Speaker Biographies Akhil Amar
Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University • Author Akhil Reed Amar is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University. Having joined the Yale faculty in 1985 at the age of 26, he is Yale’s only currently active professor to have won the University’s unofficial triple crown—the Sterling Chair for scholarship, the DeVane Medal for teaching, and the Lamar Award for alumni service. Amar’s work has won awards from both the American Bar Association and the Federalist Society, and he has been cited by Supreme Court justices across the spectrum in more than forty cases—tops in his generation. He is the author of more than a hundred law review articles and several prizewinning books. His latest and most ambitious book, The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840, has just been published. A wide assortment of his articles and op-eds, and video links to various public lectures and free online courses may be found at akhilamar.com. Along with Andy Lipka, he cohosts a weekly podcast, Amarica’s Constitution.
Jeta Amata
Filmmaker Jeta Amata is from a Nigerian family of veteran filmmakers and actors. “Though I have often worked in America, I am an African filmmaker who goes back home to shoot; to keep the African light burning. I have hired thousands of African people that were paid SAG scale.”” 2002 to present: See IMDb 22 projects in America and Nigeria The Guardian, UK, described Jeta Amata as “Nollywood’s Gift to Hollywood“ and CNN labeled Jeta as “Nigeria’s Crossover.” I have screened films and given lectures in universities around the world including at UCLA, Cornell, GWU, Johns Hopkins, and New York University. Awards: The Amazing Grace: first film on slavery written, directed and produced by a black man. Winner, “Best West African Film”, 2006, Screen Nations Award, UK, and first Nigerian film to be screened at Cannes Film Festival. Dangerous Desire: premier film on DSTV’s Africa Magic, 2004 The Alexa Affair: Berlin film festival, first film on DWTV, 2004 With Game Of Life: first Nigerian director to appear on BBC, 2003 Political Activism My political activism dates to when my grandfather inspired Bobby Rush when he visited Oakland and spoke to students as the President of Africa’s Student Union in the 1960’s. Bobby Rush is an important mentor because of his role with the Black Panthers. Suzanne Jackson Lee, Barbara lee, Maxine Waters are personal friends who have supported my life’s work of improving the lives of the Nigerian citizens. After a screening of DAWN IN THE CREEKS, at the Library of Congress, I was invited as a peace ambassador to address the African Union on “Using film as a tool for conflict mediation.” Invited to speak twice by US Congress, I am also very active in environmental causes. My epic “whistle blower” film, BLACK NOVEMBER, gave me a platform from which to bring awareness of the oil industry’s disastrous treatment of Nigerian land. This film led to my becoming a Goodwill Ambassador to Haiti and an offer by the Haitian president, Michael Martelly, to do a film
about Toussaint Louvertere, considered the founder of the anti– slavery movement. I wrote the screenplay, and spent months in Haiti scouting locations, the film is not yet funded.
Rick Barton
Ambassador • Lecturer • Co-Director of Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative, Princeton University Ambassador Rick Barton teaches at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, where he serves as co-director of the Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative. Author of Peace Works: America’s Unifying Role in a Turbulent World, Barton was the first Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations, America’s ambassador to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in New York, the UN’s Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva and founded USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives. He led peacebuilding initiatives in over 40 crisis zones across the globe, from Haiti, Iraq, Nigeria, Burma to Pakistan. He serves on the Boards of the Alliance for Peacebuilding and the Institute for Sustainable Communities and is an advisor to numerous non-profits and public service institutions.
Millie Chen
Visual, Audio, and Performative Artist; Professor of Art, University at Buffalo Millie Chen’s artwork has been shown across North and South America, East Asia and Europe at venues and festivals including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, The Power Plant, Toronto, Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris, Centro Nacional des las Artes, Mexico City, The Contemporary Austin, Shanghai Expo, Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, and FILE-Rio: Electronic Language International Festival, Rio de Janeiro. Her work is in several public collections including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, University of Colorado Art Museum, Art Bank of Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Pacific Railway, and Toronto Transit Commission, and she has produced a number of permanent public art commissions. Her most recent awards are an Ontario Arts Council Media Arts Grant and a University at Buffalo Humanities Institute Faculty Research Fellowship, both for SRS (Silk Road Songbook). Her writing has appeared in publications in the U.K., Canada, the U.S. and China. Chen is a Professor in the Department of Art, University at Buffalo, SUNY.
Bek Christensen
Programs Director, Peter Cullen Water and Environment Trust • President, Ecological Society of Australia Bek Christensen is passionate about science, people, and the environment, and as a result has focused her career on building collaborations and enabling impact from science. With a PhD in Ecology, Bek has worked in ecosystem research, policy
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