Press:

Dennis Kucinich

Kucinich will be discussing HOT WATER.
 
Dennis John Kucinich was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Ohio's 10th district from 1997-2013.

He was born on October 8, 1946 in Cleveland, Ohio. He is eldest of seven children by parents Frank and Virginia Kucinich.

Kucinich first ventured into politics while still a student at Cleveland State University, winning a seat on the Cleveland city council in 1969. In 1973, Kucinich received a master's degree in communications from Ohio's Case Western Reserve University.

In 1977, Kucinich became the youngest mayor in Cleveland, Ohio history. In addition to being Mayor of Cleveland, Dennis Kucinich has served as a Council Member for the City of Cleveland (1970-75, 1981-82), as the Clerk of Courts for the Cleveland Municipal Court (1976-77) and as an Ohio State Senator (1994-96).
In 1996, Kucinich was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. As a congressman, Kucinich has been a progressive proponent of environmental initiatives, sustainability practices, human rights issues and the social and economic interests of his Ohio constituents, including the troubled steel industry. In 2001-2003 Kucinich was Chairman, and later Co-Chairman (2004), of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Dennis Kucinich is known for his idealism, activism and indefatigable spirit. In 2003, Kucinich began his campaign for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination with a platform largely dominated by human rights and environmental initiatives. In his campaign for the 2008 presidential nomination, he called for universal healthcare and an immediate withdraw from Iraq.

Kucinich was the chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He was also a member of the Education and Labor Committee.

Dr. Anirudh V. S. Ruhil

Ruhil will be discussing VISION: THE PORTSFUTURE PROJECT.

Anirudh V. S. Ruhil (Ph.D.: Stony Brook University) is a faculty leader and he serves as the Co-Director of the Honors Tutorial College/Voinovich Scholars Program. Ani also is the Ohio Education Research Center’s (OERC) Co-Principal Investigator/Co-Site Lead and participates on the Student Growth Measures Advisory Group for the Ohio Department of Education. He teaches quantitative research methods, policy analysis, and program evaluation for the Voinovich School’s Master of Public Administration academic program, and is a lead quantitative research methodologist/applied statistician for the School and for the DOE-funded project involving the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Portsmouth, Ohio.

Since joining Ohio University in 2005 Ani has worked on several evaluations of value-added pilot programs for Battelle for Kids, a multi-year study of post-secondary access and success in Appalachia, public health surveys and reports targeting diabetes in multiple Appalachian counties of the state, and several other projects. His experience and insights has led to ongoing service on an advisory group helping the Ohio Department of Education continually improve how value-added data are utilized in thestate’s school accountability framework, as well as on the Student Growth Measures Advisory Group for the Ohio Department of Education.

In addition to the reports he has co-authored for the aforementioned projects Dr. Ruhil has also published widely on issues of race and representation in local America, state politics and policy, and on urban governance more generally. His published work appears in the pages of the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, Policy Studies Journal, Urban Affairs Review, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Social Science Quarterly, and the Journal of Rural Health. 

Mark Hays

Hays will be discussing BOTTLED LIFE (NESTLÉS GESCHÄFTE MIT DEM WASSER).

Mark Hays has conducted research, campaign development and advocacy for a wide range of environmental and social change organizations, and spent six years as a campaign strategist, researcher and policy analyst for Corporate Accountability International.  There, he led development of the award-winning Think Outside the Bottle Campaign, which has worked to pressure bottled water giants such as Coke, Nestle and Pepsi to change irresponsible practices that are impacting the environment and people's access to water. The campaign is part of a broader effort to protect and realize the human right to water around the world.
 
He currently serves as coalition coordinator for the Democracy Initiative, a new project convened by the Sierra Club, NAACP, CWA and Greenpeace that seeks to bring together a wide range of environmental and social advocacy organizations to support efforts by allied organizations to protect voting rights and push back against the negative influence of big money in politics.  However, he remains actively engaged on water and corporate accountability campaigns as well.

Tim Gallagher

Gallagher will be introducing and discussing The Art of Falconry Program.
 
Tim Gallagher has been fascinated by birds of prey since childhood and has traveled on several expeditions to Greenland, Iceland, Canada, and Alaska to study them. He is the author of five books, including Falcon Fever, a memoir tracing his lifelong interest in falconry. His most recent book, Imperial Dreams, recounts his perilous search for the long-lost Imperial Woodpecker in the mountains of Mexico. Tim has been Editor-in-Chief of Living Bird at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for more than two decades.