Biographies

Lisa Alzo earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Nonfiction Writing from the University of Pittsburgh in 1997 and spent six years researching her family's history for her first book, Three Slovak Women (Gateway Press, 2001). She is the recipient of the 2002 Mary Zirin Prize given by the Association for Women in Slavic Studies to recognize the achievements of independent scholars. Lisa has taught computer applications, genealogy, and writing courses as an adult education instructor in the Finger Lakes Region of Central New York for over five years and has been an invited speaker for genealogical and historical societies and national conferences.

Mary Barker, daughter of Arnold and Velma (Blecha) Chauza, was raised in Pawnee County, Nebraska, went to East Star School, and graduated from Pawnee City High School. She is a past president of the Pawnee County Promotional Network; organizer and past president of the DuBois Community Club; secretary of the ZCBJ Lodge, Jan Kollar #101, since 1987; 1998 WFLA Fraternalist of the Year; organizer, together with her husband, Norman,      of the restoration of the Jan Kollar Lodge Hall, which was awarded the prestigious Otto Hoiberg Award, Nebraska Community Improvement Program 1989; community leader, developer and volunteer; recognized locally for her Czech cooking.

Michal Bauer was born in 1966 in Znojmo. He is an Associate Professor of Czech Literature at the University of South Bohemian in Ceske Budejovice.     He is a specialist on Czech poetry of the 20th century and Czech literature of the 1950s. He publishes articles in reviews such as Ceska literatura, Estetika and others. He is the author of a monograph on literature of the 1950s.

Janice A Beran is Professor Emeriti of Iowa State University. Her teaching area was the History of Sport. She was a Fulbright Exchange Professor to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria in 1980; an Exchange Professor to China and Republic of China, and Taiwan in 1988 and 1986; Professor at Silliman University, Dumaguete, Philippines from 1960-73; and Professor, Iowa State University, 1974-1992. She is a published author of two books and many refereed professional articles.

Peter Bisek was born in 1941 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. With his Czech wife, Vera, he came to the United States in 1965 and since 1971 resides on Long Island, New York. Mr. Bisek is the owner of Typrints Company in Glen Cove, NY. He is the editor-in-chief of the Czech & Slovak-American bi-weekly, Americke Listy, which he publishes since 1990 with his wife Vera. Until recently, Mr. Bisek was President of the Bohemian Citizens Benevolent Society of Astoria, Inc., which owns the Bohemian Hall and Garden, in Astoria, New York. He is also a member of the AFoCR Board of Directors and other organizations. In 1997, he was awarded the Medal of Merit First Class by Czech President Vaclav Havel in recognition for successful lobbying in the US Congress on behalf of the Czech Republic for its early acceptance into the NATO. Mr. Bisek is a certified rowing coach and a master rower-competitor.

Joel Blahnik is 3rd generation Czech-American with Chodsko roots. He has been a clinician/ conductor/lecturer in over 350 Wisconsin's schools and has received many local, state and national awards for his creativity and excellence in teaching over three decades. His writing and music has been featured and recorded at state, national and international symposiums. Mr. Blahnik also has served 48 years as a US Coast Guard licensed Master Captain on the Great Lakes and as Caretaker of the Chambers Island Lighthouse for 25 years. Since his retirement, he has done a great deal of musical activity in the Czech Republic, including guest conducting student, amateur, and professional ensembles, co-founding the Prague Youth Wind Ensemble Festival, Music Director of the Czech International Music Camp for Youth, and recording with the Prague Radio Orchestra. In June 2002,         he was acknowledged with a program of "JB...This is Your Life," which was later aired on Czech National Radio. In January 2003 he led the Pilsen Conservatory Wind Ensemble to the silver prize in the international competition of European bands and was named 'outstanding conductor' and appeared again on Czech National Radio. He has appeared for interviews on Czech national TV, radio, and newspapers and is heralded as an educational pioneer, witnessed by being the subject of a master degree thesis in a Czech university. At home, Blahnik is busy with Alliance Publications, Inc., a desk-top music publishing company that he co-founded in 1988, which lists over 1,500 compositions, 35% penned by Czechoslovak composers. In October 2002, Mr. Blahnik was appointed on the Honorary Committee of the Czechoslovak Council for Higher Education and on the Honorary Board of Directors for the Minnesota Czechoslovak Cultural Society.

Vera Z. Borkovec was born in Czechoslovakia, emigrated in 1949, and came to the US in 1952. She received her doctorate in Russian from Georgetown University and spent almost thirty years as a professor in the Department of Language and Foreign Studies of American University in Washington, DC. She has taught Russian and Czech language, linguistics, literature, and theatre. As a translator she has devoted her time mostly to the translation of plays and poetry from Russian and Czech into English. She has recently edited a bilingual anthology of exile poetry, The Taste of a Lost Homeland, published by SVU in Pilsen.

Marc L. Bright, Vice President of Special Programs, began his career with People to People International in the early 70's, as Director of out-bound adult travel programs. He now has oversight of the top 10 key programs related to People to People's cultural, education and humanitarian efforts.

Josef Rudolf Cenek Cermak, lawyer, director, graduated from Charles University in Prague in 1948 and University of Toronto in 1958 with a JD. He is the author of Pokorne navraty, 1955; Going Home, 1963; My Toronto, 1984; Fragmenty ze zivota Cechu a Slovaku v Kanade, 2000; Winston Churchill, Nastin zivota, 2000; and Buh se tu zastavil, 2001 and was the editor of Zpravy News, 1965-67; chairman of the editorial board of Nase Hlasy, Toronto Czech Weekly, 1960-68; host (Czechoslovak TV show) The Window; and has contributed articles to various Czechoslovakian newspapers in Canada and the US. He was an actor in the New Theatre, Toronto; Snizek Theatre, NYC; CBC Radio; and more. He has served on the board of directors of the Canadian Ethnic Heritage Foundation and the Canadian Fund for Czechoslovak Refugees. He is a recipient of the Panhellenic prize, Epstein award Univ. Coll., U. Toronto; Masarykova cena CSSK; Arbor award, U. Toronto; and a Commemorative medal of the President of Czech Republic. He is a Member of the Canadian Bar Assn.; the Ontario Bar Assn.; Czechoslovak Society of Arts & Sciences Am. (President, Toronto chpt. 1970-79); and the Czechoslovak National Assn. Can. (member of the Committee 1958-70, Secretary General 1997-1999, Pres. 1999- ). 

Elaine L. Cerny is Manager, CERNYLAND OF UTICA - Research and Development of Blood Substitutes and Decontaminants for Chemical Agents.

Lawrence C. Cerny is Director of Research, CERNYLAND OF UTICA - Research and Development of Blood Substitutes and Decontaminants for Chemical Agents and is a Research Professor of Chemistry at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

Milton Cerny is the past president of the American Friends of the Czech Republic (AFoCR) (1999-2002). He is a practicing lawyer in Washington, DC, specializing in nonprofit organizations. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at American University's Washington College of Law. He is Chair of the American Bar Association Committee on International Philanthropy. That committee has established the Central and Eastern European Law Institute on Law Reform in Prague.

Retta Slavik Chandler has been a high school math teacher for 30 years. She served as a teacher and Math Consultant in the Killeen ISD and as Math Department Chairman in the Cedar Hill ISD for 18 years. She is also an adjunct professor of math at Cedar Valley College and has co-authored three math workbooks. She received her BA in Math and Art from the University of Mary Hardin Baylor and her M.Ed. from Tarleton State University. She is President of the Texas Czech Heritage and Cultural Center, La Grange; Vice President of the Texas Ex-Students Association; Director of Texans of Czech Ancestry; Chairman of the Dallas Czech Historical Society (KJT); and a Member of the Dallas Czech Singers, Sokol-Ennis, and the Czech Heritage Society, Ennis Chapter.

David Zdenek Chroust is Slavic studies librarian and associate professor at Texas A&M University, where he joined the faculty in 1992 and where he is now also a Ph.D. student in the History Dept. He has contributed articles on cataloging German- and Slavic-language materials to library journals and on Czech-American immigration history and bibliography to Kosmas: Czechoslovak and Central European Journal, a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal that he recently began to coedit. He is a native of the former Czechoslovakia but was educated in Ohio, where he earned a B.A. degree in economics (1984) and a Master's of Library Science (1991) at Kent State University.

