Ambassador Thomas “Tom” M.T. Niles was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1939. Upon graduating from Harvard College in 1960 he joined the U.S. Foreign Service. After assignments in Belgrade, Moscow (twice), and the United States Mission to NATO in Brussels, as well as assignments to the Department of State in Washington, he was named by President Reagan to be Ambassador to Canada in 1985. In 1989, he was named by President George H.W. Bush to be Ambassador to the European Union in Brussels. In 1991 he was reassigned to the Department of State as Assistant Secretary for Europe and Canada. In 1993 he was named Ambassador to Greece by President Clinton. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1998 and became President and CEO of the United States Council for International Business in 1999, a position he held until 2005.

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Bruce Putterman is publisher and CEO of The Connecticut Mirror, a digital-only, nonprofit, non-partisan news organization. At a time when traditional newspapers in Connecticut are disappearing or sharply cutting reporting staff (part of a national trend), the Connecticut Mirror’s mission is to produce original journalism that informs Connecticut residents about the impact of public policy, holds government accountable, and amplifies diverse perspectives. Some 88% of the Connecticut Mirror’s revenues come from reader donations. Before joining The Connecticut Mirror in 2017, Bruce owned and operated a West Hartford-based consulting practice for 16 years, providing strategic planning and marketing services to more than 50 nonprofit organizations, advocacy groups, public agencies, private equity firms, and other for-profit clients. His interest in journalism dates back to his college years when he worked in commercial radio and TV news. Bruce served as an elected member of the West Hartford Board of Education from 2003 through 2015, including three years as chair of the board. He has a Bachelor of Arts in History and an M.B.A. in Marketing from Cornell University

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Dr. Antonio “Tony” Dajer will speak about “Covid-19 and Darwin: Why Does it Keep Surprising Us?” Dr. Dajer, who has been a New York City emergency room physician for 30 years, will relate the strain on emergency department staff as Covid outbreaks peaked, what physicians have learned to reduce death among those hospitalized and, as Darwin would have predicted, how we still face uncertainties about controlling Covid mutations and other viruses that may yet appear.
Dr. Dajer has treated patients at the height of the Covid crisis — both at New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York and at Stamford Hospital. At the time of the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11, he was the assistant Emergency Department director at New York Presbyterian – Lower Manhattan Hospital and the attending physician on shift, leading the team that treated hundreds of individuals who were injured. Dr. Dajer was born in New York City, raised in Puerto Rico, and received his BA degree at Harvard. He received his medical degree from NYU and was Medical Director of New York Presbyterian Hospital from 2005-2018. Dr. Dajer was interviewed in the March 26, 2020 issue of The New Yorker about the lessons of 9/11 while treating patients as the height of the pandemic. https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/a-manhattan-er-doctor-recalls-the-lessons-of-911-while-treating-coronavirus-patients

Arranged by Charles Salmans

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Stan Twardy will speak about initiatives undertaken by Republicans for the Rule of Law, a group of life-long Republicans dedicated to defending the institutions of our republic and upholding the rule of law. The group is committed to the principle that laws apply equally to everyone from the average citizen to the highest office holders in government. The group promotes standards of fidelity to the Constitution, transparency, and truth.
A partner at Day Pitney LLP in Stamford, Mr. Twardy is a leading corporate litigator. Clients have included Fortune 500 companies, executives of these companies and others involved in federal and state criminal, regulatory and Securities and Exchange Commission investigations. He has argued many civil and criminal cases in both federal and state appellate courts. In addition, he has been counsel of record in several cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. Previously, Mr. Twardy was a federal prosecutor, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut under presidents Reagan and Bush, and Chief of Staff to former Connecticut Governor Lowell Weicker.

