SonomaCounty

Confirmed Speakers

• Joseph P. Allen
  A retired NASA astronaut who flew aboard space shuttles “Columbia and Discovery”, and served as mission controller for Apollo 15, Apollo 17 and Shuttle flight #1. His varied career also includes being a physics professor, author and CEO.
• Brooke Bartlett
  She has been performing since the first day she can remember. From the age of 5, she attended Franklin Fine Arts in Chicago where she studied music, dance, theatre and art. She continued her studies at Chicago Academy of the Arts for high school and received her B.F.A. in Theatre from New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida. Brooke has recently gone solo with her new band in Chicago called “Brooke Bartlett & The Blue Lines.” With her soulful and bluesy voice, Brooke has a sound that is completely her own.
• Benjamin F. Benson
  An Environmental Anthropologist. In his global research and publications there is emphasis on the philosophical and spiritual foundations that shape Native environmental management. He currently serves as Cultural Resources Coordinator at the Pepperwood Preserve in Sonoma County and has worked with museums throughout the world, including the Smithsonian.
• Tina Dicicco
  A creative director, graphic artist, illustrator and filmmaker – a storyteller through several mediums. A graduate in Illustration from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Tina has worked as a professional artist for over twenty years creating visual solutions for a spectrum of clients. In 2010, a synergy formed when artists, Tina DiCicco and Boback Emad, collaborated on several videos, culminating in the creation of Alchemy Studios, a film company that strives to capture the moments in learning that spark imagination.
• Nicholas Egan, PhD
  The Director of the Center for Ethics and Leadership at Sonoma Country Day School. He has helped design and implement an in-depth Social & Emotional Learning curriculum for SCDS that integrates emotional awareness, healthy relationships, and ethical decision making. He continues to develop an innovative World Religions curriculum that emphasizes critical thinking and studying foundational beliefs and practices of the major world religions, a program that has been an important part of SCDS for many years. Nicholas has a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies and has studied meditation under several well known teachers in the U.S.
• Boback Emad
  A sculptor, an architect and a filmmaker. Over the past 27 years he has designed and built both buildings and public sculptures in the United States, Europe and Mexico. Memory and symbols of place are reoccurring themes in his recent monumental public sculptures. In 2010, a synergy formed when artists, Tina DiCicco and Boback Emad, collaborated on several videos, culminating in the creation of Alchemy Studios, a film company that strives to capture the moments in learning that spark imagination.
• Gabe Ferrick
  He is 17 years old and attends Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa, CA. Gabe’s passion for aiding victims of genocide and human rights abuses began when he learned about the crisis in Darfur in 5th grade during a humanity class at Sonoma Country Day School. He was inspired to take action and organize projects and walks to raise awareness and funds for refugees in Darfur, Congo, Rwanda and other places where genocide has ravaged the population.
• Dana Gioia
  The former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as an internationally acclaimed and award-winning poet. Gioia has published four full-length collections of poetry, as well as eight chapbooks. His poetry collection, Interrogations at Noon, won the 2002 American Book Award. An influential critic as well, Gioia’s 1991 volume Can Poetry Matter?, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award, is credited with helping to revive the role of poetry in American public culture. His new book of poetry, Pity the Beautiful, was published in 2012. He lives in Sonoma County.
• Sere Prince Halverson
  His debut novel, The Underside of Joy, was published by Dutton in January, 2012. It is an international bestseller, and is being translated into 15 languages. Set in Sonoma County and rich with details of the natural landscape and habitat, she thinks of the novel as her love song to this area. Seré worked for 20 years as a copywriter and creative director, and has helped numerous cities to identify and communicate their unique sense of place through their brand identities. She and her husband live in Sebastopol, where she is working on a novel set on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska.
• Dan Imhoff
  An author, small-scale farmer, publisher, and musician. He has concentrated for nearly 20 years on issues related to farming, the environment, and design. He is the president and co-founder of Watershed Media, a non-profit publishing house based in Healdsburg, California, and the president and a co-founder of the Wild Farm Alliance, a twelve-year-old national organization that works to promote agriculture systems that support and accommodate wild nature. Dan’s books include CAFO: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories; Food Fight: The Citizen’s Guide to a Food and Farm Bill; Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World; Farming with the Wild: Enhancing Biodiversity on Farms and Ranches; and Building with Vision: Optimizing and Finding Alternatives to Wood.
• Thomas Evan Levy
  He is Distinguished Professor and holds the Norma Kershaw Chair in the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and Neighboring Lands at the University of California, San Diego. He is a member of the Department of Anthropology and Judaic Studies Program, and leads the Cyber-archaeology research group at the California Center of Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). Tom has published 10 books and several hundred scholarly articles.
• Zelma Long
  She is Winemaking Partner for the Vilafonté South Africa project. She is one of America’s best known winemakers with an enviable international reputation. One of the first women to study enology and viticulture at U.C. Davis, she has held positions at Robert Mondavi Winery, Simi Winery and Moet Hennessey, where she worked as both winemaker and CEO. Zelma has won many awards, among them the James Beard Wine Professional of the Year.
• Matt Nix
  He is the creator of the acclaimed one-hour spy drama on the USA network, BURN NOTICE, as well as the cop dramedy The Good Guys, starring Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks. He is an alumnus of Sonoma Country Day School, is the son of the founding Head of School, Philip Nix, and currently serves on the SCDS Board of Trustees.
• Steve Oliver
  He is the President of Oliver & Company, and has served and led many organizations, from the Alta Bates Health System, to the National Endowment for the Arts, to the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Steve and Nancy Oliver created The Oliver Ranch Foundation, a picturesque 100-acre property which is home to 18 remarkable site-specific installations. The most recent is Ann Hamilton’s The tower where commissioned dance, poetry, theatre, and music performances take place.
• Pomplamoose
  Pomplamoose is a California indie duo centered around musicians Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn. They enjoy making video songs for their recordings, with a few rules: What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice), and if you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds). You have heard their music in commercials for Toyota and Hyundai. Pomplamoose has never followed the rules, and has found their niche by doing it all themselves: from creating video songs to selling their music exclusively online; from recording to mixing their own tracks; and from marketing to management. All with a style that’s their own.
• Jean A. Rhea
  She is the Clinical Director of a large non-profit in San Francisco. She is part of a team developing a unique and compassionate, integrative wellness approach to trauma, substance abuse, violence and homelessness. Jean’s first career was as a successful women’s collegiate coach and educator. She turned an act of random and brutal violence into healing and an opportunity for growth calling for many changes in her life.