Speaker: Tracy Behrendt, Waupaca Historical Society Director

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2025 marks the City of Waupaca’s 150th anniversary. Waupaca’s history, however, goes back thousands of years, beginning with ancestors of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. Behrendt, director of the Waupaca Historical Society, will focus on our area’s early history, white settlement in 1849, and Waupaca’s early years of change and growth.

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Link to recording of this program.

Speakers: Sissel Schroeder, PhD & Tamara Thomsen, a Maritime Archaeologist

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Sissel Schroeder is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at UW-Madison. Her research focuses on cultural-environmental systems and the archaeology of climate change on ancient peoples of the southeastern United States and the Midwest. Tamara Thomsen has worked as a maritime archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society's Maritime Preservation and Archaeology program. Her research has resulted in the nomination of more than sixty submerged sites to the National Register of Historic Places. The Wisconsin Dugout Canoe Survey Project highlights the persistence of cultural traditions and technological ingenuity. It embodies the Wisconsin Idea by engaging local and national museums, historical societies, and tribal museums in this project that is documenting an important yet relatively rare form of material culture.

Speaker: Becky Liegl, School District of Waupaca Educator

Have you ever wondered about the lives of women during the 18th Century?

Becky Liegl spent a week at the George Washington Teacher Institute at Mount Vernon in 2023. She will share her experience learning about Martha Washington and the lives of women during the 18th century using primary sources, research from top female historians, and ways to engage young women and men through picture books.

What a great way to celebrate Women's History Month!

Speaker: Chuck Theusch, Vietnam Veteran

​In 1999, Theusch founded Children’s Library International with the mission of building libraries in Vietnam and Cambodia. The task was daunting, fraught with logistical challenges and bureaucratic hurdles. Yet, he remained undeterred and gradually turned his vision into reality, one library at a time. Theusch recognized the power of education in shaping the future of nations recovering from conflict and understood that libraries could serve as beacons of hope, offering access to knowledge and fostering a love for learning among children and communities. The libraries became cherished landmarks, offering a haven for children to explore the world of literature and expand their horizons.​​​

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Speaker: Sara Timm, Director of Marketing at the Waupaca Foundry
 

A dynamic overview of the Waupaca Foundry, North America’s leading supplier of iron castings to the automotive, commercial vehicle, agriculture, construction, and industrial markets. This presentation highlighted the iron casting giant’s cutting-edge technologies, commitment to sustainability, community engagement, and workforce development. It presented how the Foundry’s people, processes, and purpose drive innovation, support communities, and create lasting industry impact. It explored what makes Waupaca Foundry a trusted supplier and leader in the manufacturing world.

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Speaker: Hayden Walkush, Master’s Degree Student and 2024 Winchester Academy Scholarship recipient

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The UW-Stevens Point Wisconsin Black Bear Project has studied bears in the Northwoods of Wisconsin since the 1970s. The project has had a traditional focus on documenting important aspects of the general ecology and life history of bears in northern Wisconsin—many master’s students have graduated from the project working on questions that relate to what we would consider the basic biology of bears—so much of what we know about bears in Wisconsin we know because of these projects. Walkush shared what we’ve learned about bears, how we study them, and our role in education.

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Link to recording of this program.

Speaker: Steven Hendrix, SJD, LL.D., JD, & the Principal of Hendrix LLC

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Until 2024, Hendrix was the U.S. AID Coordinator for Foreign Assistance at the Department of State. As a former high-ranking government official in the last four administrations, Hendrix will share what he has seen and learned from a global diplomatic career which began in the 1980s. What exactly has America done that makes it a great nation? What natural advantages does it have? What does it do best? What are some areas where it can improve? From a national security perspective, what do we need to know? This frank presentation highlighted how the world views the U.S., and a few positive surprises that continue to make us a country to be envied, along with things the country still needs to work on - all from a global perspective.

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Link to recording of this program.

Speaker: Tim Crain, PhD, Former director of the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education at Seton Hill University

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The Holocaust took the lives of nearly six million Jews between 1941 and 1945. The US government knew that the mass murder of the Jews was taking place in 1942, but did little to stop the genocide. This presentation explored the American response to the Holocaust, as well as reviewed what could have been done to end the mass murder. The US believed that the best way to rescue Jews was to win World War II as rapidly as possible. The decision remains controversial.

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Link to recording of this program.

Speaker: Bill Gillard, PhD, MFA, Professor of English at UW-Oshkosh

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Gillard is the author of Robert Bloch’s Psycho Century: American Horror from Lovecraft to King (forthcoming) and other books. Wisconsin author Robert Bloch was a prolific writer during his seven-decade career. His best ideas frequently took several iterations to find their finished form, and his novel Psycho was no different. Gillard looked at the long arc of Bloch’s career and made connections to changes in the American horror landscape while also paying close attention to how Bloch evolved from a writer of supernatural horror in the 1930s to a leader in mid-century psychological horror.

