcolm turned his passion for cooking into a career. He learned from various master chefs while he developed his own style of cuisine, and obtained a degree in Advanced Culinary Arts in 2002. Malcolm Mitchell worked in major multi-million dollars hotels, upscale restaurants and production kitchens, also a culinary adjunct professor at Prince Georges Community College.

Shortly thereafter, Malcolm funded his own signature company: M. Mitchell the Chef, a personal chef service & catering that catered upscale events and personal chef services to celebrity, NBA & NFL athletes such as Rashard Lewis, Javale Mc Gee, Antawn Jamison, John Wall, Nolan Smith, Leigh Torrence, Kris Jenkins to name a few. Chef also has an A-list celebrity clientele that includes Chris Tucker, Shelia E. and Mary J Blige.

In 2007, Malcolm launched Brain Food, a healthy school lunch program that provides nutritionally sound meals from scratch while holding true to gourmet style. Chef Malcolm mantra is “We can’t educate a child’s mind in an unhealthy body” The success of Brain Food led to Malcolm’s involvement in Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign to fight childhood obesity, prior to that Chef Malcolm Mitchell was the feature chef for “Party with a Purpose” Democratic National Convention Denver Colorado for Barack Obama.

In 2011 Malcolm teamed up with Spike Mendelsohn of Bravo’s Top Chef on the 1st Kosher Food Truck in Washington DC and has since then been invited to be the featured Chef during the Jewish National Summit at the Red Rock Casino April 2013. He was also invited to the Chinese Culinary Competition in Times Square hosted by New Tang Dynasty to compete against world renowned chefs with traditional Chinese Dishes.

Chef Malcolm is no stranger to mass communications he hosted his own radio show “Chopin’ It Up with the Chef” on Radio One’s WOL 1450 Talk Radio in Washington DC. Malcolm Mitchell and his food have been featured in various magazines such as Food Network Magazine, Sister 2 Sister Magazine, Martha Stewarts Living & KRAVE also Malcolm was a contributing writer for the digital magazines Excell Style and Shirley Strawberry Magazine. He has been seen on Food Network Star (Season 8) Beat Bobby Flay, Fox & Friends and many local news shows in Washington DC and Richmond Va. discussing his Pop-Up Restaurant Concept Promiscuous Palate which has taken him all over the country; New York, Miami, Washington DC, Aspen CO. and Richmond Va.

The stars aligned in Richmond Va. at MINT where Chef Malcolm “Teamed Up” with Amy Ayers, well known restaurateur in Richmond VA to create Mint Gastro Pub by Malcolm Mitchell, voted Richmond Magazine Best New Restaurants 2014. The address is 2501 W. Main St. Richmond Va. 23220. We are excited to introduce the first restaurant featuring a Celebrity Chef in Richmond Va. www.mintrichmond.com

Malcolm Mitchell has consulted to open and develop concepts & menus for many restaurants such as, Legendary Eats by Malcolm Mitchell in the Staples Center LA, Little Mexico Restaurant Richmond VA and the legendary The Howard Theatre Washington DC.

 

 

PANELIST Maura Judkis

Maura Judkis is a reporter for the Washington Post, covering culture, food and the arts. She is a 2018 James Beard Award winner, and her work has been honored by the Association of Food Journalists and the Virginia Press Association.[+]

She has written about the restaurant industry’s sexual harassment problem, developments in smart kitchen technology, and how social media has changed the way we interact with art and cuisine.

Maura has appeared on local and international TV and radio, including MSNBC, CNN, PBS, Al Jazeera, and National Public Radio. She is a 2007 graduate of the George Washington University, and a 2011 arts journalism fellow with the National Endowment for the Arts and the University of Southern California.

She has also written for U.S. News & World Report, TBD.com, ARTnews, the Washington City Paper, and the Onion A.V. Club. She joined the Washington Post in 2011.

 

MODERATOR Deborah Weiner

Deborah co-anchors WBAL-TV 11 News weeknights at 6 and 11 p.m. and reports with the 11 News I-Team.

