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Daniel D’Amico

State Sanctioned Violence and the Social Effects of Incarceration

Daniel J. D’Amico completed his economics Ph.D. from George Mason University in 2008. His research has been published in a variety of scholarly outlets including Public Choice, Advances in Austrian Economics, The Journal of Private Enterprise, the Review of Austrian Economics, the Erasmus Journal of Philosophy and Economics, and forthcoming in the Journal of Comparative Economics. Daniel is currently a visiting professor of Political Science at The Political Theory Project at Brown University and also The William Barnett Professor of Free Enterprise Studies and Associate Professor of Economics at Loyola University in New Orleans where he has received awards for teaching, research, and service. His current research is focused upon the applied political economy of punishment and incarceration throughout history and around the world. Daniel adheres to the fundamental belief that ideas matter.

Rachel Davison

Seminar: Isabel Paterson’s “The Humanitarian with the Guillotine”

Rachel Davison is a Co-founder of The Libertia Society and the lead middle school teacher at Acton Academy Guatemala in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Rachel has received her Orientation of Adolescent Studies from the Association Montessori Internationale, the premier international Montessori teaching certificate. For the past five years she has worked as the lead teacher for groups of up to 80 students. Prior to her work in education Rachel spent several years working in fundraising and development in Washington DC for the Philanthropy Roundtable and Ashoka, Innovators for the Public. Rachel has presented for and worked with many educational organizations including the North American Montessori Teacher’s Association Annual Conference; Association for Private Enterprise Education Annual Conference; Great Hearts Academies; Acton Academies; Reason, Individualism & Freedom Institute; Students for Liberty; Ladies of Liberty Alliance.

Mimi Gladstein

Freedom as a Feminist Goal

Mimi R. Gladstein is a Professor of English and Theatre Arts at the University of Texas at El Paso.  She has written four books about Ayn Rand and co-edited Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand with Chris Sciabarra.  Her other scholarly works include The Last Supper of Chicano Heroes: Selected Works of Jose Antonio Burciaga,  an American Book Award and Latino Book Award winner as well as The Indestructible Woman in Faulkner, Hemingway, and Steinbeck.  Gladstein teaches regularly in the IHS Summer Seminar program, “Exploring Liberty.”  She helped found and was the first Director of the Women Studies Program at U.T.E.P.  Her work for Women’s Rights earned her a place in the El Paso Commission for Women Hall of Fame.

Christy Horpedahl

Seminar: Voltairine de Cleyre’s “In Defense of Emma Goldman and the Right of Expropriation”

Christy Horpedahl is Co-founder of The Libertia Society and is an adjunct faculty member at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, IA, where she has taught courses on censorship, utopias, dystopias, and intentional communities. She has taught in the Gender and Women’s Studies program and lectured on the causes of the gender pay gap. Prior to coming to BVU, she received her MA from the University of Chicago with a focus on the intersection of economics and psychology. She is also vice-president of the Storm Lake Public Library Board and the President of the Storm Lake branch of the American Association of University Women.

Jeremy Horpedahl

Economic Freedom – Even More Important for Women!

Jeremy Horpedahl is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. Starting in the fall of 2015, he will be an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Arkansas and affiliated with the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from George Mason University in 2009, concentrating in public choice, public finance, and economic history. His research has been published in Constitutional Political Economy, The Atlantic Economic Journal, and Public Finance and Management. He has also written several working papers and policy briefs for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and has written op-eds for US News and World Report, Yahoo! Finance, and The Des Moines Register.

Angela Keaton

Whose Body is it Anyway? Women’s Search for Freedom, Privacy & Autonomy

Angela Keaton is the Director of Operations for Antiwar.com. She’s been a radio station manager, a professional grad student, and a term paper mill.

Angela Keaton is the Director of Operations for Antiwar.com. She’s been a radio station manager, a professional grad student, and a term paper mill.

Tracy Lawson

Liberty and Individualism in Dystopian Literature

Tracy Lawson knew she wanted to be a writer from the time she could read. While working toward her bachelor’s degree in communication at Ohio University, she studied creative writing with Daniel Keyes, author of Flowers for Algernon. After short stints as a media buyer and an investigative analyst, she settled into a twenty-year career in the performing arts, teaching tap dancing and choreographing musicals. Though her creative energies were focused on dance, she never lost her desire to write. She now has to her credit a nonfiction history book, Fips, Bots, Doggeries, and More (McDonald & Woodward, 2012) and Counteract, the first volume in the young adult dystopian Resistance Series. Resist, the second volume in the series, is slated for release in July 2015.

