Lifetime Learning
2011 Speakers Bios
Kenneth Elzinga, Robert C. Taylor Professor of Economics
The author of more than seventy academic publications, Mr. Elzinga also is known for his mystery novels, co-authored with William Breit (under the penname Marshall Jevons), in which the protagonist employs economic analysis to solve crimes. Mr. Elzinga has a B.A. and honorary doctorate from Kalamazoo College and a Ph.D. from Michigan State University. He has been a member of the faculty at the University of Virginia since 1967. View books this speaker has authored here.
Dorrie Fontaine, Dean, School of Nursing  A passion for critical care nursing underlies the distinguished career of Dorrie Fontaine, RN, PhD, FAAN, as clinician, scholar, researcher, educator, and professional leader.Since coming to the University of Virginia School of Nursing as Sadie Heath Cabaniss Professor of Nursing and Dean, Dr. Fontaine has implemented Appreciative Inquiry methodology as the basis for the School’s strategic planning and launched an interdisciplinary process to create a transformational model to provide compassionate end-of-life care across the health care spectrum. In addition, she has been a strong advocate for interprofessional education, engaging both medical and nursing faculty and students in collaboration with the Dean of the School of Medicine. The Macy Foundation awarded the Schools of Medicine and Nursing $746,000 in 2011-2013 to focus on educating third year nursing and medical students together. Prior to her 2008 appointment at UVA, Dr. Fontaine was associate dean for academic programs and clinical professor at the University of California San Francisco. Before coming to UCSF, Dr. Fontaine held associate dean positions and taught at Georgetown University School of Nursing. In 2003-2004, she served as president of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN), the largest specialty nursing organization in the world. That association recognized her contributions with its Lifetime Member Award. Dr. Fontaine’s teaching has centered on issues related to critical care, including sleep promotion, pain relief, and family presence at the end of life. Most recently, she has investigated strategies to promote nursing education partnerships, diversity, and inter-professional education in university settings. Her priorities as dean at UVA include continued work in promoting healthy workplace environments, building more interprofessional collaborations, and increasing diversity in both the faculty and student populations. Dorrie Fontaine was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing in 1995, has received the Presidential Citation from the Society of Critical Care Medicine, and is a member of the Sigma Theta Tau nursing honor society. Her alma mater, Villanova University, honored her with a Medallion for Contributions to the Profession in 1999. Dr. Fontaine received her bachelor of science degree in nursing from Villanova University, a master’s degree from the University of Maryland, and her PhD from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. In 2006, she completed a Management and Leadership in Education Program at the Harvard Graduate Institute of Higher Education. Will Health Care Reform Change the Way Nurses and Physicians Work Together?
Gary Gallagher, Cavaliers’ Distinguished Teaching Professor and Nau Professor, Department of History
He is the author or editor of more than thirty books, including The Confederate War (Harvard University Press, 1997), Lee and His Generals in War and Memory (Louisiana State University Press, 1998), The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History (co-edited with Alan T. Nolan, Indiana University Press, 2000), Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten: How Hollywood and Popular Art Shape What We Know About the Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2008), and The Union War (Harvard University Press, 2011). He serves as editor of two book series at the University of North Carolina Press ("Civil War America" and “Military Campaigns of the Civil War”) and has appeared regularly on the Arts and Entertainment Network's series "Civil War Journal" as well as participating in more than three dozen other television projects in the field. Professor Gallagher delivered the 1996 Littlefield Endowed Lectures at the University of Texas at Austin, the 2004 Brose Lectures in Civil War History at Penn State University, the 2005 Robert Fortenbaugh Memorial Lecture at Gettysburg College, and in 2001-2002 he was the Times-Mirror Foundation Distinguished Fellow at the Henry E. Huntington Library in San Marino, California. He is also the recipient of the Cavaliers’ Distinguished Teaching Professorship for 2010-2012, the highest teaching award conveyed by the University of Virginia. Active in the field of historic preservation, he was president from 1987 to mid-1994 of the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites (an organization with a membership of more than 12,500 representing all 50 states). He also served as a member of the Board of the Civil War Trust and has given testimony about preservation before Congressional committees on several occasions. View books this speaker has authored here. The American Civil War on Film: How Hollywood Shapes What We Know
Frederick Hitz, former Inspector General, Central Intelligence Agency and Professor, School of Law
Mr. Frederick P. Hitz is a Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Center for National Security Law. Since 1998 he has been lecturing at the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University and at the University of Virginia School of Law and Department of Politics. He has served extensively in the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, including in the CIA’s clandestine service, as Legislative Counsel to the Director of Central Intelligence, and as Deputy Director for Europe in the Directorate of Operations. Mr. Hitz was appointed the first statutory Inspector General of CIA by President George H.W. Bush. He served in that capacity from 1990-1998 when he retired. He was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal by the Director of Central Intelligence in 1998 and received a Resolution of Commendation from the US Senate upon the fifth anniversary of his tenure as CIA Inspector General in 1995. Among the many investigations he led at the CIA was the Aldrich Ames betrayal. He has written extensively about espionage and intelligence issues, including a book entitled “The Great Game: the Myth and Reality of Espionage”, published by Knopf in 2004. In April, 2008, a second book entitled “Why Spy? Espionage in an Era of Uncertainty” by Mr. Hitz was published by St. Martin’s Press. Mr. Hitz is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Princeton University. View books this speaker has authored here. Will an Arab Fall Follow the Arab Spring? Nathaniel Howell, former U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait and John Minor Maury Jr. Professor of Public Affairs