Since 1991, Deborah has covered Maryland like few others, receiving numerous Emmy awards for in-depth and investigative reporting, along with the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award.

Born in Pikesville, Deborah attended The Park School. She is a 1986 graduate of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. Deborah earned her Master’s Degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Deborah’s first television job was at WYFF-TV, WBAL’s sister station in Greenville, S.C. In 1991, she moved back home to Baltimore to report for WBFF-TV.

Following these first local TV jobs as a reporter, ABC News hired her as a correspondent in 1994, during which time she covered the Clinton administration and Capitol Hill for the network’s local affiliates. She also reported for “Good Morning America” and “World News Tonight” weekend editions.

In 1997, Deborah returned to Baltimore as WBFF’s main anchor. While she left the station after the birth of her second child, in-depth journalism never strayed far from Deborah’s heart. In May 2002, Deborah joined WBAL-TV 11’s special projects unit and the WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team, working on in-depth and investigative reports, as well as covering Maryland politics.

When not working, Deborah’s proudest accomplishment is her family. She lives in Baltimore City with her husband and two children.

 

 

Is it Time for Psychedelics in Mainstream Medicine
Co-Sponsored by the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

 

PANELIST Roland Griffiths

Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., is Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His principal research focus in both clinical and preclinical laboratories has been on the behavioral and subjective effects of mood-altering drugs. His research has been largely supported by grants from the National Institute on Health and he is author of 377 journal articles and book chapters. He has been a consultant to the National Institutes of Health, to numerous pharmaceutical companies in the development of new psychotropic drugs, and as a member of the Expert Advisory Panel on Drug Dependence for the World Health Organization. He has conducted extensive research with sedative-hypnotics, caffeine, and novel mood-altering drugs. In 1999 he initiated a research program investigating the effects of the classic psychedelic psilocybin that includes studies in healthy volunteers, in beginning and long-term meditators, and in religious leaders. Therapeutic studies with psilocybin include treatment of psychological distress in cancer patients, treatment of cigarette smoking cessation, and psilocybin treatment of major depression. Drug interaction studies and brain imaging studies (fMRI and PET) are examining pharmacological and neural mechanisms of action. The Hopkins laboratory has also conducted a series of internet survey studies characterizing unusual psychedelic experiences including unitive mystical-type experiences, experiences associated with adverse events, and experiences that have impacted substance use disorders. This research has immediate applications in therapeutics and for understanding the neurobiology of consciousness, and has broad implications for advancing our understanding prosocial behavior and ethics.

 

PANELIST Mary Cosimano

Mary Cosimano, MSW, is currently with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She has served as study guide and research coordinator for the psilocybin studies for over 18 years. During that time she has been a session guide, involved with all the psilocybin studies and has conducted over 450 study sessions. Mary has trained post doctorate fellows, research assistants and interns as assistant guides. She has administered the psychological evaluations for psilocybin studies as well as other studies in the Behavioral Biology Research Unit.

In addition to her work with the psilocybin studies, she has been involved in the Salvia Divinorum, Dextromethorphan, and Club Drug studies conducted at Johns Hopkins. She taught individual and group meditation to breast cancer patients in a Johns Hopkins research study, and currently teaches at California Institute to Integral Studies (CIIS) for their Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research program. In 2003 she started and has maintained a meditation group for employees in her department. She also has 15 years of experience with direct patient care as a hospice volunteer.

 

 

 

 

PANELIST Elizabeth Tracey

Elizabeth Tracey, MS, has two professional roles at Johns Hopkins Medicine. She is a broadcast and online audio medical journalist, daily producing a one-minute radio spot on breaking medical news that is broadcast internationally, as well as several other podcasts related to medicine at less regular intervals. Elizabeth is also a board-certified clinical chaplain, a role she trained for after participating in a trial using psilocybin to induce meaningful spiritual experiences, under the direction of Roland Griffiths and Mary Cosimano. Since completing her chaplain training Elizabeth has established ‘No One Dies Alone,’ a program that provides a trained volunteer to be present at the time of death for persons whose family and friends are not present, at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

