Forum Network

**Chris Fitch** is a sculptor, engineer and inventor. His prize winning mechanical sculptures, installations and performance based artwork have been presented internationally. His puppets and state of the art miniature theaters have appeared with major symphony productions in New York and Los Angeles. His credits for work in animation include Sesame Street, Motorola, Disneyland, and Samsung. Many of Chris' pieces have no particular narrative arc, and instead are about adding rhythmic complexity to the cycle, creating mechanical expressions that have more in common with dance or music than with storytelling. Often these abstractions carry suggestions of natural rhythms, like rain or blowing grass, or bubbles rising in a column of water.

Diana Direiter, Ph.D., is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and Associate Professor of Psychology at Lesley University, where she serves as the Dean of Faculty. Dr. Direiter works to help students find and understand the connections between the real world and the academic world, often analyzing stories from the worlds of celebrities and pop culture to recognize the threads relevant to what they are learning in their classes. Dr. Direiter’s academic and research interests include trauma, rape culture, women’s leadership, and the depiction of gender in pop culture. She is fascinated by the messages we all begin receiving from society from our first moments and how those messages – especially those related to gender – shape our views of ourselves and each other.

**Ambassador Wendy R. Sherman** is a Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. In addition, she is a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center. Amb. Sherman is Senior Counselor at Albright Stonebridge Group. Amb. Sherman led the U.S. negotiating team that reached agreement on a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between the P5+1, the European Union, and Iran for which, among other diplomatic accomplishments, she was awarded the National Security Medal by President Barack Obama. Prior to her service at the Department of State, she was Vice Chair and founding partner of the Albright Stonebridge Group, Counselor of the Department of State under Secretary Madeleine Albright and Special Advisor to President Clinton and Policy Coordinator on North Korea.

Alex Dehgan is the CEO and co-founder of Conservation X Labs. Dr. Dehgan recently served as the Chief Scientist at USAID, with rank of Assistant Administrator, and co-founded the Global Development Lab. He is also the Chanler Innovator at Duke University and served as Duke’s inaugural David Rubenstein Fellow. Prior to USAID, Alex worked in multiple positions within the Office of the Secretary, and the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, at the Dept. of State, where he used science & conservation as a diplomatic tool for engagement with countries in the Islamic world, including Iran. As head of the Wildlife Conservation Society Afghanistan Program, Alex helped create Afghanistan’s first national park. Dr. Dehgan holds a Ph.D and M.Sc. from The University of Chicago’s Committee on Evolutionary Biology, where he focused on understanding and predicting extinction in animals with complex behaviors. Alex also holds a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings, and a B.S. from Duke University.

Nick Capodice is a co-host, producer, and education outreach coordinator for Civics 101 out of NHPR. In addition to the show, he is working on co-mingling civics episodes with educational materials for classrooms across the nation.

Mila Atmos, a global citizen based in New York City, is the producer and series host of Future Hindsight, a weekly podcast that aims to spark civic engagement through in-depth conversations with citizen changemakers. What most informs Mila's worldview is her belief that American democracy is a living, breathing mechanism whose wellbeing deserves to be cultivated and protected. Mila combines life experiences from living in multiple cultures ranging from Indonesia to Germany to the rural U.S. with her knowledge base in history, economics, and international affairs (B.A. & M.I.A. Columbia University) in creating Future Hindsight.

Michele Dunne directs the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. Her research focuses on political and economic change in Arab countries, particularly Egypt, as well as U.S. policies in the Middle East. Previously she was the founding director of the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council, as well as editor of the Arab Reform Bulletin at Carnegie. Before her think tank career, Dunne was a Middle East specialist at the U.S. Department of State for nearly 20 years, serving in assignments that included the National Security Council staff, the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning staff, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, and the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem. She also served as a visiting professor of Arabic language and Arab studies at Georgetown University, where she obtained her PhD.

**Louisa Gag** is the Public Policy & Operations Manager for LivableStreets, deep-diving into policy research and relationships, developing programmatic positions, and handling operations for the organization. In 2019, Louisa will be focused on building an accountability framework for implementation of the City of Boston's Go Boston 2030 plan. Previously, Louisa worked at the South Boston Neighborhood Development Corporation, where she managed the South Boston Farmers Market and coordinated business development events. She completed a self-designed degree at the University of Rochester, studying the relationship between people and their environment. A semester abroad in Copenhagen sparked her interest in the livability of cities. Louisa cut her teeth on Boston's public transportation system while growing up in Roslindale.

**Amber Christoffersen** is the Greenways Director at the Mystic River Watershed Association. She is a designer and planner who has worked on active transportation, open space and affordable housing projects in the Boston area and around the country. She is leading the participatory planning process for dozens of path and park projects across the watershed. Amber holds a Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Georgia and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the College of William and Mary. As an avid long distance runner, she is constantly exploring the region's many waterfronts and parklands, looking for opportunities to make them more beautiful and accessible.

Kasia Hart is a Policy Analyst with the Government Affairs Department at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. As part of the Government Affairs team, Kasia works with internal departments to identify and advocate MAPC’s legislative and budget priorities through each legislative session. Kasia focuses on transportation-related initiatives and legislation, and coordinates the agency’s municipal and regional engagement efforts around the Transportation and Climate Initiative. In her former role with MAPC’s Transportation Department, Kasia worked on a broad range of transportation policy and planning projects, including managing MAPC’s regional bike share and micromobility coordination efforts, performing municipal parking management studies, and researching innovative transportation funding strategies. Previously, Kasia worked with the Boston pedestrian advocacy group WalkBoston while completing a Master of Arts in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University.

French-Indian, poet-dance producer/curator, Karthika Naïr is the author of several books, including The Honey Hunter, illustrated by Joëlle Jolivet and published in English, French, German and Bangla. Until the Lions: Echoes from the Mahabharata won the 2015 Tata Literature Live! Award for Book of the Year (Fiction). Her latest book is the collaborative Over and Under Ground in Mumbai & Paris, a travelogue in verse, written with Mumbai-based poet Sampurna Chattarji, and illustrated by Joëlle Jolivet and Roshni Vyam.

Tarik Spriggs is the HIV Youth Prevention Services Coordinator at Casa Esperanza Inc, a substance abuse and mental health treatment facility in Roxbury. Born and raised in Boston, MA, his love for performing arts and youth work fueled the passion for his role. Since joining the human services and positive youth development field at Boston GLASS, he has facilitated numerous workshops in the middle and high schools of greater Boston, implemented successful youth programs, hosted community events, handles all social media sites, and runs his own vogue class. With his many years of dance training, youth empowerment work and 15 years of participating in the ballroom scene, Legendary Father Tarik St. Clair is very seasoned for any stage! He's performed and spoken at numerous events from Boston to New York to Atlanta to New Jersey.