Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

Paul Vandeventer, President & CEO of Community Partners, Wendy Garen, President & CEO of the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, and Chelina Odbert '99, Founder & Principal of Kounkuey Design Initiative, will discuss effective strategies to collaborate within the local community to make a larger impact. "SOURCE Nonprofit Panel: Celebrating Innovation and Collaboration"(12:00 p.m. program)

Zerlina Maxwell, political analyst and contributing writer for ESSENCE Magazine and Mic.com, will discuss rape culture, its prevalence on college campuses, and the role college students can play to combat this trend. Highlighting the prevalence of rape culture in the national media, Maxwell will discuss how changes in education may be the most effective way to end sexual violence including "teaching men not to rape." "From Catcalling to Sexual Assault: How We Can All Work to End Gender-Based Violence"

Mona Prince, assistant professor of English literature at Suez University in Egypt, is an Egyptian novelist and literary translator. A political and women’s rights activist, Prince was a presidential hopeful following the Arab Spring. Her recent book, Revolution is My Name, is her memoir, as a revolutionary woman, of the first 18 days in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in 2011. Prince is the recipient of a Rescue Scholar Fellowship and is currently a visiting professor at Pitzer and Claremont McKenna Colleges. "The Role of Women, Youth, and Intellectuals in the Arab Spring" (12:00 p.m. program)

Brian Cuban is a lawyer, public speaker, and an eating disorder survivor whose book Shattered Image: My Triumph Over Body Dysmorphic Disorder chronicles his first-hand experiences surviving eating disorders, drug addiction, and Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). Cuban speaks candidly about his recovery, childhood bullying, fat shaming, and breaking the male eating disorder stigma. "Step By Step: Turning Your Worst Moments Into Your Greatest Achievements" (12:00 p.m. program)

James Joseph is emeritus professor of the Practice of Public Policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Joseph has had a distinguished career in business, education and civil society and has served in senior executive or advisory positions to four U.S. Presidents, including appointments by President Jimmy Carter as Under Secretary of the Interior and President Bill Clinton as U.S. Ambassador to South Africa. "Building and Sustaining Community in a Divided Nation: What I Learned from Nelson Mandela"

Azure Antoinette is a poet, spoken word artist, and youth and arts education advocate whose performance poetry explores the ways social media is reshaping humanity. In 2011, she founded an arts-in-education program that provides specialized workshops to motivate and educate teen girls on how spoken word, performance poetry, and social media can make an impact on the world. Azure Antoinette’s Athenaeum appearance is part of the sixth annual Women and Leadership Workshop. "Creativity, Courage, and Using Your Voice" (12:00 p.m. program)

Claire Thomas '07 is a food enthusiast turned creative blogger and author. A self taught chef, Thomas is the founder of the food blog thekitchykitchen.com and author of the book The KitchyKitchen: New Classics for Living Deliciously. A creative chef, she also works as a commercial director, food photographer, and host of ABC's Food for Thought. "Turning Your Blog Into A Brand"

Valorie Thomas is an associate professor of English and Africana Studies at Pomona College and the Athenaeum's Black History Month speaker for 2015. A literary and cultural studies and black studies scholar, Thomas’s work focuses on African Diaspora Vertigo; she also teaches courses on African American literature, black feminist writers and activism, African Diaspora cinema, the prison-industrial complex, and contemporary Native American/First Nations/Indigenous literature. Her book manuscript titled, "Diasporic Vertigo: Memory, Space and Charting the Future in African Diaspora Arts" will be forthcoming.

Richard Clarke, is CEO of Good Harbor Security Risk Management, which advises companies and governments on cyber security. He served for 30 years in the U.S. government, holding such positions as Special Advisor to the President for Cyberspace and National Coordinator for Security and Counter-terrorism. Clarke is the author of six books, including Sting of the Drone and Against All Enemies; "Cybersecurity in 2015: From Theft to Destruction"

Christopher Conway is the author of the forthcoming Nineteenth-Century Latin America: A Cultural History (2015), and The Cult of Bolívar in Latin American Literature (2003), among numerous other publications. He is also a private collector of vintage Mexican comics, and is currently preparing to curate an exhibit of his large collection for the Central Library at The University of Texas at Arlington, where he chairs the Department of Modern Languages and is Associate Professor of Spanish. "Blood and Ink: A Comic Book History of Mexico"

Don Gould, president and Chief Investment Officer, Gould Asset Management; "2015 Claremont Finance Conference: A Discussion of Investing with Don Gould" (12:15 p.m. program)

Randall Kroszner is the Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. As a governor of the U.S. Federal Reserve System from 2006 to 2009, he chaired several Fed committees and played a leading role in developing responses to the financial crisis. A prolific writer, Kroszner is co-author with Nobel laureate Robert J. Shiller of Reforming U.S. Financial Markets: Reflections Before and Beyond Dodd-Frank (2011). "Lessons from the Financial Crisis of 2008: Are We Safer Today?"

A. Dirk Moses, professor of Global and Colonial History at the European University Institute, has written widely on genocide in colonial contexts including in his book, Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation and Subaltern Resistance in World History (2008) among many others. He is currently researching a project on The Diplomacy of Genocide and is senior editor of the Journal of Genocide Research. "The Diplomacy of Genocide: Humanitarian Intervention in the Age of Decolonization" (12:00 p.m. program)

John (Jack) Werren is the Nathaniel and Helen Wisch Professor of Biology at the University of Rochester. A recipient of the Humboldt Prize (Germany) and fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is an expert in genetics and evolution. With nearly 200 publications, he investigates diverse topics including evolution of new species, developmental genetics, microbial-host interactions, and the role of "selfish DNA" and genetic conflict in evolution. "Influential Passengers: Microbes that Manipulate their Hosts" (12:00 p.m. program)

Margaret Stock is an attorney and 2013 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship (“genius award”) who speaks widely on issues of immigration law and national security. With experiences serving in the U.S. Army Reserve and teaching at West Point, Stock challenges complex federal immigration laws in order to provide more humane and rational policies that will also serve American national security interests. "Exploiting the Myths, Traps, and Absurdities of Immigration Law to Benefit U.S. National Security"