Lieutenant Colonel Susan F. Bryant was commissioned in the United States Army after graduating from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in 1989. Her assignments include two tours on the Korean peninsula and one tour at the Army’s National Training Center in Fort Irwin California. She received a Masters’ Degree in International Relations from Yale University in 1998 and went on to teach International Relations at the United States Military Academy, West Point. After completing her teaching assignment, Susan won a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship, which she served working as a special assistant and speechwriter for the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Upon completion of this assignment, she was selected as a strategic fellow to General Casey on the Joint Staff. Lieutenant Colonel Bryant also served a tour as a Strategic Planner on the Army Staff and completed an operational deployment in Afghanistan at the NATO Headquarters in Kabul. She currently works as an Assistant Professor of Military Strategy at National Defense University. She also has a Masters’ Degree from Marine Corps University’s School of Advanced Warfighting.
John Buschman is Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Collections and Services at Georgetown University Library and a resident of DC. A native of Indiana, he was Department Chair and Head of Collection Development at the faculty rank of Professor-Librarian at Rider University Library in Lawrenceville, New Jersey for 19 years, joining Georgetown in 2007. He holds a B.S. in history and sociology and a master’s degree in library science, both from Ball State University, and an M.A. in American Studies from St. Joseph’s University. He has published four books, and his Dismantling the Public Sphere: Situating and Sustaining Libraries in the Age of the New Public Philosophy (2003) was the recipient of the American Library Association’s Futas Award and the New Jersey Library Association’s Research Award – both in 2004. Buschman is a co-editor of the journal Progressive Librarian, is on the Progressive Librarians Guild Coordinating Committee, and served for three years on the National Council of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). His doctoral work will focus on a theoretical and critical review of the movement of the concept of a citizen in a democracy to that of citizen-as-consumer, tracing it through an analysis of his field in the form of a set of institutional responses, research, or policies.
Joy Chambers has her own law firm in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia specializing in wills, trusts and problems of aging. Her interesting in aging led to medical school training in psychiatry, teaching psychiatry to law students and law to psychiatry students, producing and hosting Maturity, a 30 minute monthly cable television program, and writing a best seller on wills. 9/11 led to studying Islamic law and teaching American family law at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in Delhi. She continues to lecture Islamic law students at South and Central Asian law schools. She writes about and photographs international jazz festivals and is curating a jazz photography show in Istanbul during its fall jazz festival. Her doctoral research will compare Islamic and western charitable trusts.
George Dwyer is a television reporter and producer with Voice of America’s Afghanistan Service. Earlier he served in the same capacity with the United States Information Agency’s WORLDNET Television. Before joining USIA in 1992, Mr. Dwyer spent 14 years as a staff TV Producer with ABC News in New York and Washington. He also served briefly as Director of Broadcast Services for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a national animal welfare organization based in New York. Over the course of his career Mr. Dwyer has covered politics, the environment, art, education, business, and publishing. Between 1983 and 1986 Mr. Dwyer was employed as a contract employee by film Director Stanley Kubrick, providing film research and acquisition services for the film "Full Metal Jacket" (1987). Mr. Dwyer has a BA in Sociology from Niagara University (1979) and a Masters Degree in Irish Studies from the Catholic University of America (1997). In the course of those studies he served an internship with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern in Dublin. In December 2005 he earned an Executive Masters Degree in Leadership from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. His doctoral work will focus on the concept of “Mutuality” in Public Diplomacy, with particular emphasis on organizational behavior and listening systems.
Martin Ferrell currently teaches History at the Madeira School, an all-girls' boarding and day high school in McLean, Virginia. He has taught in a variety of public and private high schools since 1996, when he began his teaching career in Charlottesville, Virginia. Martin received his B.A. in History and Russian Studies from Bowdoin College in 1992. He holds a Masters in Teaching ('96) from the University of Virginia and a Masters in Liberal Arts ('04) from St. John's College in Annapolis. His focus of study at Georgetown will be an examination of competing philosophies of education and knowledge and the way in which an understanding of these might be useful in fashioning responsible public education policy.
Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos is a journalist and freelance writer. She received a B.A. degree in English from Virginia Tech (1979), a Masters Degree in Business Administration from The George Washington University (1985), and a M.A.L.S. from Georgetown (2007) with a concentration in the Humanities. She writes on a variety of topics from parenting to pirates: fitness to philanthropy. Her work has been published in magazines and newspapers including The New York Times and The Washington Post. As a regular contributor to the New York Times Syndicate “Lifestyles” column her articles ran in national and international publications. While pursing an M.B.A., Ms. Geanacopoulos served on the staff of the US House of Representatives (Congressman Edward P. Boland, D-MA). Prior to entering the field of writing she pursued a career in management consulting. Her doctoral thesis is expected to explore various aspects of maritime history especially the unexamined lives of participants in seventeenth and eighteenth-century New England maritime history.
Mary Jo Gresens has enjoyed a career of over thirty years in the automotive and manufacturing industry as an engineer and business and financial manager at leading companies such as Ford, Volkswagen, A.O. Smith Corporation, Lear Corporation, and ITT Industries as well as consulting with Arthur D. Little. The majority of her time was served abroad. In 1999, Mary Jo was named President of the Automotive Division and shortly thereafter assumed the position of Chief Financial Officer for the Schaeffler Group based in Herzogenaurach, Germany. She is a senior member of the Society of Automotive Engineers and has been elected Automotive News Woman of the Year and Financial Times 1 of 25 Female European Leaders. After seven years with the Schaeffler Group, Mary Jo retired in 2006 and returned to the US where she completed a Masters degree in International Policy with a focus on Environmental Policy and Ethics at the George Washington University. She is continuing her pursuit of the topic in the DLS program at Georgetown.
Elizabeth (Betsy) Griffith spent the first 20 years of her career in executive positions at prominent nonprofit organizations, including National Public Radio, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, and the Phillips Collection. Since 2005 she has been a partner at Tatum LLC, an executive services firm, serving in management and client-facing roles. Academically, Betsy’s primary interest is the place of Venice in medieval Europe. She has researched the Venetian Arsenal, the state shipbuilding factory, which used what we think of as “modern” assembly-line methods of production, employed thousands of workers with minimal labor incidents, and operated continuously from 1104 through the end of the Venetian republic in 1797. She has presented academic papers on the Arsenal at the invitation of the European Business History Association (Barcelona 2004, Frankfurt 2005). She has taught business communications in the MBA program at the Darden School at the University of Virginia, where she earned her MBA in 1985, and leadership theory and practice at Trinity College, where she earned her undergraduate degree in 1978. This summer she is scheduled to teach “Venice: Prototype of the Knowledge Economy” in the Liberal Studies program, where she earned an MA in 1995. Betsy is interested in the pre-modern origins of modern business concepts and is also interested in learning more about these non-western trading circuits, how the Mediterranean economy interacted with them, and why they have been so largely excluded from the canon of business history.
Johanna Gross, a Philadelphia native, has lived in the Washington, D.C. area since attending undergraduate school at The George Washington University. She received an MS in Audiology from Gallaudet University and works professionally as an audiologist at Fairfax County Public Schools, having previously worked as an audiologist at Georgetown University Medical Center for seven years. Johanna works primarily with culturally and linguistically diverse children demonstrating developmental delays, autism or hearing loss. Returning to school after almost 30 years away from academia, Johanna graduated with an MA in Philosophy from George Mason University in May 2007, with a particular interest in political and ethical resistance to genocide. She volunteers for Amnesty International towards that end. Her doctoral research will focus on utilizing the ideas and theories of philosopher, Emmanuel Levinas and political theorist, Hannah Arendt for the purpose of broadening the ethical-political discourse required for individuals and nations to confront and resist genocide.
