Featured Speakers Biographies
The Hon. Michael A. Nutter Mayor Nutter is a native Philadelphian with an accomplished career in public service, business and financial administration. He served as a Philadelphia City Councilman for nearly 15 years representing the city’s fourth district encompassing the communities of Wynnefield, Overbrook, Roxborough, Manayunk, East Falls, Mt. Airy, and parts of North and West Philadelphia.
During his time in council, Mayor Nutter engineered groundbreaking ethics reform legislation and led successful efforts to pass a citywide smoking ban. He worked to lower taxes for Philadelphians and to reform the city’s tax structure, to increase the number of Philadelphia police officers patrolling the streets, and to create a Police Advisory Board to provide a forum for discussion between citizens and the Police Department.
In June 2006, Mayor Nutter resigned his City Council seat and in July 2006 he announced his intention to run in Philadelphia’s mayoral election. His campaign focused on four key areas: crime, education, job creation and ethics reform. He won the Democratic nomination in a five-way primary election with 37 percent of the vote and on November 6, 2007, was overwhelmingly elected mayor of the city of Philadelphia with 83 percent of the vote.
The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that Mayor Nutter “is easy to imagine on the national stage as the fresh voice of a resurgent Philadelphia” and that “Nutter can lead Philadelphia to a brighter day.” The Philadelphia Daily News wrote that “Nutter has the intelligence, the vision and the experience necessary to take this city into its rightful future.”
Mayor Nutter grew up in West Philadelphia at 55th and Larchwood Avenue, where he lived with his parents, sister and grandmother. He received an academic scholarship to St. Joseph’s Preparatory High School, where he graduated in 1975. He enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated from the Wharton School of Business in 1979.
After working for the campaigns of Mayor Ed Rendell and City Council members John Anderson and Angel Ortiz, he was elected as a committee person in the 52nd Ward in 1986, 52nd Democratic Ward Leader in 1990 and City Councilman in 1992.
From 2003 to 2007, Mayor Nutter served as chairman of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority Board. There he crafted a groundbreaking labor-management agreement, and helped to bring about the center’s current $700 million expansion project.
Mayor Nutter serves on the Board of City Trusts, managing the city’s charitable assets, supporting institutions such as Girard College and Wills Eye Hospital, as well as administering public school scholarship funds. Before pursuing his career in public service, Mayor Nutter worked as an investment manager at one of the nation’s leading minority-owned investment banking and brokerage firms.
He resides in Wynnefield with his wife, Lisa, and daughter, Olivia, who attends a Philadelphia Public School. His son, Christian, lives and works in New Jersey. Mayor Nutter is a member of the Mt. Carmel Baptist Church in West Philadelphia.
Ira Harkavy, Ph.D. Steven Diner Dr. Diner came to Rutgers with a lifelong interest in cities, universities, and the connections between them, both past and present. After completing a doctorate in history at the University of Chicago, he began his teaching career at the University of the District of Columbia, where he taught in and chaired the Department of Urban Studies. In 1985, he went to George Mason University, where he served as vice provost for Academic Programs and associate senior vice president.
Dr. Diner’s publications include A City and Its Universities (1980), Housing Washington’s People (1984), and A Very Different Age: Americans of the Progressive Era (1998).
James T. Harris III Widener's reputation as a "student-centered" learning community has been enhanced by Dr. Harris. He holds public town hall meetings and meets with students in small groups on a regular basis to seek input on how to improve the university's learning environment. He frequently works alongside students on community service projects and currently participates in the University’s alternative spring break every year. Once a year he trades places with a student who becomes "President for the Day” while Dr. Harris fulfills the student’s campus responsibilities, including attending classes. Dr. and Mrs. Harris host hundreds of students at their home every year. In addition, he continues to be a guest lecturer in various classes at Widener and has taught an honors leadership course in the School of Business Administration.
Dr. Harris has been asked to serve in several local, state and national leadership roles. A few examples of his responsibilities beyond Widener include membership on the board of directors for the National Campus Compact and the Division III Presidents' Council of The National Collegiate Athletic Association. Earlier in his career he served on a national commission for the advancement of service-learning established by President Clinton. Since 2002, he has been a member of the faculty of the Management Development Program at Harvard University.
Prior to his arrival at Widener, Dr. Harris served eight years as president of Defiance College in Ohio. During his highly successful tenure, the college developed The Presidential Service-Leader Scholarship Program, The McMaster School for the Advancement of Humanity, and, according to U.S. News & World Report, Defiance was recognized as one of the top 20 service-learning schools in the country. For his dedicated leadership and service to Defiance College, the faculty and trustees unanimously voted to award him the college’s highest honor, the Pilgrim Award.
