Introduction/Moderator:

TBD/Patty Satalia

Location:  The Penn Stater, President's Hall

Bio: Dr. Michael E. Mann is a member of the Penn State University faculty, holding joint positions in the Departments of Meteorology and Geosciences, and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (ESSI). HE is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center (ESSC).

He received his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Applied Math from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.S. degree in Physics from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Geology & Geophysics from Yale University. Current areas of research include model/data comparisons aimed at understanding the long-term behavior of the climate.

Dr. Mann was a Lead Author on the "Observed Climate Variability and Change" chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Scientific Assessment Report and in 2007 shared the Nobel Prize with other IPCC authors. He has been organizing committee chair for the National Academy of Sciences 'Frontiers of Science.' He has received the outstanding publication award from NOAA and in 2002 was selected as one of the 50 leading visionaries in science and technology by Scientific American. Dr. Mann is author of more than 130 peer-reviewed and edited publications, and recently co-authored the book Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming with colleague Lee Kump. He is also a co-founder and avid contributor to the award-winning science website "RealClimate.org."

Topic: "The Serious Art of Comedy Television (well, maybe not that serious)"

Introduction/Moderator:

Robert Pangborn/ Patty Satalia

Location:  The Nittany Lion Inn, Ballroom

Bio:  With a resume that includes productions for nine networks and ranges from documentaries to musicals, Don Roy King is one of the most versatile and experienced directors in the television industry today.  He has directed more live network television than any director in the history of the medium and his network assignments have taken him to twenty countries and thirty-eight states.

He is now directing his sixth season of NBC's Saturday Night Live.  That work has earned him two Primetime Emmys and five nominations.  He has also been nominated for five DGA Awards. 

Mr. King is also the creative director for Broadway Worldwide, a venture that brings theatrical events to theaters and pay-per-view cable.  The company has produced four major productions, all directed by Mr. King: the 2010 Tony- winning musical, Memphis, the final performances of Smokey Joe's Café; the Stephen Sondheim revue, Putting It Together  with Carol Burnett; and the musical, Jekyll & Hyde.

In 2001 he ended a fourteen-year run as the creative director of CBS News and director/senior producer for The Early Show and CBS This Morning.  Other CBS credits include the live finale shows of the first four Survivor series, Eye to Eye with Connie Chung, Bob Simon: Back to Baghdad, The Smithsonian Anniversary Specials, Camera Three, and daytime Winter Olympics coverage in France, Norway and Japan.

After leaving CBS, he directed the network pool coverage of the first September 11th Memorial Service at Ground Zero in Manhattan.  In addition, he directed numerous talk show pilots including, The Robin Quivers Show, Fergie, and Day to Day with Rachael Ray.  He periodically sits in as the director of The View on ABC.

For over six years Mr. King directed Good Morning America for ABC.  He also directed numerous Barbara Walters Specials and two seasons of the variety series, Kids Are People Too.

Other network credits include: Judgment Night: DNA for Fox; America Alive, a daytime series for NBC; and A War Called Peace for PBS.

Mr. King has won three other Emmys for his work - one for directing The Mike Douglas Show; another for producing and directing Toys on the Town, a musical special with Shields and Yarnell; and the third for heading the design team that revamped the graphic look of CBS News.  He has also been nominated for twenty-one Emmys as a writer, producer and director.  Other recognition includes two Ohio State Awards, an American Bar Association Award, a San Francisco State Award, a New York Public Relations Award and three Golden Quills.  (Mr. King is most proud, however, of several amateur boxing titles he won in his thirties. His ring career, by the way, had nothing at all to do with the tonsorially-challenged man whose name he shares.)

Mr. King also has a broad theatrical background; and his television credits include the original cast versions of the Broadway musicals, Tintypes and The Me Nobody Knows.  Other theatrical productions for television include Monteith and Rand on Broadway, The Passion of Dracula, and Richiardi's Chamber of Horrors, a magic special.  His collegiate acting training has come in handy, too.  This year he played Daybreak director Merv in the Harrison Ford big-screen comedy, Morning Glory.  He also served as the 2^nd unit director and television consultant on that movie.