Steven Clancy is Senior Lecturer in Slavic and 2nd Language Acquisition in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the College at the University of Chicago. He graduated in 2000 with a Ph.D. in Slavic Linguistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Publications and works in progress include The Chain of BEING and HAVING in Slavic, based on his dissertation research, and The Case Book for Russian, The Case Book for Czech, and The Case Book for Polish, all with Laura Janda. His research interests include Slavic linguistics (mostly Russian, Czech, and Polish), cognitive linguistics, historical linguistics, and language pedagogy.

Craig Cravens graduated from Princeton University in 1998 with a Ph.D. in Russian and Czech literature. He has been teaching Czech language and literature at the University of Texas at Austin since 1999. His most recent publications include a translation of Vladimir Paral's novel, Lovers and Murderers (Catbird Press, 2001), from Czech to English and an article on Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, "Lyric and Narrative Consciousness in Eugene Onegin," forthcoming in the Slavic and East European Journal. He is also perhaps America's first Cimrmanologist.                              

See http://www.sweb.cz/APOJC/cravens.htm.

Michael Cwach is currently a student at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD, where he is working towards a Master's degree in the history of musical instruments and works part-time as a curatorial assistant at the National Music Museum, Vermillion, SD. His interests include all aspects of Czech history and culture, with specific interest in the folkways and music of South Bohemia and particularly the use of the Bohemian bagpipe (Ceske dudy). He has been selected for a Fulbright award and, starting in September 2003, will be spending nine months researching the cultural significance of the Bohemian bagpipe in the Czech Republic.

David S. Danaher is currently an Assistant Professor of Czech and Russian in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has publications on aspects of Slavic linguistics and literature, including a forthcoming book on the semantics and discourse function of Czech habitual-iterative verbs. He teaches both Czech and Russian, as well as courses on Slavic linguistics for Ph.D. students and a literature-in-translation course for undergraduates entitled "The Writings of Vaclav Havel: Critique of Modern Society." He is also manager of the recently established November Fund in support of Czech language, literature, and culture at UW-Madison

(see http://palimpsest.lss.wisc.edu/~danaher/czechfund/).

Zdenek David is a senior scholar with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC, where, until recently, Mr. David held the position of the Librarian. He is a professional historian with training at Harvard, specializing in modern history of Eastern and Slavic Europe, and Slavic bibliography. In the last few years he organized a series of conferences on "The Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practices", most of them under SVU sponsorship.

Stacey Day is retired W.H.O. Professor of International Health. Born in London, he came to the US in 1955. He has taught in both Czech and Slovak Universities. In 1989 he was a Fulbright Professor to Charles University. He is a member of the editorial board Medzinarodny poradny vybor nadacie ekologia zivot, Republic of Slovakia, and author of Moudrost Samuraju, Trigon, Praha 1998.

Dorothy Polehna Ditch was also born into a very Czech family, a first generation born American-Czech. As a child she attended Ceska Skola and was a regular Sokolka, going to all the slets and graduating all the way up the ranks. She presently serves as the indispensable Secretary of Ely Presbyterian Church. Sokol-Cedar Rapids continues to rely on her baking and organizational skills for their moneymaking efforts in kolach baking. We truly believe that Sokol Cedar Rapids under the guiding hand of Dorothy Ditch makes the best kolaces in Cedar Rapids. She has a deep interest in fraternalism and is active in the local branch of the C.S.A. 

Olga Marie Drahozal was born in Cedar Rapids. Olga and her husband Wesley were responsible for a program of instruction in band music at St. Ludmila School in 1953, the first such in the history of the elementary parochial school system. In 1978 Olga and her husband organized the "Czech Plus Band." In 1995 they played at the opening of the Czech & Slovak Museum & Library for President Bill Clinton and the presidents of the Czech and Slovak Republics. Olga is a retired music teacher. She received her formal training at Mount Mercy College and taught vocal music at St. Ludmila School for 15 years. In 1988 Olga organized a singing group called "Czech Heritage Singers." She has been teaching Czech to adults under the sponsorship of the Czech Heritage Foundation since 1985. She also teaches Czech classes to children aged 6 through 13 in the summer.

Frank Edmunds was born in Cedar Rapids. His maternal grandfather came to the U.S. in 1918 and when he had earned enough money he brought his wife and two daughters to America. Frank was very active with the Cedar Rapids Drum and Bugle Organization as a young man. Frank worked at Colonial Bakery for almost 40 years and he is now retired but still very active. He was on the original building committee for the establishment of the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library; he helped and continues to lead the renovation of the Cedar Rapids Sokol Building, and is presently the President of the Cedar Rapids Sokols. He is also the first vice-president of the Federation of Czech Groups. As President of the Czech National Cemetery, Frank's duties also entail being the master groundskeeper. At his side, always supportive, is his wife, Barb, who is assisting with the Children's Czech School of Cedar Rapids as Principal and teacher's assistant.

Erik Entwistle is a pianist and musicologist. He studied with Andrew Rangell and Sally Pinkas at Dartmouth College. He earned his M.M. in piano performance at Washington University in St. Louis. Erik recently received his Ph.D. in musicology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he worked with Dr. Michael Beckerman. He has taught for the last four years in Harvard University's Core Program and Music Department, and this fall will be a visiting faculty member at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Erik has focused much of his performing and scholarly efforts on the music of Czech composers, especially that of Bohuslav Martinu. His writings on Martinu and other Czech composers have been featured in the New York Times, the Opera Quarterly, the Slavic and East European Journal, and various concert and recording program notes. His dissertation, entitled Martinu in Paris: A Synthesis of Musical Styles and Symbols, examines Martinu's residency in the French capital between the two world wars. As a performer, Erik has presented concerts and lecture-recitals featuring Martinu's works in Boston, New York City, Prague, and the composer's birthplace of Policka, Czech Republic. He appears on Summit Records' disc of Martinu chamber works entitled Intermezzo and later this year will release a solo CD featuring the piano works he will play at the Music Concert featured on Saturday evening, June 28 on the Coe College campus. 

John L. Fiala earned degrees in criminal justice and history from Chadron State College in Chadron, Nebraska. He is a retired claims administrator, US Navy veteran of WWII, past President of the Panhandle Czechs of Nebraska, twice past President of the Nebraska Czechs, Inc., which governs eleven Nebraska chapters, founder and current chairman of the Miss Czech-Slovak USA Pageant. For sixteen years he served as the Pageant Director and Master of Ceremonies of the national pageant and is on the Board of Directors of the Czech Language Foundations, working with the University of Nebraska language curriculum. He is also Vice President of the Nebraska Czechs of Wilber chapter, a lifetime member of Sertoma International, a recipient of the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska and the prestigious AK-SAR-BEN award for humanitarian efforts and progress. He is Treasurer of the Nebraska SVU Chapter, Vice President of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences.

Aaron Freeman is currently an undergraduate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln majoring in Russian language with a minor in Czech language. Aaron, although not of Slavic decent, finds the languages and cultures of the Slavic world to be fascinating as well as challenging. Three years ago, Aaron spent six months living in Poland teaching English. Aaron is now in his second year of his UCARE (Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Experiences) projects of researching and showcasing various influential Czech-Nebraskans.

Jaclyn (Svoboda) Gisburne earned her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Education - Community & Human Resources with an emphasis in leadership studies. Since 1992, she has been studying the sociopathy and neuropsychology associated with target-aggression and violence (TAV) (i.e., aggression-violence directed toward individuals and collectives, real or symbolic, and perpetrated by individuals or collective at all levels of scale). Her research has enabled her to live and work all over Europe, including in the Czech Republic, where she was researching the Holocaust under the Nazis, cultural genocides under fascist and communist regimes, and the restoration efforts and initiatives in the aftermath of these and other atrocities. She has since researched TAV as a dynamic in workplace, community, school, youth violence, as well as terrorist activities. She is now working on the physiological and neuropsychology associated with "how" TAV is adopted and sustained, especially by youth.

Nelson Havel is retired from the United States Air Force. He was a Purchasing Agent and is Treasurer of the Czech Society of Oregon.

