Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

Sam Mihara is a national lecturer on the topic of Mass Injustice. Following his incarceration, Mihara graduated from U.C. Berkeley and UCLA Graduate School with degrees in Engineering. He was then hired by the Boeing Company where he worked as a rocket scientist for 42 years. After retirement, Sam became a national lecturer on the topic of Memories of Injustice. He has won several awards including the prestigious NEH Jefferson Lecturer for year 2024, the only Japanese American so honored.

Anderson's career trajectory combines scholarly research on transnational Japan with over 25 years of experience in public history. She has worked on numerous exhibits at multiple institutions, including the Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles). She most recently led the research stage for a major project on Japanese American food. Other exhibits include Don’t Fence Me In: Coming of Age in America’s Concentration Camps (2023) and (with USC) Sutra and Bible: Faith and the Japanese American World War II Incarceration (2022-2023). At the San Diego Museum of Us, she created Cannibals: Myth and Reality (March 2016 - ongoing).

Anderson is also a scholar of religion and empire in Japan, and has published on Christianity in Japan, the Japanese empire, and Japanese immigrants before World War II. Her publications include Christianity in Modern Japan: Empire for God (Bloomsbury, 2014) and Belief and Practice in Imperial Japan and Colonial Korea (Palgrave MacMillan, 2017) as well as articles and book chapters on religion and imperialism in Japan and the Pacific. She dual majored in Literature and Philosophy at CMC (’99). She holds a PhD in modern Japanese history from UCLA (2010).

This program is a part of the Gould Center's Celebration of Coeducation Speaker Series.

Kenneth P. Miller is the Don H. and Edessa Rose Professor of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College, where he serves as Director of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government. Miller’s scholarship focuses on state and local politics, constitutional law, and political polarization. His publications include Texas vs. California: A History of Their Struggle for the Future of America (Oxford 2020), Direct Democracy and the Courts (Cambridge 2009), as well as numerous articles and book chapters on topics including the initiative process, political geography, state constitutionalism, state supreme courts, and voting rights.

The Rose Institute of State and Local Government, located at CMC, was founded in 1973. An unmatched resource for information on California state and local government, the Institute maintains extensive demographic, economic, and political databases on the Southern California region. Under the direction of nationally recognized faculty and staff, the best and brightest students from Claremont McKenna College play a significant role in researching, interpreting, and presenting data. 

This Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at CMC.

Michelle Berenfeld is the John A. McCarthy Professor of Classics at Pitzer College. An archaeologist and fellow of the American Academy in Rome, she has carried out research in Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Greece, and Italy. Her new book, Lessons From A Lost Republic: What ancient Rome can teach us about this American Moment (Spiegel & Grau), grew from her widely read Atlantic essay, “The Roman Way to Trash a Republic,” published last year. The book offers a lively, compact history of the collapse of the Roman Republic into autocracy and offers insights for Americans who want to avoid a similar fate. This is her first book for a public audience. Her academic research has appeared in numerous scholarly publications.

Jerome K. Wang, MD is Board-certified in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. He has served administratively as Medical Director/CMO since 2017 and is incoming President & CEO in 2027 for the Providence St. Joseph and St. Jude Heritage Medical Group (SJJHMG) in Orange County. Working with multiple hospital partners within an integrated healthcare delivery system, the medical group employs 375 physicians and 150+ NPs and PAs across 25 different medical and surgical specialties. 

Prior to joining Providence, Dr. Wang received his medical degree from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA as Regents Scholar, residency training at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (CSMC), and served as clinical faculty at Cedars-Sinai and UCLA, attaining full Clinical Professorship through progressive leadership, teaching, excellence in patient care and publishing in major journals. 

Dr. Wang has thrived as a clinician and physician executive, bringing his personal story, broad experience and unwavering passion to the forefront. He is deeply aligned with the Mission and Ministry focus of his current organization and is committed to fostering a strong culture of physician engagement and servant-based leadership, patient-centric delivery of care, and integrated care to the community.