 

 

 

 

MODERATOR Dan Morhaim

Dan Morhaim is a board-certified physician with over 35 years front-line Emergency Medicine experience, and he continues to work ER shifts at a Baltimore hospital. From 1981-1994, he chaired the Department of Emergency Medicine at Franklin Square Hospital while building a 90-doctor 120-employee group staffing 6 Maryland hospitals. Other clinical experience includes Maryland’s medical mission to Kuwait following Gulf War 1, the Indian Health Service (Navajo area), Health Care for the Homeless (Baltimore), ambulance company medical director, and medical director for the 1993 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Orioles Park.

He was elected to the Maryland General Assembly’s House of Delegates for 6 terms and served there for 24 years, from 1995-2019. Delegate Morhaim successfully sponsored numerous bills with bi-partisan support focusing on health care, environment, consumer protection, and improving efficiency in government operations. He served as Co-Chair for the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) Innovations in Health Care Task Force and the National Council of Physician Legislators, a bipartisan organization of physicians holding state office.

As faculty at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Dan taught graduate students. He has served on various boards, including the National Board of Physicians and Surgeons, University of Maryland Biotech Institute (UMBI), Maritime Medical Systems, Brick Mental Health Foundation, Unified Community Connections, Baltimore Humane Society, and Health Care for the Homeless.

He has published numerous articles, both medical and non-medical, and he is a frequent guest on radio and TV. His book “The Better End: Surviving (and Dying) on Your Own Terms in Today’s Modern Medical World” (Hopkins Press) is endorsed by Maya Angelou, Dr. Ben Carson, Hopkins Dean Michael Klag, and others.

He has been recognized for his medical, academic, and legislative work by numerous organizations, including environmental groups, Maryland nurses, physicians, minority business groups, architects, retailers, and many others.

Dan is married to writer and film producer Shelley Cole Morhaim, and they have three adult children and two grandchildren.

 

 

Street & Conventional Art: The Relevance of Museums Today

 

PANELIST Christopher Bedford

Christopher Bedford is the Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director of The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) and the 10th director to lead the museum, which is renowned for its outstanding collections of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. Recognized as an innovative and dynamic leader for building greater community engagement and creating programs of national and international impact, Bedford served as director of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University for four years prior to joining the BMA and was appointed as Commissioner for the U.S. Pavilion for the 2017 Venice Biennale, the world’s most prestigious contemporary art fair, which presented an exhibition of new work by American artist Mark Bradford.

Previously, Bedford held the positions of chief curator and curator of exhibitions at the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University (2008-2012), where he organized a nationally travelling exhibition of the work of Mark Bradford. He also served as assistant curator and curatorial assistant in the Department of Contemporary Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2006-2008) and consulting curator in the Department of Sculpture and Decorative Arts for the J. Paul Getty Museum (2006-2008). Born in Scotland and raised in the United States and the UK, Bedford has a Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College, received a master’s degree in art history through the joint program at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Museum of Art, and has studied in the doctoral programs in art history at the University of Southern California and the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London. Bedford is also a noted author and contributor to publications including Art in America, ArtForum, and Frieze, among others. He is currently a trustee of Art + Practice, Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, and Maryland Citizens for the Arts.

 

PANELIST Gaia

Gaia grew up in New York City and is a 2011 graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art with a Bachelor in Fine Arts. His studio work, installations and gallery projects have been exhibited throughout the world most notably The Baltimore Museum of Art, Rice Gallery in Houston, the Palazzo Collicola Arti Visive in Spoleto and the Civil and Human Rights Museum in Atlanta. His street work has been documented and featured in several books on urban art, including Beyond the Street: The 100 Leading Figures in Urban Art, (Berlin, 2010) and Outdoor Gallery (New York, 2014).

