Joan Neuhaus Schaan is the executive director of Kickstart Kids, a nonprofit martial arts organization. Schaan was perviously  a fellow in homeland security and terrorism at the Baker Institute, Rice…

Richard M. Donovan worked in the timber and real estate industry, and, as time passed, has volunteered more and more of his time to preserve the habitat and way of…

Patsy Cravens (1936-2022) was a native Houstonian, photographer, artist, writer, and film producer. She wrote Leavin’ a Testimony: Portraits from Rural Texas (University of Texas Press, 2006), and her photographs…

Michelangelo Sabatino, is a professor of architecture of Illinois Institute of Technology. He was previously assistant professor at the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, University of Houston. He was…

Mena Mark Hanna is the founding dean and professor of musicology and composition at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin. He received his Ph.D. from Merton College, Oxford, where he studied…

Stephanie Smither (1941-2016) was a renowned collector and supporter of folk art. Her extensive collection of artwork by 20th–century self-taught artists has been shown in many museums, including the Museum…

Robert Shimko is the Director of the UH School of Theatre & Dance and the Executive Director of the Houston Shakespeare Festival. He is also assistant professor of playwriting and dramaturgy…

Jeffrey J. Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University. He studies contemporary and historical mystics, eroticism and sexuality, the paranormal and the…

Emilee Dawn Whitehurst is the President and CEO of the Houston Area Women's Center. She previously served as executive director of the Rothko Chapel in Houston from 2008 until 2014.…

David Ferris is an associate professor of musicology in the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. He teaches seminars on the classical style, Mozart, Romantic song, Mendelssohn, Schumann, text…