Guests
Greg MacGillivray is one of the world’s foremost producers and directors of giant-screen films with a film career that spans more than 40 years. He is President of MacGillivray Freeman Films and Chairman of the non-profit MacGillivray Freeman Films Educational Foundation, a public charity. With more than 30 giant-screen films to his credit, Greg has shot more 70mm film than anyone in cinema history—more than two million feet. His California-based company has been dedicated to the giant-screen motion picture format since the production of his first IMAX® Theatre film, To Fly!, in 1976. Twenty years later, To Fly! was selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Film Archives as one of the most important films in the first 100 years of American filmmaking. Early in his filmmaking career, Greg worked in Hollywood, directing and photographing for Stanley Kubrick on The Shining and filming for the Oscar®-nominated [...]
Daniel Rasmussen was born and raised in Washington, DC, where he attended St. Albans School. In high school, Rasmussen became passionate about investigative journalism. He led his high school paper to become the first private school winner of the national Journalism Education Association’s Impact Award for student journalism that makes a difference in the community. He spent every summer working for his local weekly, The Current, covering local politics at the grassroots level. In 2005, the Maryland—Delaware—DC Press Foundation named Rasmussen high school journalist of the year. He also spent a summer working for Roll Call newspaper on Capitol Hill. In addition to journalism, Rasmussen was a national medalist in rowing and was named a Washington Post All—Met athlete. At Harvard, Rasmussen focused on studying slavery and the American South. He won the History and Literature sophomore essay prize for his essay on American expansion in Florida. His junior year, he [...]
John Francis is known the world over as the "Planetwalker" and was appointed the United Nations Environment Program’s Goodwill Ambassador to the World's Grassroots Communities. John Francis’ environmental work began in 1971, when he witnessed a tanker collision and oil spill in San Francisco Bay. It was then that he gave up the use of motorized vehicles and began to walk. He started walking because he felt partly responsible for the mess that washed up on the shore. Several months later, on his 27th birthday, fed up with the arguments his decision to walk seemed to create with friends, John took a vow of silence lasting for 17 years. During that time, he founded Planetwalk a non-profit environmental awareness organization, received a B.S. degree from Southern Oregon State College, a Master's degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana-Missoula, and a PhD in Land Resources from the Gaylord Nelson [...]
Known as the guru of accessible travel, Candy Harrington has covered this niche exclusively for the past 15 years. She’s the founding editor of Emerging Horizons and the author of several accessible travel titles, including the classic, Barrier Free Travel; A Nuts and Bolts Guide for Wheelers and Slow Walkers. Candy’s work can also be found in disability-related magazines, mainstream publications and websites. Tape measure in hand, Candy hits the road often, in search of new accessible travel options. Her newest accessible travel title 22 Accessible Road Trips; Driving Vacations for Wheelers and Slow Walkers will be available in the summer of 2012. Candy Harrington also blogs regularly about accessible travel news, resources and industry updates on her Barrier Free Travels blog . Although she knew absolutely nothing about accessible travel or even disability in the beginning, as a journalist Candy Harrington knew how to research, interview and write, so that’s [...]
Victoria Allman, author SEAsoned: A Chef’s Journey with Her Captain, has been following her stomach around the globe for twelve years as a yacht chef. She writes about her floating culinary odyssey through Europe, the Caribbean, Nepal, Vietnam, Africa and the South Pacific in her first book, Sea Fare: A Chef’s Journey Across the Ocean. SEAsoned, Victoria’s second book is the hilarious look at a yacht chef’s first year working for her husband while they cruise from the Bahamas to Italy, France, Greece and Spain; trying to stay afloat. Victoria is a columnist for Dockwalk, an International magazine for crew members aboard yachts. Her column, Dishing It Up, is a humorous look at cooking for the rich and famous in an ever-moving galley. She also regularly contributes tales of her tasty adventures to Marina Life Magazine and OceanLines. You can read more of her food-driven escapades through her web-site, www.victoriaallman.com.
Dr. Kelly Bricker is an Associate Professor at the University of Utah in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism. She also works as a Senior Research Scientist – Recreation with HDR|DTA part-time. She completed her Ph.D. research with the Pennsylvania State University, where she specialized in sustainable tourism and natural resource management. She has special research and teaching interest in ecotourism, sense of place, natural resource management, and the environmental and social impacts of tourism. Kelly has conducted research on heritage tourism, social impacts of tourism, and natural resource-related tourism environments. She has presented papers on issues in ecotourism, sense of place, natural resource management, and incentive travel programs. She has published articles on sense of place, ecotourism certification and policy, and health and sustainable tourism relative to communities. With her husband Nathan, she developed an ecotourism operation called Rivers Fiji. She serves as the Chair of The International Ecotourism Society and [...]
