October 8: Shannon Calvert, President of the Westport Astronomical Society 

Shannon Calvert is an award-winning professional graphic designer / photographer / copywriter based in Easton, CT. He’s a graduate of North Carolina State University’s School of Design and president of the Westport Astronomical Society. Shannon has been an amateur astronomer for decades, and an avid photographer since the pre-digital era when people had to develop film and carve cameras out of rocks. For the past 8 years, he has welcomed stargazers to public nights at our local observatory and become one of the most prolific astrophotographers in the state.

October 1: Jaime Hastings, Executive Director of Arthur Miller Foundation – “Equitable Access to Theater Education in Public Schools”

Jaime Hastings is the Executive Director of the Arthur Miller Foundation. She has been working alongside writer/filmmaker Rebecca Miller for well over a decade. As Miller’s associate for her production company, Round Films, Hastings was Associate Producer of the Emmy nominated HBO Documentary, ARTHUR MILLER: WRITER. She also produced the benefit event ONE NIGHT – 100 YEARS at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway to honor the centenary of Arthur Miller and celebrate the launch of the Arthur Miller Foundation’s public school theater education initiatives. Hastings was instrumental in developing the Foundation’s programs in partnership with the New York City Public Schools Arts Office, The City College of New York Graduate Program in Educational Theatre, Bridgeport and Norwalk Public Schools. She holds a BA in Musical Theater and Business Management from The State University of New York College at Geneseo, and a Certificate of Business Excellence from Columbia Business School’s Tamer Center for Social Enterprise. Hastings is a guest lecturer for Belmont University and Teachers College, Columbia University.

September 17: Amit G. Oren of Yale School of Medicine – “Permission to Flourish”

A clinical psychologist, Dr. Oren earned her Ph.D. at The New School for Social Research and has treated patients in private practice for over 30 years. She has been an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine for more than 25 years. Dr. Oren is the Lead Psychologist for the Mountain Seed Foundation (MSF), a nonprofit founded by American veterans that provides healing to families from war-torn countries. In collaboration with MSF, she helped develop and implement “Permission to Flourish™,” a unique psychotherapy program based in nature and founded on the principles of positive psychology. This program was the subject of Camp Courage, a 2023 documentary film currently streaming on Netflix that focuses on the inspiring story of two camp participants from Ukraine. In addition to her cameo in the film, she was featured in a 60 Minutes segment titled “Rise,” which also highlighted MSF’s impact on Ukranian victims of war. She is deeply committed to applying the concepts and research findings of Positive Psychology to the practice of psychotherapy.

September 10: Michael Friedman & Donna Vita – “The Lost Rock & Roll Negatives Project”

Between 1969 and 1973, with a Pentax Camera and Tri-X film, Friedman photographed some of the most notable musicians of the time, on and off stage. But before he printed most of the photos, he lost track of the negatives and eventually considered them lost. Then, in 2017, after 45 years, Michael’s wife Donna Vita discovered the long lost negatives in an old box of business records in the attic.  She and Michael began the project of restoring the photographs, which is still a work in progress, with many images yet to be shared.

Friedman was an avid photographer while working in the music business in the 1960s and 1970s as a manager and producer. During that time, he had the opportunity to befriend, work with, and photograph, legendary musical artists including Janis Joplin, The Band, Kris Kristofferson, Rita Coolidge, Todd Rundgren, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, James Cotton, and the Rolling Stones.

September 3: Sara Deren, Founder and CEO at Experience Camps on “The Power of Grief”

Deren is the founder and CEO of Westport-based Experience Camps, a national organization that provides a free week of sleep-away camp to over 1,500 grieving children across the United States who have lost a parent or sibling. Under Sara’s leadership, Experience Camps has conducted original research on the state of grief and launched a network of programs and platforms to support these children. She blends her background in finance and buisness with her passion for the mission, making a significant impact in the lives of greiving kids and teens.

Experience Camps, founded in 2009, is a national, no-cost program for grieving children who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling or primary caregiver. Its one-week, overnight summer grief camps, year-round programs, and content help to reframe the experience of grief, and empower kids with the necessary coping skills to move forward with their lives. Through compassion, connection, and play, Experience Camps allows grieving children to embody a life full of hope and possibility.