Forum Network

Carol Rose is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. A lawyer and journalist, Carol has spent her career working for and writing about human rights and civil liberties, both in the United States and abroad including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Japan, Sri Lanka, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Northern Ireland, and Vietnam. Prior to assuming her position at the helm of the Massachusetts ACLU in January 2003, she was an attorney at the Boston law firm of Hill & Barlow, where she specialized in First Amendment and media law, intellectual property, civil rights, and international human rights law. While in private practice, Carol had the honor of serving as co-chair of Women in Communications Law of the ABA Forum on Communications Law, as a Vice Chair of the Human Rights committee of the ABA Individual Rights and Responsibilities section, and on the editorial board of the ABAs *Human Rights* magazine.

Dr. Farrell is an Assistant Professor in the College of Criminal Justice and the Associate Director of the Institute on Race and Justice at Northeastern University. Her research focuses on disparity in the criminal justice system. Primary interests include racial and gender differences the administration of justice, discretionary decision making, and prosecution and sentencing practices. She has recently conducted research on local law enforcement responses to human trafficking and is currently leading the development of a national human trafficking data collection program for the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Dr. Farrell is a co-recipient of the National Institute of Justices W.E.B. DuBois Fellowship on crime justice and culture.

Renata von Tscharner is trained as an architect and city planner. She worked in Paris, London, and as Assistant City Planner in Bern, Switzerland, before moving to Cambridge where in 1979 she co-founded the Townscape Institute and in 2000 started the Charles River Conservancy. As Principal of The Townscape Institute, she directed projects and publications in urban design, public art, environmental education and advocacy as they pertained to increasing the livability of neighborhoods, towns, and cities. For the past 25 years, she has consulted and lectured both in the United States and in Europe. In 1997 she returned to the faculty of the Radcliffe Seminars teaching courses about the Charles River, and in 2000 she started the Charles River Conservancy (CRC). This advocacy group brings together organizations and individuals working to provide stewardship and renewal of the Charles River parklands, the 500 acres of state-owned riverfront from the Boston Harbor to the Watertown Dam. As president, she oversees all aspects of this organization which has a staff of 6 and over 8000 supporters and volunteers.

Michael McLaughlin is a pianist, accordionist, arranger, and composer for the Klezmer ensemble Shirim and the experimental Klezmer group Naftule's Dream. Performances on such stages as the Berlin Jazz Festival ('99), the Texaco Jazz Festival ('97, '98) as well as the Ashkenaz New Jewish Music Festival ('96, '98). Michael holds an MM in Composition from Tufts University ('99) where he studied with John McDonald, and a BM in composition from Berklee College of Music in 1993. He is the recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grand Award in composition for 2001.

Ellen Kushner is a novelist, performer and public radio personality who unites her talents as host of WGBH Radio's series, *Sound & Spirit*. A weekly series of hour-long radio programs produced by WGBH Radio Boston and distributed by Public Radio International, *Sound & Spirit* explores the human spirit through music and ideas. Bringing an intellectual openness, a keen ear, a lush voice and a genuine enthusiasm to each show, Kushner has deftly crafted *Sound & Spirit* into what Bill Moyers calls "the best program on public radio, bar none." *Sound & Spirit* weaves history, myth, and spiritual traditions together with music to take listeners on a journey around the world and through the ages. Ellen Kushner as a fiction editor for New York publishing houses and later as a freelancer. She relocated to Boston and joined WGBH Radio in 1987, creating an eclectic music mix for *NightAir*, keeping overnight audiences entertained with an unusual blend of classical and contemporary music. On Sunday afternoons she hosted *Caravan*, a mix of folk and world music. Ellen's national radio debut came when she was cast as the irreverent host of the *Nakamichi International Music Series* of classical concert music. Ellen then created three award-winning Jewish radio specials for PRI that quickly became listener favorites. In April 1996, Ellen and her team first launched *Sound & Spirit* on the national airwaves.