Margaret J. Weber Distinguished Lecture Series - Leaders Inspiring Change

Wellness expert, author, and psychologist Zelana Montminy presented "Forget Happiness Master Resilience Instead" as part of the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP) Distinguished Lecture Series at the West Los Angeles Graduate Campus on Tuesday, November 29, at 7 PM.

One of Maria Shriver's Architects of Change, Montminy translates complicated research from positive psychology—as well as the fields of nutrition and neurology—to create a uniquely holistic approach to health. She is the internationally acclaimed author of the book 21 Days to Resilience, which will be available for purchase and signing during the session.

Montminy holds masters and doctorate degrees in clinical psychology with a specialization in health, as well as a certificate in plant-based nutrition from Cornell University. This multi-faceted background makes her uniquely qualified to explore the psychological aspects of health and wellness. In all her endeavors, Montminy seeks to explore the relationship between resilience, happiness, and healthful lifestyle choices.

She is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA), an active regional board member of the Young President's Organization (YPO), a consultant for the Institute for Applied Positive Research, and on the Program Advisory Board of the Respect Institute.

On Thursday, November 2, 2016, the Pepperdine Graduate School of Education and Psychology welcomed Scott Dudelson, internet entrepreneur as the featured guest. Mr. Dudelson is co-founder of Prodege, LLC, creator of the web's premier online rewards destination, Swagbucks.com. Prodege and Swagbucks.com have garnered numerous corporate awards including three consecutive placements on the Inc Fast 500 and Los Angeles Business Journal Fastest Growing Company List.

In 2013 Prodege was named by the Los Angeles Business Journal as one of the best places to work in the city, and its 10,000% five-year growth landed the company a top 25 placement on Deloitte's national Fastest 500 Growing Company List.

Additionally, Dudelson serves as Managing Director of the Los Angeles Dodgers Accelerator with R/GA. This sports and entertainment accelerator is aimed at industry startups.

Dudelson also founded Music for Charity Productions, a non-profit consulting firm specializing in the marriage of entertainment brands and charitable causes. In 2005 Music for Charity Productions became one of the first firms to introduce SMS (text message) fundraising in the United States with the launch of the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund's text for charity campaign featuring Pearl Jam, OK GO and other artists. Under Dudelson's leadership, the firm produced and promoted over a dozen benefit events featuring a wide variety of artists including Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Sara Bareilles, Garbage, Crowded House, and George Clinton.

Dudelson's talent as a photographer has been honored by CBS LA, who named him one of the top 5 best concert photographers in the city. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, KROQ.com, AOL's Spinner.com, and Classic Rock Magazine.

Dudelson is a graduate of UCLA and resides in Malibu, California.

"Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go."

-James Baldwin, African American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic.

In collaboration with the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology Diversity Council, and in celebration of Black History Month, the February Distinguished Lecture Series event will focus on The Freedmen's Bureau Project and the work happening locally at Pepperdine, as well as globally, to help African Americans reconnect with their Civil War-era ancestors.

The Freedmen's Bureau was formed by an Act of Congress on March 3, 1865, to assist newly freed slaves and poor whites who had been left in need by the Civil War. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture; the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society; and the California African American Museum, together with Family Search, the genealogical arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, digitized 1.5 million handwritten records containing 4 million names from the Freedman's Bureau. These records are now being indexed to allow anyone to research their past.

The panel of experts will discuss why these records are important to all people, not just African Americans, what these records mean to those who are finding clues about family they never knew before, and what are the psychological, relational, and contextual aspects of self-identity.

Panelist will include Matthew Ball, director of public affairs, North America West, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; Thom Reed, senior marketing manager, Family Search International, the largest genealogy organization in the world; and Dr. Carolyn Keatinge, senior lecturer, psychology division, Graduate School of Education and Psychology.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Sharon M. Draper, Author and Educator
"Teaching From the Heart"

Sharon M. Draper, award-winning author and educator, is actively involved in encouraging and motivating all teachers and their students as well. She has worked all over the world spreading the word about the power of accomplished teaching and excellence in education.


Visualize a glowing candle. The tiny points of light at its edges pierce the darkness while the center glows with golden intensity. That light is the children. Sharon will share with attendees how to keep the candles lit and how to help the dreams of the children come true. She will remind us of the joy of teaching and will offer encouragement and hope to novice and longtime teachers alike.


Sharon has been honored as the National Teacher of the Year, is a five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Literary Award, and is a New York Times bestselling author. In 2011, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions to the field of adolescent literature from The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English. In 2015 she was honored by the American Library Association as the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime literary achievement.


