2015

Jonathan Fields

Jonathan Fields

Jonathan Fields is a composer, music teacher and lecturer who in his career has explored many regions of the musical world. After graduating first in his class from Mannes College of Music in 1981, he joined David Horowitz Music Associates, one of the leading commercial music production companies in the world, and has been an award-winning composer of over a thousand television and radio spots.

José Medina

José Medina

Fr. José Medina is the national leader of the Catholic ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation.

Fr. Medina has devoted much of his professional career to the world of education first as teacher of physics and mathematics in Washington DC and Boston, and for the past six years as principal of Cristo Rey Boston, a Catholic High School for students with limited financial resources.

Salvatore Petrosino

Salvatore Petrosino

Salvatore Petrosino, director and writer, received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Film from the School of Visual Arts (1984).

 Sal has been involved in filmmaking for over thirty years. He has written directed, produced and edited: independent shorts, documentaries, commercials, industrials, music videos and has written two feature-length screenplays (Crossroads, Seasonal Passages) and various shorts. His expertise includes writing, directing and development at all stages of pre-production, production and post-production.   

Roberto Snaidero

Roberto Snaidero

Born in Majano, in the province of Udine, in 1948. Degree in Economics and Commerce from the Università degli Studi of Trieste.

He began his professional career in 1973 as President of Lamborghini Spa, a manufacturer of skis and sportswear. From 1984 to 1991, as President and CEO, he contributed to the success of Abaco Spa of Tolmezzo (Udine), a company that produces component kitchens, which thanks to a strategic development plan rapidly rose to a position of leadership in its market of reference, also gaining acclaim in the United States. 

Darren Burris

Darren Burris

Darren Burris discovered his passion for education in the School District of Philadelphia as a math teacher and is currently the Director of Instruction for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) at Boston Collegiate Charter School in Boston, MA.  He is currently a PARCC Educator Leader Fellow for the state of Massachusetts and was a member of the state model curriculum development team for high school mathematics.

Hope Carlson

Hope Carlson

Hope Carlson is the Chief Development Officer of the San Diego Museum of Man, an anthropology museum dedicated to inspiring human connections by exploring the human experience.  Hope has experience in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors and holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar.

Marta Cartabia

Marta Cartabia

Vice-President of the Constitutional Court of Italy. Marta Cartabia, married, three children, is full professor of constitutional law and member of the Italian Constitutional Court (appointed September 2011, by President Giorgio Napolitano). 

Since her PhD in Law (European University Institute 1993), she specialized in Italian and European Constitutional Law, Constitutional Justice and Protection of Fundamental Rights. 
She taught in a number of Italian Universities and was visiting scholar and professor in France, Spain, Germany and US.

Donna Freitas

Donna Freitas

Freitas lectures at universities across the United States on her work about college students. Over the years, she has written for national newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post. She received her Ph.D. in Religion from Catholic University, and she’s currently a non-resident research associate at the Center for Religion and Society at Notre Dame. Freitas has been a professor at Boston University in the Department of Religion and also at Hofstra University in their Honors College. She has written children’s novels for Scholastic, Harper Collins, and FSG.

Armando Fumagalli

Armando Fumagalli

Professor Armando Fumagalli is Director of the Master’s program in Screenwriting, Fiction and Movies at the Catholic University of Milan, Italy, where he is also Extraordinary Professor of Semiotics. He has taught screenwriting for many years, including at the Italian National School of Cinema. He is the author of several books on communications, the media, and the relationship between literature, cinema and television. He is also a development consultant for the Lux video TV production company.

Jamel Gaines

Jamel Gaines

Jamel Gaines is the artistic director and founder of Creative Outlet Dance Theater of Brooklyn. Gaines began dancing under the direction of Diane and Adrian Brown. His choreographic career began at Purchase University, where he received the Harry Bellefonte Scholarship graduating with a BFA. Under the tutelage of Kevin Iega Jeff and as a member of JUBILATION! Dance Company, Mr. Gaines developed his unique and nurturing approach to teaching and composing dance art.

Enrico Grugnetti

Enrico Grugnetti

Enrico Grugnetti is a Registered Nurse in Florida. He works in the Home Care Program for MCCI Group Holding taking care of elderly in their home setting. The main goal of his activity is to provide continuity of care for patients, as an intermediary between Primary Care Physicians, hospital and other medical and social care providers. The large majority of his patients are elderly who suffer from unstable chronic illnesses.

Grugnetti received his Nursing License in Italy in 1995. He worked for 7 years in the Cardiac-surgery department in Torino, Italy, as RN and as Head Nurse for a year. In 2002 he started his own activity in home care in Milan, Italy, first as a visiting nurse and then as a Nurse Manager. In 2008 he moved to the US, where he obtained RN Florida License.

Fr. Albert Holtz

Fr. Albert Holtz

Fr. Albert Holtz, OSB is a Benedictine monk of Newark Abbey, Newark, NJ. He teaches New Testament in the monastery's inner-city prep school. He has served as master of novices, retreat master for Benedictine communities around the U.S. & is currently Oblate Director. He is the author of Downtown Monks, Street Wisdom, Pilgrim Road, From Holidays to Holy Days & Walking in Valleys of Darkness: A Benedictine Journey through Troubled Times.

Annette Insdorf

Annette Insdorf

Annette Insdorf is Director of Undergraduate Film Studies at Columbia University, and a Professor in the Graduate Film Division of the School of the Arts (for which she was Chair from 1990-95).

Dr. Insdorf is the author of "Double Lives, Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski" (which was recently re-issued by Northwestern University Press); "Francois Truffaut," a study of the French director's work; and the landmark study, "Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust." Her most recent book is "Philip Kaufman," which Leonard Maltin called "a thoughtful, scholarly study of one of America’s most underrated filmmakers." Her commentaries can be heard on many DVDs, and she has interviewed over one hundred film celebrities in her popular "Reel Pieces" series at Manhattan's 92nd Y.

Maria Teresa Landi

Maria Teresa Landi

Maria Teresa Landi, M.D., Ph.D. was trained in molecular epidemiology and clinical oncology. She is currently Senior Investigator at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD. Her research focus on the genetic and environmental determinants of lung cancer and melanoma.She is currently exploring new approaches using high-throughput techniques and genome-wide association studies in the etiology of complex diseases *

* Dr. Landi will speak at New York Encounter in her personal capacity.

Kenneth Miller

Kenneth Miller

Kenneth R. Miller is Professor of Biology at Brown University.  A cell biologist, he serves as an advisor on life sciences to The NewsHour, a daily PBS television program on news and public affairs, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  Miller is coauthor, with Joseph S. Levine, of a series of high school and college biology textbooks used by millions of students nationwide. In 2005 he served as lead witness in the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial on evolution and intelligent design in Pennsylvania.

Jennifer Nedelsky

Jennifer Nedelsky

Jennifer Nedelsky, B.A. (Rochester) 1970, M.A. (Chicago) 1974, Ph.D. (Chicago), 1977. Prior to joining the University of Toronto, Professor Nedelsky was a Killam post-doctoral fellow at Dalhousie University (1977-79) and an  Assistant Professor of Politics at Princeton University (1979-1985). She was appointed Assistant Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of Toronto in 1986 and promoted to full Professor in 1995. In 1991 and 1994, she was Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago. Professor Nedelsky's teaching and scholarship have been concentrated on Feminist Theory, Legal Theory, American Constitutional History and Interpretation, and Comparative Constitutionalism. In 2000 she was awarded the Bora Laskin National Fellowship In Human Rights Research.