Dominic Fragman is a unique and exciting artist. He is a world-renowned multi-instrumentalist, performer, educator, lecturer, and program designer whose work focuses on improvisation, innovation, and freedom. He is a direct descendent of a lineage of groundbreaking jazz musicians including iconic masters, Paul F. Murphy, Larry Willis, and Cecil Taylor. Fragman is the co-founder of the Spirit of Jazz & Democracy, the Spirit of Innovation & Freedom, the Spirit of Innovation & Drumming, and the Mind Set of Innovation. His programming and work with Paul F. Murphy, Larry Willis, poet laureate Jere Carroll, and philosopher Dr. Sybol Anderson has been recognized as historic. Fragman has formed partnerships for his work with Zildjian, Loyola University of New Orleans, Maryland Humanities, Voice of America, Regis University, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum, and others.
Judy Sorum Brown is a poet, speaker, writer, and educator whose work focuses on leadership and the nature of change. Formerly Vice President of the Aspen Institute, she served as a White House Fellow and Special Assistant to the US Secretary of labor and taught leadership for the public good at the graduate school of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. She leads and teaches in a range of programs for executives. A poet, with interest in the leadership power of language and narrative, she has designed and facilitated leadership projects for symphony orchestras, urban libraries, manufacturing plants, public schools, the intelligence community and those who serve elders. Her leadership books include A Leader’s Guide to Reflective Practice, The Art and Spirit of Leadership, and the co-authored volume, Flourishing Enterprise; the new spirit of business (Stanford University Business Press 2014). Also available are four volumes of her poetry, The Sea Accepts All Rivers and other poems, Simple Gifts, Steppingstones and No One Swims Alone. Her first book, The Choice, focuses on the difficult subject of end of life decision-making. Her website is www.judysorumbrown.com.
Dr. Nicole T. Rochester is a board-certified pediatrician, private health advocate, speaker, author, and the CEO of Your GPS Doc, LLC, an innovative company that helps individuals and their family caregivers navigate the healthcare system. Dr. Rochester was inspired to start her company after caring for her late father and witnessing the complicated healthcare system from the other side of the stethoscope. Dr. Rochester provides individualized healthcare advocacy services as well as consulting services to employers and healthcare organizations. Committed to promoting health literacy and empowering patients and family caregivers across the globe, Dr. Rochester blogs on her website, www.yourgpsdoc.com, has an active presence on social media, and engages with audiences locally and nationally through workshops and speaking engagements. She has contributed to numerous articles in national online publications and has been interviewed on several podcasts. Dr. Rochester obtained her undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University, her medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency training at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. Dr. Rochester is a member of the Alliance of Professional Health Advocates, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Association for Physician Leadership. She is happily married and the proud mother of two daughters.
Co-founder, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Test Pilot at HopFlyt. Rory is a military Experimental Test Pilot and Marine Corps aviator that has been flying high-performance aircraft for over 20 years. He has deployed four times and flown over 300 hours in combat. He has a BSc. in Physics (Honors), an MS in Aerospace Engineering, an MS in Technical Program Management and is a graduate of the United States Naval Test Pilot School. Rory wants to rid the world from the jam of traffic and exhaust pollution while pushing boundaries in aviation design. At HopFlyt, Rory’s primary technical responsibilities are Flyt-Test and performance of the Venturi Aircraft whereas his corporate responsibilities are all things to progress TEAM HopFlyt’s work to the next level of business. Rory was the National Defense Industrial Association, Marine Corps Test Pilot of the Year for 2009 and a US Secretary of Defense Executive Fellow for 2016-2017. His other passions are spending time with family, jazz and endurance sports.
