Category: Speaker

Dr. Masuma Ahmed

11 a.m., February 26, 2023

Join the Humanist Forum, in person OR on Zoom.

This Sunday one of our members, Dr. Masuma Ahmed, will speak to us in Mountain View.

The brain is perplexing and poorly understood. A holistic approach emphasizes the interdependency of the different parts of the body to perform various functions. The cerebral spinal fluid in the dura mater of the spinal cord performs its critical function by continuously circulating around the brain, keeping it calm and cool. However, the dura mater can rupture, leaking spinal fluid, causing the brain to sag and misbehave. Dr. Masuma Ahmed presents the puzzling behavior of the brain when it lacks spinal fluid, using an innovative artistic and storytelling approach.

About our speaker
Dr. Masuma Ahmed, a physicist and high-tech professional turned artist and writer, received her Ph.D. in physics from Yale University. Masuma is a self-taught artist who has studied art and creative writing at Stanford, Yale, and the Bangladesh Art Institute. She received many awards for her artwork from international and US galleries. Masuma was one of the 16 artists selected by the City of Palo Alto to paint the BLM mural in the city in 2020. Masuma also painted murals in Palo Alto, Redwood City and Harlem. She had solo art exhibits in Palo Alto, Redwood City, and San Jose. Masuma was the “Artist of the Month” in Redwood City for the month of July 2018. Masuma’s poems were published in the New York City Poetry Table Anthology and the Waverly Writers Group Poetry Anthology. Masuma captures the voices of women, diasporas, and science through her artworks and writings at New York City Rainbow Faces, www.facebook.com/nycrainbowfaces.

23/02/26 Dr. Masuma Ahmed from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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You can attend our forums in person with fellow humanists in the Maple Room of the Mountain View Community Center at 201 S Rengstorff Ave, Mountain View. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation for lunch.
If you attend in person, COVID protocols will be followed. Vaccinations and masks will be required. If you have symptoms that may be COVID, kindly attend on Zoom (see below).

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Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smart phone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

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Retired judge Mary Beth O’Connor

11 a.m., January 29, 2023

Join the Humanist Forum, in person OR on Zoom.

This Sunday we welcome retired judge Mary Beth O’Connor as she joins us in the Mountain View Community Center.

Mary Beth will describe her long history of injecting methamphetamine. She will describe how she responded when her rehab ordered her to comply with the God-based approach of Alcoholics Anonymous and how she built a secular recovery program. Mary Beth then will provide an overview of substance use disorder and treatment options. This will include six peer support groups and a study comparing the efficacy of several of them. She will explain the benefits of building a personalized recovery program and the obstacles to doing so. Mary Beth will provide recovery resources and take questions.

Bio: In her memoir, From Junkie to Judge: One Woman’s Triumph Over Trauma and Addiction, Mary Beth shares her three-phase journey. The abuse and trauma that drove her to shoot methamphetamine at 17, the chaos from her addiction, and how she developed a personalized recovery plan, without a higher power, that led to twenty-nine years of sobriety thus far.

Mary Beth is a Board Member for She Recovers Foundation and a Director for LifeRing Secular Recovery. She regularly speaks on behalf of these organizations and about multiple and secular paths to recovery. She had an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, “I Beat Addiction without God,” and one in Recovery Today, “How I Attained 28 Years Sobriety by Rejecting my Rehab’s Submit to AA Order.”

Professionally, 6 years into recovery, Mary Beth attended Berkeley Law. She worked at a large firm, then litigated class actions for the federal government. In 2014 she was appointed a federal Administrative Law Judge from which position she retired in 2020.

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230129 Mary Beth O’Connor from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

You can attend our forums in person with fellow humanists in the Maple Room of the Mountain View Community Center at 201 S Rengstorff Ave, Mountain View. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation for lunch.
If you attend in person, COVID protocols will be followed. Vaccinations and masks will be required. If you have symptoms that may be COVID, kindly attend on Zoom (see below).

