Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

Larry Rosin P'20 is the president of Edison Research, which he co-founded in 1994. Edison is best known as the company that performs exit polls for all U.S. Elections for the National Election Pool (a consortium of ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, NBC and the Associated Press). Rosin has been a primary force in building the company into one of the world’s most respected survey research companies, with a particular specialization in media and election polling. In addition, Edison is well known for its groundbreaking media research series “The Infinite Dial” which tracks developments in digital media, and “Share of Ear” which measures all audio usage in the U.S., among many other things. He has presented Edison research at the White House and on Capitol Hill.

During the campaign, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump (and others) argued that America today has been captured by small but powerful interests who have tilted the playing field in their favor. Banks, the political parties, large corporations, sitting politicians, the Obama administration and others were all accused of ‘rigging’ the system. Based on Edison's own polling, there is evidence of a profound disconnect between what statistics are saying about the state of affairs in America and what people actually feel. This phenomenon of a world where everyone questions everything, Rosin will argue, creates enormous challenges for researchers, public policy makers, media, governance, etc.

Rosin is a graduate of Princeton University where he majored in Public and International Affairs, and he received an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Rosin is the featured parent speaker for Family Weekend 2017.

View Video: YouTube with Larry Rosin P'20

Food for Thought: Podcast with Larry Rosin P'20

The first group of fellows includes Chloe Cho ’19, Emma Henson ’19, Valerie Huang ’19, Nick LaBerge ’19, Blake Lapin '19, Bryn Miller ’19, Reyna Wang ’19, and Melia Wong ’19.

Photograph shows, pictured from left to right: Nick LaBerge, Valerie Huan '19, Emma Henson '19, Chloe Cho '19, and Bryn Miller '19

View Video: YouTube with Appel Scholars

Fran Moore runs FPM Consulting, LLC, and serves on the board of Threat Deterrence Capital, guiding businesses that support US intelligence, security, and law enforcement needs. She retired in 2015 from the Central Intelligence Agency, where she served in a variety of senior positions. Moore also serves on the board of the Studies in Intelligence, and serves on AFCEA’s intelligence committee.

Moore retired from the Central Intelligence Agency in 2015 as a senior executive with 32 years of leadership and intelligence analysis experience. Her most recent role at the Agency was as director for Intelligence (now Analysis) where from 2010 to 2014, she led the Agency's large-scale substantive analytic program, ensured strategic resource investment, and led a comprehensive talent management strategy to deepen expertise, leadership, and workforce agility. During a period of complex global change, she was tasked to provide timely and accurate intelligence insight for the President, senior policymakers, Congress, and law enforcement.

Ms. Moore graduated Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude from Elmira College in 1982, with degrees in International Relations and Political Science.

Food for Thought: Podcast with Fran Moore

Spencer Wells is a geneticist, anthropologist, author, and entrepreneur. For over a decade he was an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society and director of the Genographic Project. The project collected and analyzed DNA samples from hundreds of thousands of people around the world in order to decipher how our ancestors populated the planet. By tracing prehistoric migration patterns of human populations, Wells followed clues in human genes and traced humankind’s family tree millions of years back to when the first humans left Africa. His work has taken him to more than 100 countries, where he has collaborated with everyone from heads of government and Fortune 500 corporations, to tribal chieftains eking out a precarious living in places as remote as Chad, Tajikistan, and Papua New Guinea.

Wells graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Texas at Austin, received his Ph.D. from Harvard University, and conducted postdoctoral work at Stanford and Oxford Universities. He has appeared in numerous documentary films and is the author of three books, The Journey of Man, Deep Ancestry, and Pandora's Seed.

Wells lives in Austin, Texas, where he is founder and CEO of consumer genomics startup Insitome, an adjunct professor at the University of Texas, and proud owner of the iconic blues club Antone’s.