Drawing from his own mental health struggles during college, his journey toward recovery, and the loss of his father and grandfather to suicide, Rivedal uses humor and lived experience to open conversations that can be difficult to have. Students will learn practical strategies for managing stress and supporting mental health, recognizing signs of depression and suicide risk, helping a friend who may be struggling, and connecting with resources, including support for a diverse array of communities. Along the way, you’ll laugh, learn a few life-saving skills, and leave better equipped to help yourselves and the people you care about.

Joshua Rivedal is a speaker, author, mental health educator, and stand-up comedian who has presented on mental health and suicide prevention across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia. He is the founder of The i’Mpossible Project and Changing Minds, a mental health-based curriculum, and the author of six books. His suicide prevention coursework is taught to healthcare professionals in Washington State, and he has co-authored three peer-reviewed journal articles on suicide loss, chronic illness, and trauma.

Joshua also works as a professional actor and voiceover artist, appearing in national commercials for McDonald’s, Dunkin’, and Dell. He has trained in coaching at NYU and emotional intelligence at Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence. Joshua lives in Philadelphia, performs stand-up comedy, loves to cook, and holds a first-degree black belt in Taekwondo.

An engaged voice in conversations about artificial intelligence and education, Dr. Smith advocates for thoughtful approaches to preparing students for a future shaped by emerging technologies. Her perspective is grounded in her work as an historian, examining how periods of technological and social transformation reshape institutions, communities, and human experience.

Theresa Smith, Ph.D. holds a Bachelor of Arts in history with a minor in Spanish from UC Berkeley, a Master of Arts in history from UC San Diego, and a Ph.D. in history from UC San Diego with focuses in early modern European history, modern European history and colonial Latin American history. She is the author of The Emerging Female Citizen: Gender & Enlightenment in Spain, published by UC Press in 2006.

Steven Zhou (Moderator) is an Assistant Professor of Psychological Science at Claremont McKenna College. His research is in the application of multivariate statistics and data science (including natural language processing and generative AI) to questions of leadership, career development, and personality at work. 

Tom Le (PRO side) is an Associate Professor of Politics at Pomona College. His research focuses on demographics and security, how violence is legitimized in international relations, and developing a cradle-to-grave theory of how states utilize their populations for national security. 

C. Monica Capra (PRO side) is a Professor of Economic Sciences at Claremont Graduate University. Her research investigates the complexities of human decision-making, involves interdisciplinary collaboration with data scientists and neuroscientists, and explores how advanced AI technologies can enhance behavioral and experimental research methodologies.

Sarah Marzen (PRO side) is an Associate Professor of Physics at the Department of Natural Sciences. Her research uses machine learning to better understand biological data, interprets biological organisms as machine learners, and uses science to producesocietally positive results across various disciplines.

Joseph Osborn (CON side) studies AI and videogames as an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Pomona. He is particularly interested in how game players' and designers' understanding of games differ. Joseph also works in digital game preservation and archiving and plays Splatoon 3 competitively.

Avaneesh Narla (CON side) is an Assistant Professor of Integrated Sciences at Claremont McKenna College. His interdisciplinary research in physics, biology, and mathematics focuses on how individual elements interact to create complex collective behaviors.

Yuval Avnur (CON side) is a Professor of Philosophy at Scripps College. His research focuses on doubt, skepticism, and its history as it applies to everything from whether this is reality to how we get our news online these days.

This event is organized by the CTL AI Faculty Fellows Bana Dahi (Visiting Assistant Professor of Romance Languages and Literature, Pomona), Cory Kohn (Biology Education Specialist, Scripps), Ashley Larson (Arts & Humanities Librarian), and Steven Zhou with support from Nicole Dawson (PsyD student, CGU).
 

