Theme: Bursting the Bubble

What happens when your expectations don't meet your reality? What happens when your bubble is burst? How do you cope? How do you move forward?

Five Grinnell College alumni and two faculty will be joining us on November 5th to share their stories of how they burst the bubble.

1108 Park Street
Roberts Theatre
Grinnell, Iowa, 50112
United States

Christine Thorburn

Rheumatologist

Born and raised in eastern Iowa. She attended Grinnell College and received her BA with Chemistry Major in 1992. The following year she completed a Fulbright Fellowship in Nepal with focus on the beliefs and practices of caregivers of children with diarrheal disease. Then, she completed medical school at Stanford in 1999 and went on for Internal Medicine Residency and Rheumatology Fellowship, also at Stanford. After a post-doctoral research fellowship in the genetic epidemiology of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus at University of California San Francisco, she opted to enter private clinical practice at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation in 2006 where she continues to care for patients in Rheumatology. She is now also a Board Member of the large multispecialty group practice and Medical Director of the affiliated research institute. Along the way, she started road cycling racing in 1998 during medical school and ultimately competed for the United States in the summer Olympics in Athens 2004.

David Opong-Wadee

Campaign Consultant - Forward Progress, LLC

David Opong-Wadee, from Washington DC, is a Class of 2012 alumnus of Grinnell College. While attending Grinnell, he majored in Political Science, with a concentration in American Studies. David began his political career as an intern in the DC office of former US Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), before eventually serving as a legislative intern in the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Upon graduating, David took his first job as a field organizer with the Delaware Democrats. Shortly thereafter, he joined President Barack Obama's re-election campaign, in Dubuque, Iowa, assisting a successful push for the president's second term. Upon returning to DC after the election, David joined the office of US Congressman Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL) as a staff assistant, and quickly rose to the position of Legislative Assistant.

Jean Kummerow

Psychologist/Consultant/Author/Trainer

Jean specializes in leadership/management development and coaching and team building has worked with a variety of for-profit, non-profit and government organizations. She is a leadership coach and coordinates the coaching consultants for the Blandin Foundation’s Community Leadership Program, a program developing leaders from Minnesota’s rural communities. She trains professionals internationally in the use of psychological instruments, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) and the MBTI Step II™ assessments. She is listed in Who’s Who in American Women. She was named one of Minnesota’s best-known experts in career development to commemorate 50 years of vocational and career support by the Minnesota Career Development Association. A number of years ago, she appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show as an expert on psychological testing and was featured in a short television spot on the Smart Women series.

Mark Laver

Professor - Grinnell.College

Saxophonist and ethnomusicologist Mark Laver is an Assistant Professor of Music at Grinnell College, where he directs the jazz band and teaches classes on jazz and popular music. As a performer, Professor Laver has shared the stage with such leading jazz and improvising artists as Lee Konitz, William Parker, Dong-Won Kim, Seamus Blake, NEXUS, Kurt Elling, Eddie Prévost, Hugh Fraser, and Phil Nimmons. He has also been a featured soloist with the Kingston Symphony Orchestra, the Guelph Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Conservatory Orchestra, and the University of Toronto Wind Ensemble. He was profiled in the “Canadian Rising Stars” issue of The Music Scene/La Scena Musicale in 2005.

Ozzie Ercan

Columnist, Movie Producer, Actor, Graphic Designer and Realtor turned Rapper/Stay-at-Home Dad

Ozzie met the love of his life, Ann Musser '95, at Grinnell College as a freshman in 1992 and lost her after a 3 year battle against ovarian cancer on September 29, 2014. Since losing his partner of 22 years, he has been sole-parenting their children Zeytin (12) and Ronan (7) and learning a lot from them. He is a columnist, movie producer, actor, graphic designer and realtor turned rapper/stay-at-home dad

Rebecca Mwase

Artist

Rebecca Mwase is a Zimbabwean-American theater and performance artist, creative consultant, producer, and cultural organizer working at the intersection of art and social justice. She has trained with ArtSpot Productions, Dah Theater, the Highlander Center for Research & Education, Urban Bush Women and Junebug Productions in cultural organizing, devising and storytelling. As an ensemble member of ArtSpot Productions, Rebecca received a 2010 Big Easy Award for Best Original Work for "Go Ye Therefore...", and a 2013 Big Easy for Best Ensemble for "Kiss, Kiss Julie." She also received a Grinnell College Wall Alumni Service Award in 2010 for her work as Program Director with ArtSpot’s educational program Individuals Relating & Overcoming Conflict, a theatre-centered character development and conflict resolution program.

Tony Perman

Professor - Grinnell College

Tony Perman is an ethnomusicologist at Grinnell College specializing in the music of Zimbabwe. He is currently completing a book manuscript on the semiotics of emotion and spirituality in Ndau performance practices in southeastern Zimbabwe, having written previously about mbira music, aesthetics, religious experience, and popular music in Zimbabwe in Ethnomusicology, Ethnomusicology Forum, The Journal of Musicological Research, The Journal of Religion in Africa, African Music, and a forthcoming article in African Studies Review. He has played and taught the mbira dzavadzimu and mbira dzaVaNdau for many years, having been taught primarily by Chartwell Dutiro, Tute Chigamba, Musekiwa Chingodza, Davison Masiza, Zombiyi Muzite, and Zivanai Khumbula.