His other credits range from telethons to sports: concerts for MTV, including its first two New Year's Eve parties; The Easter Seal Telethon; two seasons of the syndicated series, Comedy Tonight; The Charles Perez Show, the pilot for Paramount's Entertainment Tonight; The David Susskind Show; An All-Star Tribute to Jazz with George Benson, Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Kenton; WFL Football and Pittsburgh Pirate Baseball.

As a producer, director, writer and composer, Mr. King has developed a variety of series, specials, documentaries and musicals.  Many of these were produced for local stations including WCBS and WNEW, New York; KDKA, Pittsburgh; KGSC, San Jose, California; and WPSX, State College, Pennsylvania.

Introduction/Moderator:
TBD/ Katie O'Toole

Location:
The Penn Stater, President's Hall

Bio:

Richard T. Clark is retired chairman and CEO of Merck.  He served as chairman from April 2007 until December 2011. Mr. Clark was CEO of Merck from May 2005 through December 2010. He also was president of Merck from 2005 until May 2010. 

Previously, Mr. Clark held the position of president of the Merck Manufacturing Division, with responsibility for Merck's global network of manufacturing operations, information services and operational excellence organizations worldwide. 

In a career spanning 39 years with Merck, Mr. Clark also held a broad range of senior management positions within the company's manufacturing organization. Mr. Clark joined Merck in 1972 as a quality control inspector, and he progressed through a series of increasingly responsible roles in the areas of production, new products planning, industrial engineering and management engineering. He became vice president, Materials Management and Management Engineering in 1991. 

In 1993, Mr. Clark was appointed vice president, Procurement and Materials Management. He became vice president of North American Operations for the Merck Manufacturing Division in 1994 and senior vice president in 1996. In 1997, he was appointed senior vice president of Quality and Commercial Affairs. Later that year, Mr. Clark joined the Merck-Medco Managed Care subsidiary as executive vice president and chief operating officer.  He later served as chairman, president and chief executive officer of the newly named Medco Health Solutions, overseeing plans to prepare that organization to become a publicly traded company. He returned to the Merck Manufacturing Division as president in June 2003.

From 2008 to 2009 he served as board chairman of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which represents the country's leading pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies. Mr. Clark is chairman of Project Hope, an international health care organization that works in developing countries to help eradicate infectious diseases, train health professionals and educate parents and their children on how to prevent and treat diseases. Mr. Clark is also a member of the Board of Trustees of PENN Medicine, an enterprise consisting of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which is dedicated to medical education, biomedical research and excellence in patient care. He also serves on the American Securities Advisory Board, Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) Board of Directors, Corning Board of Directors, and the Washington & Jefferson College Board of Trustees.

Mr. Clark earned his bachelor's degree in liberal arts from Washington & Jefferson College, and his M.B.A. from American University. He served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army from 1970 to 1972 before joining Merck.

*This installment of the Penn State Forum is made possible in part by the Jon W. Oswald Lecture Endowment 

opic:

"Covering Katrina: Then and Now"

Introduction/Moderator:
Rodney Erickson/Katie O'Toole

Location: The Penn Stater, President's Hall

Bio: After a five-year absence, award-winning journalist Karen Swensen has returned to New Orleans and WWL-TV to anchor the station's 10 p.m. news.

Swensen left New Orleans for an anchor position at New England Cable News in Boston after a lengthy stay at WWL-TV that included award-winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina.

At NECN in Boston, Swensen wrote and produced a one-hour award-winning documentary called "Katrina: A Flood of Tears." It was a first-person account of the storm and its aftermath that revealed the personal loss, strength and resilience of the people of the Gulf South. It premiered at Harvard University, where Swensen led a panel discussion on the storm.

"My husband and I have always said we'd return," she said. "It was never a question of 'if' but 'when.' I knew we'd come back when a position opened that allowed me to work and spend ample time at home with my daughter. I am thrilled that that time is now!"