Gaia was listed as a 2015 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Art and Style recipient in Art and Style and was a Fullbright beneficiary to study and paint in New Delhi and Bogotá on behalf of the State Department. In addition to a prolific and precocious artistic practice, Gaia has curated projects funded by the National Endowment for the arts, and consults with brands and NGO’s on creative place-making projects. Gaia lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland, but spends a majority of his time painting murals across the world and has produced works in all six habitable continents.

Website

 

 

PANELIST Janis Goodman

Janis Goodman is an artist and an associate professor of fine arts at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

She has lectured and exhibited extensively in the United States and abroad. Her work is in many public and private institutions such as the Corcoran Gallery, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Mississippi Museum of Art, the Federal Reserve Board and the University of Virginia. Internationally, her work is in collections in Mexico City, Amsterdam, London and St. Petersburg.

Goodman is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts support grant and numerous Washington, D.C. Commission on the Arts grants. She is included in Nancy Heller’s book, North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century.

She co-curated with her husband, art historian Dennis Weller, the traveling photography exhibition “Is Seeing Believing? The Real, The Surreal, The Unreal in Contemporary Photography.”

Beyond the visual arts, Goodman was a nominator for The Helen Hayes Awards for three years. She worked on air with WPFW radio and with the American Film Institute in its early days at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Goodman was born in New York City, lives in Washington, D.C. and maintains a studio along the railroad tracks in Mt. Rainier, Maryland. She has been a panelist on “Around Town” since 2002.

 

PANELIST Kelly Towles

Kelly Towles, a leading Washington, D.C. artist, has literally painted the town since moving to the Nation’s Capital in the late 1990s. His murals, showcased on area buildings and garage doors, and paintings, displayed in local galleries and businesses, are electrically playful. From partnerships with DC Brau Brewing Company, Graffiato, Toki Underground, and D.C. United, to working with the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Greater Washington Creative Community Initiative to revitalize neighborhoods using his creative energy, he is focused on sharing his passion for street art while making an impact on the local community.

Towles’ characters range from the traditional to the fantastical, retaining hints of people, places, and things that positively influence his life. His works show a broad scope of animation by depicting his take on classical portraiture, personified everyday objects, and abstracted figures. Regardless of the subject matter, the artist’s background in graffiti art weaves through all of his work, a constant reminder that art is his outlet.

Towles’ outlook on society and how individuals cope with the emotional roller coaster of daily life transfers from his spray can to surfaces that are in need of creative influence. For him, the release aspect of graffiti art allows him to express his thoughts on who we are as individuals. Internal conflicts and the “what” that hides beneath the surface are particularly interesting to Towles. He paints with the aspiration of making his viewers smile while simultaneously question and think about what they see.

Many of Towles’ formative years were spent in Alice Springs, Australia, where he watched numerous hours of British Broadcast Channel One, a television channel that aired shows including Astro Boy, Monty Python, and British-dubbed Japanese anime. The influence from the cultures captured by this network comes through in his works and ultimately led to his continued fascination with the art and culture of Asia.

From paintings to large murals and installations as well as commercial and community partnerships, Towles’ body of work is expansive. He has shown locally in Washington at the Adamson Gallery and the Hierarchy Gallery. His large-scale installations include exhibitions in Manifest Hope, Manifest Equality, Re:form School, and Submerge. Recently, he worked with Sweetgreen to provide artwork for their Sweetlife music and food festival and the Georgetown Business Improvement District as a contributor to GLOW. Towles is also a curator, bringing together shows for the Art Yards Project at Navy Yards and exhibitions at Adamson Gallery, Curated Gallery, Transformer Gallery, and Washington Project for the Arts. Additionally, he is the co-owner of DC Meet Market, a community market that supports the District’s small businesses and creative community. Most recently, he organized POW! WOW! DC, an international art movement that celebrates culture, music, and art in cities around the world.

Website

 

MODERATOR Tom Hall

Tom Hall joined the WYPR staff as the Host of Choral Arts Classics in 2003. After 10 years as the Culture Editor and then host of Maryland Morning, in September, 2016, Tom became the host of Midday, the highly rated news and public policy program that features interviews with elected officials, community leaders, and thought provoking authors, artists, researchers, journalists, and scholars from around the world.