She has been honored at the White House six times, and was chosen as one of only four authors in the country to speak at the National Book Festival Gala in Washington, D.C, and to represent the United States in Moscow at their Book Festival.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

"Bullying Awareness, Response and Prevention"

West Los Angeles Graduate Campus 

To commemorate October as National Bullying Prevention Month, the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP) community will unite to educate and raise awareness of bullying and its prevention.

No longer viewed as a harmless part of childhood, bullying, whether face to face or online, has devastating effects on people such as anxiety, depression, school or work avoidance and even suicide.

A panel of experts will discuss the signs and psychological effects of bullying, as well as responsibilities, appropriate responses, and current legislation.

Panelists include:

Dr. John "Jack" McManus, GSEP education professor, a school safety expert witness, participated in the civil case subsequent to the passing of CA Assembly Bill 9: Seth's Law. California Assembly Bill 9: Seth's Law. is named after a 13-year-old California student who committed suicide after being bullied at school, AB 9 requires California public schools to adopt policies to protect students who are targets of unlawful discrimination and harassment.

Dr. Keegan Tangeman, director of mental health services at STAR of CA where he oversees the school-based mental health programs. Dr. Tangeman is also a GSEP PsyD program alumnus and adjunct faculty member.

Mr. Jon Pease, clinical and executive director of the non-profit NotTheTarget.com, which helps anyone involved in the cycle of bullying. Mr. Pease also received his M.A. in Marriage and Family Therapy from GSEP.

Moderated by:

Dr. Yolanda Aguerrebere, a member of the GSEP Board of Visitors and a 35-year education leader who has served as a teacher, instructional advisor, elementary and secondary principal, mentor, consultant, researcher, and international speaker. She spent 24 years with the Los Angeles Unified School District and 11 years with the El Rancho Unified School District.

"Ridiculous Risk. Epic Reward."

West Los Angeles Graduate Campus 

Shelene Bryan's career as a successful Hollywood producer took a dramatic shift when a houseguest saw pictures on the refrigerator door of the two African children Shelene's family sponsors. The guest asked, "How do you know those kids are real?" Shelene could not shake the question, and so despite her attachment to safety and comfort, and lack of desire to leave the U.S., she was soon on a plane to Africa.

Shelene met those two children, and before leaving she made a promise to them that she would do all she could to help them. Out of that experience, and her relentless passion to care for children and families in need, Shelene launched Skip1.org, a charity that brings food and clean water to impoverished children and families around the world.

The idea behind Skip1.org is simple; by skipping one small luxury, and donating that money instead, undernourished people can be given food and water. 100% of all public donations go to the acquisition and distribution of food and water projects worldwide.

Shelene is also the author of Love, Skip, Jump: Start Living the Adventure of Yes, in which she encourages readers to say yes to uncomfortable journeys and rich adventures. Becoming uncomfortable can be a start to new innovations, she believes, and each of us are just one yes away from changing everything.  Copies of Shelene's book will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

Dr. Nina Vasan is a physician at Stanford completing her Residency in Psychiatry, and is the author of the #1 Amazon Best Seller Do Good Well: Your Guide to Leadership, Action, and Social Innovation, which was praised by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus as "the primer for social innovation."
Dr. Vasan spent nearly a decade working on the comprehensive, 500+ page book that guides readers to maximize their impact in solving social problems. The impetus for writing Do Good Well came from Dr. Vasan's experience as a young social entrepreneur and activist working with the American Cancer Society; she launched a nationwide network of teenage ACS volunteers that had a few years of celebrated success, but ultimately scaled too quickly and was not sustainable. Recognizing that too often good intentions and good ideas do not translate into lasting results, Dr. Vasan and co-author Jennifer Przybylo used their background as scientists to create a method for social innovation built around three core principles: Do What Works, Work Together, and Make It Last.
Since its publication in spring, Do Good Well has been adopted by college and graduate classes from Harvard to Hong Kong. The book is being used by one of the world's largest asset management companies to improve their corporate social responsibility and philanthropy initiatives.
Dr. Vasan and the Do Good Well team are now building upon the book to create an organization that has offered mentorship, funding, and space to share best practices to young leaders; they have lectured at schools and led trainings on the Do Good Well method for foundations committed to developing startup entrepreneurs, public servants, and nonprofit leaders, furthering the Do Good Well mission to help turn idealism into impact.

