MEET THE PRESENTERS

Diament, Bert
A Florida licensed psychologist, Bert Diament, Ph.D., is a graduate of Albert Einstein’s Yeshiva University Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology. He provides brief goal-oriented therapy to individuals and couples. He is an associate fellow and therapy training supervisor at the Albert Ellis Institute of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy in New York and has trained at the Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy and the Westchester Institute for Family Therapy. He is also a Gottman Institute certified Seven Principles of Marriage educator. Diament was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award for service to children and families from the Connecticut Association of School Psychologists and has been elected to diplomate status in the area of professional psychotherapy by the International Academy of Behavioral Medicine, Counseling and Psychotherapy.

Dorinson, Joseph
Joseph Dorinson is a retired History professor at Long Island University. Dorinson has written books, "Kvetching and Shpritzing: Jewish Humor in American Popular Culture," (2015), has co-edited the SABR Award winning book, "Jackie Robinson: Race, Sports and the American Dream", (1999), and has written numerous articles on a variety of subjects spanning his beloved borough of Brooklyn focusing on sports, politics, humor, race, gender, and ethnicity. He has organized conferences at LIU on Jackie Robinson (1997), Brooklyn (1998), Paul Robeson (1998) and Basketball, (2001) at St. Francis College in Brooklyn.

Dunlea, Claudia
Claudia Dunlea, Ph.D., is a senior instructor of history at FAU. She earned her doctoral degree in European integration history from the University of Hamburg, Germany. Dunlea is the author of a book that investigates the origins of a supranational European foreign policy in the 50s. Her recent research on the diplomatic relations of the European Union was published in two international publications. Having been born and raised in post-WW II Germany, Dunlea developed a deep personal interest in the 12 dark years of her country’s history. Among other topics, she is teaching courses on WW II, aspects of the Holocaust, and modern Germany’s attempt to deal with its Nazi past.

Edelman, Samuel M.
Samuel M. Edelman, Ph.D., is the former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles and one of the founding faculty members of the Academic Council for Israel. He is also an academic fellow for Israel Studies and Zionism at the University of Miami’s Miller Center for Judaic Studies. He is the former director of the Israel on Campus Coalition Academic Affairs department. He has served as the executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East. Edelman is also a frequent lecturer on world affairs issues for the high-end cruise ship industry.

Engle, Stephen D.
Stephen D. Engle, Ph.D., is a professor of history, a prize-winning author, and director of the Alan B. and Charna Larkin Symposium on the American Presidency. He is a past Fulbright Scholar to Germany, a C-Span lecturer in American history, Andrew Mellon Fellow, and is currently a distinguished lecturer for the Organization of American Historians, and a lecturer for the Smithsonian Institution’s Associates Program. In 2016, he was named Florida Atlantic University’s Distinguished Teacher of the Year and in 2019, he was appointed FAU's Faculty Athletic Representative to the NCAA.

Epstein, Ira
Ira Epstein, Ph.D., served as professor and chair of the Communication Skills Department at LaGuardia Community College CUNY, and directed the college's Technology Learning Center. Most recently, he has been lecturing to adults on comedy and the music of Israel and continues to speak at synagogues, senior centers, JCC's, libraries, and meetings of national organizations such as The National Council of Jewish Women, Hadassah and B'nai Brith. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Brooklyn College, CUNY and his doctoral degree from Fordham University.