Presenters
June 2008
Mary Stewart Adams, public speaker, published author and recipient of the 2006 Gary R. Williams Dark Sky Advocate of the Year Award for astronomical and astrological insight, takes a cultural approach to understanding cosmic phenomena and its meaning in our lives. As a student and lover of star lore, Mary has spent over 20 years independently researching ancient astrological traditions, the historical foundations of modern astronomical thought, and the human events that coincide with the transition from one to the next. Mary creates an engaging and lively learning environment for participants in her monthly talks at her local community college, through teaching, star gazing and story telling with area youth camps and retreat centers, and in teacher training programs. Mary writes frequently about the night sky for local, national, and international publications. Mary makes her home with her four children storytelling and star gazing under the dark skies of northern MI.
July 2008
Mardi Link is the author of When Evil Came to Good Hart, a non-fiction book about the Robison murder investigation published this July by the University of Michigan Press. She combed through a thousand pages of Michigan State Police reports, crime scene photos, the Emmet County Sheriff’s Office file and interviewed more than fifty people, many from Good Hart, to research this book. She is the 2007 Creative Non-Fiction Scholar for Antioch Writer’s Workshop and a finalist for the 2008 Annie Dillard Award. Mardi has worked was a police reporter, a magazine editor, and a freelance writer. Her next book, 100 Witnesses of Isadore, about the murder of a nun in the early 1900’s in Leelanau County, will be published by The University of Michigan Press in April 2009. Mardi lives on a small farm in Traverse City with her three sons.
August 2008
Mary Ellen Geist, author of Measure of the Heart, has been a writer, broadcast journalist and jazz singer in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Northern Michigan for more than two decades. She has won many awards, including the Edward R. Murrow and the Associated Press "Reporter of the Year" awards, for her coverage of major stories throughout the U.S. and across the globe. She left her job as an anchor at WCBS Radio in New York in February of 2005 to come home to Michigan to help her mother take care of her father who has Alzheimer’s disease. She lives on Walloon Lake.
Peter Driscoll M.Ed. is an independent educational consultant. He was a Teacher for over 30 years working with at risk youth and has been a faculty member of the William Glasser Institute since 1998. Improving relational trust within schools that provide the foundation for a culture of caring and excellence is the current focus of his work.