She said that, since she left WWL, she's never passed up an opportunity to keep New Orleans in the news in New England. Swensen returned to Louisiana several times on assignment to cover the Katrina rebuilding effort, Katrina anniversaries and the Saints Super Bowl win. Of the Super Bowl, she laughed, "That was the third best day of my life, behind my wedding day and the day my daughter was born! I remember screaming on air, 'WHO DAT? WE DAT! AND THAT'S DAT!'"

Swensen said it was family considerations four years ago that prompted her move to Boston, where her parents live. But it is also family which is now drawing her back. Her husband John is a native New Orleanian whose family roots here date back to the 1700s. Their wedding was celebrated in St. Louis Cathedral and their daughter, now 7, was born here.

"It's not just enough for us or her to experience the culture of New Orleans a couple of times a year," Swensen said. "I want her to grow up in it."

Swensen said that the bond with Louisianians has stood the test of time and distance.

"It's incredibly comforting. All these years later, I still get e-mails and letters from New Orleanians just checking in," she said.

"The viewers here (in New Orleans) are different. They think of you as a journalist, but a neighbor, too. I don't think there's any other market where the professional journalist/viewer relationship is so intensely personal."

Swensen began her broadcasting career at WWL-TV in 1993 as a part-time newsroom associate producer who anchored overnight news updates. Over her 12 years at the station, she climbed the ladder, becoming a reporter and then anchor, first of the "Early Edition" newscast, then weekends and ultimately the 10 p.m. newscast.

Over the years, she's won sundry awards. At WWL-TV, she co-anchored the station's continuous coverage of Hurricane Katrina, which earned WWL the George Foster Peabody, Edward R. Murrow and duPont-Columbia Awards.

In addition, at WWL-TV, Swensen earned six Edward R. Murrow regional awards for investigative journalism, writing and feature reporting. She won two regional Emmys, several Gracie and Gabriel Awards, as well as Associated Press and Press Club of New Orleans awards, including the prestigious Jim Metcalf Memorial Award for best broadcast writing.

Swensen graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Honors from Penn State with a degree in Political Science and was a Louisiana state finalist in the Rhodes Scholarship competition. She has a Master's Degree in Journalism from Penn State.

Topic:  "Ending the Entitlement Epidemic - Raising Responsible, Respectful & Resilient Kids"

Introduction / Moderator: Robert Pangborn / Patty Satalia

Location: Ballroom, Nittany Lion Inn

Bio:  Parenting expert Amy McCready is the Founder of Positive Parenting Solutions and the author of If I Have to Tell You One More Time...The Revolutionary Program That Gets Your Kids to Listen Without Nagging, Reminding or Yelling (Tarcher/Penguin, August 2011). She is a champion of positive parenting techniques for happier families and well-behaved kids. Her Toolbox strategies have empowered tens of thousands of parents to correct their kids' misbehaviors without nagging, reminding or yelling.

Amy reaches a worldwide audience with her Positive Parenting Solutions Online parenting course, live webinars, and media appearances. Amy is a frequent guest on The TODAY Show and has also appearedon Rachael Ray, CNN, Fox & Friends, MSNBC, and elsewhere.

Amy is a sought after keynote speaker, writer, parenting coach, corporate spokesperson and trainer. In her most important role, she plays mom to two teenage boys. She has been married to her husband, Dave, for over 20 years and lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

 *Immediately following the Forum will be a signing for Amy McCready's book, If I Have to Tell You One More Time. . .: The Revolutionary Program That Gets Your Kids To Listen Without Nagging, Reminding, or Yelling

Topic:  "Building Brands in a Socially Networked World: The story of Team USA at the 2012 London Olympic Games"

