Forum Network

**Professor Merzbacher** has taught film producing, directing, screenwriting and basic cinematography at the Film & Television Workshops in Rockport, Maine, and has served as Executive Vice President of Altar Rock Films, Inc. He is a highly successful filmmaker whose films have been honored at the Chicago International Film Festival, Sundance, the USA Film Festival, the Columbus International Film Festival and the National Educational Film & Video Festival. His first feature film, Jane Street, premiered at the British Film Institute in March 1997.

**Steve Audette** has been editing documentaries for over two decades. With more than 60 production credits, his work has contributed to many Emmy Award-winning films, as well as Peabody and DuPont Columbia Award-winning programs.

Susan Kruth, J.D., is the Senior Program Officer, legal and public advocacy, for FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education). A graduate of the Univeristy of Virginia School of Law, Kruth began by working to protect free speech through a fellowship with the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression in Charlottesville, VA. She has also completed civil rights internships with the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union LGBT & AIDS Project. Kruth is the author of numerous articles, listed in FIRE’s and other online publications; for example, “Professors’ Rights to Free Speech at Risk Nationwide,” The Huffington Post, 25 November 2014.

Lauren Duca is an award-winning journalist best known for her massively viral piece “Donald Trump is Gaslighting America” in Teen Vogue and an interview with Tucker Carlson. Her writing can be found in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and New York magazine, as well as in her ongoing column for Teen Vogue: “Thigh-High Politics.” She graduated from Fordham University and holds a masters from New York University, where she is currently a visiting scholar at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She’s mostly just trying to get you to follow her on Twitter: @LaurenDuca.

An activist for climate action with Extinction Rebellion.

Tony Porter is a professor of political science at Mcmaster University and conducts research on business regulation and global governance, including especially financial regulation, private and hybrid public/private rulemaking, the organizational effects in governance of technologies, and safety and environmental standards in the automobile industry. He is the author of _[Globalization and Finance](https://smile.amazon.com/Globalization-Finance-Tony-Porter/dp/0745631185/)_ (Polity Press, 2005), _[Technology, Governance and Political Conflict in International Industries](https://smile.amazon.com/Technology-Governance-Political-International-Industries/dp/041527009X/)_, (Routledge, 2002), and _[States, Markets, and Regimes in Global Finance](https://smile.amazon.com/Markets-Regimes-Finance-International-Political/dp/0333588843/)_, (Macmillan, 1993). He co-edited _[The Challenges of Global Business Authority: Democratic Renewal, Stalemate or Decay?](https://smile.amazon.com/Challenges-Global-Business-Authority-Democratic/dp/1438431570/)_ (SUNY Press, 2010) with Kirsten Ronit, and _[Private Authority in International Affairs](https://smile.amazon.com/Private-Authority-International-Affairs-Politics/dp/0791441202/)_ (SUNY Press, 1999) with A. Claire Cutler and Virginia Haufler. His most recent works include a new book with Heather McKeen-Edwards, _[Transnational Financial Associations and the Governance of Global Finance: Assembling Wealth and Power](https://smile.amazon.com/Transnational-Financial-Associations-Governance-Finance/dp/0415659728/)_ (Routledge 2013), and an edited volume on _[Transnational Financial Regulation after the Crisis](https://smile.amazon.com/Transnational-Financial-Regulation-Political-Economy/dp/0415822688/)_.       

Michael W. Clune is an associate professor in the department of english at Case Western Reserve University. He specializes in American literature, literature and science, and poetry. His work investigates two basic questions: What difference does literature make? What methods might best illuminate that difference in the context of the modern research university? His first book, _[American Literature and the Free Market](https://smile.amazon.com/American-Literature-1945-2000-Cambridge-Studies/dp/0521513995/)_ (Cambridge University Press, 2010), examines how postwar writing from Frank O’Hara’s poetry to nineties gangster rap takes on social power by offering an escape from society. His second book, _[Writing Against Time](https://smile.amazon.com/Writing-Against-Time-Michael-Clune/dp/0804770824/)_ (Stanford University Press, 2013), explores the effort to create an image immune to the erosive effects of neurobiological time. Elements of this project have appeared in the journals Representations, Criticism, and Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Clune’s first work of creative nonfiction, _[White Out](https://smile.amazon.com/White-Out-Secret-Life-Heroin/dp/1616492082/)_, was chosen as a Best Book of 2013 by The New Yorker, NPR’s “On Point,” The Millions, and other venues. His second memoir, _[Gamelife](https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0374536384/)_, is on computer games as spiritual education. He is at work on a series of articles on what literature knows. [](https://smile.amazon.com/White-Out-Secret-Life-Heroin/dp/1616492082/) [](https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0374536384/) [](https://smile.amazon.com/Writing-Against-Time-Michael-Clune/dp/0804770824/) [](https://smile.amazon.com/American-Literature-1945-2000-Cambridge-Studies/dp/0521513995/)

