John Bel Edwards, 56th Governor of Louisiana 2016-2024
2026-07-12 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | Islesboro Community Center, 103 Pendleton Point Road, Islesboro, ME, United States
John Bel Edwards
56th Governor of Louisiana 2016-2024

Pamela Rainey Lawler, Founder of Philabundance and Social Impact Advisor: “The Power of an Idea"
2026-07-19 17:30 - 18:30 | Islesboro Community Center, 103 Pendleton Point Road, Islesboro, ME, United States
Pamela Rainey Lawler
Putting Praxis into Practice: A 42-year journey and vital lessons along the way

Although best known in the region as the founder of Philabundance – the leading organization in the region dedicated to eliminating hunger and food insecurity – Pamela Rainey Lawler has had a diverse career as a communications professional specializing in employee and management communications, public affairs, and corporate social responsibility. She has been a small business owner and in 1991, as the Consumer Party candidate in the General Election, she had the distinction of being the first woman to run for mayor of Philadelphia.
Philabundance was founded in 1984 with an investment of $1,500. Today it serves thousands daily and the more than $26 million budget underwrites an array of programming – from food distribution, to culinary training, to healthful meal production and delivery. One of the first in the nation to successfully distribute surplus perishable foods safely and efficiently, Philabundance served as a model for other cities and food banks to access a previously untapped source for emergency food.
Eight years after its launch, Philabundance had both a strong business model and a recognizable brand. To move the organization to the next level of growth and beyond the ‘founder’s stage,’ Ms. Lawler hired an executive director to take over day-to-day operations and took her place on the board of directors. Since that time, she has worked actively with others in guiding the organization through key developmental stages such as the purchase and renovation of Philabundance’s first warehouse in South Philadelphia and the merger with the Greater Philadelphia Food Bank in 2005 when she co-chaired the board committee overseeing the effort.
Social Entrepreneurship Mentor & Advisor
Because of her in-depth experience guiding Philabundance from concept to sustainability, Ms. Lawler regularly advises founders on the challenges of managing an organization’s growth stages, its life cycles and key planning strategies, as well as on the imperative of staying focused and true to mission. She continues to work with foundations and community groups on food security collaborations and efforts to develop innovative cross-sector solutions.

Kevin D. Murphy, Professor History of Art & Architecture at Vanderbilt University: "Women Architects and Modern Architecture in Maine"
2026-07-26 08:00 - 17:00 | Islesboro Community Center, 103 Pendleton Point Road, Islesboro, ME, United States
Kevin Murphy
Professor History of Art and Architecture at Vanderbilt University
This illustrated talk will focus on the women who advanced modern architecture in Maine, as designers, patrons, and developers.
Kevin Murphy is a life-long summer resident of Maine and has worked for the Maine Humanities Council, the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, and the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk. He is the Goldberg Chair in Fine Arts at Vanderbilt University and a professor of History of Art and Architecture. With a group of Vanderbilt students, he curated the exhibition “Domestic Modernism: The Art of Russell Cheney” which was held at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art in 2024. Kevin has taught at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and in the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. He earned his PhD in art history at Northwestern University. This talk stems from the research which led to his book, co-authored with Mary Anne Hunting, “Women Architects at Work: Making American Modernism,” which was published by Princeton University Press in 2025.

Peter Lattman, Managing Director, Media, Emerson Collective: "The Atlantic, Local News, and the State of American Journalism"
2026-08-02 17:30 - 18:30 | Islesboro Community Center, 103 Pendleton Point Road, Islesboro, ME, United States
Peter Lattman
Managing Director, Media, Emerson Collective

Islesboro Affordable Housing panel: "Affordable Housing for Islesboro: Challenges and Strategies"
2026-08-09 17:30 - 18:30 | Islesboro Community Center, 103 Pendleton Point Road, Islesboro, ME, United States
Panel: Peter Rothschild, Michael Nelson, Chair Islesboro Affordable Properties, Housing Committee; Ned Truslow, Development Director, IAP
Providing affordable housing is critical to the future sustainability of the island economy, the school, the ferry service, island businesses, and island institutions. As the cost of construction has risen dramatically of the last several years, the challenge of providing new housing to attract work force labor, young families with school age children, and education and health care professionals has threatened the island’s future for both year-round and seasonal residents.
This panel will describe current efforts to address the shortage of affordable housing and describe the coordinated efforts by concerned islanders to build for the future.