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times Bestselling Business Paperback, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America's #1 Wine Brand. They started in their laundry room in 1986 and created a nationwide bestselling wine label. With virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles and create new markets.
They pioneered "Worthy Cause Marketing" and performance-based compensation. Their comprehensive view of customer service resulted in the National Hot Brand Award for outstanding sales growth in 2003 and 2004. In 2005 they successfully sold the brand to E&J Gallo. Since then, they have consulted Fortune 500's and start-ups alike. One of their clients just made the 2013 Inc 500 list of fastest growing companies.
They were recipients of the 2014 Distinguished Entrepreneur Speaker Award from the Turner School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Bradley University. They were the keynote speakers for for the 2014 World Conference on Entrepreneurship (ICSB) in Dublin, Ireland and were also the 2014 SOCAP Symposium (Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals in Business).

Fueled by his desire to redeem the values of the media while educating audiences on how to use discernment in selecting their entertainment, MOVIEGUIDE® Founder and Publisher Ted Baehr spoke as the keynote at the 4th installment of the Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series event on Thursday, May 10, 2012.

Baehr digs deeply into the moral content, theology and worldviews of the movies, videos and television programs reviewed by MOVIEGUIDE. He is an engaging resource on how to teach children and adult students to be media wise, including emerging media such as Facebook and Twitter.

Dr. Baehr has used his 40 years of research on the media and culture to create a non-profit that is the only active liaison between studio executives and the general public for issues of family entertainment and faith.

Dr. Ted Baehr is Founder and Publisher of MOVIEGUIDE®: The Family Guide to Movies and Entertainment and Chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission® ministry, as well as a noted critic, educator, lecturer, and media pundit. Dr. Baehr was president of the organization that produced The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe for CBS-TV in 1980, boasting 37 million viewers and winning an Emmy Award. He has also has produced hundreds of programs for PBS television.

Dr. Baehr is Chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission® ministry (CFTVC), a non-profit organization dedicated to redeeming the values of the mass media of entertainment by influencing the entertainment industry and by informing and equipping the general public of the impact that the mass media has on its audiences. The CFTVC is the only active liaison between studio executives and the general public for issues of family entertainment and faith.

The tradition of this event is one which focuses on inviting leading agents of change to speak to GSEP student and community members.

Thursday, September 11, 2014 - 7pm-9pm
Pamela Hawley, Founder and CEO, UniversalGiving
"Impacting the World Through Leadership: What's Your Story?"
West Los Angeles Graduate Campus - 2nd Floor, Room 203

Using her own experience, Ms. Hawley discussed ways in which anyone can seek a calling in life, face the challenges along the way, and  "choose the right ladder to climb" towards their own unique success.

As a child, Pamela Hawley was powerfully impacted by the sight of poverty. At the age of 12, Ms. Hawley began her commitment to serve her community. Today, Ms. Hawley has volunteered all over the world. Her journey of life with service at the forefront led her to create UniversalGiving™ (www.UniversalGiving.org), an award-winning nonprofit helping people to donate and volunteer with top performing organizations all over the world. Her proprietary Quality Model™ vets each organization before it becomes a part of the online UniversalGiving opportunities. UniversalGiving reflects Ms. Howley's own calling to make giving as easy as possible, for as many people as possible.

Ms. Hawley is a winner of the Jefferson Award (the Nobel Prize in Community Service), and has been invited to three Social Innovation events at the White House. UniversalGiving has been featured on the homepage of BusinessWeek,Oprah.com, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.  She was a finalist for Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award and is an Expert Blogger for Fast Company and CSRWire.  She also writes Living and Giving, a daily blog with the mission of "Inspiring Leaders to Live with Excellence and Love."

Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Rev. Danielle Williams
“Sexual Assault and Trafficking's Effect on Mental Health and Education”

In recognition of Sexual Assault Awareness month, the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series featured Minister Danielle Williams, author of From Porn To The Pulpit. Rev. Williams is the leader of “A New You Ministries,” which exists to restore, regroup and refocus the youth and women in society to overcome the destruction of the streets, human sex trafficking, and domestic abuse.  In her lecture, Rev. Williams discussed the impact sexual assault and human sex trafficking had on her mental health and education.

7-9 pm, 
West Los Angeles Graduate Campus
2nd Floor, Room 203

Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Melanie Lundquist & Joan Sullivan
The Role of Philanthropy in Revitalizing L.A.’s Public Schools

The October 5 installment of the Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series welcomed two pioneers of communities of practice, Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner.  Any field of human knowledge can be seen as a landscape of different communities of practice, each one contributing a specific perspective. Learning is then a journey through that landscape with people developing their identity in respect to different practices they encounter, join, visit, ignore, or leave. This perspective is the topic of recent developments in social learning theory. In this keynote the Wenger-Trayner's presented these developments and discussed with the audience their applicability to their work.

