October 4, Quarterback Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Matthew McGovern is our Quarterback.
October 7, Thursday Club Dinner – starting with cocktails at 5:30 p.m.
Speaker is George McNeely, architectural historian. His subject—Cultural Heritage in Times of Conflict. Destruction of cultural monuments during the past decade’s upheavals in the Middle East brought the world’s attention to the challenges of protecting our shared heritage in times of conflict. Yet, over human history, we have a long track record of destroying each other’s valued monuments for a wide range of reasons, including conquest, religious intolerance, greed, cultural changes, etc. George McNeely will lead us on a whirlwind journey through history to observe particularly egregious but sometimes overlooked examples of such destruction, continuing through those recent events in the Middle East—and then back to our own country right now, as we wrestle over the cultural legacy of the Confederacy.
George McNeely is an architectural historian, lecturer, and writer. He co-edited World Monuments: 50 Irreplaceable Sites to Discover, Explore and Champion (Rizzoli, 2015). Most recently, he was Vice President for International Affairs at World Monuments Fund, and previously was with Christie’s for 15 years as a senior vice president in business development and the Chairman’s office. He also worked at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and in management consulting. George has a BA in art history from Princeton and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Video:To see a recording of this presentation, click on Play Event. Click on the play button at the bottom left of the screen that comes up to see the presentation. Put your computer into full screen mode to get the best image.
October 11, Quarterback Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Roberta Kangilaski is our Quarterback.
October 14, Thursday Luncheon Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Speaker is Christopher Baxter, executive director of Spotlight PA. His topic—A New Path Forward in News.
In the face of the ongoing and rapid decline of traditional local news, community-driven and community-supported newsrooms like Spotlight PA are blazing a new path forward with a focus on unique, deeply reported public-service and investigative reporting. But the future depends on a collective belief that strong journalism is vital to our democracy and must be valued and supported as a public trust.
Christopher Baxter is the executive director and founding editor-in-chief of Spotlight PA, overseeing all aspects of the organization. His work as an investigative reporter and editor has regularly prompted meaningful change in the form of new laws and regulations, criminal investigations, resignations, legislative hearings, and more. Most recently, he was the editor for data and investigations at NJ Advance Media (NJ.com & The Star-Ledger), where he led the newsroom’s highest-level investigative projects with a digital-first approach and an emphasis on journalism that gets results. Previously, he was the Mike Wallace Fellow in Investigative Reporting with the Knight-Wallace Fellowships at the University of Michigan and, before that, worked for four years as a statehouse investigative reporter in The Star-Ledger’s Trenton Bureau. He began his career as a local reporter for The Morning Call in Allentown. His work has garnered prestigious state and national awards, including the 2014 Livingston Award in Local Reporting, the 2018 Investigative Reporters & Editors Freedom of Information Award, as well as the 2019 Knight Award for Public Service and the 2019 Investigative Data Journalism Award from the Online News Association.
Video:To see a recording of this presentation, click on Play Event. Click on the play button at the bottom left of the screen that comes up to see the presentation. Put your computer into full screen mode to get the best image.
October 18, Quarterback Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Alan Penziner is our Quarterback.
October 22, Friday Club Dinner – starting with cocktails at 5:30 p.m.
Speaker is Signe Wilkinson, editorial cartoonist. Her topic—Beyond Words: Politics, Absurdities, Debacles, and Other Human Events.
With tongue firmly planted in cheek, Signe Wilkinson invites us to “come ready to laugh, cry, and heckle”—promising to “bore us with now-ancient insights on Pennsylvania’s jolly politics, national debacles of all descriptions, cheerful topics like the looming climate disaster, and Philadelphia’s present murder rate.”
Signe is keeping a keen eye on current events while she enjoys leisure time and family life after retiring last year from editorial cartooning for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Inquirer, and from national syndication with the Washington Post Writers Group. During her nearly 40-year career, she received wide recognition for her work. Moore College of Art and Design honored her in 2011 with its Visionary Woman Award. Beyond Philadelphia, she received the Overseas Press Club’s Thomas Nast Award four times (1996, 2000, 2006, 2014) the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award twice (2002, 2008), and was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning (1996). Signe will have on hand copies of her self-published book, Herstory: 19 Cartoons Celebrating the 19th Amendment,” and Free Speech and Why You Should Give a Damn, a vigorous defense of free speech by Penn history professor Jonathan Zimmerman, which includes her cartoons on the subject.
October 25, Quarterback Roundtable
Ruth Morelli is our Quarterback.
October 28, Thursday Luncheon Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
TBA