Dahlia Lithwick speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville.
In this podcast, Slate Magazine senior editor Dahlia Lithwick recaps highlights from the Supreme Court’s last term, previews the new term, and talks about current big themes.
Dahlia Lithwick is a senior editor at Slate Magzine, and in that capacity, writes the Supreme Court Dispatches and Jurisprudence columns. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Harper’s, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and Commentary, among other places. She won a 2013 National Magazine Award for her columns on the Affordable Care Act.
Lithwick has been twice awarded an Online Journalism Award for her legal commentary and was the first online journalist invited to be on the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press. Ms. Lithwick has testified before Congress about access to justice in the era of the Roberts Court. She has appeared on CNN, ABC, The Colbert Report, and is a frequent guest on The Rachel Maddow Show. Ms. Lithwick earned her BA from Yale University and her JD degree from Stanford University. She is currently working on a book about the four women justices of the United States Supreme Court.
Ms. Lithwick spoke at the Friday November 13, 2015 meeting of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia. The meeting was held at the Senior Center in Charlottesville. Following the presentation, questions were taken from the audience. The program was moderated by SSV President Bob McGrath.
Elaine Cheng and Eric Rzeszut Speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville.
Individuals ranging from youthful pranksters to international cyber criminals continuously threaten our personal, organizational, and indeed, the security of our nation. This podcast addresses the current status of internet security at all levels including what you can do to better protect yourself in the digital age.
Elaine Cheng
Elaine Cheng, managing director and chief information officer at CFA Institute, oversees all aspects of information technology globally for the organization. Her primary focus is to provide and support organization-wide IT, including infrastructure and architecture, applications development, business process re-engineering, networks, and computer operations. She is also accountable for the future vision and strategy of technology and systems at CFA Institute. Prior to joining CFA Institute, Ms. Cheng worked for M&T Bank in Buffalo, New York, as Group Vice President of Technology Business Services. In this position, she led development planning for major IT investments, managed technology relationships with retail, commercial and internal business units, and overhauled the project management process. She served as vice president of retail operations at the bank prior to this position. Ms. Cheng earned her BA from Vassar College and her MBA from the University of Rochester, both in New York.
Eric Rzeszut
Eric Rzeszut is the help desk manager at UVA’s McIntire School of Commerce, and was previously an IT manager at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) with nearly two decades of information technology and information security experience. Eric is also co-author of the book 10 Don’ts on Your Digital Devices, a guide to data security and digital privacy for nontechnical users published by APress in 2014.
Ms. Cheng and Mr Rzeszut spoke at the Wednesday, October 14, 2015 meeting of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia. The meeting was held at the Senior Center in Charlottesville. Following the presentation, questions were taken from the audience. The program was moderated by SSV board member Rich DeMong.
Six Indigenous Australian writers and two Indigenous American writers read from and discussed their work in an event titled First People: Indigenous Writers from Australia and North America on September 8, 2015 at the Harrison Institute Auditorium.
Each writer spent seven minutes reading from a work of their choice. Karenne Wood (Monacan) led a discussion about Indigenous identity and writing. Questions were also taken from the audience. The speakers were introduced by Kluge-Ruhe director Margo Smith.
Writers speaking at the Harrison Institute Auditorium on September 8, 2015.
The program was intended to inspire writers at U.Va. and in the community by introducing them to emerging and established Indigenous authors, while also creating a visible platform for Indigenous voices to be shared and heard in our community, where these voices are often considered invisible and are sometimes intentionally silenced. “As always, we are excited to provide the opportunity for public dialogue about the politics of Indigenous identities and how these inform the study of human culture. Usually visual art is the platform for this conversation at Kluge-Ruhe, but we are committed to supporting all kinds of Indigenous creativity, and are grateful for the chance to showcase the compelling and relevant works of these writers ,” said Education and Program Coordinator Lauren Maupin.
Indigenous Australian writers Bruce Pascoe, Jared Thomas, Dub Leffler, Jeanine Leane, Ellen Van Neervan, and Cathy Craigie are members of the First Nations Australian Writers Network, an organization that acts as an advocacy and resources service for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers and storytellers. Already in the United States for the 2015 National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection invited them to Charlottesville to participate in the panel reading and discussion.
Kluge-Ruhe reached out to the Mary and David Harrison Institute as a partnering host for this program, as well as Karenne Wood (Monacan) of the Virginia Indian Program at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Wood, being a published poet herself, agreed to participate and moderate the panel. Poet Deborah Miranda (Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen), who has won numerous writing awards and teaches at Washington and Lee, also participated.
