Greetings Friends and Neighbors,
Due to the ongoing outbreak of Covid-19 in our community, the Strathmore Speaker Series has decided to postpone our Spring 2020 season. We hope to return in the fall, but will follow public health guidelines.
City of Syracuse
Dr. Jana Shaw on The Rise of the Anti-Vaccination Movement: Why Should You Care?
The Strathmore Speaker Series is delighted to announce our October 2019 event, an afternoon with SUNY Upstate’s Dr. Jana Shaw who will explore the rise of vaccine hesitancy and why it should matter to you. This event will be held on Sunday, October 20th at 2 pm at the Onondaga Park Firebarn. Like all Strathmore Speaker Series events, this presentation is free and open to the public.
About Dr. Jana Shaw
Dr. Jana Shaw is an immunization content advisor with expertise in the area of vaccine refusal and 17 years of experience providing primary and specialty pediatric care. Dr Shaw is an Associate Professor at the Department of Pediatrics at the SUNY Upstate Medical University with training in pediatric infectious diseases, public health and immunology from the Johns Hopkins University and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
Dr. Shaw’s research has focused on identifying populations at-risk for undervaccination, with a particular focus on undervaccination and school systems in the United States. Findings from her research have been disseminated through presentations at national and state meetings and published in peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Shaw has previously collaborated with the numerous public health and academic institutions on variety of vaccination coverage improvement projects such as Center for Disease Control, University of Albany, the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins and the New York State Department of Health. Her expertise also extends beyond the national borders. She has collaborated with public health professionals in New Zealand to search of ways to enhance coverage in a country without immunization laws.
Announcing the Spring 2019 Season!
Donald Siegel Portrait
The Strathmore Speaker Series is delighted to announce its Spring 2019 season!
Our first event will take place on Thursday, March 14th at 7 pm and feature scientist Dr. Donald Siegel who will examine the dismissal of facts in science-related decision making.
Our second event of the spring will take place on Thursday, April 11th at 7 pm and will feature Dr. Keith Bybee, who asks “Is civility dead?”
Our third and final event of the spring will feature Dr. Ednita Wright who will examine the root causes of the opioid epidemic in America and consider what it means for individuals and families dealing with addition. This event will be held on Thursday, May 16th at 7 pm.
As usual, the events will be held at the Onondaga Park Firebarn. They are free and open to the public. We hope to see you there!
Dr. Brian Taylor on Russia, Putin, and Putinism
The Strathmore Speaker Series is delighted to announce the second event of our spring 2018 season, an afternoon with Russia expert Professor Brian Taylor who will discuss “Russia, Putin, and “Putinism.” The event will be held on Sunday, April 22nd, at 2 pm at the Onondaga Park Firebarn. Like all Strathmore Speaker Series events, this presentation is free and open to the public.
About Brian Taylor
Brian Taylor is Professor and Chair of Political Science in the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. Taylor is the author of three books on Russian politics: The Code of Putinism; State Building in Putin’s Russia: Policing and Coercion after Communism and Politics and the Russian Army: Civil-Military Relations, 1689-2000. He received his B.A. from the University of Iowa, a M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Syracuse History Instagram Creator on The Weight of My Words
The Strathmore Speaker Series is proud to announce our next event, an evening with David Haas, founder of the viral Syracuse History Instagram account and co-founder of Storycuse.com. David will discuss documenting Syracuse’s past and how being a person who stutters has inspired his passion for giving a voice to the voiceless. The event will be held on Thursday, November 9th, at 7 pm. Like all Strathmore Speaker Series events, this presentation is free and open to the public.
About David Haas
David Haas is a nonprofit program manager; he volunteers for several local organizations with the mission to promote and develop the region. Most notably, David founded the popular @SyracuseHistory Instagram account in 2013 which now has over 14,000 followers. Since its inception, his work has been featured by a variety of media outlets including The Syracuse Post-Standard, Time Warner Cable News, 9WSYR, The Daily Orange and Syracuse Woman Magazine. In 2016, his account was voted ‘Best Blog’ and David was awarded ‘Best Social Media Personality’ by the Syracuse New Times. Subsequently, he launched the website, Storycuse.com, a platform for human interest storytelling. David has also been recognized by the CNY Business Journal as one of the 40 people under 40 who have excelled in the workplace and in the community. Late last year, Katrina Tulloch of The Syracuse Post-Standard named David as one of Syracuse’s leading innovators. Most recently, David became a freelance writer for the Syracuse New Times. He resides in the Eastwood neighborhood.
What are you doing this fall?
Summer break may be fast approaching, but the Strathmore Speaker Series committee is hard at work planning our fall lineup. Here’s a little teaser of what we’ve got in store:
September
Beer and Syracuse have a long history. And no, we don’t just mean Empire, Middle Ages, or that green stuff they sell around St. Patrick’s Day. Since its days as a mecca for German and Irish immigrants in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Syracuse has long been a center of beer brewing activity. Come learn about our beer brewing past, present, and future this September at the Strathmore Speaker Series.
October
Who doesn’t love a good mystery? The Strathmore Speaker Series sure does! And that’s why we’re working to bring you a New York Times Best Selling Mystery writer this October. In keeping with the theme, we can’t say who it is yet, but we can say you’ll like it!
November
Are you feeling like this current electoral season is a little bit out of the ordinary? The Strathmore Speaker Series is and we want to know why! So this November we’re bringing you a non-partisan explanation of how our electoral system works, how we got here, and where we we can expect to go in the future with Colgate University Political Science Professor and star of WCNY‘s Ivory Tower Half Hour, Dr. Tim Byrnes, and friends from the League of Women Voters.
Stay tuned for more details and don’t forget, our events are free and open to the public!
