FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2023 7:30 PM

Housatonic Valley Regional High School

Dr. James Shepherd, a faculty physician at Yale University, will lead a forum on how the world must confront infectious diseases in the 21st century. Dr. Shepherd has spent the last two decades as an infectious disease specialist, including in Africa and India treating HIV, TB, and managing public health systems and disease outbreaks. He is also a farmer in Sharon, CT, growing hops for local brewers and raising cows and sheep. With his broad experience as a doctor and a farmer, Dr. Shepherd provides a unique perspective on epidemics, the changing environment, and the place of our species amongst the community of animals, plants, and pathogens.

Friday, October 27, 2023, at the Housatonic Valley Regional High School, 7:30 PM

News about artificial intelligence technology, AI, soared into board rooms and social media this Spring when chip maker Nvidia surprised Wall Street with quarterly sales of over $7 billion, a year-over-year jump of 64%. AI chips are designed to perform tasks faster and more efficiently than humans, including generating ideas and text for plotlines and stories. Mary Rasenberger, Chief Executive Officer of the Authors Guild, will discuss how generative AI is impacting and will impact the writing profession and the future creation of literary works. What will the writing life look like in 2030? Will there be one? How will AI change publishing and what gets published? 

Prior to joining the Authors Guild, Mary was an attorney specializing in intellectual property, media, and technology with special expertise in copyright law. She counseled authors and artists, as well as publishing, media, entertainment, and internet companies in digital rights, infringement, licensing, litigation, and enforcement.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2023 7:00 PM

The Sharon Playhouse

Brian Ross, who has had an illustrious 40-year career as as an investigative journalist, most notably as the Chief Investigative Correspondent for ABC News from 1994 to 2018, will facilitate a panel including Kurt Andersen, an American author of novels and nonfiction as well as television and theater, and John Coston, editor of the Lakeville Journal, will discuss the importance of maintaining the truth in all news media platforms. Playwrights Jeremy Kareken and David Murrell will explain how facts become twisted into fiction in their critically acclaimed Broadway play "The Lifespan of a Fact" about the high-stakes world of publishing, on stage at the Playhouse from September 29-October 15.

Housing is rapidly becoming less affordable for residents in the Northwest Corner of Connecticut and the surrounding region, making it difficult for those who work in local businesses, schools, and nonprofits to find a home. This forum will explore how towns and local organizations can expand housing affordability while balancing other important issues, including land conservation. Discussion will focus on building a unifying process that merges the imperative for housing solutions with long-term commitments to conservation and preservation of open spaces.

The forum will be facilitated by Steve Rosenberg, co-convener Hudson Valley Affordable Housing & Conservation Strategy, formerly of Scenic Hudson.

Panelists include Jocelyn Ayer, Litchfield County Center for Housing Opportunity (LCCHO); Michael Polemis, Chair, Land Trust Alliance; and Gordon Ridgway, First Selectman, Cornwall, CT.

As part of the event, the Foundation for Community Health, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, and its Fund for the Northwest Corner will announce the launch of a new grant program, in partnership with Litchfield County Center for Housing Opportunity. These grants are for organizations in the Northwest Corner of Connecticut to foster multi sector collaborations on housing. The grant program aims to build public will to move housing initiatives from concept to reality by engaging with a range of community groups, including employers, conservation organizations, educators, faith communities, and economic development committees.

SAM WATERSTON, award-winning actor in theater, film, and television, also is Chair of the Board of Oceana—since 2001, the largest global advocacy organization dedicated to protecting and restoring the world's oceans. He will discuss the state of the world’s oceans and various efforts to make them healthier and more abundant, while addressing climate change. Waterston will describe some of the policy approaches and victories in countries that govern much of the world’s marine life. Through collaborative efforts, Mexico, Brazil, and Belize have agreed to publish vessel tracking data for their commercial fishing fleets; California has enacted the boldest plastic pollution reduction policy in the nation; and Spain has created a new waste law that curbs ocean-polluting single-use plastics. Oceana is participating in global efforts to reduce carbon pollution by acting to prevent the expansion of offshore drilling that can also have devastating impacts on marine ecosystems and wildlife.

You know about his success as an actor. Come hear about Sam Waterston's leading role in saving our oceans.

Tuesday, March 28 at 7pm via Zoom

Carol Browner has had a lifelong commitment to securing environmental and public health protections, working in the private sector and serving two presidents, a governor and two senators.

As Director of President Obama’s White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, Browner oversaw the coordination of environmental, energy, climate, transport, and related policy across the U.S. federal government. From 1993 through 2001, Ms. Browner served as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Clinton, securing clean air and safe drinking water protections. She also served as Secretary of Environmental Regulation in Florida launching a large ecological restoration of the Everglades. Browner was able to secure science-based public protections while allowing private business flexibility to achieve high standards.

Presently Browner is a Senior Counsel at the law firm of Covington and Burlington LLP helping clients navigate climate change policy. She also serves on the board of Bunge Limited, a multinational agribusiness corporation, and is Board Chair of of the League of Conservation Voters. Ms. Browner previously served as Senior Counselor at the Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategic advisory firm, and was a founding principal of The Albright Group. She splits her time between the Green Mountains of Vermont and Washington DC.

Vivian Garfein, member of the Salisbury Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission, and former Central Director of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection will interview Carol Browner.

This documentary is an intimate portrait of Setsuko Thurlow, who was pulled from a fiery building after the first atomic bomb was dropped in 1945. The experience shaped her future life as she kept a pledge she made to her classmates who perished that no one would experience such a fate again.