Mike Arnold is co-founder of ALCO Partners LLC, a small consulting firm founded in 2004 specializing in the measurement and management of interest rate risk in the banking industry. In 2012, he was invited by the UC Dept. of Economics to teach the honors course in intermediate macroeconomics, which he did through the spring of 2016. In 2015, Mike began teaching in the Osher Life Long Learning Institutes at Dominican University and Sonoma State. He has developed courses on the US Economy, the Bay Area economy, personal finance, international finance and Tariffs and the Republican Tax Plan.

David Clay Large obtained a Ph.D. in History from U.C. Berkeley in 1974. He has taught at Berkeley, Smith College, Montana State University, and Yale University, where he was also a college dean (Pierson College). A specialist on modern Western and Central Europe, Large has published some twelve books on such topics as West German rearmament in the Adenauer era, Wagnerism in European politics and culture, urban studies (histories of Munich and Berlin), immigration politics during the Holocaust, the German-hosted Olympic Games (1936 and 1972), and the Grand Spa-towns of Central Europe. The German edition of his Berlin book, Biographie einer Stadt, was a Der Spiegel bestseller and a source for the popular TV series Berlin Babylon. He has appeared frequently as a “talking head” in NBC and PBS documentaries on the Olympic movement and on German television as an expert commentator on the histories of Munich and Berlin. Currently, he offers courses through the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco and serves as a Senior Fellow at U.C. Berkeley’s Institute of European Studies. He is also codirector of Berkeley’s Austrian Studies Program.

Richard Lyons Corriea is a former San Francisco Police Commander. He holds a Juris Doctorate and a Master’s in Business Administration. He is a graduate of the California Command College for police executives. During his police career he had many roles, including patrolling the streets of San Francisco, investigating violent crimes, legal advisor to the Chief of Police, heading up internal affairs, leading a crisis intervention team and station platoon lieutenant. As a senior executive, Corriea served as Supervising Captain of the entire city, Commanded the police academy and was commanding officer of Richmond Police Station. Upon promotion to Commander, Corriea had responsibility for the Department’s Metro Division, which encompassed police services in five police Districts. He has crowd-control and critical incident management experience. Corriea’s private sector experience includes the private practice of law, expert witness testimony and consulting in the aviation security industry. Corriea currently serves as Long-Term Care Ombudsman. And he is Director of the University of San Francisco’s International Institute of Criminal Justice Leadership Advisory Board, and is adjunct professor in the University’s School of Management.

Larry Eilenberg has had a distinguished theatrical career as artistic director, educational leader, and pioneering dramaturg. Dr. Eilenberg earned his B.A. at Cornell University and his Ph.D. at Yale University. Professor Emeritus of Theatre Arts at San Francisco State University, he also taught at Yale, Cornell, the University of Michigan, and the University of Denver. Artistic Director of the renowned Magic Theatre during the period 1992-2003, Dr. Eilenberg has served as a commentator for National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition,” as a U.S. theatrical representative to Moscow, and as a popular lecturer on film and on comedy.

Roy Eisenhardt graduated from Berkeley Law after serving in the Marine Corps, and practiced law in San Francisco until joining Berkeley as a visiting professor in 1978. During that period, he also coached freshman crew at UC Berkeley. In 1980 he became president of the Oakland Athletics, and in 1989 he accepted the role of executive director of the California Academy of Sciences. He additionally served as the interim president of the San Francisco Art Institute in 2010-11. Eisenhardt has served as a lecturer in law at Berkeley Law and University of San Francisco Law School.

Sunnie Evers received her Ph.D. in Italian Renaissance Art from UC Berkeley, with a specialty in sixteenth century Italian Renaissance painting and architecture. Her dissertation focused on the patronage of Paolo Veronese. She has taught at UC Berkeley and Stanford as visiting professor and lectured widely on Renaissance art on such topics as Paolo Veronese: Universal Artist; The Art of Villeggiatura: The Villa from Ancient Rome to Napa; The Engaging Gaze, From Leonardo to Vermeer; Visualizing Love in the Renaissance; and David Hockney: Places of Delight. She has also presented papers at the College Arts Association, The Renaissance Society of America and Sixteenth Century Studies.

