F901Z Fall 2024 Monday Morning Lecture Series

F901Z  Monday Morning Lecture Series
Mondays, 9:40—11:05, Sept. 23—Nov. 11
Eight sessions
Instructors: Mike Agron, Janet de Vries, Ronald Marks, Cynthia Lum, Kristin Slacin, Mary Ellen O’Toole, Katherine Jeffries
Sept. 23: Rhythms of the Road: A Musical Journey with Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Embark on a tuneful journey through America's rich musical landscape as we celebrate the iconic songs inspired by our love for travel. This session delves into a symphony of styles—from the rhythmic beats of Swing, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Folk, Country, and Soul. Together, we'll explore over a dozen tracks, each echoing our collective yearning for adventure, freedom, and romance. From the timeless harmonies of Glenn Miller and the Modernaires to the classic tunes of Frank Sinatra, Nat “King” Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, and beyond, this session promises to leave you smiling, humming, and tapping your feet to their enduring rhythms. We'll rediscover songs that defined generations, with other additional artists like Peter, Paul & Mary, The O’Jays, and Johnny Cash guiding our musical odyssey. Whether these melodies are old favorites or new discoveries, join us to relive these great American classics and to discover stories they tell of our journeys across planes, trains, and automobiles.
Michael Agron returns to OLLI Mason for his second Monday morning lecture series and second lecture series. He grew up in LA, the heart of the recording and entertainment industry. He loved music so much he wanted to become a recording engineer. Fate had different plans and he ended up with a successful career in hi-tech, including founding a webinar marketing agency. He has been fortunate enough to fulfill his musical and entertainment passions by offering his varied and unique popular seminars thirteen times to members the Sacramento Renaissance Society at Cal State University Sacramento and to numerous OLLI organizations across the country.
Sept. 30: Policing is an Intellectual Profession. Evidence-based policing emphasizes that research knowledge should have a “seat at the table” when police officials make decisions about what to do about crime and community trust and confidence. But exactly how is this achieved? What role does research and science play in today’s challenging environment of concerns about both crime and social justice?
Dr. Cynthia Lum is distinguished university professor of Criminology, Law and Society and director of George Mason University’s Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy. She received her Doctorate in Criminology from the University of Maryland in 2003. She is a former police officer and detective.  
Oct. 7: Transportation: Roads, Your Mobility and Safety. Participants will learn about the systems and services that are available on the interstates and main highways in Northern Virginia and within the Washington, D.C. region, and about the people who are committed to assist as you travel along these roads. Also discussed will be routinely encountered situations along local streets and roadways. For example, why does it seem as if nothing happens when the button to cross a street is pressed? What do flashing yellow arrows in left turn lanes mean? What are drivers expected to do when they encounter school buses, emergency vehicles, or disabled vehicles? This session will provide insights into how our interstates and highways operate, the common incidents that occur on busy streets, and how the devices we use and actions we take affect personal mobility and safety.
Katherine Jefferson has more than 30 years experience in the public and private sector in the transportation area. She holds degrees in Civil Engineering, Public Administration and Public Policy. Work experience encompasses employment in three state/local Departments of Transportation (Pennsylvania, Virginia, and District of Columbia), a multi-national private toll road operations company (Transurban in Australia, Canada, the United States) and a local Department of General Services.
Oct. 14: The FBI Profiler and the Psychopath: A Glimpse into the Mind of This Most Devastating Personality Disorder. In the speaker’s career as an FBI special agent “Profiler”, the most intriguing, frightening and challenging personality she ever dealt with was the psychopath. In this session, she will take you into the mind of the psychopath. Psychopaths can present an enormous challenge for everyone they interact with—family, friends, co-workers, law enforcement, mental health professionals, prosecutors, judges, and others. How psychopaths treat people, their behaviors at work, at crime scenes, as neighbors—wherever they are, can be shocking because of their stunning lack of empathy, their lack of guilt for their actions, their pathological lying, and their complete disregard for the consequences of their bad actions on others. FBI agent profilers have probably dealt with psychopaths more than most people. So understanding this personality disorder from a behavioral perspective is critical, whether we are interviewing a psychopath, investigating a crime, prosecuting a psychopath, interacting with one in a prison setting, or living next door to one. Psychopaths are not “crazy”. They are not mentally ill, and they know right from wrong. But the rules don’t apply to them. Are they all serial killers? Absolutely not. They can run companies, serve in politics, and work in the government. Their arrogance and narcissism is only part of their complex and dark natures. It’s a combination of personality traits and characteristics that make these people fascinatingly horrifying.