“This is an unprecedented opportunity to hear from Indigenous writers on both sides of the globe, to compare our historical and contemporary experiences, and to talk about how we use writing to challenge people’s perceptions,” said Karenne Wood.
Karenne Wood is an enrolled member of the Monacan Indian Nation and serves on the Monacan Tribal Council. She is currently a PhD candidate in anthropology at the University of Virginia, working to reclaim indigenous languages and revitalize cultural practices. She recently edited The Virginia Indian Heritage Trail, published by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, led the “Beyond Jamestown” Teachers’ Institute, and curated the “Beyond Jamestown: Virginia Indians Past and Present” exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. She was previously the Repatriation Director for the Association on American Indian Affairs, coordinating the return of sacred objects to Native communities. She has also worked at the National Museum of the American Indian as a researcher, and she directed a tribal history project with the Monacan Nation for six years. Wood held a gubernatorial appointment as Chair of the Virginia Council on Indians for four years, and she has served on the National Congress of American Indians’ Repatriation Commission.
Bruce Pascoe is of Bunurong, Yuin, Tasmanian heritage. His books include Shark, Ruby-eyed Coucal, Ocean, Earth and Nightjar. His novel, Bloke, was published by Penguin in 2009. The children’s novel, The Chainsaw File, was published by Oxford University Press in 2011. Fog a Dox was published in 2012 by Magabala and won the Prime Minister’s Award for Young Adult Literature in 2013. Dark Emu was published by Magabala in 2014 and was shortlisted in the Western Australia and Queensland Literary Awards. In 2014 he attended the Australian New Zealand Literary Festival in London and in 2015 will visit festivals in Scotland, Mongolia and the USA.
Jared Thomas is a Nukunu man of the Southern Flinders Ranges and an author of young adult fiction. His debut novel Sweet Guy was short listed for three major Australian literature awards and his children’s novel Dallas Davis, the Scientist and the City Kids is published in the Oxford University Press Yarning Strong series. Calypso Summer won the 2013 State Library of Queensland black&write! Fellowship and was included in iTunes best books of April 2014. Leading Indigenous publisher Magabala Books will release Songs that Sound like Blood in 2015.
Dub Leffler is descended from the Bigambul people who survived the fourteen year Bigambul war of the 1840s in Australia. He is an accomplished author and illustrator with over eighteen feature titles to his name and has collaborated with such luminaries as Colin Thompson, Shaun Tan and Banksy. He is Australia’s premiere Indigenous illustrator of children’s literature. Dub’s book, Once There Was a Boy, which he both wrote and illustrated, was one of the biggest children’s books of 2011 in Australia.
Jeanine Leane is a Wiradjuri woman from southwest New South Wales with a Ph.D. in Literature and Aboriginal representation. She currently holds a post-doctoral fellowship at the Australian National University. In 2010, Jeanine’s first volume of poetry, Dark Secrets After Dreaming: AD 1887-1961 won the Scanlon Prize for Indigenous Poetry from the Australian Poets’ Union and her manuscript, Purple Threads won the David Unaipon Award at the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. Jeanine is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery grant (2011) for her project Reading the Nation: A critical study of Aboriginal/Settler representation in the contemporary Australian Literary Landscape and a Discovery Indigenous Award (2013) for her new project The David Unaipon Award: Shaping the literary and cultural history of Aboriginal writing in Australia.
Ellen Van Neervan is a Yugambeh woman from South-East Queensland, Australia. She is the author of the award-winning Heat and Light (UQP, 2014). Divided into three sections, it is inspired by the intersection of familial history, location and identity. Ellen has been awarded a Queensland Writers Fellowship to pursue her next project in 2015, a novel about Aboriginal relationships with mega fauna. She lives in Brisbane where she works as the senior editor of the black&write! project at the State Library of Queensland, which aims to support and promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers and editors.
Cathy Craigie is a Gamilaroi and Anaiwon woman from northern New South Wales. She has worked in Aboriginal Affairs for over thirty years. She was one of the original founders of Koori Radio/Gadigal Information Service and has worked in senior positions with the Australia Council and the New South Wales Department of Aboriginal Affairs. Cathy has held a variety of key positions in other Aboriginal arts, health and housing organizations at national and international levels. She is also an aspiring writer and has written several plays and stories. Cathy was Festival Curator, Guwanyi (to tell) the National Aboriginal Writers’ Festival held at the New South Wales Writers Centre.