Lois Herman is a Women's Human Rights Consultant and Chairperson of the SVU Committee on Women's Rights. Her paper will be read by Mary Douglas Swoboda.

Norma J. Hervey is a Professor of History at Luther College from 1988 to the present. Dr. Hervey was a Fulbright lecturer at Charles University and the University of Western Bohemia in 2001. She was a Sabbatical leave professor at Palacky University in the academic year 1994/95. Special interests include ethnic histories and human rights; holocaust, and immigrant history. Dr. Hervey teaches common course, Paideia, and US history survey, Civil War and Reconstruction, US History 1877-1945, Holocaust during J-term in Central Europe, plus immigration history courses. She received her PhD from the University of Minnesota.

Karen Hobbs is an unaffiliated independent scholar who lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She received her BA from the College of Saint Catherine and did post-graduate study at the University of Poitiers, France. She developed an interest in Austrian military history. She has translated German military history and Sudeten Heimat literature and folklore and has contributed to the newsletter and yearbook of the Czech Genealogical Society International, to publications of the Bukowina Society, and to the German-Bohemian Heritage Society. Her book, One Hundred Tales from Sudetenland, was published in 2000.

Carol Hochman is a member of the adjunct faculty for the Institute for Practice and Research in Education at the University of Pittsburgh, where she received her doctorate in education. She serves as President of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU). Interest in her Czech heritage has led to several trips to the Czech Republic over the past fifteen years and a current study of the section of Pittsburgh known as Bohemian Hill where her parents once lived.

Joseph J. Hornack graduated from Benedictine High School in 1951, entered the US Air Force and was honorably discharged in 1957. With the Air Force training in electronics and mechanical he began employment with Republic Steel Corp. in Cleveland, working in their Electro-Mechanical Research Center in Independence, Ohio, until he retired in 1989. He developed a service to ease the process for others who live in North America and wanted to learn more about their roots in central Europe and in this process create a database of known roots. This database service for those having roots in Slovakia he titled Surname Location Reference Project, or the SLRP. 

Loren N. Horton received his BA and MA degrees from the University of Northern Iowa and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Iowa. He taught for 17 years in public schools, junior college, and college levels. From 1972 through 1996 he was employed by the State Historical Society of Iowa, retiring as the Senior Historian. He is the author, editor, compiler, and contributor of 53 articles, 40 book reviews, 8 chapters, 2 correspondence study manuals, 3 technical leaflets, and of Census Data for Iowa, The Character of the Country, Men With Splendid Hearts, A Richer Dust Concealed, and The Narrow Gate. Dr. Horton was the recipient of the "Lifetime Achievement to the Public Humanities" from Humanities Iowa and the "Petersen-Harlan Award" from the State Historical Society of Iowa for outstanding contributions to Iowa history. He has served on the governing councils, the boards of directors, or as an officer of the American Association of Museums, the American Association for State and Local History, the Victorian Society of America, Midwest Museums Conference, Iowa Museums Association, Iowa Genealogical Society, Iowa Local Historical and Museum Association, Iowa Society for the Preservation of Historic Landmarks, Iowa Archaeological Society, Iowa Chapter of the Victorian Society in America, Iowa Historical Materials Preservation Society, State Association for the Preservation of Iowa Cemeteries, and the Iowa Mormon Trails Association.

John J. Hosmanek was born in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, and served in the US Marine Corps from 1943-46 in the Solomon Islands, Philippine Islands, Okinawa, and China. He received his Bachelor's degree from the Milwaukee State Teachers College and received both his MS and Ed.D. in Education from Marquette University, where he also taught as an instructor. He participated in a Ford Foundation Fellowship to study government operations from 1952-53 (United Nations, NY; US Congress, Washington, DC). From 1979-89 he served as superintendent of the Kenosha Unified School District No. 1; assistant superintendent, 1970-79; principal of Tremper Senior High School in Kenosha, 1966-1970; principal of Lance Junior High in Kenosha, 1960-62; and taught at Sheboygan Junior High, 1950-60. He has served as president of various community and state organizations, including Rotary Club, Urban League, Wisconsin Slovak Historical Society, and Wisconsin Secondary School Administrators Association, and as member of the Kenosha Library Board, Kenosha Public Museum Board, Kenosha County Historical Society, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Educators Consortium. In 1970, he received the Journalism Education Association Principal of the Year Award. He is the editor of the Wisconsin Slovak, a quarterly historical newsletter. 

Joseph Hraba is a professor of sociology at Iowa State University. His research interests center on post communist transitions, health, and ethnic relations. His recent publications have appeared in US, British, Czech, and Russian journals.

Daniel Hrna is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Czech Heritage Society of Texas, Inc. He has a BS in Pharmacy and a JD. He has co-authored and published many articles in scientific and health care publications. He is editing the internet publication Czech Personalities.

Andrew F. Hudak was born in Slovakia. In 1947 he joined his father in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1949 he organized young emigrants into the Slovak Dramatic Club. For the past 53 years this club has promoted and sponsored cultural plays and dances and currently sponsors the biggest single annual event in Cleveland - the Slovak Festival. The organizing of this first club led to others: The Slovak Republication of Ohio, The Slovak Award Committee, and the American Funds of Slovak Refugees, Inc. During the occupation of Czechoslovakia in the summer of 1968 he moved quickly to head a Slovak delegation with the Honorable Mayor Ralph J. Perk to see President Johnson for the purpose of soliciting aid for stricken Slovak and Czech refugees. The result was that the State Department took the necessary action to open the doors of America to them. Besides Cleveland, Mr. Hudak has been active in Orlando, Florida, and in the US for many years. He was president of the Slovak League of America (Northern Ohio District) for 12 years, elected Honorary President for Life, and served as a member of its executive board. In the business field he was a builder, developer, and realtor, as well as organizer of a travel agency. For 14 years, during the 80s and 90s, he served as president of the Slovak Garden in Florida, a Slovak retirement community. Mr. Hudak organized and maintained the largest Slovak museum and library in the southern states and was editor of the Floridian Slovak Newspaper. Mr. Hudak wrote and published three books, Cesty zivotom in Slovak; Slovaks in Florida and Two Worlds: America and Slovakia, both in English.

Mark Hunter is a lifelong Cedar Rapids resident who currently is staff historian at the Linn County History Center. He has been involved in local history for over 20 years. He holds a degree in architectural history from the University of Iowa. In addition to museum research and education, Mark gives numerous presentations throughout the year on local history and conducts a variety of architectural and history tours.

Robert Janak graduated from Lamar University in 1966 with a BA in history and from the University of Kansas in 1969 with an MA in history and a specialty in East Central Europe. He also studied Medieval Romanian history at the University of Cluj in Romania under a Fulbright Fellowship and Medieval Polish history at the Jagiellonian University in Poland under a Kosciuszko Foundation Grant. He is a charter member of the Czech Heritage Society of Texas and served as its first President in 1982-83. He served as President again in 1992-93 and is currently the organization's historian and vice-chairman of the board of trustees. He writes a column "Czech Connections" in the Czech Heritage Society newsletter, Cesky Hlas, and serves as associate director of Texans of Czech Ancestry. He has written numerous articles and books on Texas-Czech history and has presented papers at several SVU conferences. Currently he is translating and publishing baptism, marriage, and funeral records of the Czech-Moravian Brethren Church under the auspices of the Czech Heritage Society. He is a foreign-language teacher by profession and teaches Spanish at West Brook High School in Beaumont, Texas.

Laura Janda is a Professor of Slavic Linguistics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Co-Director of the Slavic and East European Language Resource Center, the first and only such Center to be funded by the US Department of Education for Slavic Languages. She received her BA from Princeton University, where she studied with Dr. Charles Townsend, and her Ph.D. from UCLA in 1984. She is the author or co-author of seven books and over three dozen articles, and her work has been translated into German, Russian, and Polish. She serves on the editorial boards of Cognitive Linguistics and the Slavic and East European Journal and is the co-editor of the e-journal Glossos.

