V. Marc Fort

V. Marc Fort is Marketing & Communications Manager at Health Alliance for Austin Musicians. Fort has more than 30 years of national and international music experience performing in bands (Schatzi, The F*ckemos, Moving Panoramas). He’s recorded for indie labels, Last Beat, Unclean, Redemption, and Doghouse Records, and major labels like Scotti Brothers and Hollywood/Mammoth Records (Disney Music Group). Fort also worked as a photojournalist and entertainment writer at the Austin American-Statesman, and was Marketing & Communications Specialist at the Texas Music Office in the Governor’s Economic Development & Tourism Division.

Allison Wolfe

Allison Wolfe is co-founded the fanzine Girl Germs, all-girl band Bratmobile, and third-wave feminist punk movement Riot Grrrl. She lives in Los Angeles where she received a master’s degree in specialized journalism in the arts from USC Annenberg. Wolfe teaches music journalism at UCLA. She continues to sing in bands and produce a podcast on punk/indie cultural activism, I’m in the Band, which focuses on punk/indie cultural activism. You can find more about her and her work at www.allisoncwolfe.com.

 Tery Lopez

As head of the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) Inclusion and Equity Department, Tery Lopez works with producers, studio and network executives, and writers to advance diverse representation.

Prior to joining the WGAW, Tery was the Conference Director for the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP). She began her career working for producers Moctesuma Esparza and Robert Katz (Selena, Gettysburg, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge). Tery quickly advanced to development executive, producing film and TV, and served as Post Production Coordinator on the HBO film, Walkout. She also co-produced Innocent Voices, Mexico’s official Oscar entry for the International Feature Film in 2005.

Tery serves on the advisory board of the Latino Communications Institute (LCI) at Cal State Fullerton and was recently appointed Chair of the Entertainment & Arts Alumni Network for Cal State Los Angeles. She is also a founding member of NALIP’s Diverse Women in Media Initiative (DWIMI) and is an advisor for the Cal State University Entertainment Alliance.

Tery earned her BA degree in Telecommunications and Film from the California State University at Los Angeles and received the Outstanding Alumni of the year award from its TV, Film and Media Studies department.

 Roosevelt Montás

is Senior Lecturer in American Studies and English at Columbia University and the former director of Columbia’s Center for the Core Curriculum (2008-2018). He was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to New York as a teenager, where he attended public schools in Queens before entering Columbia College in 1991 through its Opportunity Programs. In 2003, he completed a Ph.D. in English, also at Columbia; his dissertation, Rethinking America, won Columbia University’s 2004 Bancroft Award. In 2000, he received the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Graduate Student and in 2008, he received the Dominican Republic’s National Youth Prize. He regularly teaches moral and political philosophy in the Columbia Core Curriculum as well as seminars in American Studies. He is also director of the Center for American Studies’ Freedom and Citizenship Program, which brings low-income high school students to the Columbia campus to study political theory and then helps them prepare successful applications to college.

Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation details the experiences of Montás as a student and teacher, telling the story of how the Great Books transformed his life and why they have the power to speak to people of all backgrounds. Roosevelt speaks widely on the history, place, and future of liberal education. He tweets at @rooseveltmontas.