Speakers: Brian Hoelzel, Waupaca Chief of Police &
Andy Naylor, Madison Police Department Detective

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Hoelzel and Naylor informed us about law enforcement by analyzing past and current trends, and by examining the public perception of what police do, all while offering unique perspectives from smaller/rural and larger/urban departments. Hoelzel has prior experience as detective sergeant as a member of the Central WI Drug Task Force, and a patrol officer where he was a field training officer & evidence technician. Naylor’s career in law enforcement began in 2012 with the Madison PD. He has been a mental health officer, a detective in the General Assignment Unit, the Special Victims Unit, and is currently assigned to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and MPD’s Threat Assessment Team.

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Link to recording of this program.

Speaker: Bridget Brown, Chief Operations & Programs Officer for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence (GLSL) Cities Initiative

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The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence region spans eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, and is home to more than 45 million people and 3,500 species of plants and animals. Its rivers and lakes hold a fifth of the world's freshwater. Our region is an economic powerhouse. Though we face challenges, opportunities for a healthy future abound. Brown highlighted key times in history that have shaped this region and showed how this Initiative is working to protect, improve, and leverage our lakes and rivers for a thriving environment and economy.

Speaker: Zach Wood-Doughty, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Computer Science department at Northwestern University

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Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT) models have revolutionized the field of artificial intelligence since the release of ChatGPT two years ago. In that time, these models have found widespread use by both businesses and consumers. This program briefly recapped the history of these models and provided a high-level overview of their technical details. Then, Wood-Doughty discussed the opportunities for and risks of using these models in applications from customer service to healthcare.​​

Speaker: Sharon West, Composer & student with an MS in Engineering who worked nearly 25 years in process management

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West has a lifelong passion and interest in composing. J.S.Bach is probably the greatest music composer who has ever lived and he composed by writing everything by hand. Today composers use a host of computer tools to make music. West examined how computers make composing faster by examining some of Bach’s compositions within a modern Digital Audio Workstation, from simple piano canons to full sonatas and orchestral suites. See how amazing Bach's works are, even from a modern standpoint, and be even more impressed with his spectacular compositions!

This presentation is in conjunction with the 2024 Bach Festival.

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Speaker: Charles Konsitzke, Associate Director of the UW-Madison Biotechnology Center & the Team Lead for the UW-MIA Project

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Konsitzke founded the UW MIA Project in 2015 after assisting with the identification efforts of Private First-Class Lawrence S. Gordon in 2014. He led the team in the successful recovery efforts in the summers of 2016 - 2023. He and his team are currently investigating several dozen Wisconsin & non-Wisconsin cases. While investigating cases, the team is developing new techniques and technologies to enhance the recovery mission process. This presentation enlightened us about the MIA Recovery Project, how it started, and how it is evolving nationally and internationally.

​Link to recording of this program.

Speaker: Dr. Victoria N. Folse, President of Ripon College

Colleges and universities around the country are grappling with the impact of frequent leadership changes, institutional stagnation, lack of vision and alignment, and loss of community and donor relationships. The challenges of higher education will not be solved by its strong leadership. Ripon College remains focused on the framework for thriving with continued emphasis on enrollment, financial stability, and metrics that are also accreditation expectations.

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Speaker: Antje Petty, Associate Director & Outreach
Manager of the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies
at UW-Madison

German immigrants kept many of their traditions while also being part of the state’s multi-lingual and multi-ethnic society. This presentation will look at their organizations and clubs; music, theater, and tavern culture; newspapers and magazines; as well as events today that have a German angle, such as Christmas markets and Oktoberfests, and represent a unique Wisconsin regional culture.

Dan Cavanagh, Director of the Mead Witter School of Music and Professor of Composition and Jazz Studies at UW-Madison, talked 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 discussed 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.

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Link to recording of this program.

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? Join us for a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at a world most of us experience vicariously.

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Handout for this program.

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), delved 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.

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Link to recorded program.

Christopher L. Kolakowski, Director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, discussed the Berlin Blockade (June 24, 1948 - May 12, 1949) as well as the resultant Berlin Airlift which was in some ways the first battle of the Cold War. It will set the stage for events to come. It was also one of the great moments for the newly independent US Air Force. Chris’s talk explored the blockade, the airlift, and its importance in history.

Kolakowski 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.

Tom McKenzie is the Director of Björklunden, Lawrence University’s north campus and 441-acre retreat center located in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin. From an idyllic estate to an enchanting retreat center, McKenzie charted the history of this remarkable property located south of Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin. Rooted in the vision Winifred Boynton, this site for peace and contemplation provides an embrace of Scandinavian architecture and at its center features an iconic hand carved and painted Norwegian “stavkirke” chapel. Learn about the well-preserved geology and ecology, the flora and fauna, and how the land changed hands and was ultimately generously gifted to Lawrence University. Dive deep into the remarkable artistry of Winifred and Donald Boynton and their intention to bring peace into the world with building of their chapel during World War II. 

