January 6 - With almost 20 years in the food industry as a public relations and marketing consultant, and as a wife and mother of two young boys, Nancy Tringali Piho developed a keen interest in relating her professional work to the question that millions of people ask themselves every day: ‘What am I going to feed my family for dinner tonight?’ Her book, My Two-Year-Old Eats Octopus: Raising Children Who Love to Eat Everything, attempts to address this issue from a food-lover’s point of view. She is the president of NTA, Inc., a public relations firm that specializes in media relations, nutrition & health communications, recipe development & events management. Current clients include the National Chicken Council and the National Beer Wholesalers Association. She is the director of the National Chicken Cooking Contest and has appeared on the Food Network and numerous local radio and television shows. Book signing event
January 13 -
What’s it like to have two award-winning documentary producers in one household? Linda Goldman, Senior Producer of Specials for National Geographic Television, and Barr Weissman, independent producer of DC-based documentaries Home: The Langston Terrace Dwellings and A View From the Street: The Art of Lily Spandorf; and editor of the Academy Award-winning The Stonecarvers, will tell us about some of their most interesting, challenging and controversial documentaries. We’ll also hear how they started their own production company, aptly named Full House Films, while raising three young daughters, housing four film editors & producers under one roof!
January 20 - Meet one of Washington's busiest men! John Harwood is Chief Washington Correspondent of CNBC and a political writer for the New York Times. He has been around journalism and politics all his life; his first trip on a presidential campaign press plane occurred when, at 11 years old, he accompanied his father, then a political reporter for the Washington Post. He was named a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, then joined The Wall Street Journal as White House correspondent and became the Journal’s Political Editor and Chief Political Correspondent in 1997. In 2006, he joined CNBC as Chief Washington Correspondent, and also offers political analysis on Meet the Press and Washington Week in Review.
January 27 - CouncilmemberDuchy Trachtenberg (D-At Large) was elected to the Montgomery County Council in 2006. She is Chair of the Management & Fiscal Policy Committee and serves on the Health and Human Services Committee. As the only Councilmember trained as a public health professional (maintained a private practice specializing in adolescent addiction), she has a special interest in the delivery of health and addiction treatment services, services for victims of domestic violence and their families, health and wellness policies and family justice. During the ‘08 presidential election she traveled as a campaign surrogate for Barack Obama and also served as a Women's Issues Advisor for the Dean Presidential Campaign in ‘03-‘04. Duchy has been honored with the “Heroes” award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) of MontgomeryCounty and the “Ally for Equality” Award from Equality Maryland.
February 3 - Steve Roberts has been a journalist for more than 30 years, covering stories that have taken him from the streets of Harlem and the backrooms of Capitol Hill to the campuses of California and the villages of Greece. A well-known commentator on radio and television, he appears regularly on PBS’ Washington Week, CNN's Late Edition and ABC radio and numerous print media contributions. As a teacher, Roberts lectures widely on the workings of Washington and the role of the news media. In the fall of 1997, he became the Shapiro Professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, where he has taught since 1990. Book signing event
February 10 - The Roberts Dynasty Continues! Award-winning public radio reporter Rebecca Roberts began her career with a political media firm in Philadelphia, became technology reporter for a BBC/Public Radio International program and then hosted Your Call, on San Francisco's KALW. She has been featured on WETA and has reported on such diverse topics as the US immigration debate, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, transgenic goats(!), amateur astronomers, Bikram yoga and Icelandic geysers for NPR. Also joining us: Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs Roberts (also known as Cokie) is a journalist and senior news analyst for NPR News. She is a political commentator for ABC News and co-anchored the ABC interview program This Week. Over her four decades in broadcasting, she has won countless awards, including three Emmys and the Edward R. Murrow Award, the highest in public radio. She is a Broadcasting Cable Hall of Fame inductee and cited by the American Women in Radio and Television as one of the 50 Greatest Women in the History of Broadcasting. She holds more than 20 honorary degrees, serves on the boards of several non-profit institutions and the Library of Congress named her a "Living Legend". Book signing event
February 17 - Chef and owner of Alchemy Caterers, Carla Hall, was a finalist on the Bravo Television’s Top Chef: New York. Hall is a graduate of Howard University's Business School with a degree in Accounting. From 1989 until 1991, Hall lived in Paris, Milan and London and strutted down the runway as she searched for her passion. Upon returning from Europe, Hall attended and graduated from L'Academie de Cuisine. all explains that her success in the Top Chef contest resulted from her taking the time to strategize her plan, as one would playing a game of chess. She believes her success is due to her practice of starting each morning by sitting peacefully and moving into the flow, so that her passion and love is tasted and felt in the food she prepares.