Lawrence F. Jindra is an ophthalmologist and vision scientist, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma and the psychophysicial detection of visual function. Educated at Harvard University and the University of Oxford, he served his residency at the Harkness Eye Institute of Columbia University, his research fellowship at the Rockefeller University, and his clinical fellowship at Wills Eye Hospital. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at Columbia University, Director Emertius of the Glaucoma Consultation Unit at the SUNY Northport VAMC, and is currently in private practice of ophthalmology. Dr. Jindra has pioneered the development of novel surgical and laser treatments of glaucoma. He has written, taught, and done extensive research in the contrast sensitivity of the retinal ganglion cells.
Leonard Jindra immigrated to the United States in 1938, joined the Army, and fought on Omaha Beach and in Europe. He received two Purple Hearts and other medals and decorations, among them the Bronze Star and Presidential Citation. After the war, he worked on the Space Program on precision instruments. 

Otilia M. Kabes was born and raised in Prague where she concluded her studies with a Baccalaureate (History, Latin, German, Social Studies). After the Communist takeover, she left the country and resettled with her family in Washington, DC, where she obtained from George Washington University a degree in Clinical Chemistry. She studied and graduated from the University of Geneva (Switzerland), School of Translation and Interpretation. She worked as a freelance translator and interpreter for several UN organizations and at many important international conferences (Security and Cooperation in Europe, International Red Cross, etc). Upon returning to the United States, she continued to work for both the US Government (Dept. of State, USIA, etc.) and private international organizations and businesses. She was also lecturing at the Institute for Learning in Retirement (LIR) of the American University in Washington, DC, where her subjects covered Russian, French and Central European history, advanced French history and literature, and Women's Studies.

Vladimir M. Kabes, a native of Prague, obtained his law degrees from Charles University in Prague (JUDr.) and from George Washington University in Washington, DC (MCL). His American career was first focused on international human rights issues and continued in Geneva in the framework of the UN Economic and Social Council. He was Deputy Secretary General of the International Commission of Jurists (1959-1969), served for a year as constitutional adviser to the prime minister of Zaire, and held the position of President of the European branch of the NGO conference at ECOSOC (1966-1969). He wound up his European career in the capacity of Secretary General of the International Touring Alliance (1971-1983), with various tasks concerning the worldwide organization's interests, especially in international arbitration in the Middle East and tourism development in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Upon returning to the United States, Mr. Kabes has been operating an international consultancy in Washington, DC, and continues to represent NGOs at UN headquarters in New York. He is holder of a number of foreign awards and of the Czech Government's Medal of Merit, bestowed by President Havel in 1999.

Radan Kapucian is a student of instruction of Czech and Russian language and is in the fourth year of his Master's degree. He is a graduate of the Institute of Leisure and a graduate of SPSE with a specialization in automatization. His professional experiences include lectures and cultural programs for Ukrainian Czechs in (Dubno, Zhitomir); participation at student literary conferences; organization of diverse literary evenings based on the works of Russian and Czech authors; occasional publishing in student periodicals, conference proceedings, etc.; pedagogical experience in SOU, Basic School 1st and 2nd levels, and in different classrooms. His interests and hobbies include preparation of poetry evenings, creation of literary reflections and Internet pages, his own works, polemics, and reflections dealing with literature and culture, especially Czech ones.

Anne Keown is a graduate student in Slavic Linguistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She got her BA in Russian from Wake Forest University and her MA in Slavic Linguistics from UNC-Chapel Hill. She is currently working on her dissertation, which is a cognitive linguistic analysis of polite pronouns in Russian, Czech, and Polish. Anne is also interested in the use of technology in the foreign language classroom and has worked with the Slavic and East European Language Resource Center (SEELRC) to develop online interactive materials for Czech language instruction and maintenance.

Cyril M. Klimesh was born on January 20, 1917, when the spoken language in Spillville was predominantly Czech. During World War II he served as a bombardier on B-24s in the Southwest Pacific. A chance meeting with a cousin whose existence he had been unaware triggered his interest in genealogy. He studied Spillville's Bohemian pioneers as a group and the result was They Came to this Place: A History of Spillville, Iowa and Its Czech Settlers. .

Michael F. Klimesh was born in Spillville, Iowa. His careers include twenty-two years as an executive in industry and professorial positions at universities on four continents. He is currently a permanent resident of Spillville and professor of accounting at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. He has been active in various community organizations and includes the study of history among his interests. He was the President of the Spillville Historic Action Group (SHAG) for the 1993 "Remembering DVORAK" Centennial celebration and for the 1994 "Bily Clocks" celebration.

Steven A. Klimesh was born in Spillville, Iowa, and received a BSBA degree from Creighton University's Epply School of Business in Omaha, Nebraska. He spent 26 years working in the natural gas industry in Omaha, Nebraska, and Houston, Texas, retired in 2001 and returned to live in Spillville that same year. He continues to do select consulting on a national and international level. In 2003 he was appointed by the Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors to be a member of the Winneshiek County Historic Preservation Commission. 

Karel Konecny (Ssc) Charles University, 1994. From 1987-1993 he was an Assistant Professor of History, Palacky University in Olomouc; in 1994 a Senior Assistant Lecturer of History, Palacky University; and a Fulbright Scholar/Lecturer at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa for the academic year 1997-98. His research interests include Modern East-Central European Russian/Soviet history; integration and disintegration of Central Europe; ethnic issues, migration, immigrations; and the interaction between the US and Europe.

Katya Koubek is a post-doctoral research associate in Teachers College at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She has been an instructor of Czech at UNL since 1998. She graduated from UNL in 2002 with a Ph.D. degree in teacher education and foreign language education. She studied Czech and English linguistics, literatures, and history at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic (1988-1994), and received her MA in Czech and English linguistics (1994). Her scholarly interests include on-line teaching and learning, foreign language education, and teacher education.

Jean Lamp was born on a farm near Schuyler, Nebraska in Colfax County. She graduated from Midland Lutheran College in Fremont, NE, with a BS in elementary education. She is a retired elementary school teacher, having taught for 34 years. 

Carmen Langel has a BS and MS from the University of Iowa. She has 12 years of museum experience in the areas of exhibits, collections, educational programs, and grant writing. Langel has been the curator of the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library since 1996, where she oversees the artifact collection and prepares several exhibitions each year.

Martha Peaslee Levine received her medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine and performed her Psychiatric Residency at NYU Medical Center/Bellevue Hospital, including a fellowship in Forensic Psychiatry. As a board-certified psychiatrist, she held many staff positions in New York City. Her final position was Director of Outpatient Psychiatry at Elmhurst Hospital. Since relocating to Pennsylvania, she has pursued fiction writing with published works in The Harrisburg Review, Wild Onions, The Edge, Shirazad, and in various anthologies. She has received many honors for her writing including First Prize in the 2001 Doctors Kienle Competition in Literature for her poem, The Waiting Room; Audience and Panelist Choice Awards for a Ten Minute Play, Three Psychiatrists and a Dream at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska.; and laureate distinction through Wild Onions for her poem Barren. She has also written a hi/lo book, The Dragon Inside, which is to be published by the educational publisher, Steck-Vaughn. Dr. Levine's psychiatric experience imbues her writing with a rich texture of description and imagery. She is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and of the American Psychiatric Association.

Barbara Pejsar Linder, Plattsmouth, Nebraska resident, was first taught by her artist mother and later studied in workshops taught by nationally known artists. Her work encompasses a variety of subjects, mediums and techniques. Her style is noted for its softness and purity of color. She has been very active in the local art world and has won numerous awards and honors. She is the mother of four, a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and is a former high school teacher. She has traveled extensively to Europe and is proud of her Czech roots. She hopes that her artwork may bring joy to the viewer by capturing a feeling, a memory, or something beautiful that may be lost in time. Mrs. Pejsar Linder did the artwork for our badge design and program cover.

Frederick O. Lorenz is a professor of sociology and statistics at Iowa State University. His research interests center on methodology, health, and family.

Zdenek Lycka is currently the Director of the Department of Cultural Relations and Czechs Living Abroad in the Czech Foreign Ministry in Prague. He is the former Counselor of Cultural Affairs at the Czech Embassy and the Head of the Czech Center in Sweden. He received his Ph.D. in engineering in Food Processing Equipment Design in 1987. The Department of Cultural Relations and Czechs Living Abroad is in contact with and developing cooperation with Czechs living all over the world. It provides subsidies to societies of Czechs living abroad, supplies textbooks, books and videocassettes. It issues certificates to persons belonging to a community of Czechs living abroad and last but not least organizes Czech language courses at Dobruska, sends teachers to the communities of Czechs living abroad, and provides for the publication of the periodical Ceske listy. In addition, it is responsible for government development assistance in the form of investment subsidies to Czech communities abroad, government scholarships for students from developing countries, multilateral cultural events.