Deborah Miranda is a Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen woman of California. She was born in Los Angeles to an Esselen/Chumash father and a mother of French ancestry. She grew up in Washington State, earning a BS in teaching moderate special-needs children from Wheelock College in 1983 and an MA and PhD in English from the University of Washington. Miranda is a poet and her collections of poetry include Indian Cartography: Poems (1999), winner of the Diane Decorah Memorial First Book Award from the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas; and The Zen of La Llorona (2005), nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. Miranda also received the 2000 Writer of the Year Award for Poetry from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. Her mixed-genre collection Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir (2013) won a Gold Medal from the Independent Publisher’s Association and was shortlisted for the William Saroyan Award.
Candidates for the contested Virginia Senate District 17, (Ned Gallaway (D)) House District 25, (Angela Lynn (D)) and the Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney (Denise Lunsford (D), Tobert Tracci (R)) participated in a forum sponsored by the Senior Statesmen of Virginia.
Delegate Steve Landes (R) and Senator Bryce Reeves (R) both responded that they have scheduling conflicts due to prior commitments and will be unable to attend the forum.
Candidates Speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville
Candidates for the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and Charlottesville City Council gave their views on many of the issues and priorities for the County and City.
City of Charlottesville candidates speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville. The event was moderated by WINA’s Chris Callahan.
Albemarle County candidates speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville.
The candidates spoke at the Wednesday, August 12, 2015 meeting of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia. The meeting was held at the Senior Center in Charlottesville. Following the presentation, questions were taken from the audience. The program was moderated by senior reporter for 1070 WINA News Radio Chris Callahan. Chris has been with the station for 41 years and was honored in 2014 by the Associated Press Broadcasters for the Best News Operation of the Year.
The officers of the Charlottesville Area League of Women Voters: Kerin Yates, Gerry Yemen and Patricia Hurst, discuss the mission of the League of Women Voters, its history and the positions adopted by the organization.
From left to right: Gerry Yemen, Kerin Yates and Pat Hurst speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville.
Kerin Yates has served as president of the LWV of the Charlottesville Area since July 2012. She is a 1958 graduate of Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA., and was a research chemist at NIH for 17 years and was business manager for a medical company in Pittsburgh for 15 years. Kerin is the treasurer of OneVirginia2021 Foundation and volunteers as a substitute driver for Meals on Wheels. Kerin serves as an election official for the County of Albemarle and has been a resident of Albemarle County for eight years. She is married to Professor John T. Yates, Jr. They have two sons and six grandchildren.
Gerry Yemen is the secretary of the LWV of the Charlottesville Area and is a senior researcher with the Darden Graduate School of Business. With any number of organizations, associations, and volunteer opportunities available, why would anyone choose to join the LWV? Gerry Yemen, who became a member shortly following graduate school, discussed what attracted her, why she stays with the organization, and offered her thoughts on how the league’s future relevance.
Patricia Hurst is the treasurer of the LWV and has been a member of the Charlottesville Area Chapter for six years. During this time she has served as president, treasurer, and secretary for the local league. She retired from a 40-year career in computer software engineering which began at NASA Langley in Virginia and ended with the SBA in Washington D.C. In between she worked for various companies in California, Georgia, New York, and London. As an instructor in software engineering, she traveled extensively in the US and other countries. For the past fourteen years, she has owned and actively managed multifamily properties. Pat has two daughters who live in upstate New York and five grandchildren.
The officers spoke at the Wednesday, June 10, 2015 meeting of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia. The meeting was held at the Senior Center in Charlottesville. Following the presentation, questions were taken from the audience. The program was moderated by SSV Board Member Jeff Gould.
Leni Sorensen speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville.
On April 30, 2015, Leni Sorensen presented the sixth and final part of our CPN Thursday series entitled The Civil War Through Different Lenses (2015).
“In 1820 only 12% of the enslaved had been born in Africa. By the decade leading to the Civil War, American Slaves were Christian, with English their first and only language,” says Sorensen in this interesting talk about the role slaves played in the development of the plantation system.
Leni Sorensen majored in history at Mary Baldwin, and earned her MA and PhD in American Studies at the College of William and Mary. For over thirty years she worked as a university lecturer, museum consultant, hands on presenter and researcher with a focus on African American slavery, American agriculture and Woman’s work in colonial and post-colonial America. Formerly Monticello’s African-American Research Historian, Ms. Sorensen teaches rural life skills such as canning, butchering, and cookery from her home in Western Albemarle County.