Location: Ballroom, The Nittany Lion Inn

Introduction / Moderator:  Robert Pangborn /  Katie O'Toole

Bio: Lisa Baird was named Chief Marketing Officer of the United States Olympic Committee in January 2009.  As the USOC's Chief Marketing Officer, Baird directs the USOC's Sales and Marketing Division and oversees the development of innovative corporate sponsorship, properties, events and consumer products divisions. Since joining the USOC, she has signed over $100 million dollars in new sponsorship and licensing business and signed 14 new corporate partners in one of the most challenging marketplaces in recent years. She has launched a number of innovative new marketing platforms including a national fundraising platform--Join Team USA and Making of Team USA giving fans up to the minute news on who is making the Olympic teams.  She has built a fan base of over 1,000,000 at Facebook.  She has redesigned United States Olympic Committee brand and recently re-launched the licensing business under the Team USA brand mark. The United States Olympic Committee and Team USA are the leading sports brand in the United States with a corporate reputation and athlete attribute ratings topping every other property.  Baird is tasked with growing the popularity and appeal of Team USA and has significantly grown the fan base through innovative web media and social network programs.  In addition, Baird has been a public proponent of strengthening anti-ambush measures for the sports industry and sponsored a proposition to prevent unfair advertising targeting Olympic sponsors which was unanimously approved by the National Governing Body Council. 

From 2005-2007, Baird served as Senior Vice President, Marketing and Consumer Products for the National Football League (NFL), where she directed the league's consumer products, direct marketing, e-commerce, entertainment marketing and advertising programs.  She oversaw a consumer product business totaling $3 billion in retail sales.  Baird oversaw the League's launch of the NFL Play60 program fighting childhood obesity, developed the League's first consumer generated ads for the 2006 Super Bowl, and launched a number of digital programs including the League's Hispanic website, a revamped e-commerce site (NFLShop.com), now a top 25 overall e-commerce site, and NFLRUSH.com, now the leading kids sports site.

From 1999-2005, Baird worked at IBM, first as Vice President, Advertising and then as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing Communications.  She led IBM's global marketing communications initiatives, including advertising, sports marketing, direct marketing, events and digital marketing in over 70 countries. Additionally, she was responsible for the IBM e-business campaign which won the 2006 Grand Effie award.

From 1996-1999, Baird held a series of marketing positions at General Motors, including serving as Chief Creative Officer of e-gm.  Prior to that, she worked in positions with leading consumer products companies including Warner Lambert, Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble.  Baird is a graduate of Penn State University with both a Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Business Administration degree.  

In 2004, she was named one of the top Business-to-Business Marketers. From 2004-2007 she served on the Board of Directors for the Association of National Advertisers.  She serves on the Penn State Center for Sports Business and Research Advisory Board and was recently awarded Outstanding Scholar of 2010 by the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State University. She was also awarded the prestigious 2010 Vernon Schranz Lecture Series Award at Ball State University. And in 2011, she was awarded the prestigious WISE Woman of the Year Award. She and her husband, Bob Baird, CEO of the Dorel Redreation Group, live in Connecticut with their three children. 

Website- www.teamusa.org

Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/#!/USOlympicTeam

Twitter- https://twitter.com/USOlympic

Topic: "Penn State University As Seen Through A Lens: A 30-Year Retrospective"

Location: President's Hall, The Penn Stater

Introduction / Moderator:  Rodney Erickson / Patty Satalia

Bio: Steve G. Manuel is a Senior Lecturer of Communications in the College of Communications, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa.

He was born Aug. 18, 1951, in Lancaster, Pa., and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in January 1969.  Manuel served as an enlisted photojournalist and as a commissioned officer for the U.S. Marine Corps for nearly 28 years, retiring from active duty as a Major in September 1996.

He earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Penn State University in 1984 and 1992 respectively and has been teaching public relations, crisis communications, and photojournalism at Penn State since he retired in October 1996.  He also teaches two first year seminars in War Reporting and the Embedding Process and Ethics in Photojournalism. 