Robert Anthony Peters

Representations of Women in Art: A Force for Freedom

Robert Anthony Peters completed his BS at the University of Arizona in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, was a Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow in DC, and trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in NYC. As a member of SAG-AFTRA, he has been acting, producing, and directing professionally in theater, film, voiceover, and more for over a decade. He has been an active libertarian for even longer. Currently he lectures on the relationship between art and liberty as well as works with academics on getting ready for on camera work, speaking at several Students For Liberty events, the State Policy Network annual conference, APEE, FreedomFest, Arizona FreedomFest, Coins in the Kingdom, the Hero’s Journey Conference, Libertopia, PORCfest, FEE seminars, Institute for Liberal Studies Summer Seminar series, and the Free Minds Film Festival. He is president of Laissez Faire Media and the Culture of Liberty Institute and a producer with Ozymandias Media – purveyor of top quality web content for freedom oriented think tanks and businesses. He records audiobooks for Laissez Faire Books, is a policy advisor for the Heartland Institute, and is on the inaugural FEE Alumni Board. His website is robertanthonypeters.com

Institute for Humane Studies

Kelly Barber

Kelly Barber graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Florida in May 2014. She currently manages intensive educational programs at the Institute for Humane Studies as an On-Campus Coordinator. Prior to joining IHS, Kelly served as Students For Liberty’s Manager of Communications & Marketing. Through her involvement with SFL, Kelly had the privilege of organizing the third annual Women For Liberty Summit in Washington, D.C. and served as a mentor to SFL leaders in Nepal, Kenya, Europe, and Nigeria to help them organize WFL events in their regions. In her spare time, Kelly enjoys traveling, flying trapeze, reading, and drawing.

Ladies of Liberty Alliance

Nena Whitfield

Nena Bartlett Whitfield is from Ann Arbor, Michigan and moved to Washington, DC upon completing her Master’s program in Diplomacy from Norwich University in Vermont in 2007.  She has worked at the Cato Institute and been involved with a number of political campaigns, most recently as assistant campaign manager for now junior Senator Rand Paul. After the 2010 elections, Nena joined Senator Paul in his Washington, DC office as a Legislative Aide on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. In 2013, Nena left Capitol Hill to work with LOLA full-time.  Nena is active in her community as a founding member and former Treasurer of the DC Liberty Toastmasters, Chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus of DC and the Vice President and Treasurer of the Norwich Alumni DC Chapter.

Students for Liberty

Caroline Devine

Native Texan Caroline Devine entered activism through Liberty on the Rocks Houston while finishing her four-year degree in Liberal Arts with multiple honors. Her studies focused on communications and English with a healthy dose of philosophy. She has worked as a PR and marketing consultant with a firm specializing in arts and nonprofits organizations, a freelance writer, photographer and web designer before immigrating to Belgium to study Management Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She is blog editor for the Association of Libertarian Feminists, manages the European Students for Liberty Blogging Team and is a founding member of European Women for Liberty’s Council of Women.

Noelle Mandel

Noelle Mandell is currently the Texas Programs Manager for Students For Liberty. She has been involved in SFL for a number of years: serving as a Campus Coordinator in the 2012-2013 class, South Central Regional Director and New Orleans Regional Conference Director, and finally ending her participation in a volunteer capacity as the Co-Chair of the North American Executive Board and International Executive Board Member. Beyond her work with SFL, Noelle has worked for Young Americans For Liberty and the Libre Initiative and received awards and recognition for her merit as a student leader in liberty, including the first Ron Paul Patriot Scholarship, Students For Liberty- Student of the Year Award in 2013, and LOLA Lady of the Month. In addition to her college studies and her work in the liberty movement, she is Vice President and co-organizer of Deck the Halls, a non-profit organization that creates and produces an annual parade to celebrate cultural diversity in Houston. Now attending the University of Houston, Noelle is working to complete her undergraduate degree majoring in Philosophy and Sociology. She plans to go on to graduate school and eventually teach at the collegiate level and stay involved in the nonprofit field.

Morgan Scott

Morgan Scott is a senior at Texas State University who is working towards completing her BBA in Management. She’s been a Campus Coordinator with Students For Liberty for the past year, and has been managing the Texas State Young Americans for Liberty chapter as their Vice President. She lives in San Marcos, TX with her fiance John and is expected to graduate in December, after which she will be joining the staff of a non-profit wildlife rehabilitation center.