Bill is the Board Chair of the Cedar Hill Cemetery & Foundation.  Now retired, he was a Dental Anesthetist.

Established in 1864, Cedar Hill Cemetery is a nonsectarian, privately-managed, not-for-profit organization. For generations, Connecticut families have chosen this unique and beautiful place of remembrance as the final resting place for themselves and their loved ones.

Cedar Hill Cemetery’s reputation as a premiere example of the American “rural” cemetery is enhanced by its historic landscape, finely sculpted monuments, and natural resources. The Cemetery’s landscape and ornamental foreground of ponds and meadows is unique in New England cemetery design.

Cedar Hill is the final resting place of a number of distinguished individuals. Its historic structures and many of its beautiful monuments were designed and executed by prominent artists. The grounds encompass 270 acres of landscaped woodlands and watercourses providing a natural habitat for a wide variety of wildlife.

Throughout its history, Cedar Hill has maintained its standards of excellence by providing its families with comprehensive cemetery services of the highest quality. Our full range of services, on-site crematory, beautiful memorial grounds, and professionally maintained landscape all serve to make Cedar Hill one of America’s finest cemeteries.

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Born and raised in Connecticut, Jess LeClair attended Connecticut College where she received a BA in environmental studies and international relations. She went on to receive an MS in climate science and policy at Bard College. Jess began her professional career in the Office of Climate Change at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP); she went on to join the newly created Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation (CIRCA). While at CIRCA, she became keenly aware of the importance of local governments as a lever of change and was thrilled to join Sustainable CT’s founding executive director as one of the program’s primary staff members.

“I’m thrilled to step into the executive director role at Sustainable CT,” said Jessica. “As a life-long Connecticut resident, I’m inspired by the positive changes we are seeing across our cities and towns as they engage with Sustainable CT. It has been a privilege to support the development and growth of Sustainable CT since its inception and I look forward to working closely with municipalities as they move forward on their sustainability programs. We’ve accomplished a great deal together, but there’s still so much more to do, and I’m excited to be a part of the progress.”

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A boutique Manhattan literary agency, the O’Connor Literary Agency moves your project from scattered thoughts, to pages-long manuscript, to publisher and finally to sale. Tell your story; share your unique take on the world.

Since his first job out of college at Sesame Workshop, Kevin has always worked at the intersection of business and creative. He has hands-on experience in a variety of media:  animation, live action TV, toys, live shows, music, educational apps, and “the sweetest plum” t-shirts*.  In addition to Sesame, he’s worked for Fisher-Price, VTech, Kidz Bop, Barnes & Noble, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. He’s inked deals with Chrysler, Nestle, Intel, and all the major publishers.

As an agent, Kevin takes on serious adult nonfiction (Brian McCullough’s How the Internet Happened, Claude Andrew Clegg’s The Black President). On the adult fiction side, he represents Afghan and Iraq War Vet Adam Kovac (The Surge)  and the acclaimed Colin Winnette (Users).

For middlegrade readers, he’s the agent behind the Russell Ginns’s Samantha Spinner series; Cas Hyman’s Mango Delight; and Steven B. Frank’s Armstrong and Charlie.  He reps the picturebooks Papa, Daddy & Riley by Seamus Kirst; Honeysmoke by Monique Fields; and A Is for Audra by John Robert Allman, illustrated by Peter Emmerich.

He is a Columbia College grad and the founding director of The Center for Nonfiction, a Columbia University Community Scholars Project dedicated to helping journalists and scholars understand the formal needs of trade publishers.

Here are two podcasts he’s done about how he got into agenting and what he’s looking for / how he works:

• One Thing Or Another: Kevin O’Connor
• Writing Gym: What Does a Literary Agent Do?

*Krusty the Clown called the t-shirt concession “the sweetest plum.” (The Simpsons, “Krusty Gets Kancelled,” Season 4, Episode 22, 1993.)”

Bart: That's all right, Krusty. 

Lisa: We're getting 50% of the T-shirt sales. 

Krusty: What? That's the sweetest plum!

See: Oconnor Literary Agency


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Oconnor Slides 12-3-24

Bruce Putterman is CT Mirror’s publisher and CEO, responsible for the strategic direction of the organization, revenue generation, product innovation, reader engagement, and all business operations.

Before joining CT 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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Steve is a film & TV industry veteran who has worked in all facets of physical production. He has managed and line produced a number of independent film and TV projects over the last 20+ years. His producing work for Al Gore’s Current TV gained him a 2008 Silver Telly Award. He was the lead production accountant for Season 2 of HBO’s The Gilded Age. He has worked as an accountant for a bevy of studios, including Netflix, A24, and Apple TV+.

