Twenty-First Annual Symposium on Public Monuments
in Tribute to Rudolf Wittkower*

Presented by THE  MONUMENTS  CONSERVANCY
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Speakers' Biographies


Donald M. Reynolds, founder and director of The Monuments Conservancy, is an art historian and the author of numerous books, articles, and reviews on American art and architecture, which include: Masters of American Sculpture, from the American Renaissance to the Millennium (New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1994), “Remove Not the Ancient Landmark”: Public Monuments and Moral Values, ed., (New York: Gordon and Breach Publishers, 1996), Monuments and Masterpieces: Histories and Views of Public Sculpture in New York City, rev. ed. (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997; original edition, Macmillan, 1988), The Architecture of New York City, rev ed. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1994; original edition, Macmillan, 1984). From 1970 to 2003, he taught at Columbia University, where he earned his doctorate in art history (1974), and is the founder of The Symposium on Public Monuments (1991), an annual tribute to the renowned art historian, Rudolf Wittkower , whose lectures on the interrelationship between the East and the West, from ancient to modern times, he compiled and edited in: The Impact of Non-European Civilizations on the Art of the West (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989), The Writings of Rudolf Wittkower: A Bibliography (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1989). He was consultant to the Kemper Foundation for The Corps of Discovery, the monument to Lewis and Clark in Kansas City, Missouri, unveiled in 2000, and for the National Black Catholic Congress, he designed the sculpture program of Our Mother of Africa Chapel in The National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D. C., 2001.


Pilar Jennings is a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst who has focused on the clinical applications of Buddhist meditation practice.  She received her Ph.D. in Psychiatry and Religion from Union Theological Seminary, and has been working with patients and their families through the Harlem Family Institute since 2004.  Prior to this training, she earned a Masters in medical anthropology from Columbia University, and a Bachelors in interdisciplinary writing from Barnard College of Columbia University.  Dr. Jennings is a long-term practitioner of Tibetan and Vipassana Buddhism, and has studied with senior teachers in both traditions.  Her publications have included "East Of Ego: The Intersection of Narcissism and Buddhist Meditation Practice," and "I've Been Waiting for you: Reflections on Analytic Pain."  Her most recent manuscript, Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism was released in December 2010 through Wisdom Publications.


Ian Tattersall is a paleoanthropologist in the Department of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History. Trained in archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge, and in geology and vertebrate paleontology at Yale, Dr. Tattersall has concentrated his research since the 1960s in two main areas: the analysis of the human fossil record and its integration with evolutionary theory; and the study of the ecology and systematics of the lemurs of Madagascar. He is a prominent interpreter of human paleontology to the public through major exhibitions and special programs at the American Museum of Natural History, notably the highly acclaimed Hall of Human Origins, and since 1968 more than 300 scientific articles and books including Paleontology: A Brief History of Life (2010), The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know About Human Evolution (2nd ed., 2009), Human Origins: What Bones and Genomes Tell Us About Ourselves (2009, with Rob DeSalle), and The World from Beginnings to 4000 BCE (2008). He is the recipient of the 2000 W. W. Howells Prize of the American Anthropological Association for Becoming Human, the Osman Hill Medal of the Primate Society of Great Britain (2002), and the Institute of Human Origins Lifetime Achievement Award (1993). Dr. Tattersall is a Fellow of the Linnaen Society of London and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and his professional affiliations include the Paleoanthropology Society, the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, the International Primate Society, the Society of Sigma XI, and the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. He is Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, and Adjunct Professor, Program of Anthropology, Graduate Center, CUNY.

 


Richard Milner's award-winning books include the urban ethnography "Black Players; the secret world of Black pimps," (1971), the "Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), "The Last Human" (2007) and 
"Darwin's Universe: Evolution from A to Z," (2010). A longtime editor of Natural History magazine, he is a frequent contributor to top science magazines, and appears on the History Channel, Nova, Animal Planet, and Discovery as a "talking head" --- and sometimes a "singing head" as well.

 


Vincent Dunn, Deputy Chief F.D.N.Y. (Ret.), teacher, author, and lecturer, served for 42 years with the New York City Fire Department.  He is Adjunct Professor at Manhattan College and John Jay College, teaching courses in fire protection and architectural safety systems, and an Instructor at the National Fire Academy.  Chief Dunn served as an Expert Investigator of emergency response to the World Trade Center tragedy of 9/11, and has appeared as a fire analyst on NBC, CNN, and FETN.  He is an advisor to the National Institute of Standards and Technology and (IAFF).  His publications include Strategy of Firefighting (2007), Command and Control of Fires and Emergencies (1999), Safety and Survival on the Fireground (1992), and Collapse of Burning Buildings (1988).  He is Editor of FDNY Home Page, and a contributing editor to WNYF, Firehouse Engineering, and Fire Engineering magazines.  