Erin Halpin, RN, and mother and colleague Joy Reichenbach, RN, discussed the importance and rarity of Organ Donation as well as help dispel common myths related to all forms of donation. They reviewed advancements in organ donation and transplantation over the past 20 years, and included 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. 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. PowerPoint Presentation.

Link to recorded program.

Tom Farley grew up in Madison and graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in Marketing. He began his career in banking and finance, living and working in the New York City area. From 1999 to 2012, he ran The Chris Farley Foundation, a nationally recognized non-profit dedicated to substance abuse prevention. Like his brother, Tom was successful in opening the “eyes and ears” of youth audiences through the powerful and effective use of humor. In 2008 he wrote “The Chris Farley Show”, a New York Time bestselling biography of his late brother, the actor and comedian Chris Farley.Tom chronicled his lifelong journey with his brother, the late actor Chris Farley. Touching on lessons learned from Chris and his struggles with addiction, 

Andre M. M. Sousa, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience at UW-Madison. Sousa presented and discussed the differences between the human brain and the brains of other primate species. This program included the discussion of brain size, number of neurons, brain connectivity, and overall organization of the circuits that govern some of our most complex behaviors. He also discussed how the differences we observe are generated throughout development. Finally, Sousa discussed how some of the differences that likely underlie cognitive differences might have made our brains more vulnerable to neuropsychiatric disorders.
 

Link to recorded program.

Susan McFadden, PhD,  is professor emerita of Psychology at UW-Oshkosh. McFadden’s program addressed reasons why we need a new story about dementia that turns away from the dominant “tragedy narrative” in our culture. Her presentation showed how the worldwide memory café movement is creating dementia-inclusive communities where people living with all types of this brain disorder can experience joy, meaning, and friendship. Examples from the work of Fox Valley Memory Project demonstrated the many ways memory cafés ease isolation and create meaningful connections among people dealing with dementia.

Andy J. Leavitt, PhD, is the 11th chancellor of UW-Oshkosh. As a public, regional comprehensive institution, the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh has endured a perfect storm of fiscal, political and unpredictable pressures over the last several years. Yet, this brand of college is resilient and still worth it for both learners, the region it calls home, and the state of Wisconsin. Chancellor Leavitt highlighted UWO’s journey, value, and continuing success in developing and retaining the talented, giving graduates our economy and society require to help Wisconsin thrive.

Kirill Iliin, PhD, is an expert with 20 years of experience in business development and crisis management, specializing in WMD non-proliferation, security, and the energy sector. His work on nuclear safety projects in Ukraine, recognized by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) Visiting Fellows Grant from the U.S. Department of State in 2021, helps to address the complex socio-economic and geopolitical aspects of the Russian war in Ukraine. Drawing from his position as a Russian unable to return home, he offered insights into the war's socio-economic and geopolitical impacts. Iliin's analysis challenges prevailing Russian media narratives and examines the broader implications of the war.

Link to recorded program.

Steven T. Sheehan, PhD, is Associate Professor of History at UW-Oshkosh-Fox Cities. The Wisconsin chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), the national organization of Union Civil War veterans, established the Wisconsin Veterans’ Home in 1887. They hoped to create a facility that would allow aging and indigent veterans and their wives and widows to live out their final years in honor and comfort. GAR members believed that the presence of women residents, something unique to the Wisconsin facility at the time, would ensure moral probity and a truly “home-like” atmosphere. A number of roadblocks stood in the way of making the facility into the idyllic home that its founders envisioned. Sheehan's presentation traced the founding of the King Veterans’ Home and the struggles of its founders, managers, and residents to make it a true home in its first 20 years of operation.

Link to recorded program.

Katie Barelmann is the Director of Sustainability Research and Outreach for N-Drip, an innovator in micro-irrigation. Barelmann discussed the current state of our water resources in the United States, including how water challenges impact our nation's supply chains, including food and fiber. She also provided an evaluation of case studies from some of our nation's most iconic watersheds.

Link to recorded program.

Kira Morrissey, a MN native living in WI since 2002, grew up with parents who were lovers of all things outdoors, instilling in her a sense of awe and wonder in plants and wild animals. Morrissey has become enamored with how plants in our backyards are often the ones with the most health and healing benefits. She has taken online courses, voraciously read backyard plant medicine books, source-checked articles and websites, and has taken journeys down a plethora of legit and not-so-legit herbology rabbit holes. Morrissey uses what she learns to turn a walk in the woods into a foraging adventure. She discussed easy identification of common weeds plentiful in most backyards that can become part of your diet.  She also addressed some fun things to do with kids on nature walks to instill a love and respect for plants. 

Brent Nelson has been making maple syrup at his Waupaca family farm for over ten years. Nelson's program provided a history of maple sugaring in Wisconsin from the beginning when the Native Americans first collected sap. There was an overview of the different maple tree species and the geographical uniqueness to where maple syrup is made. Learn about the maple sugaring process from tapping trees, sap collection, to bottling of the final product and the food stuffs made from maple syrup.