Scott Kosch is the author of Indispensable: A Student’s Guide for Thriving in the Age of AI. Kosch sits at an unusual intersection of investing, AI, and education. He co-founded NextAccess, an AI transformation consultancy, and is Managing Partner at Kosch Capital, where he has invested in over one hundred early-stage technology companies. With over 25 years of professional experience, Kosch sees what makes people indispensable inside high-performing organizations, and now he is watching AI rewrite the rules in real time. He wrote Indispensable for students sitting exactly where his own kids sit — told that AI changes everything and shown almost nothing about what to do about it. Kosch also writes “The AI-Ready Student and Capital Intelligence” newsletters on LinkedIn. He serves as Board Chair of The Gould Center and Board Member of the RLCIE. Kosch has a Wharton MBA and a BA in Economics and Psychology from CMC.

Thomas will also highlight the ways his recent book Starving for Innovation demonstrates the necessity and power of leadership, critical thinking, continuous learning, and continuous innovation within the current entrepreneurial ecosystem.  Equal parts history lesson, startup playbook, and technology forecast, Starving For Innovation offers entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders a new perspective on why innovation succeeds, how transformative companies are built, and where the greatest opportunities of the next two decades will emerge.

Todd Thomas is the Founder and CEO of the waste-to-energy startup, Woodchuck.ai. Thomas is a 4-time best-selling author and the host of the TV shows Abundant Energy and Infinite Future.  He is a recognized voice in AI, energy, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Thomas has built his career harnessing emerging technologies to drive operational efficiencies, create new commercialization opportunities, and accelerate innovation across industries.

Todd Thomas holds a dual Economics & Literature degree from Claremont McKenna College, has studied at the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Data Science Initiative, has an MBA and a Master's in Economics from the WP Carey School of Business, ASU, and holds a Master's in Education from the Claremont Graduate School.
 

Amy Berg ’08 is associate professor of philosophy at Rice University. She works on ethics and political philosophy, including the philosophy of well-being. Her book The Well-Rounded Life is forthcoming in November with Princeton University Press.

Before going to Rice, she taught at Oberlin College, Rhode Island College, and UNC Chapel Hill. She received a PhD in philosophy from UC San Diego and a BA in philosophy and government from Claremont McKenna College.

Shawn Skelly, former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, was nominated by President Biden and confirmed by the Senate as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness in July 2021, making her only the second out transgender person to be confirmed and the highest ranking in the history of the executive branch. 

She served in the Obama Administration as a Special Assistant in DoD and as the Executive Secretary of the Department of Transportation. In 2017 President Obama appointed Skelly to serve as a Commissioner on the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service, which considered methods to increase national participation in in all forms of service to address national security and other public service needs of the Nation.

Skelly served in the U.S. Navy for twenty years on active duty as a Naval Flight Officer. She helped co-found the advocacy organization Out in National Security and currently serves as a member of the board of directors of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve LGBTQ+ equality.

Shawn Skelly's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by The Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at CMC. 

Jeffrey Rosen is the CEO Emeritus of the National Constitution Center, a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. He was previously the legal affairs editor of The New Republic and a staff writer for the New Yorker. 

Rosen is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Pursuit of Happiness and Conversations with RBG. His new book is The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America. 

Rosen is a graduate of Harvard College; Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar; and Yale Law School. He is an elected member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Law Institute. In 2024, the French government recognized him as a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Jeffrey Rosen's Athenaeum presentation is part of the Class of '74 Speaker Series and is co-sponsored by the Open Academy as part of the 1974 Speaker Series and Salvatori Center, both at CMC.

Zachary Horvitz is a PhD candidate in computer science at Columbia University, where he studies rare behaviors in AI systems and methods for controlling them at inference time. His research has appeared at leading machine learning and natural language processing conferences, and his work on humor and language models received an ACL Outstanding Paper Award. He is supported by a Google PhD Fellowship. Previously, he was a research lead at Rad AI, whose products are now used by more than 40% of U.S. health systems. He earned his A.B. and Sc.M. from Brown University, where he studied computer science and anthropology.