In recognition of his considerable contributions to education and the communities he has served, Dr. Harris has been the recipient of many awards and honors. In 2007 he was named Citizen of the Year by the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce in recognition of his contributions to the local community and earlier in his career he was acknowledged as one of the top fifty character building university presidents in the United States by the John Templeton Foundation as well as receiving the highest honor from the Northwest Ohio Chapter of the NAACP for his commitment to civil rights and social justice issues.
A first generation college graduate, Dr. Harris started his career as a teacher at Highland High School, followed by service at Central Catholic High School at Toledo. Dr. Harris earned degrees from the University of Toledo, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania State University. All three of his alma maters have recognized Dr. Harris as a distinguished alumnus and Penn State bestowed upon him the lifetime title of Alumni Fellow.
An active member of Saint John Chrysostom Catholic Church in Wallingford, Pa., Dr. Harris has been married to his wife and best friend, Mary, for twenty-seven years and they are the proud parents of two sons, Zachary and Braden.
Ann Weaver Hart Since assuming the presidency on July 1, 2006, Dr. Hart has undertaken an ambitious agenda that builds upon Temple’s many areas of excellence to position it as a national and global leader in higher education, research and service. Foremost is her commitment to preserving and expanding Temple’s mission to provide access to excellence for talented and highly motivated students regardless of status or station in life, and to strengthen ties to Temple’s communities by creating a culture of engagement at all levels.
Dr. Hart’s agenda for Temple also calls for strengthening Temple’s leadership in research, innovation and entrepreneurship, advancing the ambitious capital improvements underway and creating a culture of philanthropy to ensure a secure financial future. At the same time, she is expanding and strengthening Temple’s international mission in teaching and research, and reinforcing the University’s role in the global community.
Dr. Hart previously served as president of the University of New Hampshire and provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at Claremont Graduate University, in Claremont, Calif. Her prior appointments include professor of educational leadership, dean of the Graduate School and special assistant to the president at the University of Utah.
She received B.S., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Utah. Her research interests include leadership succession and development, work redesign and organizational behavior in educational organizations, and academic freedom. She has published more than 85 articles and book chapters, and five books and edited volumes.
Throughout her career, Dr. Hart has been actively involved in leadership roles in numerous professional and service organizations. She is chair of the Commission on International Programs of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges and a member of its board of directors. She also serves on the board of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, the CEO Council of Growth, the Philadelphia African American Museum, the Avenue of the Arts and the Pennsylvania Women’s Forum, among other community and civic organizations.
In addition to her academic and administrative work, Dr. Hart has been a consultant to many educational institutions, universities and nonprofit organizations both nationally and internationally. Dennis H. Holtschneider His leadership and expertise stem from a broad range of higher education experiences. He was an administrator with St. John’s University in Queens, N.Y., from 1996 to 1999, first as assistant dean of Notre Dame College and later as associate dean of the university’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Concurrently he served as an assistant professor of higher education in St. John’s Graduate School of Education.
He gained a university-wide perspective as executive vice president and chief operating officer at Niagara University in Niagara Falls, N.Y., from 2000 to 2004, where he directed the university's strategic planning efforts and daily operations of the campus.
Adding research to experience, Father Holtschneider led two national studies of examining trends in governance and leadership in American Catholic colleges and universities. He is the author and co-author of one book and numerous articles on U.S. higher education and Catholic higher education, as well as a frequent consultant and speaker on these topics.
His expertise has led to service on numerous external committees and boards. He is a member of the advisory board of the American Council on Education and a member of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management, which promotes excellence and best practices in management, finances and human resource development of the Catholic Church in the U.S. In addition, he is a member of Mayor Richard Daley’s Chicago 2016 Evaluation Committee, which is preparing a bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago.
A Detroit native, he earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Niagara in 1985. He studied for the priesthood at Mary Immaculate Seminary in Northampton, Pa., and was ordained in 1989. Father Holtschneider studied at Harvard University and received his doctorate in administration, planning and social policy in 1997 after writing a dissertation on the early history of financial aid in the United States. He has been a case researcher and writer for Harvard's schools of Education, Medicine and Public Health.
After ordination, Father Holtschneider served as director and then rector of the Vincentian Community's college seminary program at Ozone Park in New York City. While in New York, he served as a clinical associate professor of higher education at the State University of New York at Buffalo, teaching one doctoral seminar each fall.