Bob Jacquart is chairman of Jacquart Fabric Products which is home of Stormy Kromer. From invention and evolution throughout a century, the stylish and durably designed Stormy Kromer hats are interwoven into Wisconsin culture. The lore is part of the lure. A pull-down ear band stitched to a baseball cap kept a train worker’s head warm and dry amid winter winds. From authentic originals to ever-evolving designs, Stormy Kromer caps celebrate the art of hat and headwear design.

Ivan Jay Wayne, PhD, is founder and owner of Voyagerr, a Waupaca based consulting firm. The average American adult checks their phone every 5 minutes and American office workers switch tasks every 3 minutes. This inability to focus was not always prevalent. Are these trends generational, regional, based on personality, or are they universal? This talk included information spanning seven books and current psychological research, spotlighting the main causes of our dwindling attention span. Additionally, Wayne discussed strategies we can utilize to maintain our focus once again.

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Hugh Kress is an educator and resource leader for Land Acknowledgment for the East Central Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Anahkwet (Guy Reiter), Menominee, is the Executive Director of Menīkānaehkem, Inc.
Land Acknowledgement is an international effort to work in partnership with Indigenous sisters and brothers to apply the principles of a reciprocal relationship to the land as we share its resources. It first recognizes that lands that we occupy are the ancestral home of displaced tribes. The presentation illustrates actions that have been taken and calls for adoption of an attitude that directs present and future respect for the land.

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Link to recorded program.

Chris Matheny, PhD, is president of Fox Valley Technical College. What role does the Wisconsin Technical College System play in educating and training our communities? We discussed the current state of technical education in the State, introduced the audience to some things that may not be known about Technical Colleges, and touched on what the future of education might look like in a very rapidly changing world.

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Alex C. Wiedenhoeft, PhD, is a Research Botanist in the USDA Forest Products Lab’s (FPL) Center for Wood Anatomy Research (CWAR). Alex spoke about the history and the legacy of forensic work on cases including murders, car bombings, arson, transportation disasters, and forest fires. He also discussed the forensic relevance of science influencing policy, presented some civil cases and a few less serious cases where forensic botany was used to solve a mystery or a problem.

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Link to recorded program.

Drake Hokanson, PhD, author and photographer, spent 45 years exploring and taking photos along the Lincoln Highway, small midwestern towns, the endless Great Plains, colorful county fairs, and along the 1st transcontinental railroad. We heard a few stories from the road, examined some of the influences that motivate Hokanson, and considered the nature of photographic art and nonfiction literature, and the brilliance they create when brought together.

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Meagan Wolfe is the Administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), serving as the state’s Chief Election Official. Meagan was appointed by the bi-partisan, six-member Commission in February of 2018 and unanimously confirmed by the Wisconsin State Senate in May of 2019 for a four-year term. Meagan will provided an outline of Wisconsin’s very thorough and decentralized system of running elections. She discussed how our system is different than systems in other states, and why voters should trust it to deliver accurate and fair results.

Link to recorded program

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Linda Hall, director of the Office of Children’s Mental Health for the State of WI, discussed why the youth mental health crisis is real. Research shows the crisis is impacting our young across the span of childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Yet research also offers insights into practical strategies that each of us can take to help improve the well-being of children in our communities now, and to increase the likelihood that Wisconsin’s children become healthy adults with bright, healthy, productive futures.

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Link to recorded program

Link to PDF of the PowerPoint slides from program

Link to Family of Four Income Chart

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Wisconsin Folksinger David HB Drake had us singing along with the best songs of love and peace. David reminded us of the powerful anthems and timeless songs that resonate in today’s world from when the times, they were a’changing. This fun program was co-produced along with Winchester Academy by the Waupaca Historical Society and City of Waupaca Parks & Recreation Department.

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Speaker: Chelsea Lovejoy, PhD

Chelsea Lovejoy, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychology at UW–Stout, where she has taught the psychology of video games since 2014. Talk about “the dangers” of video games fills the media–they must be right, right? But what does the research REALLY say? This presentation looked at some of the ways video games and game technology help improve the physical and social world around us and enhance human connections. We further examined how they can support well-being, physical health, and healthy cognitive aging as well as ways to start a personal mission of self-improvement, connect more meaningfully with others, and even make the world a better place, were explored.

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Link to recorded program.

Waupaca Area Public Library Community Read

Braiding Sweetgrass, is a non-fiction book by Robin Wall Kimmerer. It examines modern botany and environmentalism through the lens of the traditions and cultures of the Indigenous peoples of North America. Through a series of personal reflections, the author explores the connection between living things and human efforts to cultivate a more sustainable world.

Speaker: Doug Bradley

Doug Bradley is Distinguished Lecturer Emeritus in the College of Letters and Sciences at UW-Madison. In their 2015 award-winning book, We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War, Doug Bradley and Craig Werner placed popular music at the heart of the American experience in Vietnam. Over the next two years, they made more than 100 presentations coast-to-coast, witnessing honest, respectful exchanges among audience members. That journey prompted Bradley to write Who’ll Stop the Rain: Respect, Remembrance, and Reconciliation in Post-Vietnam America and to further explore how the music of the era, shared by those who served and those who stayed, helped create safe, nonjudgmental environments for listening, sharing, and understanding.