Julia C. Strauss is a professor in the Department of Political and International Studies at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). She was also the Editor of _The China Quarterly_ from 2002 to 2011. Her research interests span both sides of the Taiwan Straits and are focused on state building and institution building, governance, the environment, and China-Africa relations. Her publications include the edited volumes China and Africa: Emerging Patterns in Globalization and Development (_CUP_ 2009), The History of the People’s Republic of China. (_CUP_, 2006) Julia Strauss has written two books _[Strong Institutions in Weak Polities: State Building in Republican China, 1927-1940](https://smile.amazon.com/State-Formation-China-Taiwan-Bureaucracy/dp/1108701655/)_ (Clarendon, 1998) and _[State Formation in China and Taiwan: Bureaucracy, Campaign, and Performance](https://smile.amazon.com/State-Formation-China-Taiwan-Bureaucracy/dp/1108701655/)_. (Cambridge University Press, 2019) Articles include “Forestry Reform and the Transformation of State Capacity in fin de siècle China” (_Journal of Asian Studies_, 68:4), and “Paternalist Terror: The Campaign to Suppress Counter revolutionaries and Regime Consolidation in the People’s Republic of China, 1950-53” (_Comparative Studies in Society and History_). [](https://smile.amazon.com/State-Formation-China-Taiwan-Bureaucracy/dp/1108701655/) [](https://smile.amazon.com/Strong-Institutions-Weak-Polities-Contemporary/dp/0198233426/)

Christi Showman Farrar is a Consultant at the Massachusetts Library System (MLS) where she sees herself as a “librarian’s librarian”, providing continuing education and support to MLS member libraries across the Commonwealth. Her professional interests cover a wide range of library topics, including user research (UX), information literacy, early literacy and reading development, outreach and programming, readers' advisory, and digital resources. She’s honed her teaching and presentation skills over the course of many years and has taught workshops on topics such as collection development, social media for public libraries, informational text and text complexity, and student research behavior. Prior to working at MLS, Christi worked as a children’s and teen librarian in Massachusetts public libraries for a decade, and was the Director of the School and Public Library division at a well-known local library vendor. Christi holds a Master’s degree in Language, Reading & Culture from the University of Arizona, as well as a Master’s degree in Library & Information Science from Simmons University. She is also a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Library Media Studies graduate program at Salem State University.

Amy Perlmutter is a consultant to economic development, policy, business, and advocacy leaders who are striving to advance goals that lead to meaningful environmental change. Amy has served as the first Director of Solid Waste for Passaic County, New Jersey; the Director of Recycling for the City and County of San Francisco; and the founding Executive Director of the Chelsea Center for Recycling and Economic Development. Amy served as the kick-off speaker at the Massachusetts legislature’s Green Economy Caucus, an appointment to Massachusetts Governor Patrick’s Transition Team on Energy and Environment. She also received an invitation to be in the first cohort of Fellows at UMass Lowell’s Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, a commendation for her efforts to improve the quality of life in the City and County of San Francisco. Amy enjoys talking to groups of all ages about environmental careers, environmental issues, and why they matter.

Matthew Henn is the Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Seres Therapeutics and has more than 16 years of combined research experience in microbial ecology, genomics and bioinformatics that spans both environmental and infectious disease applications. Dr. Henn's research has focused on the development, implementation, and application of genomic technologies in the area of microbial populations and their metabolic functions. Prior to joining Seres, he was the Director of Viral Genomics and Assistant Director of the Genome Sequencing Center for Infectious Diseases at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He has authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications in microbiology and bioinformatics and has led multiple large-scale international genomic projects. He has served as a consultant for the WHO’s Grand Challenges in Genomics for Public Health in Developing Countries, as a scientific advisor for the National Institutes of Health’s Viral Pathogen Bioinformatics Resource Center, and as an ad-hoc reviewer and editor of many peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Henn earned his Ph.D. in ecosystem sciences from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a NASA Earth Systems Sciences Fellow, and trained as a NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in microbiology at Duke University.

Brian Klein is the Senior Staff Scientist at Vedanta Biosciences. He's a strong believer that microbial interventions may ameliorate illnesses that have so far eluded control. He also served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Forsyth Institute in the Lemon Lab until April 2017.