Scott Foglesong is the Chair of Musicianship & Music Theory at the SF Conservatory of Music, where he has been a faculty member since 1978. In 2008, he was the recipient of the Sarlo Award for Excellence in Teaching. He also teaches at UC Berkeley, where he has the privilege of introducing young people to Western art music. A Contributing Writer and Pre-Concert Lecturer for the SF Symphony, he also serves as Program Annotator for the California Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, San Luis Obispo Symphony, and Left Coast Chamber Ensemble. As a pianist, he has appeared with the Francesco Trio, Chanticleer, members of the SF Symphony, and solo/chamber recitals nationwide in a repertoire ranging from Renaissance through ragtime, jazz, and modern. At Peabody Conservatory, he studied piano with Katzenellenbogen and Wolff; later at the SF Conservatory he studied piano with Nathan Schwarz, harpsichord with Laurette Goldberg, and theory with Sol Joseph and John Adams.

Alice F. Freed (Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, Montclair State University) received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught at the Fromm Institute since 2016. Her fields of expertise are Sociolinguistics, Discourse Analysis, and the Structure of American English. Her research focuses on language and gender, question use in English, institutional discourse (“talk at work”), and the language of food. At Montclair State she taught both Linguistics and Women’s Studies. She has also taught courses as a visiting professor at the University of New Mexico, at New York University, and as part of Montclair’s Global Education Program at Beijing Jiaotong University (2010, 2011), at Shanghai University (2013), and at Graz University of Technology (2014). Her books include The Semantics of English Aspectual Complementation (Reidel 1979), Rethinking Language and Gender Research: Theory and Practice (Longman 1996) and “Why Do You Ask?”: The Function of Questions in Institutional Discourse (Oxford University Press, 2010) co-edited with Susan Ehrlich. She has published numerous chapters in linguistics collections and articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Winding down a 35 yr. career at USF, Alan Goldberg has concentrated on the multi-cultural variants of Rhetoric in American Literature. He was educated at the U. of Chicago, the U. of Hawaii, and SFSU. He was mentored by Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow at Chicago and Irving Halperin (late of the Fromm) at SFSU. A scholar in Jewish American literature with special emphasis on the works of Bellow, Malamud, Roth, and Doctorow, he is presently exploring the current generation of prominent Jewish American writers. He is championing the legacy of the late Philip Roth in response to recent revisionist critiques. As a lifelong devotee of baseball, he is also researching sports in American literature. He and his Nicaraguan-American wife, Indiana Quadra- Goldberg, a retired CCSF Ethnic Studies professor with an emphasis on Latina/o literature, share a deep appreciation of African American and Hispanic American literature.

Professor Hinerman's research is multi- and inter-disciplinary, and often comingles philosophical and psychological approaches to enduring topics such as aging, health care policy, dying, and bereavement. 

https://www.usfca.edu/faculty/nate-hinerman

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/nate-hinerman-san-francisco-ca/765922

As an award-winning archaeologist, author, and National Geographic grantee and also National Geographic Expeditions Expert, Dr. Patrick Hunt earned his Ph.D. in Archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and has taught at Stanford University for 28 years. Patrick directed the Stanford Alpine Archaeology Project from 1994 to 2012, and has continued project related Hannibal and Otzi fieldwork in the Alps in the years since. His Alps research has been sponsored by the National Geographic Society, and he frequently lectures for National Geographic on Hannibal and the European mummy nicknamed Ötzi the Iceman. He is also a National Lecturer for the Archaeological Institute of America, as well as an elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and elected Fellow of the Explorers Club. He is the author of 21 published books, including the best-sellers Ten Discoveries That Rewrote History (Penguin Group 2007) and Hannibal (Simon and Schuster 2017). He was also named and listed in Who's Who in Biblical Studies and Archaeology by Biblical Archaeology Society in 1993. He frequently appears in documentaries for NatGeo, NOVA, PBS and other media.

