ΦBKNCA 26th Annual Asilomar Conference, Pacific Grove, CA
Presidents’ Day Weekend, February 17-20, 2012.

Don’t miss this great event. Send the form from page 8 of your newsletter, along with your deposit, now.

Noël Bakhtian, who received the Phi Beta Kappa E. B. Reed Memorial Scholarship in May 2011 has entitled her talk "From the Slow to the Super Fast" (the Flight of Birds to Supersonic Jets).

Noël Bakhtian is a Ph.D. candidate in the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department at Stanford University, working in the Aerospace Design Laboratory. As a graduate student, Noël has been the recipient of the Boeing/Flight Global Engineering Student of the Year Award, our E. B. Reed Memorial Scholarship, the Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Award, and the Churchill Scholarship.

Thomas J. Buckholtz - From Great Potential to Not-So-Great Effects - What is society missing? What we can do about it?

Dr. Thomas J. Buckholtz has made contributions to innovations in business, government, and technology and for society and the environment. Instances include three information technologies, three information-technology marketplace business practices, a United States nationwide movement to improvement governmental service to the public, a national grassroots politics program, a Rotary worldwide service program, and the preserving of 4 miles of southern California coastline. He has served as an executive leading a $1 billion business unit, corporate officer and advisor for startups, co-CIO (chief information officer) for the United States federal government’s Executive Branch, program leader catalyzing innovation throughout Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and business advisor and innovation consultant. Tom authored books including "Information Proficiency" and "Create Crucial Insight." He earned a B.S. in mathematics from the California Institute of Technology (and was a member of Tau Beta Pi) and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Clifford (Kip) Cranna - From the Page to the Stage: Transforming Literature into Opera
San Francisco Opera’s longtime Director of Artistic Administration

Dr. Clifford (“Kip”) Cranna, will illustrate how composers use their personal artistic instincts to find inspiration in works by great writers, transforming their sources in fascinating and unexpected ways. Video examples will compare print, film, and operatic versions of works like Johann Goethe’s “Faust,” Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ “Les Liaisons Dangerousness,” and Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Now in his 33rd year with San Francisco Opera, Dr. Cranna earned his Ph.D. in musicology at Stanford University, and teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He writes and lectures frequently on opera and is a regular moderator for the San Francisco Opera Guild’s “Insight” panel discussions. He has managed the commissioning of many new operas by composers such as Philip Glass, John Adams, and André Previn. For many years he was Program Editor and Lecturer for the Carmel Bach Festival. In 2008 he was awarded the San Francisco Opera Medal, the company’s highest honor.

Judy Filippoff, MSW, Early-Stage Program Coordinator – “Early-Stage Alzheimer’s Disease: Symptoms, diagnosis and living a life with meaning” and Bobbie Johnson who Bobby worked for years as an RN, and was recently diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s Disease. She will briefly share her experiences with us before Ms. Filippoff’s talk.

Judy Filippoff, works out of the East Bay Site Office of the Alzheimer’s Association – Greater San Francisco Bay Area, as coordinator for early-stage services throughout the Bay Area, and has been with the Association for over fifteen years. She convenes a consortium of early-stage providers in the San Francisco Bay Area, developed a national group of early-stage program coordinators, and was a member of the National Alzheimer’s Association’s Early-Stage Professional Task Force. She is a frequent presenter at community, family and professional conferences on early-stage issues. She has over 30 years of experience working with people with Alzheimer’s Disease, their families, and health care professionals throughout the Bay Area.

Betsy Gilliland will give a talk on the "Academic Literacy for California's Adolescent English-Language Learners". She is the daughter of our Association president, Mary Turner Gilliland.

Betsy Gilliland (ΦBK Brown 1995) is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Education at UC Davis, with an emphasis in Language, Literacy, and Culture. Her dissertation research is an ethnographic study of three English classrooms at one Central Valley high school, examining the ways that English-language learners develop an understanding of academic language and literacy practices. Prior to starting her doctoral studies, Betsy taught English as a foreign language as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uzbekistan. She will be talking about her current research and the implications for high schools in preparing California's linguistically diverse students for college and beyond.

Robert H. Hirst, Ph.D. is the General Editor and Official Curator of the Mark Twain Project and Papers, housed at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the editor of Who Is Mark Twain? (HarperStudio), a collection of 24 wickedly funny, thought provoking essays and stories by Twain, none of which have ever been published before -- and all of which are steeped in contemporary relevance and humor. As 2010 marked the 100th anniversary of Twain's death, Who Is Mark Twain? kicked off a year of celebrations for one of America's most beloved literary icons. As the consummate Twain expert, Hirst is the perfect speaker who can truly bring Twain to life.

Since 1996, he has taught one course a year in the Berkeley English Department, where he is an adjunct professor, without salary (his favorite job title). He has been working on the edition of Mark Twain for forty-four years, but contrary to recent reports, this long commitment has not caused him to begin to resemble his author at least not to anyone but a very near-sighted person. Hirst also claims never to have been in the least bored with his chosen subject: If you’re bored with Mark Twain, you either have no sense of humor, or you haven’t been paying attention.

The Mark Twain Project is a vast archive of the Twain's personal manuscripts, letters, and documents which came to the Berkeley library in 1949. The Project set out in 1980 to produce a comprehensive scholarly edition of all Mark Twain's writings estimated at 75 or 80 large volumes which was to include Mark Twain's 50 notebooks, more than 11,000 letters, eight file-feet of autobiogaphy, hundreds of unpublished literary manuscripts, as well as critical, fully annotated editions of his 12 large books, thousands of magazine articles and stories, not to mention his uncollected newspaper journalism. Twenty-seven volumes of The Mark Twain Papers and Works of Mark Twain have been published by the University of California Press, which has also published nine volumes in The Mark Twain Library, a popular readers' edition derived from the Papers and Works.

Hirst began his relationship with the Mark Twain Papers in 1967. He collaborated with Edgar M. Branch on several volumes of Mark Twain's Early Tales & Sketches. Since 1980 Hirst has been General Editor of the Mark Twain Project, so-called because it embraced two ongoing editions: the Mark Twain Papers in Berkeley and Works of Mark Twain (begun at Iowa City). Under his leadership, more than 20 volumes have since appeared, with many more still in the pipeline. The most recent volume of Papers and Works has been described as "an unmatched and probably unsurpassable pinnacle of editorial achievement... arguably the single greatest product of modern American editorial scholarship."

Ranger Roxann Jacobus – Walking tour of the Asilomar campus

Ranger Roxann has spent many years researching the works of Julia Morgan, especially as they pertain to Asilomar. Asilomar is the largest collection of Miss Morgan’s architecture in one location. Ranger Roxann knows Asilomar and leads a fascinating and enlightening tour that is a delight to everyone, and especially to those of us who have shared it with her many times in the past.

As those of you who have attended our conference before well know, the speakers are only a part of the experience.  What makes the weekend special (besides the always gorgeous ocean setting just south of Monterey) is the opportunity to get to know and mingle with our extraordinary members.

Contact Cal Wood, Asilomar Chair, 925-447-8666, , Asilomar Chair