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Link to recorded program.

Speaker: Scott Hebbring, PhD

Scott Hebbring, PhD, is the Principal Investigator for All of Us at and a Research Scientist in the Center for Precision Medicine Research at Marshfield Clinic Research Institute. He completed his doctoral training at Mayo Clinic with a focus on pharmacogenomics. His current research is multidisciplinary combining statistical genetics and medical informatics with molecular biology. Our environment, lifestyle, and DNA play important roles in our health. By studying these factors, researchers may find ways to improve health for you, your family, and future generations. The All of Us Research Program is inviting people across the U.S. to help build one of the most diverse health databases in history. Scott’s program will explain how and why this project is working in Wisconsin, and what the results may mean to you.

Speaker: Charles L. Cohen, PhD

Charles L. Cohen, PhD, is the E. Gordon Fox Professor of American Institutions, Emeritus at UW-Madison. He has taught and written about colonial British North America, American religious history, and the braided histories of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The adjudication of religious life in the United States plays out on a field generated by, on the one hand, our Constitution and the political institutions that flow from it, and, on the other, by a religious culture that hugely values religious freedom but that has also been highly inflected by various claims that the United States is a Christian nation. These conditions create a central dilemma: Are there circumstances in which religious beliefs and the practices that issue from them make a group seem incapable of being good citizens, even though the nation’s basic values would seem to preclude religious identity as a condition of citizenship? The United States has been defined in various ways as a “Christian nation”; if so, how do Jews and Muslims fit into American society? American political and culture systems can generally handle most differences, but a few issues are explosive, particularly those that question whether a group’s religion precludes its becoming loyal to the United States, i.e., becoming American citizens.

Speaker: John Bates

John Bates authored ten books and worked as a naturalist in our Northwoods for 33 years. John served on the Boards for the Wisconsin Nature Conservancy, River Alliance of Wisconsin, and the Wisconsin Humanities Council, and he currently serves on the Board of the Northwoods Land Trust. John has a MS in Environmental Sciences from UW-Green Bay. Of Wisconsin’s over 15,000 lakes, very few wild lakes remain. These are rare places where remarkable peace and beauty abounds, and where native wildlife flourishes. Wisconsin only has around 135 undeveloped, publicly-owned wild lakes over 30 acres. Where are they? And more importantly, why should we care about protecting wild places? This presentation spotlighted a few of these lakes and the many values each offers scientifically, recreationally, aesthetically, emotionally, and ethically.

Link to recorded program.

Speaker: Kent Pegorsh

Kent Pegorsh, co-owner of Main Street Marketplace on Main Street in Waupaca, has been producing honey for 47 years and currently manages over 500 hives. Pegorsh discussed the beekeeping year, how some of the best honey in the world is produced in our area, and how the great migration each year of over three quarters of the managed honey bee colonies in the United States to California insure the sustainability of our food supply. The presentation finished with a tasting of varietal honeys.

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Speaker: Jeffrey Kersten

Jeffrey Kersten with the Wisconsin Bureau of Consumer Protection will discuss the details of common scams, the warning signs of a scam, and what to do if you or someone you know falls victim to a scam or fraud. Helpful factsheets will be available. As Wisconsin’s lead agency for consumer protection, the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection, provides information and education, mediates complaints, investigates cases, and takes enforcement actions to fight fraudulent and deceptive practices that harm consumers and honest businesses.

Kersten is the Agency Liaison for the Bureau of Consumer Protection within the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.  As the Agency Liaison, Kersten travels around the state to educate the public, businesses, and law enforcement on privacy protection, data security, identity theft, and other areas of consumer protection. Kersten has over 12 years of experience as a police officer and is a prior Consumer Protection Investigator for the Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Link to recorded program.

Speaker: Susan Cook

Wisconsin has a remarkable musical past, one that shows the individual and collective power of its native and emigrant peoples,

and its regional, national and international connections and relationships. This talk presented snapshots from the state’s historical and current soundscapes identifying the circumstances under which musical practices were made, remembered and changed.

Susan C. Cook, Director of the Mead Witter School of Music at UW-Madison, is a music historian and dance scholar whose published work and current research engages with American musical repertories of all kinds. She is particularly interested in the social contexts of art, musical and dance practices as well as the regional practices of Wisconsin.

Speaker: Marissa Ashbeck

Anyone can create a garden space, but can you create a sustainable landscape? 

During "Design Concepts for a Sustainable Landscape" Marissa talked about thoughtful design concepts, low-impact gardens, low-maintenance landscaping, beneficial plants, and how to attract beneficial insects and wildlife into your yards. She discussed getting back to the basics and what is feasible and sustainable in our yards today. 