Etienne Wenger-Trayner is a globally recognized thought leader in the field of social learning and communities of practice. He has authored and co-authored seminal articles and books on the topic, including Situated Learning, where the term "community of practice" was coined. Beverly Wenger-Trayner is a learning consultant specializing in communities of practice and social learning systems. Her expertise encompasses both the design of learning architectures and the facilitation of processes, activities, and use of new technologies. She has published chapters and articles about learning in internationally distributed communities and co-authored a popular toolkit on social reporting. She has also been the creative director of an Open Source platform for networked communities.

In our increasingly diverse society, all practitioners need to know how to teach and reach young people of all backgrounds. What attitudes, values, dispositions, actions, and practices can help practitioners become culturally responsive?

The Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series invited Dr. Sonia Nieto, a leading authority in the field of multiculturalism and Professor Emerita of Language, Literacy and Culture in the School of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst to the West Los Angeles Graduate Campus on May 1, 2013 to address "what it takes" to be culturally responsive by highlighting her latest research with educators from around the nation .

Dr. Nieto has taught students from elementary school through doctoral studies and her research focuses on multicultural education, teacher education, and the education of Latinos, immigrants, and other students of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. She has written many journal articles and book chapters and several books on these topics including most recently Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education (6th ed, 2012, with Patty Bode), The Light in Their Eyes: Creating Multicultural Learning Communities (2nd edition, 2010), and Language, Culture, and Teaching: Critical Perspectives (2nd ed, 2010).

Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and educators in the United States.  Wise, who was named one of "25 Visionaries Who are Changing Your World," by Utne Reader in 2010, has spoken in all 50 states of the U.S., on more than 800 college and high school campuses, and to community groups across the nation. He has also lectured internationally in Canada and Bermuda on issues of comparative racism, race and education, racism and religion, and racism in the labor market.

Wise is the author of six books, including Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority and White Like Me (updated and re-released), both of which will be available for purchase and signing.

This lecture and Q&A on Thursday, October 25, focused on the harmful effects of racism and privilege. Wise will delineated the difference between individual prejudice and institutional bias and how stereotypes impact daily decision making.

The Story of Modern-Day Slave Hunters:
Human Trafficking, Task Force Mentoring, Psychological Well-Being

At a time when more people than ever before are enslaved somewhere on the planet, Aaron Cohen is a slave hunter – working to find and free human beings from various forms of bondage. Cohen and his Abolish Slavery Coalition co-founder and executive director, Richard Leger, are unique assets to government agencies, think tanks, and anti-slavery organizations.

Cohen navigates the oppressive territory of pimps and drug lords. Posing as a sex tourist, he slips into brothels, urged by madams to select from a lineup of women and girls as young as six. Sometimes he can save them from their captors, but more often than not he must leave them behind, taking only the evidence he hopes will eventually lead to their rescue.

Leger is a trained weapon's specialist who utilizes this knowledge to manage and consult with governmental and non-governmental security before, during and after covert field investigations to safely rescue enslaved trafficking victims around the world.

Aaron Cohen with a slave's baby redeemed for $50.00.

On Thursday, September 6, 2012 students, faculty, alumni, and guests were afforded a personal look into the plight of human trafficking.

Fueled by his desire to redeem the values of the media while educating audiences on how to use discernment in selecting their entertainment, MOVIEGUIDE® Founder and Publisher Ted Baehr spoke as the keynote at the 4th installment of the Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series event on Thursday, May 10, 2012.

Baehr digs deeply into the moral content, theology and worldviews of the movies, videos and television programs reviewed by MOVIEGUIDE. He is an engaging resource on how to teach children and adult students to be media wise, including emerging media such as Facebook and Twitter.

Dr. Baehr has used his 40 years of research on the media and culture to create a non-profit that is the only active liaison between studio executives and the general public for issues of family entertainment and faith.

Dr. Ted Baehr is Founder and Publisher of MOVIEGUIDE®: The Family Guide to Movies and Entertainment and Chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission® ministry, as well as a noted critic, educator, lecturer, and media pundit. Dr. Baehr was president of the organization that produced The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe for CBS-TV in 1980, boasting 37 million viewers and winning an Emmy Award. He has also has produced hundreds of programs for PBS television.

Dr. Baehr is Chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission® ministry (CFTVC), a non-profit organization dedicated to redeeming the values of the mass media of entertainment by influencing the entertainment industry and by informing and equipping the general public of the impact that the mass media has on its audiences. The CFTVC is the only active liaison between studio executives and the general public for issues of family entertainment and faith.