Food for Thought: Podcast with R. Spencer Wells

The Honorable Halim Dhanidina is a Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge, currently assigned to hear criminal cases in the Long Beach Superior Court.  Prior to his current position, Dhanidina was a Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles County for 14 years, prosecuting cases for the elite Hardcore Gang and Major Crimes Divisions before serving in the District Attorney's Special Operations Administration. As an attorney, Dhanidina served as a board member for the Asian Pacific American and South Asian Bar Associations where he developed and implemented various programs designed to provide services to traditionally underserved communities. He is currently an adjunct professor of law at Whittier Law School and Western State School of Law where he teaches Criminal and Civil Trial Advocacy, Criminal Procedure, and Legal Ethics, and he previously taught Criminal Law at the Glendale University College of Law. He is a member of the board of the interfaith organization, Muslim-Jewish NewGround, sponsored by the Los Angeles City Commission on Human Relations, and he sits on the Advisory Board of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association, as well as the Orange County Advisory Council of Asian Americans Advancing Justice. He is a volunteer judge for the Los Angeles Superior Court’s Teen Court program, and he is the judicial branch’s representative on the California Supreme Court Chief Justice’s Power of Democracy program created to promote civic learning in public schools.

Dhanidina earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from Pomona College in 1994, where he received the Senior Service Award, and a Juris Doctorate from the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law in 1997, which named him the Asian Pacific Islander Law Students Association Alumnus of the Year in 2013.  He has been recognized for his service to the community as a recipient of the Muslim Public Affairs Council Foundation’s Community Leadership Award in 2013 and the Muslim Legal Fund of America’s Trailblazer in Justice Award in 2014, as well as the South Asian Bar Association Foundation’s 2016 Trailblazer Award.  As a Deputy District Attorney, he was recognized for his work on behalf of crime victims by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and was a recipient of the South Asian Network’s Public Service Award. 

Dhanidina has been a featured guest speaker for various organizations including SABA-NC, NAPABA, Greenberg, Traurig LLP., the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission, the Muslim Bar Association of Southern California, the Long Beach Bar Association, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the University of Southern California, and he gave the Baccalaureate Address for the 2013 commencement ceremonies at the Claremont Colleges. 

Judge Dhanidina's Athenaeum talk is made possible in collaboration with the Claremont Journal of Law and Public Policy.

View Video: YouTube with Halim Dhandidina

Karl Eikenberry is the Oksenberg-Rohlen Distinguished Fellow and Director of the U.S-Asia Security Initiative at Stanford University’s Asia-Pacific Research Center. He is a Stanford University Professor of Practice, and an affiliate at the FSI Center for Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law, Center for International Security Cooperation, and The Europe Center.

Prior to his arrival at Stanford, he served as the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan from May 2009 until July 2011, where he led the civilian surge directed by President Obama to reverse insurgent momentum and set the conditions for transition to full Afghan sovereignty. 

Before his appointment as Chief of Mission in Kabul, Eikenberry had a thirty-five year career in the United States Army, retiring in April 2009 with the rank of Lieutenant General. His military operational posts included commander and staff officer with mechanized, light, airborne, and ranger infantry units in the continental United states, Hawaii, Korea, Italy, and Afghanistan as the Commander of the American-led Coalition forces from 2005 to 2007. 

He has served in various policy and political-military positions, including Deputy Chairman of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Military Committee in Brussels, Belgium; Director for Strategic Planning and Policy for U.S. Pacific Command at Camp Smith, Hawaii; U.S. Security Coordinator and Chief of the Office of Military Cooperation in Kabul, Afghanistan; Assistant Army and later Defense Attaché at the United States Embassy in Beijing, China; Senior Country Director for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia in the Office of the Secretary of Defense; and Deputy Director for Strategy, Plans, and Policy on the Army Staff.