Manuel is an active photographer with the university where he photographs many of the University's Division I sports teams.  His photographs have been published in more than 115 publications.  They include USA TODAY, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Athlon Sports, Volleyball Magazine, Blue/White Illustrated, Navy Times, Spectrum Sports Magazine, and many university and Penn State Alumni Association publications, calendars, posters, and brochures.  He also photographs for Associated Press wire services.  He has participated as a photographer in major USO Show tours to the Balkans, Okinawa/South Korea, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq with comedian/actor Dane Cook in June 2008, seven PGA golfers for Thanksgiving 2008, and Stephen Colbert in June 2009.

From 1992-1996, he served as a spokesman for the U.S. Defense Department at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.  He was responsible for the Western Pacific region, which included China, the Korean Peninsula, Japan, the National Security Agency, and POW/MIA Affairs.  Notable accomplishments during this period included: the North Korean Nuclear Agreed Framework; the brutal rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by two Marines and a sailor on Okinawa; the downing by North Korea of a U.S. Army helicopter and capture of its crews; and the 1996 Chinese missile exercises off the coast of Taiwan.

When not behind a camera, he spends time scuba diving, creating stained glass windows and lamps, and playing tennis.

Manuel resides with his wife Jaylene in State College, Pa.  They have four children and four grandchildren.

Topic:  "Stress ... It's Something to Laugh at"

Location: Ballroom, Nittany Lion Inn

Introduction / Moderator:  Rodney Erickson / Katie O'Toole

Bio: Joel Weintraub is a "humorous educator" who has managed to merge the formerly disparate worlds of comedy and health education. By combining his professional comedy experience with his masters degree in Exercise Physiology and his bachelors in Health Education from Temple University, Joel has entertained and educated audiences as diverse as universities, physicians, nurses, teachers, superintendents, dietitians, the PTA, and even burglar alarm installers. From the "World Bank" to Dangerfield's Comedy Club to major radio stations, the local news and the Food Channel... they have laughed and learned with "Humor for the Health of it."

Listen to past speaker sessions through the WPSU archive.

Listen to past speaker sessions through the WPSU archive.

Topic: "My Coal Journey"

Location: President's Hall, The Penn Stater

Introduction / Moderator:  Robert Pangborn / Patty Satalia

Bio: Twice named Female Vocalist of the Year by the Country Music Association, Kathy Mattea carved out a role for herself in the late 1980s and 1990s as a sensitive yet energetic artist at ease both with country tradition and free-ranging innovation.  In 1990, the West Virginia native won the first of her two Grammy Awards, earning the Best Female Country Vocal Performance award for her moving "Where've You Been," co-written by husband Jon Vezner.  She is among the most successful women in the genre's history, yet her creative spirit has led her to explore musical territory extending well beyond its confines.   Her recent recordings have intertwined Celtic, gospel, and bluegrass influences with the folk and acoustic music that have always served as her artistic anchor.

An early spokesperson and advocate for AIDS awareness and research, Kathy's long history of activism has led her to bring public attention to several current environmental issues: as a grass-roots presenter of The Climate Project's global warming slideshow, and in efforts to curtail mountaintop removal coal mining in her native Appalachia.   The work and the music joined together to produce her recent CD, "COAL", featuring songs from the coal country and culture of "her place and her people", and her latest release, "Callin' Me Home."

Topic: "ART & LIFE: Where they intersect"

Location: President's Hall, The Penn Stater

Introduction / Moderator:  Rodney Erickson / Katie O'Toole

Bio: Chris Staley is a Distinguished Professor of the Ceramic Arts at Penn State University. In 1977, he was rejected by all the graduate MFA program's he applied to. However after attending the Kansas City Art Institute for a year as a special student, he went on to earn his MFA from Alfred University. He has traveled extensively as a visiting artist from Bezalel Academy in Israel to Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine. He has received two National Endowment of the Arts grants and two Pennsylvania Council of the Arts Grants. His work is in many collections, Including the Smithsonian Institution's Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of Art , and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London as well as friends cupboards. He once wrote an essay titled "The Hegemonic Eye; Can the Hand Survive?" For 9 years he served on the Board of Directors at the Archie Bray Foundation, in Helena, Montana and he is currently serving on the Board of Directors at The Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. 