David Watts, Davis Institute for AI, Colby College: "Leading the AI Renaissance Through the Liberal Arts"
2026-08-16 08:00 - 17:00 | Islesboro Community Center, 103 Pendleton Point Road, Islesboro, ME, United States
Dr. David K. Watts
Director, Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Colby College

As Director of the Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence at Colby College, David has launched pivotal initiatives that have established the college as a national leader of AI education. Under his leadership Colby was recently named one of the “15 Colleges Best Preparing Students for the AI Economy” by IvyWise. Colby was specifically distinguished for “its broader humanity-wide implications” and excellence in interdisciplinary integration, ethics, and real-world applications.
David also serves on the Board of Directors for the GEM National Consortium, where he chaired the Finance Committee and leverages a distinguished career in science and technology innovation to empower the next generation of STEM leaders in the AI era.
Previously, David served as Vice President at IBM, leading R&D and business strategy. His career spans over 20 years across successful startups and Fortune 500 companies, where he scaled transformative advancements in AI, hybrid cloud, and enterprise systems. By merging technical depth with an interdisciplinary strategic mindset, David has co-created impactful solutions that drive sustained growth for global institutions and businesses.

Michael Roth, President Wesleyan University: “From Neutrality to Democracy: How Higher Ed Can Defend Democracy"
2026-08-23 17:30 - 18:30
Michael S. Roth
From Neutrality to Democracy: How Higher Ed Can Defend Democracy
Michael S. Roth ’78 became the 16th president of Wesleyan University in 2007, after having served as Hartley Burr Alexander Professor of Humanities at Scripps College, Associate Director of the Getty Research Institute, and President of the California College of the Arts. At Wesleyan, Roth has overseen many improvements to the physical campus, including the soon to be completed life sciences building, as well as the launch of new academic programs, including the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life, the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism, and interdisciplinary colleges emphasizing advanced research in the areas of the environment, film, East Asian studies, integrative sciences, education studies, science and technology, and design and engineering. An intellectual historian with a love of the classroom, Roth continues to teach Wesleyan undergraduates each semester and (through Coursera and the National Educational Equity Foundation) has also offered online and hybrid courses.

Under his leadership, Wesleyan celebrated a record-breaking fundraising effort—raising more than $482 million, primarily for financial aid—and is now successfully embarked on an even more ambitious campaign. Roth has undertaken a number of initiatives to make a Wesleyan education more affordable for many and more accessible to students from under-represented groups. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision in July 2023, he announced a suite of new recruiting efforts aimed at enhancing diverse campus learning—including an end to admissions preference for legacy applicants and the creation of an African Scholars Program.

Author and curator (most notably of the exhibition “Sigmund Freud: Conflict and Culture,” which opened at the Library of Congress in 1998), Roth has written numerous books and essays centered on how people make sense of the past. Since becoming president at Wesleyan, he has published three books (all with Yale University Press) bearing on liberal education, the most recent being The Student, A Short History (2023). His Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters (2014) was recognized with the Association of American Colleges & Universities’ Frederic W. Ness award for a book that best illuminates the goals and practices of a contemporary liberal education. His 2019 book, Safe Enough Spaces: A Pragmatist’s Approach to Inclusion, Free Speech, and Political Correctness, addresses some of the most contentious issues in American higher education—including affirmative action, safe spaces, and questions of free speech. Roth regularly publishes essays, book reviews, and commentaries in the national media and scholarly journals. An outspoken defender of the value of colleges and universities and their importance to democracy, he was given the PEN/Benenson Courage Award in 2025 for standing up against governmental assaults on higher education.

Ben Weiss, MIT Earth & Planetary Sciences: "Understanding the Origin of Metal Worlds with the NASA Psyche Mission"
2026-08-30 17:30 - 18:30
Ben Weiss
Robert R. Shrock Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, MIT
Ben studies the formation, evolution, and history of planets and small bodies, with a particular focus on planetary magnetism and habitability. He conducts laboratory analyses of planetary samples and in situ spacecraft exploration of solar system bodies to understand the history of planetary physical and chemical processes. Ben directs the MIT Planetary Magnetism Laboratory, which develops and applies high sensitivity, high resolution techniques to analyze the magnetization in rock samples collected from asteroids, the Moon, and Earth. He is also Deputy Principal Investigator and Magnetometry Investigation Lead on the NASA Psyche mission, Co-Investigator on the NASA Mars Perseverance rover and Europa Clipper missions, and Co-Investigator on the JAXA Hayabusa2 mission.