Currently, he is a faculty member and board member of the Boston College Institute for Administrators in Catholic Higher Education. He continues to teach at Boston College’s summer Institute for Administrators in Catholic Higher Education.
Mayor, City of Philadelphia
Michael A. Nutter was sworn-in as the 98th Mayor of Philadelphia on January 7, 2008.
Founding Director and Associate Vice President,
Center for Community Partnerships,
University of Pennsylvania 
Ira Harkavy is associate vice president and founding director of the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania. As such, Harkavy has helped pioneer service learning and academically based community service courses as well as participatory action research projects that involve faculty and students from across the university. Harkavy has written and lectured widely on the history and current practice of urban university-community partnerships and strategies for integrating the university missions of teaching, research, and service. In addition to his action oriented work, Harkavy also teaches in the departments of history, urban studies, Africana studies, and city and regional planning.
Chancellor, Rutgers University-Newark
Chancellor Steven J. Diner has headed Rutgers University-Newark since July 2002. He has devoted himself to building Rutgers-Newark as a leading urban research university. Under his leadership, Rutgers-Newark has built strong ties between the campus and the local community. He is deeply involved in the revitalization of downtown Newark, where the campus sits, and has overseen the doubling of the campus’s residential population. He is committed to creating a vibrant twenty-four/seven community in the neighborhood surrounding the campus. He is the current president of the Coalition of Urban & Metropolitan Universities.
President, Widener University
Dr. James T. Harris III became the ninth president of Widener University in 2002. Widener University is a doctoral granting, metropolitan university with a current enrollment of 6,500 students. Under Dr. Harris' leadership, Widener aspires to be a national model for how a university uses its resources to develop a robust learning environment for its students while simultaneously addressing the most pressing needs of the metropolitan area that it serves. Widener was recognized for its efforts in fall 2007 when the Washington Monthly magazine ranked Widener as one of the top 50 universities in the country that do the most for our nation.
President, Temple University
Ann Weaver Hart was elected the ninth president of Temple University on May 4, 2006. She is the first female president in the University’s 125-year history.
President, DePaul University
The Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., became DePaul University's 11th president in 2004. Since his inauguration, he has led the successful completion of the university’s prior strategic plan and creation of its current six-year plan, VISION twenty12.
Underwater Explorer, Educator and Environmentalist
For more than four decades, explorer, environmentalist, educator, and film producer Jean-Michel Cousteau has used his vast experience to communicate to people of all nations and generations his love and concern for our water planet.
Since first being “thrown overboard” by his father at the age of seven with newly invented Scuba gear on his back, Cousteau has been exploring the ocean realm. The son of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, Cousteau spent much of his life with his family exploring the world's oceans aboard Calypso and Alcyone. After his father's death in 1997, Cousteau founded Ocean Futures Society in 1999 to carry on this pioneering work.
A response to his father's call to “carry forward the flame of his faith,” Cousteau's Ocean Futures Society, a non-profit marine conservation and education organization, fosters a conservation ethic, conducting research, and developing marine education programs. Cousteau serves as an impassioned spokesman and diplomat for the environment, reaching out to the public through a variety of media. He has produced over 70 films, and been awarded the Emmy, the Peabody Award, the 7 d'Or - the French equivalent of the Emmy, and the Cable ACE Award.
In addition to his awards for film, his book Jean-Michel Cousteau’s America’s Underwater Treasures, has received two prestigious awards in the independent publishing world, the 2008 Benjamin Franklin Bill Fisher Award for Best First Book (Non-Fiction) and the 2008 IPPY Gold Medal Award for best book in the environment/ecology/nature category.
Today, as president of Ocean Futures Society, Cousteau travels the globe, meeting with world leaders and policymakers, both at the grassroots level and the highest echelons of government and business, educating young people, documenting stories of change and hope, and lending his reputation and support to help energize alliances for positive change.
Through Ocean Futures Society, Cousteau continues to produce environmentally oriented programs and television specials, public service announcements, multimedia programs for schools, Web-based marine content, books, articles for magazines and newspaper columns, and public lectures, reaching millions of people all over the world.