Mary A. Lentz is a former public school teacher and attorney who specializes in public and private school law and child safety. Ms. Lentz received her M.A. degree from Georgetown University in African and Asian History and taught in Africa on a Jennings Master Teacher Award. She has served as legal counsel to the Ohio State Board/Department of Education, as an assistant county prosecutor in the criminal division and as a municipal police prosecutor. Ms. Lentz writes, teaches and provides training to public and private school administrators, teachers and law enforcement assigned to the school setting. She is the editor/author of Baldwin’s Ohio School Law and Lentz School Security, a manual for law enforcement, school administrators and attorneys. Both are published by Thomson-West legal publishers. Ms. Lentz has also authored numerous articles on criminal law, education law and child safety for professional journals and also for the The Catholic World published by The Paulist Press. She is the author of a curriculum for student in Kindergarten through grade twelve, as well as a Parent Guide in Spanish and English for the prevention of child abuse for children in pre-school through age seventeen. Her doctoral research will focus on the moral, ethical and constitutional rights of children to personal safety and bodily integrity.
Paul Linehan is a senior foreign affairs advisor at the Office of Secretary of Defense for Policy, focusing on international defense and strategic technology policy for East Asia. For 16 years, he managed a range of East Asian intelligence issues and ultimately served as senior operations advisor to the director, Defense Intelligence Agency, and undersecretary of defense for intelligence. He spent 13 years working in Asia and Europe, in business, government, and as a U.S. Congressional Fellow to the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Cabinet Intelligence Office, and the Diet. A graduate of Boston College, Mr. Linehan completed post-graduate studies at Waseda University, Tokyo; holds a masters degree in international affairs and China studies from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies; and is enrolled in the national security studies program at the National War College. He will pursue his doctoral studies on human character factors of Asian foreign affairs practitioners who formulate national security strategy and foreign policy.
Chuck O’Connor is a senior partner in the Washington DC office of the international law firm of McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, and until stepping down in January 2008 was long-term chair of McKenna’s 30 lawyer Environmental Department. He graduated from Harvard College cum laude in English in 1964 and from Georgetown Law Center in 1967, then served 2½ years on active duty in Navy JAG, including a year in Vietnam. In 1970, Chuck entered private practice with the 15-lawyer Washington DC law firm of Sellers, Conner & Cuneo, now the 450-lawyer McKenna law firm, and began his career as an environmental lawyer, focusing on chemical regulation. During the 1970s and 1980s he represented the chemical industry in most of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s major administrative proceedings on pesticides, and he is a principal author of the firm’s two leading treatises in the chemical regulatory field, the Pesticide Regulation Handbook and the TSCA Handbook. He received his M.A.L.S. degree from Georgetown in 1985. In the DLS Program he would like to study the impact of the First World War on Western Culture.
Sabine Palmreuther joined the Urban and Local Government Team at the World Bank Institute, World Bank, in April 2007. She has been working in areas of capacity development, using innovative learning approaches such as distance education via radio. She has also been involved in aspects of urban planning and management, providing assistance in the formulation of a framework to strengthen capacities of the municipal planning offices in Guatemala, including initial steps to develop a certification system for urban planners. Sabine worked in the capacity as Special Assistant to the Vice President from July 2004 until March 2007 where she provided leadership support to the Vice President and the Front Office, as well as operational support to the management team. Prior to joining the Bank, Sabine worked in the Program Finance department for the German Investment and Development Company (DEG) in Cologne, Germany. She was in charge of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) project portfolio for the Latin American and Caribbean Region, mainly Mexico. She was responsible for organizing a series of expert meetings pertaining to an IDB initiative on "Helping Small and Medium Enterprises Access Finance and Capital in Emerging Economies", and working on SME issues. Sabine holds a Master's degree in business administration from Germany. Her doctoral research will focus on ethics and urbanization in developing countries.