He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, has master’s degrees from Harvard University in East Asian Studies and Stanford University in Political Science, and was a National Security Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He also earned an Interpreter’s Certificate in Mandarin Chinese from the British Foreign Commonwealth Office while studying at the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense Chinese Language School in Hong Kong and has an Advanced Degree in Chinese History from Nanjing University in the People’s Republic of China. 

The recipient of multiple military awards, he has also received the U.S. Department of State Distinguished, Superior, and Meritorious Honor Awards, Director of Central Intelligence Award, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award as well as other awards for his public service.

Ambassador Eickenberry’s Athenaeum talk is co-sponsored by the Keck Center for International & Strategic Studies at CMC.

Arthur C. Brooks has been president of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) since January 1, 2009. He is also the Beth and Ravenel Curry Scholar in Free Enterprise at AEI.

Before joining the AEI, Brooks was the Louis A. Bantle Professor of Business and Government at Syracuse University, where he taught economics and social entrepreneurship. Before pursuing his work in academia and public policy, he spent 12 years as a classical musician in the United States and Spain.

Brooks is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and a bestselling author of 11 books on topics including the role of government, fairness, economic opportunity, happiness, and the morality of free enterprise. His latest book is the New York Times bestseller “The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America” (Broadside Books, 2015). He has also published dozens of academic journal articles and the textbook “Social Entrepreneurship” (Prentice Hall, 2008).

Brooks has a Ph.D. and an M.Phil. in policy analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He also holds an M.A. in economics from Florida Atlantic University and a B.A. in economics from Thomas Edison State College.

Mr. Brooks is the Spring 2017 speaker for the Res Publica Society Speaker Series.

Photo credit: Jay Westcott

View Video: YouTube with Arthur Brooks

Lee Skinner is associate professor of Spanish at CMC. Her research focuses on nineteenth-century Spanish American texts, both fictional and nonfictional, with a particular emphasis on questions of identity at the individual, community, regional, and national levels.  She is the author of Gender and the Rhetoric of Modernity in Spanish America, 1850-1910 (2016), which examines the ways in which discourses of and about modernity interacted with representations of gender in fictional and non-fictional texts alike and crafted new ways for women to gain power and agency in the public sphere. Skinner's Athenaeum talk will draw on this expertise.

Skinner has also published a book on the nineteenth-century historical novel, History Lessons: Refiguring the Nineteenth-Century Historical Novel in Spanish America (2006) and numerous articles examining nineteenth-century debates over national consolidation and identity through the lenses of gender and sexuality, ecocriticism, and cultural geography, to name but a few topics. Her writings have appeared in periodicals such as Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, Symposium, Revista Iberoamericana, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, and Latin American Literary Review, among others. She teaches courses on Spanish language and Latin American literature and cultures, including “Gender in 19th Century Spanish America” and “Revolutions and Revolutionary Thinking in Spanish America”. 

In addition to teaching at CMC, Skinner serves as an associate dean of faculty at the College. She holds a B.A. in comparative literature from Brown University and a Ph.D. in Spanish from Emory University. She was assistant and associate professor at the University of Kansas prior to coming to CMC in 2008. 

Professor Skinner’s Athenaeum talk is part of the Gender and Sexuality Studies luncheon lecture series.

Adotei Akwei is managing director of government relations for Amnesty International USA where he has focused on human rights and U.S. foreign policy toward Africa since 1988, with occasional forays at other NGOs. When not at Amnesty, he worked at CARE USA, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, the American Committee on Africa, and The Africa Fund.

At CARE, he served as the senior policy advisor for CARE USA. In this capacity, Akwei helped develop and implement advocacy on CARE USA's priority issues. He also served as the regional advocacy advisor (RAA) for CARE's Asia Regional Management Unit. As an RAA, Akwei supported CARE country offices in Asia in the development and implementation of national level advocacy strategies as well as regional advocacy priorities. He also served as the Africa director for the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, now Human Rights First, and prior to that as the research and human rights director for the American Committee on Africa and the Africa Fund.