Topic: "The Trauma Paradox: Lessons of Adversity and Transformation"

Location: President's Hall, The Penn Stater

Introduction / Moderator:  Rodney Erickson / Patty Satalia

Bio: Charles R. Figley, Ph.D., Paul Henry Kurzweg Distinguished Chair in Disaster Mental Health and founding member of the Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy was recruited to Tulane to help organize and participate in new doctoral and research programs. Such programs would reflect the knowledge gained from Katrina to help Tulane become a world leader in disaster mental health and focus attention on the psychosocial rebuilding of New Orleans. This is the culmination of a career that has spanned more than 35 years as a trauma scholar whose work has led to many innovations in psychology, psychiatry, and social work. These include the development of the diagnosis of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the treatment of war veterans, traumatized families, and the secondary trauma of mental health professionals and other caregivers (i.e., compassion fatigue), traumatology, and the traumatology of grieving.

Professor Figley has been editor of a number of journals (e.g., the Founding editor of the Journal of Traumatic Stress) and book series (e.g., the Innovations in Psychology book series with Taylor & Francis). Dr. Figley's current editorships include Editor (founder), Traumatology, the International Journal, 1995-present and Editor (founder), Routledge (formerly Brunner/Mazel ) Psychosocial Stress Book Series , 1983-present. He has published more than 200 scholarly works including twenty books and 114 refereed journal articles that reported on more than 35 research projects focusing primarily on stress and resiliency of individuals, families, and communities. He is currently at work on three books: (1) Everson, R. B & Figley, C. R. (due in 2009). FAMILIES UNDER FIRE: A Handbook for Systemic Therapy with Military Families; (2) Figley, C. R, Huggard, P. & Charlotte Rees (Editors) (due in 2010). First Do No Self-Harm: Understanding and Promoting Physician Stress Resilience. NY: Oxford University Press; (3) Figley, C. R. & Roop, R. (due in 2009). First Strike: Preventing Human Abuse by First Documenting Animal Abuse. Washington, DC: Humane Society Press. He just received a contract from Sage Publications to produce the first Encyclopedia of Trauma.

Dr. Figley is an elected fellow of five of the leading national professional associations and is the recipient of numerous lectureships throughout the world including Northern Ireland, South Africa, England, Australia, Canada, Finland, and universities through the United States received many other honors in recognition for his scholarship. Among his many awards is a senior Fulbright Research Fellowship to conduct research in Kuwait in 2004 was named lifetime Alumni Fellow by the Pennsylvania State University, the highest honor awarded to its graduates. In 2006 he received the Humanitarian of the Year Award by the University of Missouri International Psychosocial Trauma Center (2006). In 2009 he will receive two additional awards 2009 American Family Therapy Award for distinguished Contribution to Family therapy Theory and Practice by the American Family Therapy Academy and the American Psychological Association's Award for Life Time Achievement in Trauma Psychology.

Topic: "What the Stories Look Like"

Location: President's Hall, The Penn Stater

Introduction / Moderator:  Rodney Erickson / Katie O'Toole

Bio: Chip Kidd is a graphic designer and writer in New York City. His book jacket designs for Alfred A. Knopf (where he has worked since 1986) have helped spawn a revolution in the art of American book packaging. 

He is a recipient of the International Center of Photography's award for Use of Photography in Graphic Design, as well as the National Design Award for Communications, the industry's highest honor. His work was included in the Cooper-Hewitt Museum's third National Design Triennial.

Kidd's monograph, CHIP KIDD: BOOK ONE was published by Rizzoli International, with an introduction by John Updike and featuring over 800 works, spanning two decades, from 1986 through 2006. 

In his role an editor of books of comics for Pantheon (a subsidiary of Knopf) Kidd has worked extensively with some of the most brilliant talents practicing today, including: Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman, Dan Clowes, Kim Deitch, Charles Burns, David Mazzucchelli, Ben Katchor and Alex Ross.