In February 2002, Cousteau became the first person to represent the environment in the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games. Cousteau joined seven other highly esteemed individuals who represented the five continents symbolized in the Olympic Rings and the three tenets of the Olympics, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Africa),John Glenn (The Americas), Kazuyoshi Funaki (Asia), Lech Walesa (Europe), Cathy Freeman (Oceania), Jean-Claude Killy (Sport), Steven Spielberg (Culture), and Jean-Michel Cousteau (Environment). Cousteau was also appointed to the board of directors of the Athens Environmental Foundation for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
On Earth Day 1997, Cousteau led the first undersea live, interactive video chat on Microsoft Internet from the coral reefs of Fiji, celebrating the International Year of the Reef and answering questions from “armchair divers” throughout the world. In April 1998, highlighting the International Year of the Ocean, Cousteau participated in a live downlink from the Space Shuttle Columbia to CNN in New York, discussing NASA's contribution to ocean awareness with astronaut and marine biologist Rick Linnehan. Also in 1998, he was a spokesperson for the United States Pavilion at Expo '98 in Lisbon, Portugal.
Acting on a childhood dream to build cities under the sea, Cousteau pursued a degree in architecture, graduating from the Paris School of Architecture in 1964. He remains a member of the Ordre National des Architectes, the French counterpart of the American Institute of Architects. Artificial floating islands, schools, and the headquarters of an advanced marine studies center in Marseilles, France, are among his projects. More recently, he has been involved with the Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort, designed to demonstrate an environmentally responsible and culturally appropriate ocean-oriented resort.
Jane Golden
Executive Director,
City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
Since the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program’s inception in 1984, Jane Golden has spearheaded the public art organization as it works in partnership with communities, grassroots organizations, city agencies, schools and philanthropies. Now in its 25th year, Golden has supervised the completion of more than 3,000 murals throughout Philadelphia, earning Philadelphia international recognition as the “City of Murals.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer recently described as “by far, the most important, prolific and successful public art project in the nation. And that is because of Jane Golden. The artist, a woman of remarkable intensity, drive and heart, took what might have remained a minor city program aimed at eradicating graffiti and turned it into a force for beauty, redemption and hope. Golden is a singular force who helps make Philadelphia distinctive.”
The Mural Arts Program is the nation's largest mural program. Since 1984, Mural Arts has created more than 3,000 murals and works of public art, which are now part of Philadelphia's civic landscape and a source of inspiration to the thousands of residents and visitors who encounter them, earning Philadelphia international recognition as the "City of Murals." Mural Arts engages over 100 communities each year in the transformation of neighborhoods through the mural-making process. Mural Arts' award-winning, free art education programs annually serve nearly 2,000 youth at sites throughout the city and at-risk teens through education outreach programs. Mural Arts also serves adult offenders in local prisons and rehabilitation centers, using the restorative power of art to break the cycle of crime and violence in our communities.
Prior to heading the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, Golden co-founded the Los Angeles Public Art Foundation.
Sought after nationally and internationally as an expert in urban transformation through art, Golden has received numerous awards for her work, including the Philadelphia Award, the Girl Scouts of America Take the Lead Award, the Moore College of Art Visionary Woman Award, an Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship, the Award for Social Justice from the Philadelphia Alliance, and recognition as a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania from Governor Edward G. Rendell. Golden has just been honored with the LaSalle University Alumni Association’s Signum Fidei Medal and accepted, on behalf of the organization, the Adela Dwyer / St. Thomas of Villanova Peace Award. In September of 2007 the Philadelphia Daily News and the Philadelphia Eagles named Ms. Golden one of the 75 Greatest Living Philadelphians. In February of 2009, Golden was the recipient of the prestigious Hepburn Medal from the Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center at Bryn Mawr College.
Golden holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, and degrees in fine arts and political science from Stanford University. In addition, Golden has received honorary PhDs from Swarthmore College, Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, Widener University, and most recently Haverford College and Villanova University.
Sherone Ivey
Deputy Assistant Secretary
Office of University Partnerships
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Sherone Ivey is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for University Partnerships, Office of Policy Development and Research.
The Office of University Partnerships provides funding (in excess of $20 million annually) to accredited 2- and 4-year institutions of higher education to implement, with their partners, a broad range of activities to address housing and community and economic development concerns in communities across the country.
Ivey has been with HUD for 34 years and has held a variety of program and management positions. The vast majority of Ivey’s tenure at HUD was in the Office of Public and Indian Housing, where she acquired a wealth of experience managing grants and contracts, and assisting public housing agencies across the country improve their management operations. Immediately prior to joining the Office of University Partnerships, Ivey served as director of Headquarters Operations in the Office of Native American Programs. .
Ivey is a Native Washingtonian. She received her masters of public administration degree from the University of Southern California and her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Maryland. She also completed an intensive Contemporary Executive Development Program at George Washington University.