Colin Salisbury, Founder and President of Global Volunteer Network (GVN), is the visionary behind what has become one of the most widely recognised international volunteer service organisations in the world. Salisbury has extensive volunteer experience both locally and internationally with time spent in Ecuador, Ghana, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, and Thailand. His background in Community Development and achieving a Masters in International Development has enabled him to provide challenging and affordable volunteer opportunities around the globe. In 2002, working out of a spare bedroom, Salisbury placed 240 international volunteers in communities in need around the world. In 2010, with a staff of nearly 22, Salisbury and his team placed almost 2000 volunteers in 22 countries. In 2007, GVN was propelled into the spotlight when Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and leading philanthropist, in an interview with Newsweek, suggested GVN as a first port of call for young people who want [...]
Dr. Gary Chapman is the bestselling author of The 5 Love Languages, one of the most widely recognized relationship books of the last generation. Drawing from decades of pastoral ministry, marriage counseling, writing and public speaking, Chapman has helped millions of readers think more intentionally about how people give, receive and understand love. A Life’s Work Centered on Communication and Relationships Chapman’s 5 Love Languages framework introduced a simple idea that entered everyday conversation: people often express and experience love in different ways. Through words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service and physical touch, his work invites couples, families and individuals to pay closer attention to how love is communicated. Books, Radio, and Relationship Guidance Since the success of The 5 Love Languages, Chapman has expanded the series for couples, singles, parents, children, teenagers, men and families. He is also the author or co-author of books on [...]
Isabel Wilkerson won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for her work as Chicago Bureau Chief of The New York Times in 1994, making her the first black woman in the history of American journalism to win a Pulitzer Prize and the first African-American to win for individual reporting. Wilkerson also won a George Polk Award, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for her research into the Great Migration, and she was named Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists. She has lectured on narrative writing at the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University and has served as Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University and as the James M. Cox Jr. Professor at Emory University. She is currently Professor of Journalism and Director of Narrative Nonfiction at Boston University. During the Great Migration, her parents journeyed from Georgia and southern Virginia to Washington, D.C., where she was [...]
Robert Bilheimer, President of Worldwide Documentaries, Inc., is a director, writer, and producer with an international background in film, theatre, journalism, and creative writing. Robert's films focus on subjects of cultural, social, and humanitarian interest. In 1989, he received his profession’s highest honor—an Academy Award nomination—for Cry of Reason, a feature-length documentary that tells the story of South African anti-apartheid leader Beyers Naude. Shortly after his Oscar nomination Robert directed and produced I'm Still Here, a film about schizophrenia and serious mental illness, and a film adaptation of Samuel Beckett's Endgame, adapted by the author, for the Smithsonian Institute's Visual Press. In 2003, Robert completed A Closer Walk, a film about the global AIDS epidemic that is widely regarded as a masterpiece. A Closer Walk is the first in a trilogy of films Robert is making about "the way the world is." The second film in the trilogy, Not My [...]
Paula Young Shelton is an Early Childhood Educator with nearly 20 years experience teaching and the author of the children’s book, Child of the Civil Rights Movement. A graduate of Duke University, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology in 1983. She began her teaching career in Gulu, Uganda instructing young teens in English and Religion. This inspired her to pursue a master’s degree in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College in New York, which she completed in 1987. Since that time, Ms. Shelton has committed herself to enriching the lives of young children through a multicultural, interactive, child-centered approach to education. Whether teaching in a rural village in East Africa, the public housing projects of Atlanta, the elite neighborhoods of New York City or the culturally diverse middle class communities of Washington, DC, Ms. Shelton has held fast to the belief that “every child can learn”. [...]
Chuck Johnson is an action film actor and stunt trainer based out of Tokyo, Japan. He is the first African American to make an international name for himself in Far East Asia's action film industry and also the first American to be trained extensively in the art of Katana Tate (Japanese theatrical swordplay) in Japan. Chuck has had a multitude of TV and film roles in Japan, including the upcoming G.I. Joe, Godzilla: Final Wars, Death Trap and Geki Rangers. His latest venture is a short film that is being considered for a full-feature film project at a Hollywood studio. Chuck holds ranks in both Taekwondo and Capoeira and has experience in several other martial arts forms. He is a former Michigan State Jr. Olympic Champion, a KTAA National Champion and a State Games of America Gold Medalist.