The tradition of this event is one which focuses on inviting leading agents of change to speak to GSEP student and community members.

Dr. Lois Lee, a pioneer in saving children who are victims of human sex trafficking addressed a crowd of graduate students, faculty, and members of the community at the February 21, 2012 installment of the Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series hosted by the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology. Lee is the founder and president of Children of the Night, the only comprehensive program in North America devoted to children who have been forced into prostitution to survive.

(Right to Left, Dr. Anat Cohen, Dr. Lois Lee, Dean Margaret Weber, Dr. Robert deMayo.)

Lee has devoted her life to rescuing America's children from the horrors of prostitution, abandoning a promising career as a scholar and social policy expert to protect and advocate for these voiceless children. In 1979, she created Children of the Night hotline. Today, that 24-hour hotline receives 10,000 calls a year and is the only nationwide hotline staffed by skilled workers who have been taught how to communicate with law enforcement, rescue children from pimps and prepare them to testify in court.

In 1981 she opened the first walk-in crisis center for children in Hollywood, which became a model for similar programs aiding street children all over the country. In 1992, Lee opened the Children of the Night home. It accommodates up to 24 residents at a time and provides shelter, an on-site school, individual case management, wholesome recreational outings, and a chance to experience the childhood they never had in a nurturing environment.

In the last two decades, she has raised over $40 million to provide these crucial services, as well as case management and college placement for many of the program's graduates. And her track record is impressive - Children of the Night graduates have gone on to become lawyers, executives and educators, among other professions.

Lee's trail-blazing humanitarian efforts have led the fight for the rights of one of the world's most unfortunate and discriminated-against populations. She continues to lead the field in the treatment of child prostitutes. Social service providers come from all over the world to observe Lee's ground-breaking work and visit the Children of the Night home - which is a model for similar programs in the U.S. and abroad. She has been sponsored by other countries -Japan, Romania, Mexico, Canada - to assist in developing such programs.

The tradition of this event is one which focuses on inviting leading agents of change to speak to GSEP student and community members.

How to Improve Your Bottom Line through Social Responsibility

The second installment of the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology's (GSEP) Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series event hosted a panel discussion on social responsibility in the corporate environment.

Included in the panel were Rick Crandall, Director of Sustainability for the Southern California Division Albertsons; Zafar J. Brooks, Director of Governmental Affairs, Corporate Social Responsibility and Diversity and Inclusion for Hyundai Motor America; and Jay Bell, Senior Vice President for TELACU Construction Management who sat in for Dr. David C. Lizárraga, President and CEO of TELACU/Millennium and Founder and Chair of TELACU Education Foundation.

Leading the discussion was moderator Dr. Steve Kirnon, Adjunct Professor in GSEP's Social Entrepreneurship and Change Master's program, who has more than 25 years of operational experience in biomedical organizations.

The evening of networking and lively discussion was kicked off with a mixer hosted by GSEP in partnership with the Culver City and Santa Monica Chambers of Commerce.

Each panelist brought their real-world examples of initiatives that not only impact their business, but the community as well.

The Global Rise of Social Enterprise

The inaugural Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series event welcomed Mr. Jerr Boschee, executive director of The Institute for Social Entrepreneurs. He served as CEO of the Social Enterprise Alliance, the largest membership organization for social entrepreneurs in North America. He and five others co-founded the Alliance in 1997 as The National Gathering for Social Entrepreneurs.

Boschee address more than 100 attendees at the Rave Motion Pictures Theater, with his  presentation, titled The Global Rise of Social Enterprise. He focused on the characteristics separating social innovation from social enterprise; a panoramic view of how the social enterprise industry evolved, including its origins in the private sector and its emergence in the nonprofit sector 30 years later; the five distinct sectors in the social enterprise industry today; the single greatest danger confronting any organization seeking to launch a social enterprise; 14 critical success factors identified by the pioneers in the field; and examples of failed and successful social enterprises from a dozen countries.

Boschee has long been recognized as one of the founders of the social enterprise movement worldwide. The NonProfit Times named him to its nonprofit sector "Power & Influence Top 50" list in 2004, 2005, and 2006.

“Social enterprises go beyond the traditional concept of corporate social responsibility,” says Boschee, “by directly confronting the major unmet needs of society through businesses themselves rather than grappling with them indirectly through socially responsible practices, such as corporate philanthropy, equitable wages and the use of environmentally friendly raw materials.”

GSEP also hosted a day-time student face to face meeting with Bochee, including students from the newly established master of arts in social entrepreneurship and change program, following the speaker event.