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Chris Doyle loves history: reading it, teaching it, and writing it. He enjoys conversations about ideas—with students, colleagues, parents, and even strangers at a coffee shop. On campus, he runs with the cross-country team, wrestles with his athletes, and walks with his wife, Bev, and their dogs. At Avon since 2017, Chris has launched courses in Global Studies, “Government and Crisis,” and, with English teacher Dan Hodgson, a class on inequality and protest in the Gilded Age and today. He also spearheaded the Evans History Initiative, which became a full academic conference in 2019 on slavery and its legacies at the 400th anniversary of Jamestown.

Chris holds a Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut, an M.A. from Trinity College, and a B.A. from Western Connecticut State University. His commentary has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, and Education Week, and his teaching has been featured in the New York Times. He began teaching in 1985 after a short stint in sales, inspired by his lifelong passion for books and a desire to do meaningful work. “It was so much harder to teach well than I thought,” Chris recalls. “I had to draw students in with stories—so I kept studying to find more.” Now a veteran, he focuses on helping students think like historians. “Memorizing facts isn’t history. History explains the human condition,” he says. For Chris, this demanding approach creates more thoughtful people and better citizens.

Working Globally, Acting Locally: A Community-Based Approach to Staying Healthy

Thomas Buckley, PharmD, MPH, FNAP

Thomas Buckley is Professor Emeritus at the UConn School of Pharmacy. He holds joint appointments at the UConn School of Medicine Department of Public Health Sciences, and the UConn Human Rights Institute. He received his pharmacy and public health degrees from the University of Connecticut, and he completed a pharmacy practice residency at the University of Washington, and a global health fellowship with Johns Hopkins University and the International Rescue Committee. As a public health pharmacist researcher, his work focuses on health disparities and health policy implications, focusing on immigrant and refugee health care in Connecticut and Southeast Asia.

He is a Clinical Consultant and researcher for Khmer Health Advocates, a Cambodian American mental health clinic for genocide survivors in West Hartford, CT. He also provides public health and clinical consultation for the Cambodian Diabetes Association in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and the Mao Tao Clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand. He has authored numerous national and global health publications and been principle investigator or co-investigator on multiple federal grant projects serving racial and ethnically underserved populations.

Anna Swinbourne (PhD) is executive director and CEO of Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, CT, and an independent art historian, curator, and art advisor engaged in publication, exhibition and art-market endeavors. From 1999 to 2009, Dr. Swinbourne was on the curatorial staff of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, where she created a catalogue on the unparalleled Niarchos Collection, and curated—either independently, or with Chief Curators, Kirk Varnedoe and John Elderfield—major exhibitions on Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Édouard Manet, and James Ensor, the last two of which were awarded First Prize for Best Historical Show of the year by the International Art Critics Association (AICA). Prior to joining MoMA, Anna was an Assistant Vice President in the Impressionist and Modern Art Department of Sotheby’s, New York. Trained at the École du Louvre in Paris, Tufts University (BA), and the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University (MA.; PhD.), she is a Trustee of Hill-Stead Museum as well as member of the Board of Managers of Lewis Walpole Library of Yale University and the Art Advisory Committee of King Baudouin Foundation United States.

Cori brings 25 years of executive leadership experience in social justice work, nonprofit management, and faith-based organizing to the Center for Leadership and Justice, where she has served as Executive Director since 2014. Cori’s passion is building power among marginalized and faith-based communities through organizing efforts to bring about systemic change. She is also deeply passionate about the intersection of social justice and congregational life. She holds an M.Div. from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, OH and is a member of Immanuel Congregational Church in Hartford.

Founder, and president of The Mitman Group, is a 50-plus market advisor with over 30 years of experience studying the mature market. A Ph.D. graduate in Gerontology, Transportation and Education from Michigan State University, Ruth has a diverse professional background in striving to improve the quality of life for the older population.

Dr. Mitman was a Corporate Gerontologist at The Hartford Financial Services Group, has served on the faculty of the College of Lifelong Learning at Michigan State University and was a consultant for AARP.

Ruth lives in West Hartford with her husband, The Rev. John Mitman.  They have two children and four grandchildren.

Bruce is CEO and Publisher of The Connecticut Mirror. He is responsible for the strategic direction of the organization, revenue generation, product innovation, reader engagement, and all business operations. He has a Bachelor of Arts in History and an M.B.A. in Marketing from Cornell University.

Daniel Sterner is the author of two books about the history and architecture of Hartford: A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut (which won an award from the Hartford Preservation Alliance) and Vanished Downtown Hartford, both published by the History Press. He also has a YouTube channel called History With Dan Sterner, where he presents content about the history of Hartford and other topics. He recently launched a new Substack newsletter called Remembering Old Hartford.

Daniel has given talks on Hartford’s historic buildings and streetscapes at many venues in the greater Hartford area, including the 1892 Club, the Hartford Club, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford, the Wethersfield Senior Center and the Public Libraries of West Hartford, Enfield and Burlington. He has presented his popular series Historical Hartford at the Elmwood Senior Center in West Hartford and the South Windsor Senior Center. He has also taught a course on “Great Buildings of Hartford” for West Hartford continuing education.

A graduate of Wesleyan University with a B.A. in History, Daniel also has Masters Degrees from Trinity College (in American Studies) and the University of Chicago (in Middle Eastern Studies). For many years Daniel was a guide and museum educator at the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum in Wethersfield and a historic interpreter at two Hartford institutions, the Mark Twain House & Museum and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center,

Michelle Troy is a professor of English. She teaches English Composition and Literature; English Literature: Romantics, Victorians, Moderns; and Studies in Contemporary British Literature.

“I enjoy seeing them grow into themselves, leaving more capable and confident and inspired than when they arrived,” Troy says of teaching Hillyer students.

Troy’s research interests include:

• Anglo-American culture in continental Europe between the wars
• Modernism and the literary marketplace (crossfeed between publishers, authors, agents)
• Modernism and mass market periodicals
• The paperback revolution

Education

PhD in English (with distinction), Loyola University Chicago

MA in English (with distinction), Boston College

Courses at Harvard Extension

Courses at Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

BA in Philosophy, Boston College