Before his appointment to Kuwait, Dr. Howell served as Political Advisor (POLAD) to the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) from January, l986 to June l987. His previous assignment was Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy in Algiers, Algeria (1983-85). From 1979 to 1982, he was Director of the Office of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria Affairs (NEA/ARN) in the Department of State, prior to attending the National War College in Washington, D.C. Dr. Howell was born in Portsmouth, Virginia on September 14, 1939. He received the B.A. degree with Honors from the University of Virginia in 1961. In 1965, he was awarded the Ph.D. in Government and Foreign Affairs from the same institution and studied the Arabic language at the Foreign Service Institute in Beirut, Lebanon in 1970-72. He entered the United States Foreign Service in 1965, following one year as Instructor in Government and Foreign Affairs at UVa. His first assignment was Cairo where he served until 1967 as Executive Assistant to the Ambassador. His subsequent assignments included Political Officer with the U.S. Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) at Paris and Brussels (1967-68) and as analyst for Egypt in the Bureau of Intelligence Research in the Department (1968-1970). Following Arabic training in Beirut (1971-72, he was Deputy Principal Officer in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (1972-74) before returning to Beirut as Political Officer. Beginning in 1976, he served successively as Country Officer for Lebanon, Deputy Director of NEA/ARN and Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Near East and South Asian Affairs. Dr. Howell is married to Margie Anne Saunders and they have one surviving son, Wilson Nathaniel III. He speaks Arabic and French. Ambassador Howell is the recipient of the Presidential Meritorious Service Award for members of the Senior Foreign Service (1991) and has also been awarded the Secretary of State Award for Valor (1991 and 1977), the Department of State Superior Honor Award (1967) and the Meritorious Honor Award (1976). He is the recipient of the Secretary of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Medal (1988). During his studies at the National War College in 1982-83, he co-authored a strategy essay which won an award by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In July, 1992, Ambassador Howell was awarded the Kuwait Decoration with Sash of the First Class by the Amir of Kuwait for his actions during and after the Iraqi invasion of that country. View books this speaker has authored here. Will an Arab Fall Follow the Arab Spring?
John Norton Moore, Professor, School of Law; Director, Center for National Security Law; and Director, Center for Oceans Law and Policy
John Norton Moore, who joined the faculty in 1966, is an authority on international law, national security law and the law of the sea. He also teaches advanced topics in national security law and the rule of law. Moore taught the first course in the country on national security law and conceived and co-authored the first casebook on the subject. From 1991-93, during the Gulf War and its aftermath, Moore was the principal legal adviser to the Ambassador of Kuwait to the United States and to the Kuwait delegation to the U.N. Iraq-Kuwait Boundary Demarcation Commission. View books this speaker has authored here. Will an Arab Fall Follow the Arab Spring?
Dennis Proffitt, Commonwealth Professor of Psychology and Chair, Department of Psychology
Dennis Proffitt is the Commonwealth Professor of Psychology and the Founding Director of the Cognitive Science Degree Program at the University of Virginia. He has authored over a hundred research publications, mostly in the area of visual perception. Proffitt was awarded the University of Virginia Outstanding Teaching Award, 1996-1997, and the Cavalier Distinguished Teaching Professorship, 1999-2002. He believes that we live in a world of wonders and enjoys sharing with students the joys of discovery.
Deborah Roach, Associate Professor, Department of Biology
Larry Sabato, Professor of Politics and Director, Center for Politics
View books this speaker has authored here. Crystal Ball Prediction and Kennedy Project
Siva Vaidhyanathan, Robertson Professor of Media Studies
Siva Vaidhyanathan is the Robertson Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. He also teaches at the University of Virginia School of law. He is the author of three books, the most recent of which is The Googlization of Everything and Why We Should Worry (University of California Press, 2011). He has discussed digital media and its effects on many radio programs, has written for many popular periodicals, and has even appeared on an episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. View books this speaker has authored here. There is No Such Thing as a 'Digital Generation': How Facebook, Twitter, and Google Affect Us All |
Kenneth G. Elzinga is the Robert C. Taylor Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia. He has received numerous teaching awards, and each fall his introductory economics course attracts over one thousand students, making it the largest class offered at the University of Virginia. An expert in antitrust economics, he has testified in several precedent-setting antitrust cases, including three Supreme Court decisions. 
Gary W. Gallagher is the John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War at the University of Virginia. A native of Los Angeles, California, he received his B.A. from Adams State College of Colorado (1972) and his M.A. (1977) and Ph.D. (1982) from the University of Texas at Austin. He taught for twelve years at Penn State University before joining in the faculty of the University of Virginia in 1998. 
Amb. Howell is the John Minor Maury, Jr. Professor of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, where he is Director of the Institute for Global Policy Research and the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf Studies Program. He joined the General Faculty of the University upon retirement from the Foreign Service of the United States in December, 1992. During 1991-92, Dr. Howell was assigned to the University as Diplomat-in-Residence in the Woodrow Wilson Department of Government and Foreign Affairs. He served as Ambassador to the State of Kuwait from August, l987 until December, 1990, four months after the Iraqi invasion of that country.
Deborah Roach is an Associate Professor of Biology. She teaches a course on the Biology of Aging and her research is focused on aging in plants. She was a speaker last spring in the inaugural “Look Hoo’s Talking” and she has been awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award in the Department of Biology, 2004-2005, the Mead Endowment Honored Faculty Award, 2005, and the Cavalier Distinguished Teaching Professorship, 2006-2008. She enjoys studying and talking about aging because, despite the fact that we all know aging when we see it, there is still so much to be discovered about why and how we age.
