Steven Gubka, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow at FAU’s Center for the Future Mind. Gubka earned his doctorate degree in philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. His doctoral research focused on the normative significance of emotion and emotion regulation. Prior to that, he earned a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Oxford and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Arizona (with a minor in cognitive science). Gubka is investigating the ethics of virtual actions, the value of virtual friendships, and the moral agency of artificial intelligence. He is also interested in how emerging technology, such as emotion detection by artificial intelligence via facial expressions, affects the regulation of our emotions. This is important because of the role that emotions arguably play in our moral knowledge, agency, and overall well-being.

A native South Floridian, Sylvia Gurinsky is a local history educator and guide for Context Travel, Flamingo Gardens, the Miami-Dade County Women's Park, and various local universities. She co-hosts the television series "Roadside Florida," produced by the Lynn & Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives. A graduate of Florida International University, she worked for WPLG-Channel 10, "the Jewish Journal," and History Miami Museum. Her honors have included two Florida Associated Press Awards for Editorial Writing and a Peter Jennings Project Fellowship for Journalists and the Constitution at the National Constitution Center.

Mehmet Gurses, Ph.D. is a professor of political science at FAU. His research interests include ethnic and religious conflict, post-civil war peacebuilding, post-civil war democratization, and the Middle East. He is the author of “Anatomy of a Civil War: Sociopolitical Impacts of the Kurdish Conflict in Turkey”, (University of Michigan Press, 2018) and co-editor of “Conflict, Democratization and the Kurds in the Middle East: Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria”, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). He has published extensively in journals including International Interactions, Social Science Quarterly, Defense and Peace Economics, and Political Research Quarterly.

Taylor Hagood, Ph.D., is a professor of American literature at FAU. He has published several books, including “Faulkner; Writer of Disability”, (winner of the 2014 C. Hugh Holman Award for Best Book in Southern Studies), has lectured in venues throughout North America and Europe and was a Fulbright Professor at the University of Munich (2009-10).

Derek Boyd Hankerson, is a faculty member, world traveler, and documentary film maker who has produced 4 films on accurate American history. These films have aired nationally and on PBS. Mr. Hankerson is a graduate of the University of Maryland with a B. A. In government and politics and Webster University with a M. A., in Management and Leadership. He has been actively engaged in government and politics for 38 years. At the age of eighteen, he started his career with the Reagan-Bush 1984 Presidential Campaign in Washington, DC and worked with “Africans- Americans for Reagan-Bush” Mr. Hankerson’s great, great grandfather Rev., J. P. Hankerson, was a free man before the Civil War. He was President of the Florida General Baptist Convention for two terms 1894-1899 and 1903-1909. During that time the Florida General Baptist Convention worked with the freedmen’s bureau to educate the newly freed slaves and poor whites. Rev., J. P. Hankerson and others were instrumental in establishing the Florida Bible Institute, which later became Florida Memorial University located in Miami, Florida. Rev., J. H. Hankerson graduated from the Florida Bible Institute with a degree in Theology. Rev., J. H. Hankerson was one of the first Black Postmasters in the state of Florida and was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson from February 9, 1915- June 10, 1918 as the first Black Postmaster of St. Johns County. St. John’s and Escambia county were the first counties established in Florida on July 2, 1821.

Helene Herman retired as President of a 400-member lifelong learning club in Florida that evolved from Brandeis Women. She lectures on a variety of historical and cultural topics. Herman has more than 30 years of executive-level experience in global marketing for a variety of American manufacturers in diverse product areas. She earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from NYU; her background in cultural anthropology was instrumental in putting her on the path to her marketing career and her career as a Lifelong Learning lecturer.