February 24 - Franklin C. Salisbury, Jr., has served as the President of the National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) for more than a decade, leading NFCR to expand its cancer research program from basic cancer research to translational and clinical research so that the cancer research discoveries made at the bench might reach patients at their bedsides faster. Under his leadership, the NFCR has become one of America's largest public charities dedicated to cancer research. Franklin came to lead the NFCR after a diverse background in economics, law and religion. Trained as an environmental/public utilities economist, he previously served as Chairman of DC’s Consumer Utility Board. He also serves now as Chairman of Board for Asian Fund for Cancer Research based in Hong Kong. Franklin holds a degree in economics from Yale, a Masters from the University of Chicago, and a Masters of Divinity from Yale Divinity School and a law degree from the University of Georgia…...an extremely diversified philanthropist.
March 3 - Frankie Blackburn was recently honored as one of Montgomery County’s 25 Outstanding Women in Business. She is a co-founder of IMPACT Silver Spring, a non-profit organization which works towards supporting and empowering all members of our community to work collaboratively across lines of race, class, and culture on challenging community issues. In addition to other key programs, IMPACT has now implemented a pilot program at a local elementary school to bring minority and immigrant parents more fully into the public education reform process.
March 10 - Get the lowdown on herbs & minerals! The National Institutes of Health named Dr. Josephine BriggsDirector of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in 2008. A Harvard- and Yale-educated physician, she will help us develop a fuller understanding of the usefulness and safety of CAM practices. Her research interests include the renin-angiotensin system, diabetic nephropathy, circadian regulation of blood pressure and the effect of antioxidants in kidney disease. She is a recipient of many awards including the Volhard Prize of the German Nephrological Society, the Alexander vonHumboldt Scientific Exchange Award & NIH Director's Award for her role in the development of the Trans-NIH Type I Diabetes Strategic Plan.
March 17 - Nearly a year ago, Brian and Austin Chu left their sheltered Orange County, CA lives and embarked on a road trip. In the midst of what's been called the "worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," they left home with a video camera, a blog-dedicated computer and some audacious hope. Through 45 states, they deboarded to sleep, eat and turn their lens on Americans doing timeless and timely American things - working, not working, scraping by. The Chus say they felt compelled to travel in the proverbial shoes of their yet-to-be-identified subjects. Gas would be guzzled, couches would be surfed and credit cards overextended, all for the sake of a documentary. Their mom’s parting advice: Don’t kill or abandon each other, and call home sometimes.
March 24 - After a career in the broadcast news business as a reporter and anchor, WUSA TV's Mike Walter has traded in his microphone for a director's chair and turned his attention to his newly completed documentary, called "Breaking News, Breaking Down." His debut film concerns the emotional toll that covering violent events takes on journalists -- something Walter experienced firsthand when he witnessed American Airlines Flight 77 crash into the Pentagon. He connected with the Dart Center, a global network that provides resources for journalists who cover tragedy and joined his peers in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to discuss their experiences and help repair damages. Walter says he offhandedly mentioned to someone that they should turn it into a movie, and being one of the only attendees with broadcast experience, naturally it fell in his lap. He's now mulling over film projects on the juvenile justice system and the state of journalism. "It's a curious blend of sheer terror and exhilaration," he said of his new career.
April 7 - Bob and Lee Woodruff began their marriage knowing that Bob wanted to travel the world. As he advanced in his career, the consequences of his TV work became more apparent to them both. The traumatic brain injury that Bob received while reporting in Iraq changed their lives and they are an example of what it means to stay by one another "in sickness and in health." Lee Woodruff will introduce you to her second book, Perfectly Imperfect: A Life in Progress. She feels that “this book is like an orange, with each of the chapters being a different section of a woman’s life; daughter, friend, mother, sister, wife and—ahem—even gracefully aging gal. Quite simply, reading joins people and makes us a part of the whole.” Book signing event
April 14 - The story is told so that we will never forget. Hear Rabbi Jacob Wiener describe the rise of Nazism in Germany through the eyes of a Jewish teenager growing up in Bremen, Germany. He will provide eyewitness reports of early Nazism and discuss the impact of Nazi doctrine on his school years up to Kristallnacht, when his mother was murdered. In an attempt to continue life in Bremen, Jacob negotiated with the Nazis to establish a Jewish school and to release some inmates from concentration camps. Following desperate attempts to find sponsors to leave Germany, the family ultimately immigrated to Canada. He will recount how he continued his education and rebuilt his life in the US, ultimately serving for many years as a docent and speaker at the Holocaust Memorial Museum and share his book, And The Clock Struck Two. Book signing event
April 21 - Tim Wendel is the author of seven books, including Castro's Curveball, a novel set in Old Havana about a pitcher that might have been, and Red Rain, a novel about the best-kept secret of World War II: the Japanese fire balloons. He's worked on both coasts and in between, covering everything from the Olympics to the America's Cup. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Weekend, Washingtonian, the Potomac Review, Gargoyle, GQ and Esquire, and his columns appear on the USA Today op-ed page, where he is on the Board of Contributors. Tim teaches writing at Johns Hopkins, where he received the Award for Teaching Excellence. He is a Walter Dakin Fellow, Tennessee Williams Scholar for the Sewanee Writing Conference, and a Pen/Faulkner Visiting Writer to the DC Public Schools. Book signing event
April 28 -
Matchmaking requires a unique type of expertise. While we may not (or may?!?) need her services, Matchmaker Christie Nightingale brings these attributes to her work as Principal of Premier Match, LLC. She has interviewed tens of thousands of people and brings an interesting viewpoint to starting a business, while being responsible for hundreds of marriages! Nightingales’ PR and marketing background assisted in her communications skills and her discriminating eye (and intuition) took care of the rest! She has fine-tuned her role as a dating and relationship expert and is sought out by print, online and broadcast media to offer advice on relationship-related topics.