Akwei received his Master's degree in International Relations from the College of William and Mary and his Bachelor's degree from the State University of New York College at Purchase.

Mr. Akwei’s Athenaeum talk is co-sponsored by the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights.

View Video: YouTube with Adotei Akwei

Food for Thought: Podcast with Adoltei Akwei

Tyrone B. Hayes  was born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina where he developed his love for biology. He followed his passion and is now a professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley where he has taught since 1994.

Hayes received his Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1989 and his Ph.D. from the department of integrative biology at U.C. Berkeley in 1993. After completing his graduate work, he began post-doctoral training at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health and the Cancer Research Laboratories at U.C. Berkeley (funded by the National Science Foundation). Within a year he had joined the Berkeley faculty.

Hayes’ research focuses on developmental endocrinology with an emphasis on evolution and environmental regulation of growth and development. For the last 15 years, the role of endocrine disrupting contaminants, particularly pesticides, has been his major focus. Hayes is interested in the impact of chemical contaminants on environmental health and public health, with a specific interest in the role of pesticides in global amphibian declines and environmental justice concerns.

View Video: YouTube with Tyrone Hayes

Raj Udeshi has a background in Emerging Markets sales and trading, at Bank of America Securities, GFI Group, and Enlace S.A (boutique LatAm inter-bank broker). On the Street, Udeshi dealt in interest rate swaps, credit risk derivatives, inflation-linked bond swaps, and FX options for the G7 and Latin America. He was previously a member of Xolia, a fin-tech startup whose decision-making technology helped users choose the right online broker, life insurance policy, and credit card for their needs (Xolia acquired by GetSmart.com in 2001). He now works at HiddenLevers, a portfolio stress testing platform for financial advisors everywhere. Advisors use the correlations engine and easy user interface to help clients understand risk in portfolios, showcase hedging strategies, and compare portfolios in context of several macro-economic outcomes. The stress testing toolkit also includes macro themes for those interested in using scenarios and economic trends to effect tactical asset allocation. Prior to HiddenLevers, Udeshi was head of business development for Social Amp, a social media analytics startup and Facebook Preferred Developer (Social Amp acquired by Merkle Inc. in 2012). He is a graduate of Northwestern University and the Pepperdine School of Law.

View Video: YouTube with Raj Udeshi

Lucius T. Outlaw, Jr., is a professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University, where he has also served as director of the African American Studies Program (2000-2003) and associate provost for undergraduate education (2003-2011). Prior to joining the Vanderbilt faculty in 2000, Outlaw was the T. Wistar Brown Professor of Philosophy at Haverford College where he had been a member of the faculty since 1980. Prior to joining the faculty at Haverford, Outlaw was a faculty member at his alma mater Fisk University (1970-1976), and subsequently at Morgan State University (1977-1980).

His teaching and scholarly interests include race in socio-political life, in the United States in particular, and in legacies and practices of European and Euro-American philosophy; social and political philosophy; Africana philosophy (African; African American, for example, Martin Delany, W.E.B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, among others); and American philosophy.

Professor Outlaw's Athenaeum presentation is part of the Race and Law Enforcement in America series.

View Video: YouTube with Lucius Outlaw, Jr.

Darin Andersen is a distinguished professional in cybersecurity and the Internet of Things (IoT) with over 15 years of experience in the security industry.

In 2013, Andersen founded CyberTECH (CyberHive and iHive Incubators), a global cybersecurity and IoT network ecosystem providing cybersecurity and IoT resources, strategic programs, and quality thought leader IoT Forums across the nation.

Andersen also founded CyberUnited, a cybersecurity, big data and predictive analytics firm that applies a behavioral psychology framework via machine learning, data, analytics, and inferential algorithms to determine and prevent identity and insider threats within the enterprise, academic, and government organizations. Before founding CyberUnited, Andersen was the GM, North America for Norman Shark, a forensics malware analytics company, later acquired by Blue Coat Systems.