Dr. Mary Ellen O’Toole is currently the director of the Forensic Science Program at George Mason University. As the head of the program, Dr. O’Toole helped to develop a number of new initiatives for teaching and research, including the Forensic Anthropological Research Laboratory (aka the “Body Farm”) at Mason’s campus in Manassas, VA, and the Crime Scene House Laboratory in Fairfax, VA. Prior to coming to Mason, Dr. O’Toole served as an FBI agent for 28 years, and for 15 of those years worked in the Bureau’s renowned Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) where she was involved in some of the FBI’s most high-profile violent crime cases. Her specialized areas of study and practice in the FBI included psychopathic offenders and violent criminal behavior. She is the editor in chief of Violence and Gender and is the author of Dangerous Instincts: How Gut Feelings Betray Us.
Oct. 21: Telling The Victim’s Story: How Advances in Technology Are Improving the Detection of Injuries.
Katherine (“Kat”) Scafide is a tenured associate professor, forensic nurse, and scientist in the George Mason University’s School of Nursing. Her years of forensic nursing practice, caring for living and deceased victims of violence, have contributed significantly to her program of research. Her research primarily focuses on advancing equity in the medical identification and forensic documentation of injuries, particularly for patients of color, through innovative uses of technology. She has received several federal awards to support these efforts. Dr. Scafide began her journey as a bruise scientist during her doctoral work at Johns Hopkins where she garnered the name “paintball” lady for her unique method of creating injuries. At George Mason, she collaborated with colleagues at Texas A&M and Georgia State Universities, conducting one of the largest and most diverse bruise studies in modern forensic history. She teaches primarily in the PhD program in the School of Nursing where she mentors doctoral dissertations.
Oct. 28: Espionage: The True Story of Spying. This lecture provides the hands-on insights of a 40-year veteran of the world of espionage. It will answer what espionage is versus what people think it is, who does it, and why Washington, D.C. is the capital of spying. The lecture is also designed to help understand the structure, history, and current challenges of America's intelligence community and its constitutionally mandated Congressional oversight. It will examine a range of issues including the history and development of oversight of intelligence collection and analysis, the execution of covert action, the gathering and storage of information in the 21st Century, concerns over privacy and civil liberties, and the obtaining and execution of budget and program.
Ronald Marks III is a former CIA and Capitol Hill official. He is a visiting professor at George Mason University, Schar School and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Nov. 4: Understanding and Treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This course will provide insight into the diagnostic criteria for PTSD outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), along with an exploration of the array of symptoms associated with the disorder. It will include an examination of how PTSD manifests in clients, including an exploration of how traumatic experiences are encoded in the brain, body, and emotional responses. The discussion will include: 1) The unique ways in which traumatic memories are stored and processed within the brain, shedding light on the mechanisms our nervous system employs to protect us from perceived threats; 2) The concept of the "Window of Tolerance" and recognizing signs indicating when an individual is operating outside of this optimal range; 3) Stages of trauma treatment, spanning from initial history-taking and assessment to stabilization, desensitization, and reprocessing; 4) Prominent treatment modalities such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, highlighting their respective approaches; 5) The healing journey from PTSD, including an exploration of what the process entails and how it manifests on an emotional and psychological level; 6) A comprehensive resource list to support further learning and exploration beyond the course.
Kristin Master Slacin has been a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) for over 15 years. She worked with at-risk adolescents in the Fairfax County Public School system before starting her private practice in Falls Church City in 2010. She is a certified EMDR Therapist (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) who specializes in working with trauma across populations, including military veterans. Before embarking on her counseling journey, Kristin served as a project manager in the government contracting sector, overseeing information technology projects for the Environmental Protection Agency. Kristin holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from The College of William and Mary, a Master of Science in Systems Management from Capitol College (now Capitol Technology University), and a Master of Arts in Counselor Education from Virginia Tech.
Nov. 11: A World War II Story through Sketches. Explore a World War II story through SSgt. Jacob John de Vries’ sketches of people, landscapes, and churches in France, Austria, and Germany in 1944-45. de Vries served in the U.S. Army 103rd Infantry (Cactus) Division in Europe and First Allied Airborne Army occupying forces in Berlin. Even before his formal art training, he was always sketching, including during his four years in the Army. The storyteller is John’s daughter, Janet. This lecture includes her travels to France to locate some of the sites her father sketched.
Janet de Vries is happily retired after 21 years providing career counseling to students at Casper College in Casper, Wyoming. A native of Akron, Ohio, she moved to Wyoming as quickly as she could after earning a BS in Geology. When the oil boom busted, she earned an MS in Counseling.