May 5 - Matt Mendelsohnmight be the only wedding photographer who has written op-ed pieces for the New York Times, collaborated on a international bestseller about his family and the Holocaust, and spent the last two years chronicling the ups and downs of young woman who lost all four of her limbs to a complication of surgery. He’s a bit all over the map and that’s just the way he likes to keep things. An accomplished news photographer, Mendelsohn began his career at United Press International in Washington where he covered the first Gulf War, the White House and major professional sporting events. After ten years at USA Today, he joined his brother Daniel on a what would become a five-year search for answers surrounding the murder of six relatives in Poland in 1941. The two bothers, writer and photographer, would eventually produce the critically acclaimed The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, now translated into fifteen languages. Since then Matt has immersed himself into a hybrid career, writing and photographing for publications like the Washington Post (a Sunday magazine cover story about wedding photography and the sudden end of his next-door neighbors’ 55-year marriage) and his latest project, a two-year documentary about Lindsay Ess, a 26-year-old fashion major who lost all four of her limbs a month after graduation from VCU. Washingtonian Magazine once described Mendelsohn’s work as “a breed apart.” Come hear Matt discuss how all these wide-ranging experiences are all actually part of the same narrative.
May 12 - Alison Buckholtzhas been a journalist for 10 years, published in the New York Times, Washington Post and WaPo Magazine, New York Magazine, Forbes Global, the Jerusalem Report, Washingtonian chronicling her experiences as a military wife. In particular, the NY Times essay, A Father on Poster Board Just Won't Do, published as that week's Modern Love column, generated tremendous interest. The essay focused on her family's confusion over Flat Daddy, a cardboard cutout of the children's father used to comfort them during his absences, where the many response letters led to her memoir, Standing By: The Making of an American Military Family in a Time of War.Book signing event
May 19 - Media images and peer pressure are making it ever more difficult for young girls to develop healthy, and realistic, self-images and eating habits.Psychotherapist Karen Schachteris a “psychology of eating” expert and believes that each of us deserves to feel nourished, joyful and at peace with food in our lives. Through her “Dish with Your Daughter” program, she works to inspire girls and women to value themselves, tune into their intuition, and nourish their bodies, their minds and their spirits. Even if we don’t have daughters, we all are daughters and will benefit from this program! Learn how to support your daughters and help them develop a positive outlook.
May 26 - WMG Mystery Guest! Ha ha ha! Now you’ll have to show up because you have no opportunity to develop opinions ahead of time!
June 2 - He was snowed out last year, but he’s coming back in warm weather! Robert S. McElvaine is Elizabeth Chisholm Professor of Arts and Letters and chair of the Department of History at Millsaps College in Jackson, MS, and a progressive activist. He is the author of ten books, including The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941and Eve's Seed: Biology, the Sexes, and the Course of History and his newest……Grand Theft Jesus: the Hijacking of Religion in America. His articles have appeared in such publications as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the TheWall Street Journal, and he blogs on the Huffington Post! Book signing event
June 9 - She’s back, better than ever and she’s written a book! Comedienne Karen Bergreenis known to her audiences as clever, quirky and geeky. Lurking beneath her wimpy exterior is a Harvard graduate, corporate litigator and dictatorial mother of two. With a scathing wit, Karen surprises corporate and comedy club audiences alike with her unexpected jabs jumping from her otherwise benign demeanor. She has performed her stand up on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend and New Joke City with Robert Klein. She was a comic panelist on the Oxygen Network’s nightly game show Can You Tell? She has been a guest comedian, correspondent and panelist on various television and radio programs worldwide, including Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn. Also an actress, Karen has been seen on a variety of national TV commercials, independent films and NBC’s Law & Order. She has recently written for Nick at Nite’s Search for the Funniest Mom in America and has also penned the Millie Cartoon for Mademoiselle. Book signing event