Prior to Norman Shark, Darin served as COO at ESET, an award- winning antivirus solutions company. He was a leading driver in growing the company to over 800 employees worldwide and building an extensive network of malware research centers in nine countries, as well as a network of partners spanning more than 180 countries.

While COO at ESET, Andersen created the “Securing Our eCity” initiative. The initiative, now an independent foundation, was recognized by the White House as the “Best Local/Community Plan” in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Challenge.

Andersen was recently named a Distinguished Fellow by the Ponemon Institute, a research center dedicated to privacy, data protection and information security policies. He received the Internet of Things award at the 2014 Cybersecurity Awards and was named Top Influential by The San Diego Daily Transcript for 2015.

A graduate of Claremont McKenna College, Andersen earned an MBA in Finance and Operations Management and a second masters in Information Systems and Operations Systems, both from the University of Southern California.

Mr. Anderson's Athenaeum talk is co-sponsored by the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship as part of Entrepreneurship Week at CMC.

A global energy entrepreneur, Bob Hemphill was a co-founder in 1981 of AES Corporate, a global electric power generating and distribution company. A $1M, 6-person startup in 1981, today AES employs approximately 27,000 employees and owns and operates 38,000 MW (megawatts) of power plants in 21 countries, is publicly listed on the NYSE, held $39B in assets and $17B in revenues in 2014.

In 2004, Hemphill initiated and led the transaction by which AES entered the wind power business with the purchase of SeaWest, a 90 MW wind company. He also started the AES utility battery storage business, which has since grown to be the largest such utility effort in the world. Hemphill was also a founder and served as CEO of AES Solar Power Ltd from its inception until his retirement in December 2013. The company, formed in March 2008, is a joint venture of the AES Corporation and Riverstone LLC, an energy focused private equity fund. AES Solar is a leading developer, owner, and operator of utility-scale photovoltaic solar plants connected to the electric power grid. These installations, ranging in size from less than 2 MW to more than 250 MW, consist of large arrays of land-based solar photovoltaic panels that directly convert sunlight to electricity. Under his leadership, the company designed, permitted, and constructed 51 solar plants in seven countries (Spain, France, Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, India and the US) and holds a portfolio of $2.5B. 

In addition, Hemphill served as an airborne infantry officer in the U.S. Army in Vietnam as well as in the U.S. Special Forces; as a senior policy official at the U.S. Department of Energy; and as deputy manager of power at the Tennessee Valley Authority. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Yale University and earned a masters from UCLA, and an M.B.A from George Washington University. 

Since leaving AES Solar, Hemphill has published two books focused on his energy, international, and business experience: Dust Tea, Dingoes and Dragons and Stories from the Middle Seat. He is a columnist for Huffington Post, and advises several small renewable energy companies.

Mr. Hemphill is the keynote speaker for CMC's Third Annual Green Careers Conference sponsored by the Roberts Environmental Center. 

Phyllis K. Morris-Green, a graduate of U.C. Davis School of Law, was appointed Public Defender for San Bernardino County in 2012, after having served two years as the County’s Interim Public Defender. Leading an office staffed with approximately 245 employees, her department handles over 55,000 cases annually.  Ms. Morris has served the Public Defender’s Office since 1984, representing clients on a range of cases that included serious and violent felonies at courthouses located in Redlands, Victorville, Barstow, Big Bear, Crest Forrest, Joshua Tree, and San Bernardino. She also served as a treatment court deputy for the defense in the Victorville Drug Court. In 1994, Ms. Morris was promoted to Supervising Deputy Public Defender, serving in the Desert region; and in 2002, she was promoted to a divisional manager, serving first in the Central Division (San Bernardino) and then in the Desert Division. In both 1994 and 2004, she received the County’s Public Service Recognition Award.
 

Food for Thought: Podcast with Phyllis Morris-Green