Tom is also the Host of What Are You Reading? on WYPR. In addition, he has served as the host of the Maryland Morning Screen Test, and the WYPR/MD Film Festival Spotlight Series. In 2006, as the Music Director of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Tom received an Emmy Award for Christmas with Choral Arts, a special that aired on WMAR television, the ABC affiliate in Maryland, for 21 years. He has been a guest co-host of Maryland Public Television’s Art Works, and in 2007, he was named “Best New Broadcast Journalist” by the Maryland Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2009, the Baltimore City Paper named him “Best Local Radio Personality.” In 2016 and again in 2017, he was recognized as “Best Talk Show Host” in the Baltimore Magazine Reader’s Poll.

Tom is invited frequently to speak to professional and community organizations, including the Oregon Bach Festival, the American Choral Directors Association, Chorus America, the College Endowment Association, the Baltimore Broadcaster’s Coalition, The Johns Hopkins Brain Science Institute, the Johns Hopkins Community Conversations Series, and the Creative Alliance. He has moderated panels and given presentations at the Baltimore City Lit Festival, the Baltimore Book Festival, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum, the University of Maryland, the Enoch Pratt Library, and MICA. He has also moderated Mayoral Debates, panels at Light City in Baltimore, and at the Stevenson University Speakers Series.

He appears each year as the moderator of the Rosenberg-Blaustein Distinguished Artist Recital Series at Goucher College. His publications include articles in the Baltimore Sun, Style Magazine, and Baltimore Magazine, as well as many scholarly music journals, and he is the co-author of The Bach Passions in Our Time: Contending with the Legacy of Antisemitism, published on-line by the Institute for Islamic Christian and Jewish Studies. Tom was appointed the Music Director Emeritus of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society in 2017

 

 

PANELIST Triffon Alatzas

Triffon Alatzas was named Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of The Baltimore Sun Media Group in March 2016. The award-winning reporter and editor is a Baltimore native who began his career as an intern at The Evening Sun while a student at Loyola University Maryland. After working at newspapers in New York and Delaware, he returned to The Baltimore Sun in 2002 and has since held several roles including Executive Editor/Senior Vice President, Head of Digital Media, Sports Editor and Business Editor. He oversees the business staff and journalists at The Baltimore Sun, The Baltimore Sun Media Group’s web sites, two other daily newspapers at The Carroll County Times and the Annapolis Capital as well as more than two dozen of the company’s community newspapers and magazines.

Trif led The Sun’s newsrooms through the company’s successful transition to paid digital subscriptions in 2011. He is credited with bridging the print and online divisions of the newsroom and ensuring The Sun’s journalists have an array of skills to maneuver between digital and print platforms seamlessly. He also developed and drove the editorial strategy in BSMG’s 2014 acquisitions of The Annapolis Capital and Carroll County Times. In 2014, he formed The Sun’s investigative reporting team.

Trif served as a Pulitzer Prize juror in 2015 and 2016 at Columbia University. He also is chairman of the state press association’s Freedom of Information Act/Public Information Act subcommittee and is a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ First Amendment committee. He was named one of Maryland’s most influential people in 2016 by the Daily Record legal newspaper. He currently serves on the board of visitors for the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County as well as the board of directors for the Greater Baltimore Committee and the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore.

Trif also has led The Sun through various partnerships during the past several years including reporting fellowships and grants with Marquette University, the Solutions Based Journalism association and the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism. The Sun also has partnered with the University of Baltimore for political polling and primary debates. The Sun and CNN also teamed up in 2016 to produce a television documentary about Baltimore and the case of Freddie Gray’s death. Trif was the keynote speaker for the 2016 O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism conference at Marquette and the 2017 Clarence J. Caulfield Memorial Lecture at Loyola University Maryland.

Trif received a master’s degree in public affairs reporting from the University of Illinois at Springfield and a bachelor’s degree in communications from Loyola University Maryland. He also has worked for news organizations in Springfield, Ill., Rochester, N.Y. and Wilmington, Del.