Marissa Ashbeck is the Horticulture and Grounds Manager at Monk Botanical Gardens in Wausau, WI. She earned her Bachelor's Degree in Horticulture- Landscape Design and Management at the University of Wisconsin- River Falls.  Marissa found her niche in connecting people with plants where she is today at Monk Botanical Gardens.

Link to recorded program.

Speaker: Richard "Rick" Moss, PhD

Moss is Professor Emeritus of Cell & Regenerative Biology in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH), and until he retired in December 2021 was Senior Associate Dean of Basic Sciences, Biotechnology and Graduate Studies.  Over the past 20 years, SMPH has pursued a unique vision as the nation’s first medical school to fully integrate biomedical and public health research.  These efforts are designed to improve health through development of strategies that not only emphasize greater effectiveness in treating disease but also feature collaborations with communities to reduce disease and improve quality of life for citizens of our state and nation. Dr. Moss presented examples of SMPH research and community engagement designed to improve health and lead an interactive discussion about how to address disparities in health and healthcare across our state.

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Speaker: Marcia Anderson

Anderson has a rare perspective on military and civilian service. In 2011, she became the U.S. Army’s first African American female major general, a position she held until her retirement in 2016. She will share some of the experiences that helped form her leadership style, as well as provide insight on the military decision-making process, and how the Army values inform the culture of one of the most successful militaries in modern history. Major General Anderson shared her experience with addressing diversity in the Army and the ongoing efforts to reduce and eliminate sexual harassment, as will as how to encourage the next generation to consider military service. 

Anderson, whose career was the focus of a 2012 video produced by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, offered her reflections on public service in commemoration of Veterans Day 2019.

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Speaker: Steven Ackerman, PhD
SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in a Lake Superior storm on Nov 10, 1975, with a loss of the entire crew of 29. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on the Great Lakes and she remains the largest to have sunk there. The exact cause of the sinking remains unknown, though many books, studies, and expeditions have examined it. Ackerman presented this disaster, how it related to weather at the time, and discussed the Lightfoot song.

Ackerman is currently serving as Interim Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education at UW-Madison. Ackerman, along with Professor Jonathan Martin is one of the ‘weather guys’ who appear monthly on Wisconsin Public Radio to discuss the weather and climate. They also write a weekly blog (http://wxguys.ssec.wisc.edu/) and a column for the Wisconsin State Journal which answer people’s weather questions.

Speaker: Tara Roberts-Turner
In 2022, the Biden Administration held the first national conference on food insecurity since 1969. The administration brought stakeholders together to promote a new national plan to combat food insecurity.  Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative (WFHC) has not been new to this challenge, having worked with Hunger Task Force and Feeding America to deliver boxes to Tribal and Non-Tribal pantries during the pandemic. In 2023, WFHC will work within the Local Food for School (LFS) program, Wisconsin Early Childhood Association (WECA), and Tribal Elder Box (Feeding America), following along the goals established at the conference.  This presentation described the plan, the challenges, and sustainability of each of these programs. 

Link to recorded program.

Rochelle Pennington is an award-winning newspaper columnist and author. This program took a close-up look at the literary genius of Charles Dickens, England's most celebrated Victorian novelist, and explored the hidden history behind the author's 1843 Christmas classic. What events inspired the Carol to be written? Who was it written for? How did Dickens' historical novel "single-handedly resurrect" Christmas at a time when factories were open and churches were closed on December 25th? By 1900, no other book in the world had sold more copies except the Bible. Pennington's narrative offered factual perspective and behind-the-scenes insights into the epic influence of Dickens' immortal characters: Ebeneezer Scrooge, Jacob Marley, and a trio of Christmas ghosts.

Tim Lencki is the owner of Adventure Outfitters with three locations in the Waupaca area.  Having spent over 20 years in the fitness industry as an author, speaker, and personal trainer, he opened his business in 2013 to help people get active by providing sales, service, and outfitting of outdoor gear such as kayaks, paddleboards, bicycles, snowshoes, and XC skis to locals and people visiting the area.  The Waupaca area offers some of the finest and most diverse recreational opportunities around.  Discover exciting year-round adventure using Silent Sports as a way to refresh and help you be active.  Learn about the proper equipment needed and various locations in our area to enjoy the outdoors. 

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Link to recording of program.

Tim Crain, PhD, returned to Winchester Academy to discuss the relationship between Russia and Ukraine which has been difficult for decades. Earlier this year Russia invaded Ukraine in an attempt to destroy Ukrainian independence. The Russian assault led to the largest war and greatest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. The Russian conquest of Ukraine has been universally condemned by the international community, led by the United States. The lecture focused on past issues between the two nations, the war in the present day, and what the future may hold for the two East European nations.

Tim Crain received a Ph.D. in modern Europe, modern British and Irish, and modern Jewish history at Arizona State University. Crain taught for 15 years at UW-Madison and Marquette University. Crain delivers over one hundred lectures nationally each year.

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Link to recording of program.