———-

Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smart phone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

———-

RSVP on Meetup here.
Like us on Facebook here.
Follow us on Twitter here.
See videos of our past Forums here.
Add this event to your Google Calendar

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do. Note that Amazon plans to wind down AmazonSmile by February 20, 2023. https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-closing-amazonsmile-to-focus-its-philanthropic-giving-to-programs-with-greater-impact

Christine Hoffman

11 a.m., December 11, 2022

Join the Humanist Forum, in person with our presenter OR on Zoom.

We will discuss a higher power critical to the creation and sustenance of humans and life on earth. This power is of course… the sun. After a very brief introduction on how the sun creates energy, the main focus of the talk will be on how this energy can be harnessed to electrify, heat and cool our homes. We will cover the basics of photovoltaic and concentrating solar thermal technologies. Finally we will touch on the limitations and challenges of this amazing power.

Speaker Bio: Christine Hoffman has been a lifelong environmentalist, and waste-reduction advocate. She holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics, with her thesis work focusing on optimizing nonimaging solar concentrators. She currently teaches machine learning and data mining, but also aspires to become an entrepreneur for a company that uses technology to solve logistical issues of container reuse.

You can attend our forums in person with fellow humanists in the Maple Room of the Mountain View Community Center at 201 S Rengstorff Ave, Mountain View. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation for lunch.
If you attend in person, COVID protocols will be followed. Vaccinations and masks will be required. If you have symptoms that may be COVID, kindly attend on Zoom (see below).

221211 Christine Hoffman.mp4 from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

———-

Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smart phone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

———-

RSVP on Meetup here.
Like us on Facebook here.
Follow us on Twitter here.
See videos of our past Forums here.
Add this event to your Google Calendar

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.

Victor Schachter

11 a.m., December 4, 2022

Join the Humanist Forum in person OR on Zoom.

In this presentation, Vic Schachter, the president of the Foundation for Sustainable Rule of Law Initiatives, returns to our Sunday Forum to provide an update of his efforts to promote fair and effective dispute resolution in countries with heavily backlogged courts cases, thereby promoting access by underserved populations to fair, timely and peaceful dispute resolution of their claims and preservation of their human rights. He will share some of the unique challenges to do this work during the pandemic, as well as the prospects for continued, future efforts in Asia, Eastern Europe, South America and Africa.

Victor Schachter is the founder and president of The Foundation for Sustainable Rule of Law Initiatives (FSRI), a non-governmental organization dedicated to establishing sustainable mediation centers globally to achieve timely, fair and peaceful conflict resolution in countries with backlogged court systems. He has served extensively as a mediator, and as an advocate representing clients in numerous mediations and arbitrations over his fifty-year career. In addition, he has led rule of law and related educational initiatives promoting judicial reform, alternative dispute resolution and judicial case management in India, Brazil, Liberia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Republic of Georgia, Turkey, Vietnam, and Malaysia. Mr. Schachter has been honored as a California Lawyer Attorney of the Year for his service in judicial reform, rule of law, and mediation building. In October, 2020, he received the Mediator of the Year Award from The Mediation Society of San Francisco for “outstanding contributions to the field of mediation”. His work has been reported and cited in numerous publications. Previously, he was a litigation partner at Fenwick & West LLP in Silicon Valley, California for 17 years.
You can attend our forums in person with fellow humanists in the Maple Room of the Mountain View Community Center at 201 S Rengstorff Ave, Mountain View. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation for lunch.
If you attend in person, COVID protocols will be followed. Vaccinations and masks will be required. If you have symptoms that may be COVID, kindly attend on Zoom (see below).

12/04/2022 Victor Schachter from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

———-

Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smart phone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

———-

RSVP on Meetup here.
Like us on Facebook here.
Follow us on Twitter here.
See videos of our past Forums here.
Add this event to your Google Calendar

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.