The Cheese Monkeys, Kidd's first novel and based on his experiences as a design student at Penn State, was published by Scribner in Fall of 2001. It became a national bestseller, as well as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His second novel, The Learners, was published in February of 2008 to tremendous acclaim. Both novels broke new ground by using the graphic design process as an engine to drive the plot. He is also the designer and co-author with Lisa Birnbach of True Prep, an instant New York Times best-seller.

His coffee-table book history of Captain Marvel, entitled 'Shazam! The Golden Age of the World's Mightiest Mortal' was released by Abrams in November.

In his spare time, Kidd drinks, cries and leads the neo-newwave band Artbreak.

Topic: "Worthy of Winning"

Introduction / Moderator:  Robert Pangborn / Patty Satalia

Location: President's Hall, The Penn Stater

Bio:  Beverly McIver was born in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1962. She is the youngest of three girls born to Ethel McIver. Her oldest sister Renee is mentally disabled. Renee is 48 but has the mindset of a second grader. Beverly is Renee's legal guardian and they currently reside in Durham, North Carolina.

Beverly is widely acknowledged as a significant presence in contemporary American art in general and has charted a new direction as an African American woman artist.  She is committed to producing art that consistently examines racial, gender, social and occupational identity. Her sister Renee is a frequent subject of the artist as well as other family members.

Her work is in the collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, N.C., the Baltimore Museum of Art, the NCCU Museum of Art, the Asheville Museum of Art, The Crocker Art Museum and the Nelson Fine Arts Museum on the campus of Arizona State University.

She is currently the Suntrust Endowed Chair Professor of Art at North Carolina Central University. Prior to this appointment, McIver taught at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. for twelve years, Duke University, North Carolina State University and North Carolina Central University.  She has also held residencies at many of the nation's leading artist communities, including YADDO, the Headland Center for the Arts, Djerassi, and Penland School of Crafts. She has served on the board at Penland School of Arts and Crafts and currently serves on the board of directors at YADDO in Saratoga Springs, NY.

McIver's work has been reviewed in Art News, Art in America The New York Times and a host of local newspapers.  She has received numerous grants and awards including the Anonymous Was A Woman Foundation grant, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a Radcliffe Fellowship from Harvard University, a Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation award, a distinguished Alumni Award from Pennsylvania State University, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award and Creative Capital grant.

McIver earned a bachelor's degree in art from North Carolina Central University, a master of fine arts degree in painting from Pennsylvania State University and an honorary doctorate from North Carolina Central University. She has been honored with numerous awards for her work, including: The Marie Walsh Sharpe Studio Space (2012); Distinguished Alumni Fellow, Pennsylvania State University (2010); Artist Of the Year Award, Scottsdale Cultural Council (2004); Louis Comfort Tiffany Award (03-04); Research and Creative Activity Award, Arizona State University (2003); Distinguished Alumni Award, Penn State University (2003); Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, Studio Space for one year (2003); Radcliffe Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University (2002); Creative Capital, Project Grant (2002); John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2001); Anonymous Was A Woman Grant (2000); Arizona Arts Commission Visual Arts Fellowship (2000); College of Fine Arts Research Grant, Arizona State University (2000); Artist Grant, Contemporary Forum, Phoenix Art Museum (1999); Project Grant, Arizona Arts Commission (1999); FIGA Grant, Research and Creative Activities, Arizona State University (1998); College of Fine Arts Research Grant. Arizona State University (1997); Full scholarship to the Headlands Center for the Arts, N.C. Arts Council (1995); N.C. Arts Council Visual Artist Fellowship Recipient (1994); Emerging Artist Grant. Durham Arts Council Inc. (1994); Travel Grant in Support of the Atlantic Center for the Arts Residency, Pennsylvania State University (1992); Educational Scholarship in Support of Graduate Studies, Saint James Baptist Church (1990).

*Preceding this Forum will be a screening of "Raising Renee," the HBO documentary about Ms. McIver's decision to adapt her career and life to assist with her mentally disabled sister. The screening will be held at 7pm on April 18, 2013 at the Palmer Lipcon Auditorium.