Judith Mabary is currently serving as Assistant Professor of Musicology at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the International Bohuslav Martinu Society, as well as secretary and past president of the Czech and Slovak Music Society. Her research interests include Czech composers Dvorak, Fibich, and Martinu, Czech melodrama, and Native American cultures.

Jerry Machalek (Founder of Czech & Slovak Connections) was born and raised in Chicago. Graduate of Carleton College, Northfield, MN, his work interests quickly connected him with the world of writing. He held a variety of editorial and public relations positions in Chicago, Washington, Omaha, Kansas City, and Minneapolis where he launched his own publishing enterprise, Machalek Publishing Co. in Minneapolis in 1981 around a group of trade journals. He sold his company in 1988 and shortly thereafter was caught up in the end of the Cold War drama. Connecting with many friends and neighbors, he held frequent gatherings on topics regarding developments in central Europe and began the newsletter as a consequence of the growing serious interest of the friends and neighbors. In a short time, the "neighborhood" grew from the Twin Cities area to both coasts and all the states in between.

Christina Miner joined the U.S. Information Agency in 1993 as a program officer in the European Division of USIA's Office of Citizen Exchanges, where she managed professional exchange grants in Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe. In 2000, she served for ten weeks as the Acting Cultural Affairs Officer in Prague. In July 2001 she became chief of the Europe/Eurasia Division, where she oversees the administration of grants in the Newly Independent States, Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe. Prior to joining the USIA, Ms. Miner was employed as a program specialist in the Division of Research Programs at the National Endowment for the Humanities. She also worked as a teacher of English at the Sorbonne, and taught French at Davidson College in North Carolina. Ms. Miner is a graduate of Hollins University and the University of Virginia.

Milan C. Miskovsky is a retired partner of the law firm of Kirkland and Ellis, Washington, DC. His federal government service has included Assistant General Counsel, Central Intelligence Agency; Solicitor, Federal Maritime Commission; Assistant General Counsel for Foreign Affairs, Treasury Department; Director of Investigations, President's Commission on Urban Disorders; General Counsel, Federal Home Loan Bank Board and Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation; US Delegate to Establish the Asian Development Bank. Other service included Director, Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights; Adjunct Professor of Law, The Catholic University of America; Chairperson of the Woodstock Center at Georgetown University; President of the Federal Association of the Order of Malta; Chairperson and Member of the Board of several educational and other non profit institutions; Associate Director of the Advanced Management Institute (the Georgetown and Charles University in Prague which provided educational programs for managers and executives from Central and Eastern Europe, 1990-1995); Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of the Leadership Forum in the Czech Republic; Chairperson of Leadership Forum International. Several of his awards include medals for leadership in obtaining release of a U2 pilot from Soviet prison and Bay of Pigs prisoners from Cuba; the John Carroll Medal for the establishment and leadership of the Legal Network to provide legal assistance to "those most vulnerable," and the Catholic Charities Medal for service to the poor. He was educated at the University of Michigan (BS and MF) and the George Washington University (LLB (JD)).

Jaroslava Moserova, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc., is an Associate Professor at the Charles University in Prague. She is a Senator of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic; a Member of the Committee for Science, Education, and Culture; a Member of the Czech Parliamentary Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of NATO; Member of COMEST (World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology); Member of the Masaryk University Board in Brno; Member of PEN International, Rotary International, Czech Writers Association, Czech Translators Association, and the Czech Fine Arts Association. Senator Moserova studied in the U.S. and the Czech Republic and has worked as a doctor and as a diplomat. She wrote a number of essays, screenplays, and plays that have been produced on the stage and she translates English literature (approximately 40 titles published). She has also published more than 100 articles on the treatment of burns. From 1999 - 2001 she was President of the 30th General Conference of UNESCO; 1998-2004, Senator of the Electoral District 43 (Pardubicko, Chebsko, and Preloucsko); since 1996, President of the Czech National Commission for UNESCO; 1996-1998, Vice President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech republic; 1995-1999, Member of the UNESCO Executive; 1993-1995, Secretary General of the Czech National Commission for UNESCO; 1991-1993, Ambassador of the Czechoslovak Republic and later of the Czech Republic to Australia and New Zealand; 1990-1991, Elected Member and Vice-President of the Czech National Council; 1965-1990, Head of Research, Burns Centre, Charles University; 1960-1965, House Surgeon, Burns Centre, Medical School, Charles University; 1955-1960, House Surgeon, Surgical Department in Duchov; 1949-1955, Medical School, Charles University, Prague; 1948-1949, Art Students League, New York, NY (scholarship winner); 1947-1948, High School Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa, North Carolina (AFS Scholar).

David Muhlena received his BA degree in History and MA degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Iowa. He has been the librarian at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, since 1997.

Patrick Muller is a painter who uses art to explore the natures of knowledge and identity. A resident of Iowa, he currently studies at Palacky University, Faculty of Medicine, in Olomouc.

Gail Naughton was named president/CEO of the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in September 2002, coming to the NCSML after 15 years at Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa. At Clarke she served as Vice President for Institutional Advancement and also held leadership positions in public relations and development. During her tenure, she was responsible for alumni relations, fundraising, public relations, marketing, communications, and publications. In the early 1990s, Naughton was involved with her husband starting a business in Prague, Buffalo Bill's Tex Mex Bar and Grille. She has     a Bachelor of Science degree from Creighton University and has completed graduate coursework at the University of Nebraska and the University of Iowa.

Daniel Necas is an alumnus of Charles University in Prague. Since 2000 he has been employed at the Immigration History Research Center (IHRC) of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Marjorie Kopecek Nejdl?s specialty is egg decorating. Her hobby took her to the Iowa State fair in 1982 where she was acclaimed officially as an Iowa Folk Artist. In 1996 Marj went to Washington D.C. to attend and demonstrate at the Festival of Arts at the National Sesquicentennial Festival of the Arts. She has illustrated many posters. She designed the shirt for the International Czechoslovakian Sokol Festival which was held in Omaha, Nebraska. Marj's love of Czech music and song puts her into the ranks of charter member of the Czech Heritage Singers of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Cathleen M. Oslzly is the academic adviser for the Psychology Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She received her BA in Education from Nebraska Wesleyan and has taken graduate coursework in Educational Psychology. She studied the Czech language at UNL for three years and is the current President of the SVU Nebraska Chapter.

Diane M. Paige received her Ph.D. in musicology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, under the direction of Michael Beckerman. Her dissertation, entitled The Women in the Operas of Leos Janacek, examined the ways in which the feminine both real and imagined guided the composer's works. She has served as a fellow at the Leos Janacek Archive in Brno, worked as a research consultant for PBS's Live from Lincoln Center, has presented her work at numerous conferences at home and abroad, and has published in such venues as The Musical Quarterly and an upcoming collection entitled Janacek and His World. Her master's thesis, written at the University of Iowa under the direction of Frederick B. Crane, was entitled Dvorak and Spillville. A native Iowan, born in Czech Village, Cedar Rapids, she currently teaches courses in musicology and ethnomusicology at Hartwick College in upstate New York.

Martin Palous became Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the United States on Oct. 10, 2001. A founding member of the Civic Forum, he was elected to the Federal Assembly in 1990. From there he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia as an adviser and then as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1990 to 1992. Ambassador Palous has also held a number of teaching positions at Charles University in Prague, where he earned a Doctor of Natural Sciences in Chemistry Degree in 1973. He has also lectured extensively in the United States and authored several publications.

Mike Papich is the owner of Kuba-Papich Funeral Home in Cedar Rapids. His ancestry is Croatian; his grandfather brought the family to Slater, Iowa and he worked in the coal mines in Madrid, Iowa. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and chose to settle in Cedar Rapids after purchasing the Kuba Funeral Home. He belongs to St. Wenceslaus Church, is a member of the church choir, the Czech Heritage Singers, the Czech National Cemetery Board, Knights of Columbus (Fourth Degree), Lodge #13 of WFLA, Lodge 388 Junior American Czechs, and is President of the Federation of Czech Groups in Cedar Rapids.