Donald Pruefer, Jr. is originally from Port Washington, Wisconsin. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BA in Russian Language and Literature, and holds a Master’s Degree in Russian and East European Studies from Indiana University at Bloomington. He was a career active duty United States Army intelligence officer, serving at various locations in the states, South Korea, Germany, and Hawaii. He retired from the Army in 2003 and became the China Senior Analyst with the civil service for U.S. Pacific Command. In 2006, he accepted a position on the National Intelligence Council as a deputy-level assistant and northeast Asia specialist. His master's thesis focused on Russia’s problems with decommissioning Cold War-era nuclear submarines. Among the reasons he addressed this topic was the opportunity of engagement between Russia and NATO to protect the environment and share expertise on common problems. His professional travels have taken him to a variety of regions, including the southern Caucasus, former Soviet Union, Europe, and Asia. He is currently working for the Office of Director of National Intelligence on intelligence reform issues. In the DLS program, he plans study the history, religions, and culture of Russia to gain insights into how these factors bear on societal problems and solutions in the post-Soviet period.
Joe Schittone hails from Baton Rouge, LA, and now resides in Silver Spring, MD. He holds a BS in Zoology from Louisiana State University, an MA in Marine Affairs and Policy from the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (a part of the University of Miami), as well as a JD from LSU. He is currently employed at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service, in its Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, as a Tropical Marine Ecologist. Actually, Mr. Schittone has been employed twice by NOAA, once before and once after working a year’s stint (2001-2), for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) office in The Hague, The Netherlands. During an earlier legal career, Joe was a partner in a law firm as a litigator in private civil cases, primarily involving personal injury matters, and also served a year as a judicial lawclerk in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. He intends to concentrate in his doctoral research upon factors that influence states’ ratification and implementation of various United Nations environmental conventions.
Louise Pisano Simone grew up outside of Philadelphia and has lived in Washington, DC. since she graduated from Georgetown University in 1981. Her BSFS and MA in Latin American Studies, both from Georgetown, focused on the literature, history, and society of a variety of cultures around the world. In 2004 she earned her MFA from Vermont college of Fine Arts in writing for Children and Young Adults. She has worked as a researcher at a law firm focused on women’s employment issues, as a human rights advocate with particular interest in Central America and the Southern Cone of Latin America, a fund raiser for a micro-credit organization, and a writing tutor. She has taught Latin American history, writing, and research in a variety of Washington area independent schools, has led groups of high school students on community service trips in Central America, published articles on ancient Mexican cultures in magazines for children, and is currently the librarian at Sheridan School. Her academic program will focus on the intersection of literature and history in works for young people.
Michael R. Turner received a B.A. from Ohio Northern University, an MBA from the University of Dayton, and a Juris Doctorate from Case Western University School of Law. He practiced corporate and real estate law for 17 years. In 1993 he was elected mayor of the city of Dayton, Ohio where he served for two consecutive terms, while continuing to practice law. During his eight year tenure as mayor, he balanced the city’s budget and instituted significant improvements in police protection, historic preservation, inner-city housing development, and the redevelopment of brownfields. As mayor he worked to establish exchange programs and sister city agreements with Zagreb, Croatia and Sarajevo, Bosnia to assist in Balkan redevelopment in support of the Dayton Peace Accords. He is currently serving a third term in Congress representing Ohio’s Third Congressional District. He is a member of the House Armed Services, Veterans’ Affairs, and the Oversight and Government Reform Committees. He has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East as part of his service on the Armed Services Committee. He is a strong advocate for urban revitalization and economic development as the chair of the House Policy Committee’s Urban Revitalization Taskforce and the vice-chair of the Congressional Urban Caucus. He also co-chairs the House Former Mayors Caucus, and the Historic Preservation Caucus. His DLS research will focus on the successful adoption of federal policies to accommodate grassroots innovations and will include a review of the federal earmark process as a vehicle for encouraging local innovation.