Wayne Karlin has published seven novels: Marble Mountain, The Wished For Country, Prisoners (all with Curbstone Press), Lost Armies, The Extras, Us (all with Henry Holt), and Crossover (Harcourt, Brace), and three works of creative non-fiction: Rumors and Stones, War Movies (Curbstone Press), and Wandering Souls: Journeys with the Dead and the Living in Viet Nam(Nation Books). His books have been published in translation in Denmark, Sweden, Italy and Vietnam. He co-edited the first collection of Vietnam veterans’ fiction from the war, Free Fire Zone: Short Stories by Vietnam Veterans, in 1973 and in 1995 was the co-editor of the first collection of fiction by Vietnamese and American authors who had been on different sides in the war: The Other Side of Heaven: Postwar Fiction by Vietnamese and American Writers. He became the (pro bono) American editor of the Curbstone Press “Voices from Vietnam” series, adapting and editing seven novels and short story collections by contemporary Vietnamese authors, as well as a second anthology Love After War: Contemporary Fiction from Viet Nam. In 2002, Karlin was one of the script writers and acted in the award-winning Vietnamese feature film Song of the Stork. In 2009 Karlin co-wrote and co-produced a radio series, Shared Weight, for The Center for Emerging Media for NPR; the programs centered on the aftermath of the Vietnam War including a series of interviews done in the U.S. and Vietnam with Vietnamese and American writers and film makers who came out of that war. The series was broadcast on numerous NPR programs. Recently, Karlin edited and adapted a memoir, In Whose Eyes, by the major Vietnamese documentary film maker Tran Van Thuy,
published in November 2016 by the University of Massachusetts Press. Karlin has received five State of Maryland Individual Artist Awards in Fiction, two Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts,
the Paterson Prize in Fiction, and the Vietnam Veterans of American Excellence in Arts Award.
Bernie Fowler, Jr. is a lifelong resident of Calvert County. He has been employed in several different and distinctive jobs over the years. He was employed at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power plant until joining the Calvert County Sheriff’s Department where he was a member of the original Special Operations Team and was the first K-9 handler for the Department. After 10 years, Bernie left to start his own business. For the last 20 years Bernie has been the President of Bernie Fowler Homes and several development entities. Farming 4 Hunger Inc. was founded in 2012 by Bernie Fowler Jr as a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization that feeds the Hunger Community of Maryland. To date they have been responsible for growing and helping to distribute 5.2 million pounds of fresh produce for the region. In growing this organization, Bernie has been able to form a partnership with the Department of Corrections and since 2013, has personally mentored 62 felons from the Department of Corrections as they worked the many different phases of farming. He has greeted over 12,000 volunteers to the farm and continues to reach out to the community to provide more than just the food that is grown for distribution. He enjoys the challenge of helping to build the community, provide direction for people in need, offer an education in farming and even a new start in life for many – all starting with a little bit of soil. Bernie attributes all the success of the program to God, Faith, Hope and Love. Bernie and Farming 4 Hunger has been the recipient of many awards in a very short amount of time. They have received the 2016 Salome A. Howard Trailblazer award, the 2016 Leadership Southern Maryland award, the 2016 Caron Foundation Community Leadership award, the Maryland General Assembly Citations and the 2016 Governor’s Citation for Uplifting the Community, the 2015 Bateman Eagle award for support of local Alcohol and other drug abuse prevention efforts, the 2014 Maryland Food Bank Grower of the year, the 2013 William B Donald Shaffer helping people award, and numerous local Government awards. Bernie served on Governor O’Malley’s Southern Maryland Hub and Spoke Task Force. He currently serves on Governor Hogan’s Workforce investment board to increase employment opportunities for ex-offenders and individuals in recovery.
Matt Scassero is the Director of the University of Maryland Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)Test Site, focusing the resources and efforts of the state of Maryland on working with the FAA to integrate UAS into the national airspace, and enabling public access to these valuable assets to empower a flourishing new industry. Prior to his work with UAS, Matt was with Melwood, a non-profit dedicated to empowering people with differing disabilities to enrich their own lives through rehabilitative services and employment opportunities. Prior to joining Melwood, Matt completed a 27 year career in the US Navy, serving America in a wide variety of leadership roles both at sea and ashore. He has sailed on six of the seven seas and traveled to more than 25 nations across five continents. Matt earned his BS in Physics/Oceanography from the United States Naval Academy, his Master of Public Administration from the University of Baltimore, and is a Leadership Maryland graduate. He is on the Leadership Council and is a founding board member of Leadership Southern Maryland, as well as a board member, facilitator and peer/mentor for the post-traumatic stress program Warfighter Advance, and a facilitator at the Naval Academy Leadership Capstone program. He presents leadership sessions concentrating on public missions and overcoming obstacles with new approaches. His focus is to increase access to and making the most of opportunities, and leading from a position of competence, courage and compassion.
