DISTINGUISHED SPEAKER SERIES 2009-2010
Social Justice in Action

The Saint Leo University Speaker Series brings distinguished experts from a wide range of disciplines face-to-face with members of the university community. These influential doers and thinkers present relevant, provocative topics that generate discussion among students, faculty, alumni, and the surrounding community—dialog that is central to the university’s mission.

This year, the university is proud to present four speakers whose passions are ignited by issues of social justice:

Nola Theiss, one of Florida’s leading authorities on this 21st century form of slavery, describes the methods communities are using to detect and halt the trading and abuse of children, women, and immigrants in our state and other states.

Joseph Treaster, a former New York Times journalist recounts how he started and staffed the environmental news site www.1H20.org to focus attention on the dire need for clean water supplies all over the globe.

Jim Getty, a renowned Abraham Lincoln impressionist, brings to life the president who endured the Civil War, emancipated the slaves, and whose actions still inspire present-day leaders including President Barack Obama.

Coleen Rowley, a leading speaker on ethical decision-making, tells how she blew the whistle on the FBI’s pre-9/11 lapses.

These events are free and open to the public.
Speakers are selected by the University Speaker Series Committee and the university president. The committee welcomes suggestions for future speakers. To recommend a speaker, please contact Fine Arts Events Director Allyson Marino at allyson.marino@saintleo.edu or Dean Mary Spoto at mary.spoto@saintleo.edu or by filling out the University Speaker Recommendation Form.
Recommendations for the 2010-2011 academic year must be submitted by January 15, 2010.

Nola Theiss | Human Trafficking: Global Issue, Local Action
September 16, 2009

Nola Theiss is founder and executive director of the Human Trafficking Awareness Partnerships, Inc., based in Sanibel, Florida. She spent several years as council member and Mayor of Sanibel, FL. Volunteering later with an international women’s organization (Zonta International) to combat human trafficking, she was shocked to learn such trafficking had occurred right in her own community. In 2004, at age 56, she spearheaded a county-wide coalition to learn to recognize and fight this issue.

Theiss saw that individuals know their communities best and could become modern-day abolitionists once they knew that trafficking existed. She holds events with service clubs, faith organizations, law enforcement, ordinary citizens, and human service providers, training them on how to work together. She teaches them to see the problem, figure out their role, and assume responsibility to do something about it. With her county’s task force on human trafficking as the model, Theiss has reached more than 8,000 people in communities around the country.

Joseph Treaster | Social Justice: Who has the Right to a Drink of Water?
October 12, 2009

The University of Miami’s environmental website, 1H2O.org. He joined the University of Miami School of Communication as the Knight Chair for Cross-Cultural Communication in 2008. He has reported from throughout the United States and from more than 80 other countries for The Times and national magazines and has won numerous awards. He has written several books, including, Paul Volcker: The Making of A Financial Legend.

The 1H2O.org website focuses on the Worldwide Water Crisis and publishes original work from writers, photographers, and videographers around the world, particularly from places where the water crisis is most profound.

As a reporter for The Times, Treaster covered wars, politics, diplomacy, disasters, business, and everyday life throughout the world. He has covered more than a dozen hurricanes, and was one of the few reporters from a major newspaper in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck. His most recent book, Hurricane Force: In the Path of America’s Deadliest Storms, was published in 2007.

Joseph Treaster is visiting Saint Leo University as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow.

Jim Getty | A Visit with Abraham Lincoln
February 9, 2010

Actor Jim Getty is widely known for his accurate and studied portrayal of President Abraham Lincoln.

A native of central Illinois, Getty now resides in historic Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he portrays Lincoln in a one-man show during the tourist season. His program has received the Pennsylvania Travel Excellence Award. He is a member of the National Speakers Association, giving presentations as Lincoln at many schools, colleges, conventions and business meetings.

Having spent several years researching Lincoln and his contemporaries, Getty has developed several presentations as the President; participation in national and state government programs are also part of his annual schedule. Getty’s voice is also featured in two Arts & Entertainment television programs, and each year he portrays President Lincoln giving the Gettysburg Address at the November 19 ceremony at the National Cemetery in Gettysburg.

Getty holds a Master of Arts degree in music from Illinois Wesleyan, taught high school music in Illinois and Ohio, and was director of choral activities at the University of Maine.

Coleen Rowley | Blowing the Whistle on the FBI
March 3, 2010

From the time she was 11 years old, Coleen Rowley was determined that she would one day become an FBI agent. She realized that dream in 1981 when she was appointed a Special Agent with the FBI. During her career with the FBI, Rowley worked on Italian organized crime and Sicilian heroin drug investigations in New York. Later she served as principal legal advisor in Minneapolis overseeing the Freedom of Information program (among others) and provided legal and ethics training to FBI agents.

In May 2002, Rowley brought some of the pre-9/11 lapses in the investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui to light. The 9/11 Commission subsequently described Moussaoui as an "Al Qaeda mistake and missed opportunity," the investigation of whom may have led to the center of the Al Qaeda plot if it had been pursued in a timely manner.

In June 2002, following an unsuccessful attempt to warn the director of the FBI and other administration officials about the dangers of launching the invasion of Iraq, Rowley "stepped down" from her legal position and returned to being an FBI special agent. She retired from the FBI in 2004 and began speaking publicly about ethical decision making and balancing civil liberties with the need for effective investigation.