Eric Yonke, PhD, is outreach coordinator for the ECDC Multicultural Community Center in Wausau.  Previously, Yonke served as a professor of European History and Director of UW-Stevens Point's Office of International Education.  In the summer of 2021, a group of individuals from churches and civic organizations in Wausau spearheaded an effort to bring refugee resettlement to Central Wisconsin. The Afghanistan crisis was the catalyst, but the effort had its roots in the Hmong refugee experience of thirty years earlier.  Now a refugee resettlement office has been established and is bringing people from all corners of the world to Central Wisconsin. This presentation examined this first year of refugee resettlement, its challenges, and its promises for the future.

Dan Naylor outlined the importance of active listening in today’s world of conflict and lack of civility. He presented research, as well as personal and professional experience as a facilitator and mediator to answer the question – “can we truly actively listen to each other with a goal of respect and understanding?”

Naylor, a retired human service consultant, husband, father, and grandfather, served in the Army, and spent 45 years in Human Services including helping develop a Vietnam Veterans’ service center, directing an adult correctional halfway house, and a three-county AODA and mental health treatment agency including a residential center for youth. For 25 years, as a consultant Dan supported Wisconsin counties and tribes in the development of collaborative systems of care for children and adults with special needs. Dan has bachelor’s degree in Management and master’s degree in Public Administration.

Brett Barker, PhD, Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History and International Studies at UW-Stevens Point presented how the Civil War remains the central event in our nation’s history. Historians today agree that the institution of slavery, and how it made the North and South very different societies, was the root cause of the war. Yet for much of the century afterward, some Americans have tried to create an alternative interpretation downplaying the significance of slavery. Confederate apologists and white supremacists continue to deny the role of slavery in the Civil War and in American history more generally. Dr. Barker explored the connections between the Civil War, Confederate symbols, and the continuing struggle over civil rights.

Link to recording of program.

Stacey Berk and Nell Buchman explored the organization of Bach’s Goldberg Variations and beauty hidden in this extraordinary work. Berk is Professor of Oboe and Music Theory/Composition at UW-Stevens Point and narrated. Buchman has an active teaching, performing, and adjudicating career at Lawrence University, Community Music School, and throughout Wisconsin and performed excerpts for our enjoyment.​

Angela Dassow, PhD, is Associate Professor and Chair of the biology Department at Carthage College.

The gray wolf population in Wisconsin has increased since first dispersed here in the early 1980s. As wolf counts increased, there was a relative increase in the number of human-wolf conflicts. Tracking packs involved in conflicts allows for proactive, non-lethal management of human-wolf conflict, versus reactive culling and illegal kills. Radio-collaring and tracking individuals is effective, but costly and invasive. Passive acoustic monitoring offers a non-invasive approach to tracking pack movements. Dr. Dassow explained how acoustic monitoring and tracking works and how acoustic monitoring provides insight into wolf pack dynamics.

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Link to recording of program.

A Lydia Engelbreth is content marketing manager at Waupaca Foundry. She also serves as a mentor to the Waupaca High School WIRED robotics team.

Waupaca High School has had a robotics team for the past six years; as of 2021 the team decided to change from VEX Robotics to FIRST Robotics. FIRST Robotics is a highly competitive international organization that has over 90,000 students competing in 34 countries. In their rookie season, they took home the Rookie Inspiration Award for the team plans for community outreach and their build capabilities. Beyond that, at the second competition they were selected for the 3rd seed alliance and made it to the quarterfinals.

Lydia and members of the team demonstrated the world of STEM by showing how the Waupaca FIRST Robotics teams are developing technical and life skills through hands-on experiences. The program concluded with a live demonstration of their robot.

Jonathan Martin, PhD, Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at UW-Madison, author of Reginald Sutcliffe and the Invention of Modern Weather Systems Science, and appears regularly on WPR's "Weather Guys" show, discussed how a forecast of the weather for a couple of days was considered a practical impossibility a century ago. In the intervening decades a remarkable revolution has taken place such that today a weather forecast to 5 days is so routinely accurate as to be taken for granted. We are among the first humans in history with access to such precise predictions. This capability is among the most unheralded scientific advances of the last century. This talk recounted the life and scientific contributions of a leading intellectual figure of this revolution, Reginald Sutcliffe. Sutcliffe's story exemplified how education, practical urgency, and creative genius - mobilized by an abiding curiosity - conspired to solve even the most seemingly intractable problems.

Link to the recording of the presentation.

Robert "Ernie" Boszhardt, a professional archaeologist with more than four decades of experience, worked for the Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse for nearly thirty years and is now co-owner of Driftless Pathways, LLC and an honorary fellow at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He has authored numerous articles and four books that cover a wide variety of Wisconsin archaeology topics with and emphasis on the Driftless Area.

This program featured the award-winning book Hidden Thunder: Rock art of the Upper Midwest, which Mr. Boszhardt co-authored with artist Geri Schrab. He introduced Wisconsin rock art and juxtaposed archaeological and artistic perspectives to a dozen sites, each interspersed with a variety of Native American reflections. Boszhardt reviewed a sample of the sites with illustrations of carvins and drawings along with Schrab's paintings, while covering aspects of history, geology and preservation.