Tammi L. McKinley, M.P.A, Certified Professional Midwife, has been practicing as an out of hospital midwife since 2004. She is the Founder and Clinical Director of Hampton Roads Midwifery in Norfolk, Virginia. Tammi is the President of the Virginia Midwives Alliance. She practices the Midwives Model of Care© which decreases situations that can lead to maternal mortality. Tammi believes that the United States must fully integrate midwives into its maternity care system to decrease the continuing rise in the nation’s maternal mortality rate. Midwives have many methods to combat this problem, including minimizing interventions that increase risks, listening to birthing parents, and decreasing racial bias. Tammi firmly believes that grassroots, community effort is needed to make this change to the current maternity care paradigm.
Dave Kung fell in love with both mathematics and music at a very early age. More successful with one than the other, he completed three degrees from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, none in music, before joining the faculty at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. He enjoys playing violin with students, in the local community orchestra, and with his daughter. He has authored a variety of articles on topics in harmonic analysis and mathematics education, and is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2006 Teaching Award and 2017 Service Award from the MD/VA/DC section of the MAA. His Great Courses lectures, How Music and Mathematics Relate, have quickly become a top Math & Science seller for the Teaching Company. He serves as director of MAA Project NExT, a professional development program for new faculty in the mathematical sciences. Dave Kung’s varied interests are a perfect match for a liberal arts institution like St. Mary’s College of Maryland. In addition to teaching mathematics, using his degrees from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, he plays violin with students and in the local community orchestra, runs with the cross country team, and marches alongside campus activists. He has authored a variety of articles on topics in harmonic analysis and mathematics education, and is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2006 Teaching Award and the 2017 Service Award from the MD/VA/DC section of the MAA. His passion for leveling the playing field for women and minorities in STEM fields has led to the creation of an Emerging Scholars Program, an REU, and a math circle. Two Great Courses lecture series, on math/music and mind-bending paradoxes, have engaged audiences around the world. He serves as director of MAA Project NExT, a professional development program for new faculty in the mathematical sciences.
Sarah Lorek’s educational mission is to cultivate students filled with integrity, initiative and independence through song. She has a Master’s Degree from Florida State University (2006), and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Delaware (2003). Currently, Sarah is Director of Choirs and Lead Teacher for the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts (AVPA) at Chopticon High School. AVPA strives to prepare students for future study by providing intense rigor, advanced instruction, connectivity, and professional artistic experiences. Ms. Lorek is a frequent clinician, member of the SMCPS Arts Leadership Team, school PLC Leader and is completing her Admin 1 Certificate.
The Chopticon Choirs participate in their annual “pay it forward” concert season at Chopticon High School, where in lieu of ticket sales, our audiences are asked to donate to a local charity. Each season, the Choirs select organizations they are passionate about and have donated over a thousand dollars in the last four years alone. Tonight’s performance ensemble, INFINITY, is a select women’s a cappella ensemble from Chopticon High School in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. The choir has performed at regional and state events earning top marks in both performance and sight-reading. Infinity enjoys performing at various community events to share their gift of song. Their repertoire consists of celebrating a cappella music with a focus on strengthening their personal growth and development as women. Most notably, Infinity was selected to sing the National Anthem at the 2010 Atlantic 10 Women’s Basketball Championships.
Rhythm Club is a performing arts group that get together and create heart pounding routines with a mix of beat boxing, dancing, singing, tapping, beating, and drumming. They are comprised of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students from Spring Ridge Middle School under the direction of Bonnie Beavan. Rhythm Club has performed all over the east coast, including performances in New York City, Washington D.C. at the Wizard Games, Disney World, and more!