Vladimir Papousek was born in 1957 in Ceske Budejovice. He is a professor of Czech literature at the University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice. He is a specialist in Czech exile and compatriot literature and the phenomena of existentialism in Czech novels. His articles are published in such reviews as Ceska literatura, Estetika and others. He is the author of four monographs on topics of Czech exile literature.

Robert Paulson is founder of the German-Bohemian Heritage Society, a society whose purpose is to collect and preserve the history and cultural heritage of the many German-Bohemian immigrants to America. Mr. Paulson has led numerous genealogical tours to Bohemia and has co-authored two books and authored numerous articles about German-Bohemian immigration and culture. Several of these articles have been printed in Nasa rodina and Rocenka. He is a retired teacher living in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Richard Pavlasek was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, in an area that is still listed in the Nueces County Courthouse records as the Bohemian Colony Lands. Stanley Kostoryz, a Czech immigrant, purchased 7,000 acres of prime blackland and invited fellow Czechs to settle there beginning in 1907. Richard was a founding and charter member of two Czech organizations: The Czech Heritage Society of South Texas and the Travis-Williamson Counties Czech Heritage Society in Austin, Texas. He is a member of the Moravian Club of Nueces County, Texas that was founded in 1923 by several of his family members. He has written numerous articles about the Czechs in Texas and Europe for over 30 years. Richard graduated from the Federal Aviation Academy, is a graduate meteorologist, studied at St. Edward's University in Austin and Masaryk University in Brno, Moravia, Czech Republic. He has received several awards including the Texas Czech Heritage State Award. He has been a presenter at past SVU conferences for several years.

Margaret Hermanek Peaslee has a PhD in Biology from Northwestern University and is currently Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Biology at the University of Pittsburgh in Titusville. During a visit to her ancestral homeland she investigated the monastery in Brno where Mendal performed his famous work and F. M. Klacel, teacher of Mendel.

Gordon Pejsar graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology and a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from the University of Nebraska College of Dentistry. He has been in practice in Lincoln, Nebraska, for almost forty-eight years. He served in the Navy during World War II as a hospital corpsman with the Marines. He has been very active in the dental profession, serving as President of the Lincoln and Nebraska Dental Associations. He also served as 1st Vice-President of the American Dental Association. He is a fellow in the American College of Dentistry and a fellow in the International College of Dentistry. He is also a member of the Practice Administration Academy and Delta Sigma Delta Dental Fraternity. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Nebraska Dental Association. Mr. Pejsar became active in his Czech heritage by co-chairing the CGSI Conference in Lincoln, and he also chaired the Genealogy panel for the SVU Conference, which was held in Lincoln in 2001. He is a charter member of the SVU Nebraska Chapter and a Board Member of the Czech Language Foundation.

Helen Pejsar is from Lincoln, Nebraska. She has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Nebraska. She is past President of the Nebraska Czechs of Lincoln and now serves on the Board of Directors. She is also a charter member and current Vice-President of the SVU Nebraska Chapter and has been active in the CGSI. She and her husband, Gordon, are currently the regional representatives for CGSI. Additionally, Mrs. Pejsar has been active in the dental alliance where she has served in all offices of the local and state organization. She served for 10 years on the Board of the Alliance to the American Dental Association, serving as an officer and becoming President of the National Organization. During that time she developed a booklet and Dental Health Commemorative Patch for the Girl Scouts and Campfire Girls of America. She was given an honorary associate membership to the Nebraska Dental Association for recognition of her leadership as President of the alliance. She was also presented membership in the Great Navy of Nebraska, has been chosen as Outstanding Volunteer at Madonna Rehabilitation Center of Lincoln, and was presented an award from the United Way for Outstanding Community Volunteer Service in Lincoln.

Roderick Pejsar received his B.S. Degree in General Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and his MS and PhD Degrees in Industrial and Management Systems Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He was the Senior Vice President and Co-Founder of Information Technology & Applications Corp; Lead Small Business Professor and SBA Assistance Coordinator at George Mason University School of Business. Although retired, he continues his work of Philanthropic Small Business Education and Consultation in countries where capitalism is a new concept to the people at the grassroots end.

Layne Pierce is currently a reference librarian with the Lincoln City Libraries in Lincoln, Nebraska. Prior to that he was a reference librarian at Bellevue University Library in Bellevue, Nebraska. Mr. Pierce has a Masters in Library Science from Emporia State University and a Masters in German Language and Literature from the University of Kansas. His specialty is bibliographic instruction and information literacy. Since coming to Nebraska in 1989, he has played an active role in the preservation of Czech language and culture in the state. He is currently Secretary of the Nebraska Chapter of the SVU and a board member of the Czech Language Foundation.

Ales Pospisil is the Consul General of the Czech Republic in New York. He was born in Prague and studied at Charles University where he received his Doctorate in Political Science. In 1993 he received a one-year scholarship to study International Relations at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. He has worked as a reporter for the Czech Press Agency, Foreign News Desk; for Premiera TV as a TV reporter, Foreign News Desk; in the Department of International Relations of the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic; and for Nova TV as a TV reporter. He has been spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and, since July 2002, as the Consul General of the Czech Republic in New York. 

Mojmir Povolny is a political scientist who, prior to his retirement, held the position of Professor of Government and Henry M. Wriston Professor in Social Sciences at Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin. His specialty is legal history, international law, international politics, and foreign policy. He is currently President of the Czech and Slavic Solidarity Council, which is the continuation of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia of which Mr. Povolny was also President.

Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr., is one of the founders and the current President of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), which has its headquarters in Washington, DC. He is an authority and prodigious writer on immigration history from the territory of former Czechoslovakia. He was instrumental in establishing the National Heritage Commission toward preservation of the Czech and Slovak heritage in America. His publications include The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture (682 p.), Czechoslovakia Past and Present (2 vols., 1890 p.) and US Legislators with Czechoslovak Roots: From Colonial Times to the Present, with Genealogical Lineages. He is the author of the newly published book, Postavy nasi Ameriky (Personalities of Czech America; Prague: Prazska edice, 2000), which includes over 100 portraits and vignettes about the life of selected Czech-Americans from Colonial times to date. In the area of genealogy, he has done extensive work on the genealogy of the first permanent settler in America, Augustine Herman, the First Lord of Bohemia Manor, Frederick Philipse, the wealthiest citizen of New Amsterdam, who was of Bohemian aristocratic ancestry, and several prominent Moravian Brethren. Recently, he also prepared an authoritative Czechoslovak Genealogy on the Internet (2000) and currently is completing his work on US Presidents with Czech Roots.

Louis J. Reith has been a Cataloger of Rare Books at Georgetown University's Division of Special Collections since 1985. He received his M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Champaign. Mr. Reith also holds an M.A. in Early Modern European History from Washington University in St. Louis and a PhD in Renaissance-Reformation History from Stanford University.

Daniela Retkova is the Coordinator, City of Miami Beach, Florida Sister Cities International Program. She is a Private School Admissions Counselor in Boca Raton, Florida and served as an Assistant to then President of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel in Prague from 1990-92. She was awarded a United States White House Internship in 1991. She obtained her PhD in Psychology at Charles University in Prague.

John Rocarek owns and manages the generations old Sykora Bakery in Czech Village, Cedar Rapids with his wife, Sue. John was on the original board for the formation of the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library from the inception. He is a member of Sokol Cedar Rapids, secretary of the Czech Heritage Foundation, Lodge 262 of WFLA, and an ardent proponent of all things Czech.

The Rev. Michael Rokos is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia. He has also studied at Charles University in Prague. An internationally recognized authority on destructive cults and mind control techniques, Mr. Rokos has lectured extensively on the subject and trained mental health professionals and law enforcement personnel in all parts of the US and overseas. Mr. Rokos lives in Baltimore where he maintains a practice in psychotherapy, and he is the rector of Deer Creek (Episcopal) Parish in Darlington, Maryland. Mr. Rokos is the Vice President of the American Friends of the Czech Republic, a Vice President of SVU, the President of both the Czech and Slovak Heritage Association and the Bohemian National Cemetery Association. He is a member of Sokol as well.