Tony Kashani, Ph.D.  is an American author, educator, philosopher of technology, and a cultural critic. Kashani is a subject matter expert and faculty, for several universities in the United States, focusing his interdisciplinary scholarship and pedagogy on humanities in the digital age and social justice.  He was born in Tehran to Azerbaijani parents, an ethnic minority in Iran. He grew up speaking Farsi and Turkish, and after migrating at the critical age of fifteen to his adopted home of California, English became his primary language of intellectualism. Speaking three languages and being aware of three distinctly different cultures at once gave Kashani the impetus to seek a philosophy of cosmopolitanism, where one embraces all cultures and is at ease in most countries in the world. He received his bachelor’s degree in radio and television and later his master’s degree in cinema studies from San Francisco State University. He holds a PhD degree in Humanities with emphasis on culture studies from California Institute of Integral Studies. His writing, teaching, and intellectual activism are anchored in critical theory and pedagogy, influenced by writers such as Kafka, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Camus, and Steinbeck, and thinkers such as Fredrick Nietzsche, Hannah Arendt, Paulo Ferrier, Edward Said, Henry Giroux, John Dewey, Herbert Marcuse, Noam Chomsky, Erich Fromm, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault. Kashani is the author of five books including Movies Change Lives: A Pedagogy of Humanistic Transformation (Peter Lang Press, 2016). His chapter on Critical Media Literacy in the 3 volume Handbook of Critical Pedagogy (2020, Sage Publications) is a deliberation on the impact of new media on the human condition. Dr. Kashani’s personal website is www.tonykashani.com His podcast address (also available on iTunes and Apple Podcasts) is  www.techumanity.online

Prof. Barbara Lane — Barbara Lane is the former book columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle. She is the former host of the BAYTV program “Bookmark,” director of Lectures and Literature at the Commonwealth Club, director of Arts & Ideas at the JCCSF, and book reviewer for NPR and several newspapers. She has conducted interviews on television and in front of live audiences for City Arts & Ideas, Green Apple Books, Book Passage, the Commonwealth Club and the JCCSF. Lane is a graduate of Stanford University and the recipient of a William Benton fellowship from the University of Chicago.

Mick LaSalle is the author of four books about film, COMPLICATED WOMEN (about the women of pre-Code), DANGEROUS MEN (about the men of pre-Code, THE BEAUTY OF THE REAL (about the women of contemporary French cinema) and DREAM STATE: CALIFORNIA IN THE MOVIES. He has been the Chronicle's film critic  since 1985 and has been teaching in Stanford's CONTINUING STUDIES program every quarter since 2004. For four years, he was the on-air film critic for ABC7 in San Francisco. 

Kathleen Maxwell is Professor Emerita in the Department of Art and Art History at Santa Clara University. A recipient ofthe Dr. David E. Logothetti Teaching Award, Dr. Maxwell taught courses in Greek, Roman, Medieval, Byzantine, andRenaissance Art. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Medieval and Byzantine art from the University of Chicago. Her researchfocuses on illuminated Greek Gospel books from the 10th to the 14th centuries. Recent publications include contributionstoThe New Testament in Byzantium(ed. D. Krueger and R. S. Nelson, 2016),A Companion to Byzantine IllustratedManuscripts(ed. V. Tsamakda, 2017), andReceptions of the Bible in Byzantium(Ceulemans and Crostini, 2021). Her book,BetweenConstantinople and Rome: An Illuminated Byzantine Gospel Book (Paris gr. 54) and the Union of Churcheswas published by Ashgate in 2014.

Moderator: Andrew Fraknoi 
Winter 2025 Session
Eight Wednesdays, from 10 am to 11:40 am 

This series of non-technical talks by noted astronomers is designed to introduce our modern exploration of the universe to students who are curious about recent ideas and discoveries. Each of our speakers has been selected for his or her ability to explain science in everyday language. There will be lots of time during each session to ask questions. 

Jan. 15: Andrew Fraknoi (Fromm Institute; California Professor of the Year 2007): Where are They – Why Haven’t We Found Other Intelligent Beings in the Galaxy?

Jan. 22: Eliot Quataert (Princeton U., Member of the National Academy of Science): Seeing the Invisible: What does a Black Hole Look Like?

Jan. 29: Erica Nelson (U. of Colorado; former Hubble Fellow at Harvard’s Center for Astrophysics):

Feb. 5: Michael Brown (Caltech; The Discoverer of Dwarf Planet Eris and others): Planet Nine from Outer Space (Changing Pluto’s Status and Finding Planets Beyond)

Feb. 12: Jacqueline Faherty (Senior Scientist and Education Manager, American Museum of Natural History): A Tour of Isolated, Cold Worlds in our Galactic Backyard

Feb. 19: TBDFeb. 26: Alex Young (Associate Director for Science, Heliophysics Science Division at NASA Goddard): The Active Sun: The Solar Maximum for Beginners

Mar 5: Dana Backman (SETI Institute; textbook author; leader of NASA Astronomy Ambassadors): The Wonders of the Infrared Universe