Nancy Z. Reynolds, retired senior editor for Moody’s Investors Service, served Moody’s analysts for twenty years.  From the late 1980s with the dawn of that esoteric branch of the industry called “structured finance,” she edited reports, releases, and copy for Moody’s analysts involved in that volatile aspect of the financial market, until she retired.

Nancy Reynolds came to financial editing from the fields of government, education, institutional fund raising, advertising, and marketing.

As a college graduate with a BA in business administration, she was recruited by the civilian office of the Pentagon in Washington, D. C., where she worked with leading military and civilian personnel, who were involved in some of the nation’s top-secret projects.  Family illness, however, interrupted that career, and she returned home to Pennsylvania.  Following the death of her mother, while visiting her sister in New York City, she joined the Summer Session staff at Columbia University, as secretary to the Dean of Summer Session.  Finding fulfillment in creative enterprises, she was drawn to projects with the Institute of Physics, coming into contact with some of the nation’s foremost scientists, who were identified with such projects as the atomic bomb.  She also worked on fund-raising projects for the United Negro Fund and the New York City Zoological Society.  All the while, she was gaining experience in editing and writing, on which she became increasingly more focused.  She studied writing at the New School with such notable writers and authors as Harold Baron and Robert Phelps, which led to the publication of a volume of her vignettes, Once Upon a Time (Perennial Wisdom Press, 2000).  For Industrial Engineering Magazine she worked in production, writing, and editing, which solidified her focus.  When the magazine moved its offices to the South, she joined the management consulting firm of Cresap, McCormack, and Paget in New York City, as an editor.  Following management changes there, she took on writing, editing, and production projects with several small advertising and marketing organizations, until she joined Moody’s in 1983.


William Leahy or “Billy” has been a firefighter with the Fire Department City of New York since 1997 currently assigned to Ladder Company 4 in Midtown. Billy’s active involvement with The New York Firefighter’s Burn Center Foundation began immediately upon his appointment and continues today. Billy was appointed a board of director of the foundation in the year 2000 and became the 3rd President of the foundation in 2005. Billy has lectured nationally on various topics associated with firefighters and their unique role in the burn community, and has served as a children’s burn camp counselor for 10 years. Billy’s wife Nicole is a member of the burn team at the William Randolph Hearst Burn Center at NY Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center and has a daughter Caitlin.

Bruce Jennings is Director of Bioethics at the Center for Humans and Nature (CHN), a private, nonpartisan research and educational institute that studies philosophical, ethical, and policy questions arising at the intersection of environmental policy, public health, and regional planning. Mr. Jennings also serves as editor of CHN’s electronic journal, Minding Nature. He also is Senior Consultant and Fellow at The Hastings Center, a research institute where from 1991 through 1999 he served as Executive Director. He holds faculty appointments at the Yale University School of Public Health Weill Cornell Medical College, and the New York Medical College. A political scientist by training, Mr. Jennings has written widely on bioethics and public policy issues. Among his recent books are Public Health Ethics: Theory, Policy and Practice (2007) and, coauthored with Willard Gaylin, The Perversion of Autonomy: the Proper Uses of Coercion and Constraints in a Liberal Society, 2nd. Ed. (2003).

 


David Kraemer is Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian (=Director of The Library) at The Jewish Theological Seminary, where he has also served as Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics for many years.  As Librarian, Prof. Kraemer is at the helm of the most extensive collection of Judaica-rare and contemporary-in the Western hemisphere.  On account of the size and importance of the collection, Prof. Kraemer is instrumental in setting policy and establishing vision for projects of international importance.

Prof. Kraemer is a prolific author and commentator.  His books include The Mind of the Talmud (1990), Responses to Suffering in Classical Rabbinic Literature (1995), and The Meanings of Death in Rabbinic Judaism (2000), among others.  His most recent book is Jewish Eating and Identity Through the Ages (Routledge, 2007, 2009).

Prof. Kraemer is a popular lecturer and teacher.  He was associated for many years with CLAL-The National Jewish Center of Learning and Leadership-under whose auspices he lectured around the country.  He has also been a teacher at The New York Kollel (Hebrew Union College), The Skirball Institute for Adult Jewish Study (Temple Emanuel), and Meah (Hebrew College of Boston).

Dr. Kraemer lives in New York City.

 

 


 
| Main | |Full Program | | Schedule || Press Release | | Speakers' Biographies |