We were delighted to have John Scudder and Lance Huffman, who spoke to us last September. They returned to share their unique perspective with us. John is a public school teacher and writer who is an Arizona native. He writes a weekly column for the Scottsdale Republic and frequently contributes editorials to other newspapers on subjects ranging from education to religious freedom. He also works to reinvigorate our schools with a stronger commitment to critical thinking. His editorials are available at http://www.azsmart.org and http://www.arizonarepublic.com.

Lance Huffman, an English teacher from Tolleson, AZ, is president of the Tolleson teachers' union.

John and Lance addressed the religious messages, manipulations and contradictions of modern politics and discussed the religious messages, both subtle and blatant, of our current president and its effect on our nation's political thought.

Dr. Ester Ruiz is an Associate Professor of Nursing at ASU. She has an M.S. in Psychiatric Nursing and a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology (1994). She is instructor and specialty coordinator for the Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Program in the College of Nursing. Her research interests, publications and presentations are in the areas of racial/ethnic differences in physical and mental health conditions. Recent publications include "The Meaning of Health: Perspectives of Older Anglo and Latino Women," "Observational Learning, Self-efficacy, and Anger: Latino Children and Domestic Violence," "Cultural Norms Influencing Violence in the Immigrant Latino Population," and "Psychotherapy with Latino and Latina Clients: A Psychosociocultural Approach." Dr. Ruiz has chaired dissertations, theses, and applied projects in the areas of drug and alcohol use in patients with acute burns injuries, psychological adaptation to terrorism and bioterrorism, STD prevention programs, depression, resiliency, role conflict in women, parental alcoholism and attachment patterns, dual diagnoses, mental health paraprofessional knowledge and skills, and suicide prevention programs. She is in the process of publishing a book for children, "Hitting is Bad, So Talk When You’re Mad." This book was inspired with her research on domestic violence.

Mike Lopercio moved from Syracuse, New York to Arizona in 1972 to study Geology at ASU. As a student, he went to work for Big Four Restaurants and found that although rocks are great, his true passion was the restaurant industry. Mike opened Chops (now Iguana Mack’s) in 1989, RigaTony’s Chandler in 1994, and RigaTony’s Mesa in 2000. He has always believed in the value of giving back to his community and is a former Chairman of the Board of the Chandler Chamber, Chairman of the Ostrich Festival in 1999, and currently serves on the board of the East Valley Boy’s & Girls Club. Mike’s wife Cindy works for Valley Big Brothers, Big sisters. His “sense of community” recently expanded all the way to Baghdad where his son Tony is serving his second tour of duty. He shared with us, via a PowerPoint presentation, what he learned and experienced while in Iraq.

Dr. James Rice is an astrogeologist in the ASU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He is also a science team member of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, studying Panoramic Camera and Microscopic Imager data. He was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and received his BS in Geology from the Univ. of Alabama. He received his MS degree from Northeast Louisiana Univ., and obtained his Ph.D. from ASU, where he specialized in the study of the geomorphology of the channels and landforms on Mars. While working on his Ph.D., he was invited by NASA to participate in a six month-long joint expedition to Antarctica with the Russians. His earthly explorations to other Mars-like locations have taken him to Iceland and Devon Island in the High Arctic. Dr. Rice writes: "I would like to see and be involved in manned missions to Mars. That is my primary focus for the future. I'm interested in robotic missions, but ultimately, it's about getting astronauts up there." Read more about Dr. Rice at: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/spotlight/dayinthelife01.html . This was a very timely, fascinating discussion!

Just for fun, we read a novel. Written by Dan Brown, author of the popular thriller, "The DaVinci Code," "Angels & Demons" is one of his earlier works. From Amazon.com: "It takes guts to write a novel that combines an ancient secret brotherhood, the Swiss Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, a papal conclave, mysterious ambigrams, a plot against the Vatican, a mad scientist in a wheelchair, particles of antimatter, jets that can travel 15,000 miles per hour, crafty assassins, a beautiful Italian physicist, and a Harvard professor of religious iconology. It takes talent to make that novel anything but ridiculous. Kudos to Dan Brown (Digital Fortress) for achieving the nearly impossible. 'Angels & Demons' is a no-holds-barred, pull-out-all-the-stops, breathless tangle of a thriller..."

Dr. Calvin C. Chen, DDS, is the president of Taiwanese Association of Arizona and the chair of 2004 Taiwanese American Heritage Week Arizona Host Committee. He was the president of the Arizona Chapter of Formosan Association for Public Affairs 2001-2002 and currently serves as a board member of its National Board. In the early 1990s, he began lecturing Taiwanese history to a group of Taiwanese students at Arizona State University because Taiwanese history was prohibited in Taiwan at that time. A student organization, Taiwan Study Society, was formed later at ASU. Since then, he has been a regular speaker on Taiwan history at the University. Dr. Chen has a full-time dental practice in Sun City, AZ.

Peter Fears serves as Outreach Coordinator for the Clean Elections Institute, Inc. in Arizona. Peter brings years of experience in community outreach to the Clean Elections Institute and its programs. He has previously worked with churches, synagogues and neighborhood schools on community improvement strategies. He came to Arizona in 1985 as state director for AFSCME, the state county and municipal employees union. Peter served as a guest panelist discussing community organizing for Harvard's Kennedy School of Public Affairs. He was also interviewed and quoted on community organizing for William Greider's New York Times bestseller, "Who Will Tell the People?". Most recently, Peter worked in the private sector as president of a Valley small business. An 18 year Arizona resident, Peter holds a BA from the University of Texas and did MBA studies at St. Edwards University. He has four grown children

Barbara Mawhiney has been the Director of Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Office at ASU since 1989. The Office is responsible for assuring nondiscrimination in employment and for monitoring ASU's compliance with state and federal equal opportunity and affirmative action regulations. Before coming to ASU, she was the Assistant Dean of Faculties for Personnel at Wichita State University for nine years. At WSU she was also responsible for EO/AA compliance activities as well as handling immigration matters and general academic personnel issues. Barb has taught university level courses in cross-cultural communication and in women's studies. She has a B.S. in Education and an M.A. in Cross-cultural Communication. Her presentation focused on the who, what, when and why of sexual harassment: who is a potential harasser and who is a potential victim of harassment; what are the types of harassment that occur; when does harassment occur; and why do individuals engage in behaviors that are considered harassment.