The Strathmore Speaker Series is Proud to Announce its Spring 2016 Season!
The Strathmore Speaker Series is proud to announce its Spring 2016 lineup. The season will kickoff on Sunday, March 20th at 2 pm with a presentation by architect, artist, and founder of [re]think syracuse, Jason Evans. Our second event of the season will feature a presentation by Syracuse-native, former professional football player, and diversity and inclusion expert, Billy McBride on Sunday, April 17th at 2 pm. Hotel Syracuse developer Ed Riley and muralist Katerina Spilio will conclude our season with a presentation on the exciting restoration of one of Syracuse’s most historic landmarks on Thursday, May 12th at 7 pm.
All events are held in the Onondaga Park Firebarn and are free and open to the public. We hope to see you there!
“Social Impact and Syracuse” – Tim Rudd to Speak at the Firebarn
Social policy expert and recent candidate for Onondaga County Legislature’s 15th District, Timothy Rudd will speak at the Firebarn on Thursday, November 19th at 7 pm. Timothy will discuss exciting new strategies to finance investments in people and their applicability to communities like Syracuse.
Timothy is a Research Associate for MDRC – a nonprofit, nonpartisan, social policy research organization headquartered in New York City. For the last four years Timothy has been heavily involved in the first Social Impact Bond (SIB) in the United States. The project used a $9.6 million loan from Goldman Sachs to pay for cognitive behavioral therapy for 16-18 year olds in the New York City jail system on Rikers Island. If the program can reduce the amount of time participants spend in jail by more than 10 percent, the City of New York will repay the loan using money saved by keeping program participants from returning to the jail system. If the program fails to reduce recidivism by the required amount then the City of New York pays nothing and investors lose their investment. The project examines a number of new and innovative ideas about how governments can most effectively invest in their people.
Timothy’s presentation will introduce the SIB concept and describe how it could change the way government pays for investments in people. Additionally, he will comment in a private capacity about how similar ideas might have value in places like Syracuse. He will examine questions such as: Is it appropriate to use debt to increase the level of investment in people? What are the costs related to the way government currently makes investments in people? Does a lack of investment in people perpetuate poverty? And, can financial innovations unleash new capital that can be used to disrupt the cycle of poverty?
Timothy was born and raised in Syracuse. He graduated from Henninger High School, Syracuse University, and has an MPA from the Maxwell School. He lived and worked in New York City for six years including three years working for the New York City Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget. He currently lives in the Elmwood neighborhood of Syracuse where he works for MDRC from his home.
Sean Kirst “Sells-Out” the Strathmore Speaker Series
Beloved Syracuse-area writer and journalist Sean Kirst presented to a standing-room-only crowd at the Onondaga Park Firebarn on Sunday, October 18th. Kirst, who recently announced his departure from the Post-Standard/Syracuse Media Group after 27 years of storytelling, addressed topics ranging from how he fell in love with Syracuse and the Strathmore neighborhood, to why he’s a Mets fan, and Roger Clinton’s love of “eatin.” He also discussed why he’s leaving the paper and what he plans to do next. A full audio file of Kirst’s presentation can be found here, while Time Warner Channel 10’s coverage of the event can be found here.
At the conclusion of the event, the Strathmore Speaker Series and the Greater Strathmore Neighborhood Association presented Kirst with a token of appreciation on behalf of the Strathmore community. The photograph of a “Sunrise Over Onondaga Park,” was taken by long-time neighborhood resident and avid photographer, Vincent Miller, whose work can frequently be seen in the Strathmore Neighborhood Facebook group and on his own Facebook profile.
Photo by Vincent Miller.
Sean Kirst on “Syracuse: What I loved, why I stayed, what still drives me wild”
Writer and long-time Strathmore resident, Sean Kirst, will speak on Syracuse: What I loved, why I stayed, what still drives me wild at the Firebarn at 2 pm, Sunday, October 18th, 2015. The event is free and open to the public.
Since receiving his first paycheck as a journalist more than 38 years ago, Sean Kirst has built his writing career on his passion for the cities and countryside of Upstate New York. Before coming to Syracuse, Kirst worked for newspapers in Rochester, Niagara Falls, and his hometown, Dunkirk, New York. Kirst joined The Post-Standard/Syracuse Media Group as a writer in 1988 and became a columnist in 1991. Today his work focuses primarily on civic issues – often starting at the neighborhood level – involving struggle, hope and passage, the themes that dominate our Upstate lives.
Photo from Newshouse.
In 2009, Kirst became the first Upstate journalist to win the Ernie Pyle Award for human interest writing, presented annually to the one journalist nationally who best personifies the approach and ethic of Pyle, the renowned World War II correspondent. In 2010, Kirst received both the national Sigma Delta Chi Award for excellence in column writing and the national Capitol Beat award for commentary, for his columns on state government in Albany. He has won two national Clarion Awards for opinion writing. Kirst has also been recognized by the American Association of Sunday and Features Editors for his interactive involvement with readers, through his blog, and he has been honored by the U.S. Justice Department for sensitivity to victims of violent crime. In 2014, the Syracuse Press Club added his name to its Wall of Distinction.
Kirst is also the author of “The Ashes of Lou Gehrig,” a collection of baseball essays, and co-author of “Moonfixer: The Basketball Journey of Earl Lloyd,” the autobiography of basketball Hall of Famer Earl Lloyd, who in 1950 became the first African-American to play in the National Basketball Association. The England-based Tolkien Society credits Kirst with proposing the worldwide Tolkien Reading Day that is now held every March, a celebration that always includes a gathering in Central New York.
Born in 1959, Kirst lives in Syracuse with his wife, Nora, a kindergarten teacher in the Syracuse city schools. They have three children: Sarah, Seamus and Liam.
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