Link to recording of the presentation.
 

The Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research (CDR) is the largest dairy center in the United States and one of the largest in the world. Established in 1986 on the University of Wisconsin campus, The CDR works with dairy processors, packagers, marketers, retailers, food service operations and other users of dairy products to strengthen this vital industry in Wisconsin. By doing so, they contribute to dairy farmers success through increasing the demand for their milk and maximizing the revenue that their dairy products generate which translates into bigger milk checks for dairy farmers.

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Speaker Dean Sommer has worked at the Center for Dairy Research for the last 19 years, serving as a technical resource to Wisconsin cheese manufacturers and their customers. Dean obtained a MS degree in Food Science from UW-Madison.

Allison Fleshman, PhD, has always loved the arts, so a fun side project of hers is identifying the chemical composition of pigments and inks in medieval manuscripts. She also teaches the chemistry of art to non-chemistry majors. Paintings embody human expression, but they also encompass quite a bit of chemistry. From the optical properties of varnish, to the pigments that produce vivid colors, Allison took us on a chemical adventure into the captivating world of oil paintings. She has spent many years watching paint dry, and assures you, it is quite a fascinating endeavor!

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Link to recording of the presentation.

Kurt Dietrich, professor emeritus of music at Ripon College and author of Wisconsin Riffs:  Jazz Profiles from the Heartland  (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2018), gave an overview of important jazz artists from Wisconsin and the trends that have led from the early days -- the roots -- up to the rich and complex jazz scene in Wisconsin today.

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Ryan Korb, lecturer of Jazz Percussion and Jazz Studies at UW-Stevens Point, discussed why and how African percussion became one of the roots of jazz and why it remains so to this day.

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A mini-drama written and narrated by Pat Phair with musical accompaniment by Linda Harmon. A master of the keyboard, a composer and musical performer, Waupaca native Eddy Hanson spent the better part of seven decades working in the entertainment world. From the penniless days in Waupaca to the top of the penthouse in Chicago his life was filled with successful adventures and personal mishaps. Through it all he remained true to his local roots and devotion to family. This dramatic presentation followed his career and portrayed several of his works. 

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Link to recording of the presentation.

Xia Lee is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Midwest Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Disease with a strong interest in the ecological dynamics of tick-borne disease. He directed a project with collaborators to investigate the effectiveness of host targeted acaricides in reducing ticks and the prevalence of the Lyme disease agent in questing ticks. This project utilized permethrin treated cotton balls that would be gathered and used as nesting material by white-footed mice to reduce tick burdens. For his PhD dissertation, he studied the host-seeking behavior of the blacklegged tick through repeated collections over a period of 24 hours. He has also collaborated with the Mayo Clinic investigating two newly emerging disease pathogens, Erhlicia muris eauclairensis and Borrelia mayonii.

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Link to recording of the presentation.

Andrea Lemke-Rochon, a member of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) WI State Task Force, shared a personal and historic perspective about this tragic epidemic that impacts native families at alarmingly high rates. She spoke in memory of her cousin, Rae Elaine Tourtillott, who was murdered on the Menominee Indian Reservation when Tourtillott was just 18 years of age. Listen and learn how you might help advocate for justice and change for Native women and girls in Wisconsin.

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Theresa Kaminski, PhD, is professor emerita of history from UWSP. Dr. Mary Edwards Walker always wanted to be somebody. During the 19th century, that was an unusual ambition for a woman. But Walker was an unusual woman. She wore trousers, graduated from medical school, and in 1861 offered her services to the United States Army. Four years later, President Andrew Johnson awarded Dr. Walker the Medal of Honor for her incomparable medical service rendered during the Civil War. She remains the only woman to receive that recognition. After the war, Mary Walker dedicated her life to the women’s suffrage movement, frequently clashing with its established leadership over ideology and tactics.

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Colin Mitchell, PhD, a native of New Jersey, and Jenny Mitchell, EdD, from the Green Bay area, met in Tunisia nine years ago. Jenny taught on five different continents in a variety of schools. Colin, a former head of international business development joined Jenny on her journey with stops in Europe and Africa. They have visited over 70 different countries in 15 years abroad. Listen as they discuss differences in international schools as they hop from one unique cultural experience to the next from a first post in Colombia to traveling around South East Asia via Singapore; from living on the Rhine in Germany to the Nile in Sudan. Each school provided a unique perspective on the world and the globalization of education.

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Rev. Thomas Aldworth, PhD, presented strategies for cultivating creativity as found in the seminal work of the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, especially his books Flow, Finding Flow and Creativity. Aging inevitably leads to a diminishing of physical abilities but aging does not necessarily lead to a diminishing in imagination and creativity. Aldworth will explored pathways that lead to flow and enhanced creativity.

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Link to recording of this presentation.