Steve’s first feature script, Lester, placed top 10% at the 2008 Austin Film Festival Screenwriting Competition. His writing/directing debut Desert Rain premiered at the 2011 Cinequest Film Festival. The film was nominated for Best New Filmmaker and won Audience Choice Best Feature at the 2011 Staten Island Film Festival.

Steve wrote and produced the critically acclaimed The Featherweight, which premiered at the prestigious Venice International Film Festival in 2023 and is set for a theatrical release in September of 2024.

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Dr. Bartley studies translational research into human aging with a focus on how immune responses and physical function decline as we get older. Her multidisciplinary research aims to uncover common pathways among the aging process and to develop potential interventions to prevent age-related declines in immune responses and help older adults maintain their independence into late life.

Dr. Bartley has as BS in Kinesiology, a MS in Exercise Science and a Ph.D. in Exercise Science all from U Conn.  She has numerous publications and is a sought out speaker.

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Medical Historian, Presidents College, University of Hartford
President, Positive Medicine Inc.
Executive Director and Co-Founder, Rocking Chair Project
Editor, Health Commentary (www.healthcommentary.org)

EMPLOYMENT
Medical Historian, Presidents College, University of Hartford (2019-present)
President, Positive Medicine Inc. (2007 – present)
Vice President, Global Medical and Scientific Affairs, Pfizer Inc. (1997 – 2007)
Director, Pfizer Medical Humanities Initiative, Pfizer Inc. (1997 – 2007)
Senior Vice President, Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, PA (1991 – 1997)
Affiliate Liaison to the Dean, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA (1993 -1997)
Vice President, Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, MA (1986 – 1991)
Medical Editor, WWLP-NBC Channel 22, Springfield, MA (1987 – 1991)
Surgeon, Urology, Franklin Medical Center, Greenfield, MA (1978 – 1986)

Dr. Magee has published a book – Code Blue.

“Code Blue” is the phrase customarily announced over hospital public address systems to alert staff to an urgent medical emergency requiring immediate attention. How has the United States, with more resources than any nation, developed a healthcare system that delivers much poorer results, at near double the cost of any other developed country–such that legendary seer Warren Buffett calls the Medical Industrial Complex “the tapeworm of American economic competitiveness”? Mike Magee, M.D., who worked for years inside the Medical Industrial Complex administering a hospital and then as a senior executive at the giant pharmaceutical company Pfizer, has spent the last decade deconstructing the complex, often shocking rise of, and connectivity between, the pillars of our health system–Big Pharma, insurance companies, hospitals, the American Medical Association, and anyone affiliated with them. With an eye first and foremost on the bottom line rather than on the nation’s health, each sector has for decades embraced cure over care, aiming to conquer disease rather than concentrate on the cultural and social factors that determine health. This decision Magee calls the “original sin” of our health system.

Code Blue is a riveting, character-driven narrative that draws back the curtain on the giant industry that consumes one out of every five American dollars. Making clear for the first time the mechanisms, greed, and collusion by which our medical system was built over the last eight decades–and arguing persuasively and urgently for the necessity of a single-payer, multi-plan insurance arena of the kind enjoyed by every other major developed nation–Mike Magee gives us invaluable perspective and inspiration by which we can, indeed, reshape the future.

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Josiah H. Brown is a nonprofit professional with experience in university administration, public schools, philanthropy, government, and community partnership. He is (effective July 1, 2021) executive director of Connecticut CASA–after having in 2019 launched CASA of Southern Connecticut, part of the national CASA network for children facing abuse and/or neglect and in need of court-appointed special advocates. Before, he was the first associate director of the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. He worked with New Leaders for a summer during its start-up, responsible for researching prospective partner cities. Previously, he was chief of staff to the president of the New School (then Jonathan F. Fanton). In earlier roles, Brown was an aide to U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro and to the director of a foundation-sponsored center at Columbia University. He worked for UConn Upward Bound and ConnPIRG and has volunteered with various urban youth organizations and public schools–including as a member of the New Haven Public Schools’ Community Engagement Team.

As a volunteer, he is a former president of Domestic Violence Services of Greater New Haven. He is a founding board member of, and now chairs, the Literacy Coalition of Greater New Haven. He coaches youth basketball during winter. At Yale, since 2008 he has been an associate fellow of Saybrook College and adviser to students there. He is an occasional contributor to the Good Men Project, New Haven Independent, and Times of India, and to a blog at www.josiahbrown.org.

He has a B.A. with distinction in history, magna cum laude, from Yale and a master’s in public policy from Harvard.

He and his wife, Sahar Usmani-Brown, live in New Haven with their two children.

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