Cecilia Rokusek has had a 26-year career in higher education. During that time she has distinguished herself as an outstanding teacher, scholar, and administrator. Throughout high school and college, Dr. Rokusek was active in the Czech Heritage Preservation Society in Tabor. She was also active in numerous Czech theatrical productions in the area. After completing her Master's degree at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln where she was a Regents Scholar, Dr. Rokusek started her academic career at her undergraduate alma mater, Mount Marty College in Yankton, South Dakota. During her six-year tenure there she served as an Assistant Professor and Chair of the Dietetics Program. In 1982 she joined the faculty at the University of South Dakota School of Medicine in the Department of Family Medicine. In 1983 she received her doctorate from the University of South Dakota in Adult and Higher Education Administration. In 1987 she was appointed to a key administrative position in the School of Medicine where she served as the Executive Director for the Center for Developmental Disabilities and Assistant Vice President of Health Affairs. In 1993 she accepted a deanship at Governors State University in University Park, Illinois. She served as Dean of Health Professions and full professor there until 1999 when she moved to America's newest state university in Fort Myers, Florida. She is now serving as Special Assistant to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. She continues to do nutrition-related research and is active on numerous federal grant initiatives in the area of gerontology and behavioral health. Dr. Rokusek was recently elected national chair of the Health Division for the American Association on Mental Retardation.

Megan R. Rooney of Woodridge, Illinois, is a first-year student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is continuing her Spanish and Czech studies and hopes to expand her language studies to include German and Russian. She plans to become a news correspondent in Central or Eastern Europe.

Eliska Ryznar was born in Zabreh na Moravia and emigrated to the United States in 1969. She attended the School of Librarianship, University of California, Berkeley and received her Masters Degree in Library Science. Ms. Ryznar was employed from 1973-75 at the School of Law Library at UC-Berkeley and from 1975-1996 at the School of Law Library, Stanford University. She retired in 1996.

Mila Saskova-Pierce is an Associate-Professor of Russian and Czech, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is a graduate of the Free University of Brussels, Belgium (1969-1974), and received her M.A. in General linguistics and Slavic Linguistics (1980) and her Ph.D. in Slavic linguistics (1986) from the University of Kansas in Lawrence. She has published a number of articles on Czechs in the United States. Her research interests are centered around the cultural phenomena of language change, bilingualism, and language death. She was an assistant editor of the Central and East European Journal from 1995-1999. In 1988, she received the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Czech and Slovak Cultures in Greater Kansas City, from the Kansas City Ethnic Council and the mayor.

Evelyn M. (Horak) Schleis-Roesler studied the Czech language as far as reading and writing it by attending Dr. Vladimir Kucera's classes at the University of Nebraska and from Eve Bock at Southeast Community College. She and her husband Joseph were very involved with the Wilber Czech Festival. Their son, David, was the first Czech Prince in 1962. She, Joe, David, and their other son, Dennis, danced the Ceska beseda for several years traveling extensively to several festivals and Czech programs. Joe helped obtain the building in Wilber for the present Czech museum. She was the first Czech Museum curator in Wilber for five years and Joe was the chairman of the museum. She has been to Czechoslovakia eight times and was fortunate to attend the "Spartakiada" in 1980 and 1985 and the Sokol Slet in Switzerland in 1976. She has been a Sokol member for 34 yearsand compiled a book about T. J. Sokol Wilber in 1978.

Dorothy Schwieder is University Professor Emeriti of History at Iowa State University. She received a BA from Dakota Wesleyan University, an M.S. from Iowa State University, and the Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. For over thirty years at ISU she researched and taught courses in the history of Iowa, American women, and the Midwest. She has written numerous books and articles on Iowa and Midwestern history. Her most recent book, Growing Up With the Town: Family and Community on the Great Plains, published by the University of Iowa Press, deals with her family and community in South Dakota. She is a former member of the State Historical society of Iowa Board of Trustees and is on the Speakers Bureau for Humanities Iowa. 

Daniel Simko was born in Czechoslovakia and came to this country shortly after the events of 1968. He is the author of numerous poems and translations and has published extensively in magazines and anthologies both in the United States and in Europe. He has held fellowships from Columbia University, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and from the New York Foundation for the Arts. He is on the staff of The New York Public Library.

Vlado Simko graduated from Comenius School of Medicine, and emigrated with wife, Mary, and son, Daniel, to the United States in 1969. After teaching at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, he became an associate professor of medicine at the University of Cincinnati. Since 1982 he heads Digestive Diseases at the Brooklyn VA Medical Center as a Professor of Clinical Medicine at SUNY Brooklyn, NY. He has published over 110 full scientific papers and over 400 abstracts and papers related to medicine and general ethnic journalism.

Anita Smisek, OP, is a third generation Bohemian-American who was born and raised in the Czech communities of Veseli and Lonsdale, MN. Active involvement in the religious life of her parish community, particularly as a choir member and later organist-director since her youth, was a natural for her further studies, including her Master?s degree work at the University of Minnesota. As a professional musician, Sr. Anita has assisted individuals and communities world-wide with her expertise in singing and performing Czechoslovak music from her collective repertoire in Czech folk and classical vocal repertoire since 1967. She presently resides and teaches private music at Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, where she also works as the President and publisher/editor of Alliance Publications Inc., specializing in the production of educational, liturgical, and Czechoslovak sheet music and recordings.

L. Joe Stehlik is a lawyer in Pawnee City, Nebraska, for the past 31 years, a graduate of the College of Business Administration cum laude and College of Law, University of Nebraska - Lincoln. He is a co-founder of the Czech Language Foundation; a 50-year member of the ZCBJ (WFLA) Lodge; and a past President of the Nebraska Czechs. He is past President of the Southeast Nebraska Bar Association; faculty member of legal education seminars, and author of continuing legal education articles and seminar outlines. He is active in community and state organizations and is co-founder of the Pawnee County Promotional Network, the Southeast Nebraska Lake Association, and the Southeast Nebraska Development Association, and is legal counsel for the Grand IOOF Lodge of the state of Nebraska. 

Malynne Sternstein is currently an Assistant Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago. Her first book, The Will to Chance. Necessity and Arbitrariness in the Czech Avant-Garde from Poetism to Surrealism has been accepted and is forthcoming from Slavica Press.

Mary Lou Stika has Master's degrees from the University of Kansas in Czech language and literature and in ESL. She teaches community-based Czech classes in addition to teaching English as a second language for the Kansas City, Missouri School District, and has taught both subjects at KU. She has studied and taught in Prague numerous times. In her work, she frequently works with students of many different and uneven language abilities and ages. Her research deals with ways to even these abilities and increase comprehension and retention, especially in reading.

Robert J. Stone is a retired lawyer who received a BA degree from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and a JD degree from the University of Iowa. He has been active in the Czech Heritage Foundation of Cedar Rapids and at the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library also located in Cedar Rapids. Among his hobbies he enjoys Czech language and history.

Eva Strizovska graduated from Music Conservatory. She worked for many years as a freelance publisher for various cultural magazines. In 1989 she founded the magazine, Cesky Dialog, as a venue of contact between Czechs at home and abroad. This magazine is distributed all over the world. Many of the readers of the magazine are also writers for it. Since the year 2000, Cesky Dialog is published both in Czech and English.

Jan Erik Surotchak, was a founding member of Friends of Slovakia in 2000 and has served as chairman since its formation. Friends of Slovakia works to build American-Slovak relations in politics/diplomacy, business/economics, and arts/culture, and has extensively supported projects in these areas in both the United States and Slovakia. Mr. Surotchak is currently the director of Freedom House Slovakia and has lived and worked in Slovakia since 1994, focusing on the development of civil society and increasing citizen engagement in the political process.

Amy E. Swoboda is currently a student at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln and studying International Relations and Political Science. She is enrolled in the fourth semester of the Czech language and was the President of the Czech Komensky Club this past year at the university. Last year she was privileged to present on a Youth Panel at the SVU Conference held in Pilsen, Czech Republic. She plans to study in the Czech Republic in the upcoming years.

Joseph Swoboda grew up in Schuyler, Nebraska, in the Czech and German culture predominant in the community. He received a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and works as a licensed psychologist at the Community Mental Health Center of Lancaster County in Lincoln, Nebraska, in addition to having a private practice in mental health counseling. He developed an interest in mental health issues for Czech youth and adults as part of a wider interest in depression and substance abuse as it has correlated with higher suicide rates for people of Czech heritage, particularly in the Midwest.

