Deltaville’s “Great Decisions” presentations and discussions begin at 10 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 11, and will continue the same times each Friday through April 8.
Presentations include:
• Feb. 11, Climate Change — Pep Fuller has given presentations on global climate change to the William and Mary Law School as part of their Distinguished Lecture Series and to the Newport News Center for Adult Education at Christopher Newport University.
• Feb. 18, Outer Space — Gary Richardson is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel. After retirement he was a contractor consultant with the Air Force Space and Missile Directorate in Washington, D.C., focusing on ICBM technology development.
• Feb. 25, Russia and the U.S — Rob Shipman is presently in his final semester of formal coursework as a full-time PhD candidate with Old Dominion University’s Public Policy and Administration program. His area of study includes artificial intelligence as has been used by Russia to manipulate and influence the U.S.
• March 4, Changing Demographics — Dr. Erika Frydenlund is a research assistant professor at Old Dominion University’s Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center. Her research focuses on the topic of refugees and forced migration, particularly on prolonged displacement and impacts on host communities.
• March 11, Drug Policy in Latin America — John Hooper, USCG (Ret.), was a Coast Guardsman who served as boarding officer, weapons officer, operations officer, damage control officer, and commanding officer on four U.S. Coast Guard vessels during his 32 years of service. John Hooper is now a senior military planner for the National Guard Bureau in Arlington and an adjunct professor of Military Studies at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I.
• March 18, Quad Alliance — Retired U.S. Navy Captain Joe Sychterz is a graduate of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program and Naval Engineering Duty Officer Program. He served in submarines, Naval shipyards, aircraft carriers, and various staff duty assignments. After retirement, he supported U.S. Fleet Forces Command Atlantic in a contractor role in the Fleet Maintenance Directorate.
• March 25, Myanmar — Ambassador Scot Marciel served as U.S. ambassador to Myanmar from March 2016 through May 2020. He is currently a visiting scholar on Southeast Asia at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.
• April 1, Biden Agenda — Jeff Coughter has spent nearly all of his working life in the law publishing industry, first with LEXIS-NEXIS and currently, part-time, with FastCase. He is a member of the Virginia State Bar.
• April 8, Industrial Policy — Frank Lewis served the federal government as an economist, policy analyst with the Office of Management and Budget and other federal agencies, and directed policy analysis combating inflation in the 1970s as deputy associate director of the Cost of Living Council. His expertise lies primarily in domestic federal policy.
Due to COVID-19 concerns these sessions will be offered only online Zoom. To download the Zoom app for your device, go to the appropriate app store. This YouTube video may help you work with Zoom. https://youtu.be/mbbYqiurgeo.
Zoom connection sign-in instructions, ID and password will be sent to those in our email database before the first Great Decisions session. If you have not seen an email from us and/or would like to get the instructions, send an email to Connie Harris, constanceharris24@gmail.com, asking that you be placed on the email list.
To learn more, read the articles on each topic in “Great Decisions 2022 Edition” booklet, available for purchase for $25 at the Deltaville and Urbanna branches of the Middlesex County Public Library system, as long as supplies last.
