Erin Halpin, RN, BSN, CPTC, CCRN, CNRN, SCRN, EMT-P and Colleague Joy Reichenbach, RN, will discuss the importance and rarity of Organ Donation as well as help dispel common myths related to all forms of donation. It will review advancements in organ donation and transplantation over the past 20 years, and include

several stories and follow-up from various donor families and recipients that have been touched by the gift of life. Erin has been an RN for 19 years, having graduated from Creighton University School of Nursing. She began her career in the ICU at Creighton University Medical Center, then worked in the ICU at Aurora BayCare Medical Center in Green Bay upon returning to Wisconsin, and finally in the ICU at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center - Neenah, where she remained (with additional moonlighting in the ER & 5 years work as a Paramedic) until her transition to the University of Wisconsin Organ Procurement Organization six years ago. Some of her favorite patients to care for in the ICU were the organ donor heroes and their families. Being able to help create a lasting legacy and care for not just the single donor hero, but seeing them as the up to 8 potential recipients who were being given a second chance at life fueled her passion. Of note, Erin is homegrown from Waupaca, having been born and raised in the city, graduating from Waupaca

High School in 1999. Her colleague (and mother) Joy Reichenbach has been an RN for 13 years, having graduated from Fox Valley Technical College. She started her career in the Med Surg Unit at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center- Appleton, then worked in the ICU at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Neenah and now also works at the UW OPO. She was the Valedictorian of the Waupaca High School class of 1979. She has had a passion for helping take care of families & people at end of life since serving as a Stevens Minister in the 1990’s.
 

Barry and Ruby Shaw sponsored this program.

Presentor - Thomas McKenzie

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Kathleen Daley sponsored this program.

Christopher L. Kolakowski is Director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, a position he has held since January 6, 2020. He was born and raised in Fredericksburg, Va, but his mother’s family has very deep roots in the Badger State. Chris received his BA in History and Mass Communications from Emory & Henry College, and his MA in Public History from the State University of New York at Albany.

Chris has spent his career interpreting and preserving American military history with the National Park Service, New York State government, the Rensselaer County (NY) Historical Society, the Civil War Preservation Trust, Kentucky State Parks, the U.S. Army, and the MacArthur Memorial. He has written and spoken extensively on various aspects of military history and leadership from 1775 to the present, and was the inaugural Director of the General George Patton Museum and Center of Leadership at Fort Knox, Kentucky. 

Chris has published three books on the Civil War and three on World War II in the Pacific. He is a reviewer and contributor to the Air Force Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs and a Senior Fellow at the Consortium of Indo-Pacific Researchers. His latest book, titled Tenth Army Commander, is about General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., who was killed in battle on Okinawa.

Sergio M. González is Assistant Professor of History at Marquette University. A historian of twentieth-century U.S. migration, labor, and religion, his scholarship focuses on the development of Latino communities in the U.S. Midwest. For more than a century, Mexican immigrants and migrants have turned their sights northward to Wisconsin in search of a stable and secure future for themselves and their families. Today, more than a half a million people of Mexican descent call the state home. Sergio González, author of Mexicans in Wisconsin (Wisconsin Historical Society Press), delves into the stories and challenges of these resilient communities, from the farmworkers who helped make Wisconsin America's breadbasket in the mid twentieth century, to the labor organizers who fought for better living and working conditions in the civil rights era, to the everyday families who continue to make space for themselves all across the state today.

Charlie Schudson is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of Wisconsin Law School. For many years, he was a state and federal prosecutor, and a trial and appellate judge. Charlie also served as the “Law and Literature Scholar in Residence” at Lawrence, as an adjunct professor of law at Marquette and Wisconsin, and as a Fulbright Scholar at law schools abroad. He is the author of many published works including Independence Corrupted / How America’s Judges Make Their Decisions (University of Wisconsin Press, 2018).

Street crime, white collar crime, presidential crime … whatever the crime, prosecutors must direct investigations and build cases, then present them to judges and juries. How do they do it? Does 

the Constitution restrain them? Do their own constitutions guide them? Do corruption and politics influence them? And what about the special challenges for Robert Mueller and any others who might dare to prosecute a president? From behind the scenes to open court, armed with law, literature, and cinema, two former state and federal prosecutors will lead our investigation. Steve Licata is a graduate of Lawrence University (’75) and the University of Wisconsin Law School. He served three years as a State Public Defender and thirty-one years as an Assistant District Attorney, three of which were as the Legal Director of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Unit. Steve also served two years as the Executive Director of the Thomas J. Watson Foundation in Providence, Rhode Island, where he administered the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program.

Tom and Hope Olson sponsored this program.

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Dan Cavanagh, Director of the Mead Witter School of Music and Professor of Composition and Jazz Studies, will talk about his experiences as a composer and pianist paired alongside recent advances in neuroscience and aesthetics that illuminate why music is uniquely important to our varied experiences as human beings. He will discuss how composers, performers, and conductors partner with listeners in the moment to create an environment conducive to considering the human spirit, our place in this universe, and our relationships with each other and the world.

Dan Cavanagh is a composer and pianist with numerous awards in both areas. He has performed extensively in North America and Europe, and his music continues to be performed across the globe by classical and jazz artists alike. His music can be heard on a wide variety of recordings, and he has released five recordings as a leader. In addition to composing and performing, he is interested in the way music and the arts serve to shed light on what it means to be human.

Linda and Rex Pope sponsored this program.