 

PANELIST Andre M. Davis

The Honorable Andre M. Davis served for thirty years as a judge on four courts: the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, from 2009 through 2017; the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, from 1995 through 2009; the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, from 1990 through 1995; and the state District Court from 1987 through 1990. Upon graduating from law school, Davis served as law clerk to Judge Frank A. Kaufman of the federal district court and then to Judge Francis D. Murnaghan, Jr., of the Fourth Circuit. Before his appointment as a judge, he served as an appellate attorney for the Civil Rights Division for the U.S. Department of Justice, as an Assistant United States Attorney in Baltimore, and as an Assistant Law Professor.

Davis received a BA in American history from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971, and graduated cum laude from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1978. He has received numerous commendations and awards for his leadership of community-based non-profits and attorney organizations. In September 2017, Davis retired from the bench and was appointed by the Mayor Pugh as Baltimore City Solicitor. In that role, he heads the City Law Department, comprised of more than one hundred lawyers and support personnel, and serves as one of five members of the City’s Board of Estimates, the municipal spending authority.

 

 

PANELIST Thibault Manekin

Thibault grew up in Baltimore and graduated from Lehigh University with a degree in business and marketing. His first year out of school was spent in Costa Rica helping to start a United Way International office in San Jose. Upon his return to Baltimore, Thibault spent a year with United Way of Central Maryland. In 2001, he helped create Peace Players International (https://www.peaceplayersintl.org/), whose mission is to bring together children from war-torn countries from around the world through basketball and open dialogue. Thibault helped to grow the program from a $10,000 a year budget to a $3,000,000 operation with a staff of over 150 people worldwide. The program currently operates in South Africa, Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland, Cyprus and North America.

In 2006, Thibault moved back to Baltimore with the idea of reinventing what it means to be a real estate developer. He co-founded Seawall, a community organization made up of passionate social entrepreneurs who believe in re-imagining the real estate industry as we know it. Seawall believes that all facets of the built environment should be used to empower communities, unite our cities, and help launch powerful ideas that create important movements. The company has focused its energy and resources on providing discounted apartments for teachers, collaborative office space for non-profit organizations, community-driven retail, launchpads for chefs, and creative space for charter schools. Seawall’s history of success in its more than 10-year history is due in large part to deep relationships with neighborhood residents and business owners, as well as demonstrated and continuing commitment to responsible, inclusive development that is responsive to neighborhood needs and wants. Everything that Seawall does is built from the inside out, where end users, communities and teams are brought in early with the same sense of pride, ownership and authorship in what is being created.

Seawall’s projects have received numerous awards, including: President Obama’s Champion of Change Award, The Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence, Novogradac – Real Estate Qualified Low Income Community Investment of the Year, United States Environmental Protection Agency – National Award for Smart Growth Achievement, Urban Land Institute – Jack Kemp Models of Excellence in Workforce Housing Award, Council of State Community Development Agencies – Presidential Award for Innovation, Baltimore Heritage – Preservation Partnership Award, NAIOP Commercial Real Estate Development Association – Best Historical Renovation, NAIOP Commercial Real Estate Development Association – Community Impact Award, Baltimore Business Journal – Heavy Hitters, Best Residential Development, Maryland Chapter – US Green Building Council – Special Recognition Award, American Institute of Architects, Residential Knowledge Community – Green Housing Award, Urban Land Institute – Wavemaker Awards.

 

 

PANELIST Maya Rockeymoore Cummings

We offer our deepest condolences to Maya Rockeymoore Cummings on the death of her husband Rep. Elijah Cummings. We will announce a replacement speaker for Maya prior to the Talk.

Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings is President and CEO of Global Policy Solutions, a social change consulting firm and President of the Center for Global Policy Solutions, a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to making policy work for people and their environments. Dr. Rockeymoore Cummings has previously served as the Director of Leadership for Healthy Communities, a national program office of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Vice President of Research and Programs at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), Senior Resident Scholar for Health and Income Security at the National Urban League, Chief Of Staff to former Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY), Professional Staff on the House Ways and Means Committee, and as a CBCF Legislative Fellow in the office of former Congressman Melvin Watt (D-NC) among other positions.