Arranged by Charles Salmans

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Andrea Stillman will talk about the photographer Ansel Adams and his work. Andrea was Adams’ assistant in the 1970s and worked with the photographer at his home in Carmel and traveled internationally to work on Adams’ books, exhibitions, and sales. After the photographer’s death in 1984, for 20 years she acted as an editor for the Ansel Adams Trust that controls his estate. Among the Ansel Adams photography books Andrea has edited are, “Looking at Ansel Adams: The Photographs and the Man,” “The American Wilderness,” “California,” and 400 Photographs.” She has lectured on the photographer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Arranged by Charles Salmans

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Bert von Stuelpnagel will discuss the family background, personality, and disastrous rule of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Perhaps the most colorful historical figure opening the door to the 20th Century was the vainglorious Wilhelm II. How do you explain the fact that the eldest grandson of Queen Victoria led Germany into a deadly fight with the countries governed by his cousins King George V and Tsar Nicholas II? The Great War has been analyzed and discussed in thousands of works, but to this day many questions remain.
A DMA member, Bert has extensively researched the history of the Hohenzollern. In this he has been motivated by the fact that a number of his ancestors worked for the Crown, including his grandfather who was a senior administrator of the Kaiser. The “Second Reich” was not called that until Hitler engineered the third one — and when the Austrian WWI corporal used, or abused, Prussian traditions and military symbols to legitimize his dictatorship. The 20th Century cannot be understood without examining the impact of the last Kaiser at its onset.
Bert was born in Freiburg, Germany, in 1950 and graduated from Bad Toelz High School in 1969. After military service and training in banking he worked in the financial industry during his entire career, including 35 years at the New York Branch of BayernLB, a German public sector bank. He retired in 2015 as Executive Vice President U.S. Capital Markets. He holds a Masters degree in Political Sciences from State University of Bavaria, and an M.B.A. in Finance from Pace University. Bert served on the DMA board as Treasurer and is currently chairman of the DMA endowment fund

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Jim Knox, curator of Education for Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo, will speak about “The Rarest Wolf of All.” Once extinct in the wild, enigmatic, and elusive, the Red Wolf’s story is one of unfolding mystery and 21st century discovery. With less than 300 animals in existence, these remarkable creatures are found solely in the U.S., and are among the rarest species on the planet. Join Zoologist and Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo Curator of Education, Jim Knox, to meet the animal behind the mystery and learn what we can all do to ensure its survival.
Jim  directs educational programming and conducts field conservation for this AZA-accredited institution. Jim is a graduate of Cornell University where he studied Animal Science and Applied Economics. He has studied Great White Sharks in South Africa, conducted field research on Alaskan Brown Bears, field conservation for Atlantic Salmon and written nationally for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
A member of The Explorers Club, Jim has served as an on-camera wildlife expert for The Today Show and The CBS Early Show and has lectured for The Harvard College Conservation Society. Jim has been featured in The New York Times, served as a TEDx Presenter and as a Guest Host for Connoisseur Media Star 99.9 FM Anna & Raven Show. Jim writes a column, Wildly Successful, for The Greenwich Sentinel and serves as a Science Adviser to The Bruce Museum.

Grant McCracken is a cultural anthropologist. He will discuss “American Futures: How an anthropologist can help spot, track, and predict change.” Grant holds a PhD from the University of Chicago. He is the author of 14 books including Culturematic, Flock and Flow, and Dark Value. His book A New Honor Code was published by Simon and Schuster last year. And his next book, The Return of the Native, also published by Simon and Schuster, is scheduled to be out at about the time he addresses the DMA. Grant was the founder and Director of the Institute of Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum. He has taught at Harvard, University of Cambridge, and MIT. He is a co-founder of the Artisanal Economies Project. He is the inventor of The Griff, an early warning system for social and cultural change (see www.mapping-the-future.com). He consults widely, including with Google, Ford Foundation, Kanye West, Reddit, Netflix, Sony, Boston Book Festival, NBC, Diageo, IBM, Nike, and the Obama White House. He is credited with spotting the rise of Donald Trump, the fall of Second Life (an artificial world that some thought would dominate the Internet), and the disruption of consumer packaged goods sales in the grocery aisle by Alice Waters and others in the artisanal food movement.

Arranged by Ric Grefé

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