The lecture series was organized by award-winning historian and Charlottesville-based author, lecturer, and cartographer Rick Britton in conjunction with the Senior Center in Charlottesville.
Click here to listen to all six parts of this series.
Beth Parnicza speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville.
On April 23, 2015, Beth Parnicza presented the fifth of our six part CPN Thursday series entitled The Civil War Through Different Lenses (2015).
In this podcast, Ms. Parnicza shares her personal memories of four years of the American Civil War sesquicentennial visiting and tour leading, a review of the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park’s four commemorations as well as a look at the broader picture of trying to understand what the sesquicentennial was about and what it means to us now and in the future.
Beth Parnicza is an historian with the National Parks Service at the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park where she supervises the Chancellorsville Battlefield Center and manages volunteers and social media. A 2011 graduate of West Virginia University, her research interests focuses largely on the human element of the Civil War, particularly in understanding the steps taken by individuals toward a harder kind of war and their motivations to do so.
The lecture series was organized by award-winning historian and Charlottesville-based author, lecturer, and cartographer Rick Britton in conjunction with the Senior Center in Charlottesville.
Click here to listen to all six parts of this series.
Ron Wilson speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville.
On April 16, 2015, Ron Wilson presented the fourth lecture in our six part CPN Thursday series entitled The Civil War Through Different Lenses (2015).
Listen as Wilson describes with exquisite detail the final 90 minutes of the American Civil War as it happened on April 9, 1865, and the two great men that ended it.
Mr. Wilson graduated from Miami University. During the Vietnam War he commanded a rifle platoon and served as headquarters commandant for the 1st Marine Regiment.
The lecture series was organized by award-winning historian and Charlottesville-based author, lecturer, and cartographer Rick Britton in conjunction with the Senior Center in Charlottesville.
Click here to listen to all six parts of this series.
Rick Britton speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville.
On April 9, 2015, Rick Britton presented the third lecture in our six part CPN Thursday series entitled The Civil War Through Different Lenses (2015).
In this podcast you will learn about the role that Monticello played in the American Civil War. At the commencement of the war, Monticello was the property of Uriah Phillips Levy, who had purchased it in 1834. Listen as Rick tells the story of how Monticello’s ownership changed hands several times as the war progressed.
Rick Britton is a historian of the Old Dominion who specializes in 18th- and 19th-century Virginia history. Two of his main areas of expertise are the American Civil War and the life and times of our third president, Thomas Jefferson. Along with his writing, Rick conducts tours of Civil War battlefields, teaches classes on the history of central Virginia, organizes history programming for the Senior Center in Charlottesville, illustrates maps for history books, and lectures all across Virginia on a wide range of topics. With over 200 published articles and essays under his belt, he’s the author of Albemarle & Charlottesville: An Illustrated History and Jefferson: A Monticello Sampler for which he was awarded a medal for non-fiction at New York City’s Book Expo, the nation’s largest book convention. His newest book, Virginia Vignettes (Vol. 1) – Famous Characters & Events in Central Virginia History, is the first of a new series featuring some of the men and women who figure large in 18th- and 19th-century American history.
The lecture was presented by Rick Britton as a part of this series and was held in conjunction with the Senior Center in Charlottesville. Click here to listen to all six parts of this series.
Christian Cotz speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville.
Christian Cotz is the director of education and visitor engagement at James Madison’s Montpelier, and has been with the Foundation for fifteen years. He is responsible for the creation, implementation, and oversight of all Montpelier guided tours, hands-on experiences, student programs, interpretive signage and many exhibits. Listen as Mr. Cotz tells the story of Montpelier and it’s most famous resident, President James Madison.
Mr. Cotz spoke at the Wednesday, May 13, 2015 meeting of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia. The meeting was held at the Senior Center in Charlottesville. Following the presentation, questions were taken from the audience. The program was moderated by SSV Vice President John McCauley.
Ron Coddington speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville.
On April 2, 2015, Ron Coddington presented the second lecture in our six part CPN Thursday series entitled The Civil War Through Different Lenses (2015).
Listen as Mr. Coddington tells the story of how both the North and South developed their navy during the American Civil War.
While other kids in his neighborhood were collecting baseball cards, 14-year-old Ron Coddington was browsing flee markets looking for old photographs. Little did he realize that after purchasing his first photograph in 1977 that collecting photographic images would become a life long pursuit.
The lecture series was organized by award-winning historian and Charlottesville-based author, lecturer, and cartographer Rick Britton in conjunction with the Senior Center in Charlottesville.
Click here to listen to all five parts of this series.
