6 minute read
'Live and In Person’ with MCA
By Larry Israelite, MCA Communications and Technology
MCA has always sponsored speakers. The monthly luncheons and the speaker series have been mainstays of MCA programming for more than 10 years. Members would come together, ostensibly to listen and learn, but these events were social as well. And if there is anything we learned from COVID, it is that watching a speaker on Zoom just isn’t the same as being there ‘live and in person’ to listen, but also meet with old friends, make new ones and simply enjoy the company of others.
So, for the 2023-2024 season, MCA has worked especially hard to offer a full slate of very interesting presentations delivered by even more interesting speakers, many of whom are MCA members. Here are titles of the programs along with the speakers’ biographies.
Higher Education in America: Past, Present and Future
Dr. Steven Yussen held positions for 48 years as professor of educational psychology, child development and psychology at the Universities of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, and as dean of education at Iowa and Minnesota. While his formal teaching and research focused on thinking, memory and reading, he was an avid observer of the larger world of colleges and universities.
Exploring Addiction: Why Is It So Misunderstood?
Dr. Jeff Daiter graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 1991 and completed his residency in family and community medicine at the University of Toronto. He went on to specialize in sleep disorders medicine, receiving a fellowship from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Later, he added addiction medicine to his focused practice area, achieving certification by the American Board of Addiction Medicine and the Canadian and American Societies of Addiction Medicine as well as a fellowship from the latter. As cofounder of the Canadian Addiction Treatment Centres, he built a network of over 90 addiction clinics across Canada.
Israel Between the Wars: Annual Update
Steve Schreier, a resident of Massachusetts since 2008 and now Southwest Florida, is the president of the Schreier Group, which provides consulting to nonprofit organizations and philanthropic foundations. Prior to that, Schreier served as consultant and Senior Vice President of the American Technion Society from 19862007, during which he was responsible for the conceptualization, creation and implementation of a comprehensive development structure and program throughout the United States. He has also served in executive positions in Jewish Federations and as a community and campaign consultant for the Council of Jewish Federations.
A Political Scientist Looks at the 2024 Election
Terry Weiner is a native of Chicago. He attended the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed his graduate work in sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He taught at Union College in Schenectady, NY for 35 years. While at Union, he was appointed chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. After serving an eight-year term as Associate Dean of Faculty, he returned to the Department of Political Science as chair. In 2003, he was awarded an endowed chair in political science. After serving most of his career at Union, he left in 2008 to become Provost of Russell Sage College in Troy, NY, where he was awarded the college’s first Distinguished Service Award by the president. He retired from Sage in 2015.
The Chicago 8 Trial
Neil Adelman is a retired attorney from Chicago who now makes his summer home in Denver. He has spoken on numerous subjects for MCA, Beth Tikvah Congregation in Naples and at synagogues and Jewish groups in the Chicago and Denver areas. Adelman has spoken in the past for MCA on the topics of Jewish Music, Jews and Booze, the Rosenberg trial and Jewish artist Arthur Szyk. Adelman is also an experienced opera lecturer, having been a volunteer community lecturer for Lyric Opera of Chicago and having lectured on opera in Chicago, Denver and the Renaissance Academy, now FGCU Academy, in Naples.
America’s Vanishing Amusement Parks
Jeff Margolis is an educator, author and lecturer who lives in Naples. Prior to retiring, Margolis was an academic advisor and professor at Rowan University College of Education in New Jersey. He serves on the board of the Press Club of Southwest Florida. He recently became a member of the International Society of Olympic Historians and is one of the founding members of MCA.
What’s New in the News: From Broadcast and Social Media to Streaming and Artificial Intelligence
Marc Rosenweig is associate professor of television and digital media at Montclair State University. He spent more than three decades as a television reporter, producer and program executive. He was one of the founders of CNBC and the YES Network for the NY Yankees. Rosenweig managed news and sports programming and was part of teams that received the DuPont Columbia and George Polk awards for investigative reporting. He was also honored with six New York Emmy Awards for his work as a Senior Vice President of Programming at YES. Rosenweig received the L.J. Hortin Distinguished Alumnus Award from Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. He also has a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
There are other speakers as well, with equally impressive resumes. Here is some information about them.
Deciphering the National Popular Vote
Suzanne Low is district chair of Floridians for National Popular Vote (NPV) and NPV chair of the League of Women Voters of Collier County. She has lived in Southwest Florida since 1997, serving as director of Florida operations and financial advisor for an independent wealth management firm until her retirement in 2016. Before moving to Florida, she worked as an attorney for 16 years in New Jersey.
Instincts: My Career from Green Beret to the 19th Director of the U.S. Secret Service
Lew Merletti was the 19th director of the United States Secret Service. He succeeded Eljay B. Bowron and was sworn in on June 6, 1997 by Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin. A 25-year veteran of the United States Secret Service, Merletti has also served as assistant director in the Office of Training, and as the special agent in charge of the Presidential Protection Division.
If you are interested in any of these programs or just want to learn more about the rest of what MCA has to offer, go to our website at www.mcanaples.org or scan the QR code that accompanies this article.