Dr. Rockeymoore Cummings is a policy expert in the areas of health, education, economic security, and technology. She has led the Digital Inclusion strategy for Global Policy Solutions and designed its ADELPHI project which identifies and uplifts equity-centered solutions that help drive social innovations in areas such as health, education, economics, governance. The co-author of the first ever study on the labor market impact of autonomous vehicles, a Google NextGen Leader, and the recipient of the first ever Black Tech Matters award, Rockeymoore Cummings has spoken extensively on the labor market impact of artificial intelligence and tech equity in hiring, investing, product design, and policy.

Dr. Rockeymoore Cummings is the Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party and serves on the boards of the Baltimore Museum of Art, National Association of Counties Financial Services Corporation, the National Academy of Social Insurance, and Year Up Baltimore. She co-chairs the Commission to Modernize Social Security and is a member of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists and the Insight Center Experts of Color Network. The recipient of many honors, she was named an Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow in 2004 and received Running Start’s 2007 Young Women to Watch Award.

Dr. Rockeymoore Cummings has been invited to speak before numerous organizations including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Women Donors Network, Grantmakers in Aging, Drexel University, Columbia University, Congressional Democratic Caucus, Congressional Progressive Caucus, and the National Association of Black Journalists among many other groups. She has published articles in numerous publications including the New York Times, The Atlantic, TheHill.com, and the Huffington Post and has been interviewed in outlets such as the Washington Post, NPR, Sirius XM radio, BET, CNN, and Al Jazeera English among many others.

Dr. Rockeymoore Cummings holds a B.A. in political science and mass communications from Prairie View A&M University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science, with an emphasis in public policy, from Purdue University.

 

 

MODERATOR Tom Hall

Tom Hall joined the WYPR staff as the Host of Choral Arts Classics in 2003. After 10 years as the Culture Editor and then host of Maryland Morning, in September, 2016, Tom became the host of Midday, the highly rated news and public policy program that features interviews with elected officials, community leaders, and thought provoking authors, artists, researchers, journalists, and scholars from around the world.

Tom is also the Host of What Are You Reading? on WYPR. In addition, he has served as the host of the Maryland Morning Screen Test, and the WYPR/MD Film Festival Spotlight Series. In 2006, as the Music Director of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Tom received an Emmy Award for Christmas with Choral Arts, a special that aired on WMAR television, the ABC affiliate in Maryland, for 21 years. He has been a guest co-host of Maryland Public Television’s Art Works, and in 2007, he was named “Best New Broadcast Journalist” by the Maryland Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2009, the Baltimore City Paper named him “Best Local Radio Personality.” In 2016 and again in 2017, he was recognized as “Best Talk Show Host” in the Baltimore Magazine Reader’s Poll.

Tom is invited frequently to speak to professional and community organizations, including the Oregon Bach Festival, the American Choral Directors Association, Chorus America, the College Endowment Association, the Baltimore Broadcaster’s Coalition, The Johns Hopkins Brain Science Institute, the Johns Hopkins Community Conversations Series, and the Creative Alliance. He has moderated panels and given presentations at the Baltimore City Lit Festival, the Baltimore Book Festival, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum, the University of Maryland, the Enoch Pratt Library, and MICA. He has also moderated Mayoral Debates, panels at Light City in Baltimore, and at the Stevenson University Speakers Series.

He appears each year as the moderator of the Rosenberg-Blaustein Distinguished Artist Recital Series at Goucher College. His publications include articles in the Baltimore Sun, Style Magazine, and Baltimore Magazine, as well as many scholarly music journals, and he is the co-author of The Bach Passions in Our Time: Contending with the Legacy of Antisemitism, published on-line by the Institute for Islamic Christian and Jewish Studies. Tom was appointed the Music Director Emeritus of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society in 2017.