Theme: Let Your Life Speak: Why Voice Matters

This event will explore the many ways voices emerge and evolve within a community. Our local speakers will consider the cultivation of a social voice in the liberal arts, the role of art in activist movements, the impact of personal voice on public health, and the importance of voice in social justice.

Green Room Theater
415 Harrisburg Avenue
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17603
United States

Beth Schwartz

a. Beth is the Healthy Weight Management Coordinator for Lancaster General Health. She is the Facilitator of the Lighten Up Lancaster County Coalition, a community coalition whose mission is to increase the number of Lancaster County residents maintaining a healthy weight. She is passionate about helping the county and individuals make the healthy choice the easy choice. She is a nurse by profession and has a master’s degree in public health nursing education.

Dean Hammer

Dean is the John W. Wetzel Professor of Classics and Professor of Government. He is also the Faculty Don of New College House. He has a Ph.D from the University of California, Berkeley and has received both the Lindback Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Dewey Award for Excellence in Research. He is author of five books on ancient Greek and Roman political thought as well as numerous articles on ancient and modern politics.

Kelly McMasters

Kelly is the author of Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town. The book was listed as one of Oprah's top 5 summer memoirs and is the basis for the documentary film The Atomic States of America, a 2012 Sundance selection. Her essays, reviews, and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, The Paris Review, The American Scholar, and River Teeth, among others. She holds a BA from Vassar College and an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia's School of the Arts and is the recipient of a Pushcart nomination and an Orion Book Award nomination. Kelly has taught in the undergraduate writing program and Journalism Graduate School at Columbia University, and is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA.

Nick Peterson

a. Nick is a 2002 graduate of Franklin & Marshall College and a 2013 graduate of Lancaster Theological Seminary where he completed a Masters in Divinity and serves as an adjunct instructor in Worship and Preaching and leads the worship planning team. Nick is also serving as the interim pastor at the historic Capital Presbyterian Church in Allison Hill, Harrisburg. As an activist he works with a number of organizations across the country and organizes locally with Black Lives Matter 717. Nick lives in Lancaster with his awesome wife NaKisha, her mom Terah, and their species confused dog Peter and cat Rascal.