Mary Douglas Swoboda is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker practicing at Counseling and Psychological Services at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She has her undergraduate degree from the University of Denver and her Master's in Social Work from the University of Nebraska-Omaha. She developed an interest in the area of mental health for youth as part of her professional interest in multi-cultural issues. This has included some consultation with Multi-Cultural Affairs at the University and also work on the eating disorders team for treatment of eating disorders. She has also done work in the area of disaster mental health. She is currently on the Board of Directors of the Nebraska SVU Chapter and the Regent for Clan Douglas for the Douglas Society of America.

Miroslav Synek received his MS in Physics, with distinction, at Charles University and his Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Chicago. He is a former university Professor. He is an independent consultant in physics, chemistry, astronomy, and world affairs. He is a Life Fellow of the American Physical Society and of several other organizations. He is listed in Who's Who in America (2000 millennium edition) and in a number of other Who's Who publications. Also, he is listed in Panorama, a Historical Review of Czechs and Slovaks in the United States of America.

Sean Timmins is an International Trade Specialist at the US Department of Commerce's Central and Eastern Europe Business Information Center (CEEBIC). Mr. Timmins' primary responsibility is to counsel US firms on commercial opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe. His specific portfolio includes Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland. Prior to joining the Commerce Department, Mr. Timmins spent four years teaching English in Slovakia (Banska Bystrica and Michalovce) and later worked as a counselor in Student Services at the University of Minnesota - Minneapolis. He received a Master's degree in European and Eurasian Studies from the George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs in Washington, DC. Mr. Timmins received his Bachelor's degree in Political Science and German From Saint John's University in Collegeville, MN. He also studied at the University of Salzburg in Austria.

Charles E. Townsend received a BA from Yale in German and his MA and Ph.D. from Harvard in Slavic Languages and Literatures. He taught at Harvard from 1962-1966 and has been at Princeton since 1966 as Professor of Slavic Linguistics, emeritus since 2002, but still teaching. He also taught summers at Indiana University from 1972-1981. He has written nine books on Czech, Russian, and Slavic linguistics and is the author of over one hundred articles, reviews, and translations. In 1994 he was named an honorary member of the Czech Linguistic Society and the same year received an award for Distinguished Contribution to the Profession from the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages. A member of SVU since 1980, he was appointed the first president of the North American Association of Teachers of Czech in 1992.

Janet L. Stoffer Tursi has been the museum educator and program coordinator at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, Cedar Rapids, IA, for the past three years. She received extensive education and training in anthropology and was employed as an archaeologist and physical anthropologist before coming to the NCSML, where she now considers herself to be a cultural anthropologist.

Lisa Volesky has just completed a biology and chemistry teaching degree from the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. Prior to her December graduation, she will complete student teaching in Chicago, IL. This past year, Lisa worked as a resident assistant at UNI, while serving as president of the Psi Chapter of Kappa Delta Pi, an International Honor Society in Education. Lisa was actively involved in school and community while pursuing an education at UNI and held the Miss Czech-Slovak USA title in 2001-2002.

Dagmar Hasalova White wears many hats in the field of music: soprano, director of opera, voice teacher, choral conductor, and musicologist. She holds undergraduate degrees from the University of Kansas and the Juilliard School of Music, a master's degree in Music Education from Columbia University, and a PhDr. from Charles University. She taught at the National Conservatories in Bogota, Colombia; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and Managua, Nicaragua. She had an extensive career in opera, concert, radio, and television, and appeared as a soloist with symphony orchestras. Dr. White is the founder and director of the Vienna Light Opera Company and a member of the music faculty of Northern Virginia Community College. She also teaches in her private voice studio. As a musicologist, she has done research for the Moravian Music Foundation and actively participates as a lecturer during the SVU congresses. She is serving as vice president of the SVU Executive Board. She is a co-editor of a recent SVU publication "Essays in Czech Music," by Zdenka Fischmann.

Vladimira Williams is a teacher at Morton College in Cicero, Illinois. She was born in Dobrany and has a BA and an MA in literature, English as a Second Language from Chicago University. She also does creative writing and has publications in Hamburg, Sklizen; Promeny; Prague, Listy; Pilsen, Denik Nova pravda; Chicago, Hlas naroda; Australia, Spectrum; S. Lake Tahoe, Teaching for Success; etc.

Miroslav Wlachovsky is the Political Counselor at the Slovak Embassy in Washington, DC. He is a graduate of Comenius University in Bratislava, majoring in philosophy and sociology. From 1994-95 he worked as the editor-in-chief of International Issues, a magazine on international relations published by the Slovak Institute for International Studies. From 1995-98 he was the director of the Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association; from 1998-2001 he was director of the Department of Analyses and Policy Planning, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic; and from 2001-03 he was the Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic. His interests include national security, European integration, and Slovak foreign policy. From 1991-94 he was Vice-Chairman of the Civic Democratic Youth for International Relations and was the founder of the European Young Conservatives, London, in November 1993. In 1997 Mr. Wlachovsky received the Western European Union Award to study issues of European security at the Institut Francais des Relations International, October-November 1997, in Paris.

Deanna Wooley is a graduate student working towards her Ph.D. at the Department of History at Indiana University. Following her graduation in 1997 from Rice University in Houston, Texas, with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science, she spent several months researching her grandfather's journey as a POW in World War II in Italy and Germany. She then lived for two years in Prague, Czech Republic, before entering graduate school. Her research interests focus on oral history and student activism in the 1980s and 1990s, especially in Czechoslovakia, and she is currently completing a comparative oral history project with Burmese student activists living in exile in Indiana.

Ezra Zeitler is a master's student in the Department of Anthropology and Geography at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His area of emphasis is cultural geography and among his research interests are ethnic groups and popular culture.

Budimir Zvolanek was born in Prague, Czech Republic, and studied recorder and clarinet with Lukas Matousek and, upon immigrating to the U. S. in 1968, with Leslie Scott and George Silfies in St. Louis, Missouri. Budimir was a Principal Clarinetist of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra in its earliest years under Leonard Slatkin, Walter Susskind, and Gerhard Zimmermann. He was a recorder soloist with the Washington University Collegium Musicum under world-renowned early music specialists Nicholas McGegan, James Tyler, Alan Lumsden, and Bruce Dickie. As a clarinet soloist, he premiered the Mozart clarinet concerto in St. Louis on a 1787-basset clarinet with the Kirkwood (now Clayton) Symphony Orchestra under James Richards and the Johann Stamitz concerto on an 1830 clarinet with the Washington University Orchestra under the world-renowned Catherine Comet and James Sedares. In June 1994, Budimir traveled to Prague, Czech Republic to perform chamber music on the basset and early clarinets with the Quartet Martinu. In 2002, he was back to his old country to perform a recital with Radoslav Kvapil, a world-renowned pianist from the Czech Republic, and Dr. Marie Bobkova, at the 2002 Congress of the Czecho-Slovak Academy of Arts and Sciences (SVU) in Pilsen. Budimir has been a Principal Clarinetist with the University City Orchestra, having recently performed the Franz Krommer-Kramar Clarinet Concerto in E-Flat with them under the baton of Dr. Leon Burke III. Budimir has been a member of and recorder soloist with the St. Louis' Concordia Lutheran Seminary's American Kantorei under the direction of Dr. Robert Bergt. He has made frequent appearances on the Friends of Music concert series at the Eliot Unitarian Chapel in Kirkwood where he is a church member and a popular musician. Budimir has also played Czech, Hungarian, Polish, German, and other countries' folk music and American pop with the Czech Express in St. Louis and Chicago. He was a member of The Bohemians, a jazzy pop-rock-cabaret group, having performed with them at the renowned Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, and has also made guest appearances with the Leanne Butts Jazz Trio. He works as an Electronic Systems Integration Engineer and Associate Technical Fellow on advanced electronic imaging and autonomous systems at the Boeing Company in St. Louis where he also plays clarinet with the Boeing Jazzers and the Boeing Concert Band. Budimir is a member of the Musicians' Association of St. Louis Local 2-197.