Professor Emeritus Maria L. Ontiveros holds a bachelor's degree in economics from U.C. Berkeley; a law degree from Harvard Law School; a Master’s degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University; and a JSD from Stanford Law School. She retired from USF School of Law after teaching for 23 years, where her courses included employment discrimination law, labor law, international & comparative labor and employment law, torts, evidence, alternative dispute resolution and negotiation. She has also taught law at Golden Gate and visited at University of Michigan, Santa Clara, U.C. Berkeley and Hastings Law School. Her research and writing focused on workplace harassment of women of color, organizing immigrant workers, workplace discrimination based on national origin, and modern day applications of the 13th Amendment. A second generation immigrant from Mexico, she was born and raised in southern California. Since retirement, she has enjoyed spending time with her granddaughter, visiting with her two adult children, playing golf and practicing yoga.

Stephen S. Pearce, DD, PhD, the Emeritus Senior Rabbi of Congregation Emanu‐El, served the congregation from 1993‐2013 and in 2018 was named the Taube Scholar endowed by the Taube Philanthropies. Ordained at the Hebrew Union College‐Jewish Institute of Religion, he earned his doctorate in counselor psychology at St. John’s University and has served on the faculty of the Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, and summer writing workshops at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio.

Cary Pepper is a playwright, novelist, screenwriter, and nonfiction writer. His plays have been presented throughout the United States and internationally. He’s a four-time contributor to the Best American Short Plays series from Applause Books, and he’s published dozens of articles as well as other nonfiction.

John F. Rothmann is a politics/foreign policy consultant specializing on the US, Middle East and the USSR. He is a frequent lecturer on American Politics and has been called “a scholar of modern Republicanism” while being acknowledged “for his unique insights, and in particular for rare and crucial materials.” He served as Director of the Nixon Collection at Whittier College, as Chief of Staff to Sen. Milton Marks, and Field Representative to Sen. Quentin Kopp, and was a founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Jewish Democratic Club. Widely published and honored, Rothmann has spoken on more than 150 campuses and has been on the faculty of USF. Both his B.A. and his Masters in Arts in Teaching are from Whittier College. He is the coauthor of Icon of Evil — Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam and Harold E. Stassen: The Life and Perennial Candidacy of the Progressive Republican. His article, “An Incomparable Pope — John XXIII and the Jews,” appeared in Inside the Vatican in April 2014.

Richie Unterberger is the author of numerous rock history books, including volumes on the Who, the Velvet Underground, Bob Marley, and 1960s folk-rock. His book The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film won a 2007 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. He's taught about a dozen different courses at Fromm over the past half dozen years, and gives regular presentations on rock and soul history throughout the Bay Area incorporating rare vintage film clips and audio recordings. His next book, to be published by Taschen, is San Francisco: Portrait of a City.

Laura Wayth trained at the American Repertory Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University and theMoscow Art Theatre School Institute in Russia. She has worked internationally as an acting teacher and coach in Italy, Morocco,China, Poland, London, and Greece. She was a 2019­2020 Fulbright Senior Scholar to Poland, a 2011­2012 Fulbright Senior Scholarto Romania, a 2002­2003 Fulbright Fellow to Russia, and will be a Fulbright Senior Specialist to Taiwan in 2025. Prof. Wayth isthe author of three books onActing: A Field Guide to Actor Training,The Shakespeare Audition(Applause Books) andBreaking Down Your Script:A Step­by­Step Process for the Actor(Nick Hern Books). She is Professor of Acting and Coordinator of Actor Training at San Francisco StateUniversity and a guest acting instructor at the American Conservatory Theatre’s STC and Studio ACT.

Ray Wright holds a BA (Rice) and PhD (Illinois) in Geology and spent half of his career in academia (Beloit College and Florida State University) and half as a research scientist at ExxonMobil. His specialties were microfossils, stratigraphy, and subsurface fluid flow. He has done field work in Italy and Spain, spent two years at MACN in Buenos Aires, was a visiting professor at the University of Costa Rica, and spent several months aboard oceanographic expeditions in the Mediterranean and Southeast Atlantic. On retiring he volunteered at the Exploratorium for 15 years and is in his third decade as a Fromm student. Although not a professional musician he played the trumpet and horn and sang in choral groups. His current passions are chamber music and German lieder.