Discovery & Enrichment Series

And here is a quick overview of our presentations from the 2024-2025 season:

• Brewster Schools: A Legacy of Learning.

  Presented by Katherine Atwater and Kierstyn Bohl. Kierstyn Bohl is a middle- and high-school teacher with MAs degrees in history and educational leadership. Her thesis on sea captains and the maritime trade on Cape Cod was inspired by her volunteer work at the Brewster Historical Society. Katherine Atwater is an upper-elementary school educator with MA in teaching. Previously she was an arts administrator for institutions including the New England Conservatory and the Boston Opera Company.

• Seashells & Shared Spaces: Shellfish Aquaculture in Brewster.

  Abigail Franklin Archer is a Fisheries & Aquaculture Specialist at Cape Cod Cooperative Extension & Woods Hole Sea Grant. For the 2024-2025 year, she has been President of the Southern New England Chapter of the American Fisheries Society. She has an MS in Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

• Frances Amesbury: Sailing the China Sea Trade Routes 1892-1906.

  Barbara Semple is a South Chatham resident, researcher, and docent at Atwood Museum. She spent most of her career before retirement as a children’s librarian in public school, public library, and private school settings.

• The Evolving Determination of Death.

  Dr. Delmonico is Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He practiced as an organ transplant surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital for more than 40 years; has been the Chief Medical Officer of the New England Bank for the past 30 years; and has served as an Advisor to the World Health Organization. He was appointed by Pope Francis to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 2016.

• Osprey: Egg Incubation, Chick Rearing and Wild Fostering.

  Stephanie Ellis is the Executive Director of Wild Care, a wildlife rehabilitation hospital located in Eastham. She has a special affinity for birds and mice and has worked extensively in the fields of wildlife rehabilitation and avian conservation on both U.S. coasts.

• Trees & Forests: The Role of Trees In Our Past, Present, and Future.

  Jim Rassman of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. He presented scientific information on our changing relationship with trees and their crucial role in the ecosystem.

• The Pelvis Party: A Candid, Joyful Dive into Pelvic Wellness.

  Jaymie Adachi, NP, is a Board Certified Family Nurse Practitioner whose work has taken her around the world and given her a broad perspective on mental, physical, and emotional health. She brings this perspective to the women and families she is privileged to care for on Cape Cod with the aim of maximizing not just lifespan but “healthspan”.

• Water Quality: The Status of and Threats to the Town’s Ponds and Drinking Water.

  Presented by Kimberly Crocker Pearson, Scientist, and Dr. Laurel Schaider, Environmental Engineer. Kimberly Crocker Pearson chairs the Brewster Natural Resources Advisory Commission and is a member of Brewster’s Water Resources Task Force. Laurel Schaider is a Senior Scientist at the Silent Spring Institute.

• Coastal Erosion: Adapting To the Shifting Sands of the Cape.

  The program included a showing of the film No Refuge: Cape Cod’s Climate Crisis. It was followed by a panel discussion with filmmakers Tim Wood and Jan Crocker, and Mark Borrelli of the Center for Coastal Studies.

• Managing Your Cognitive Health.

  Dr. Molly Perdue is the Co-founder and Executive Director of the Alzheimer’s Family Support Center (AFSC). She holds an MA, MS, and PhD. She has been working with families and individuals dealing with cognitive disease since 2009, and is a frequent speaker and lecturer, and writer about Alzheimer’s and dementia issues, caregiving, and cognitive health.

• What Happened in the 2024 Election? A Talk with Elaine Kamarck.

  Dr. Elaine Kamarck is a Senior Fellow at Brookings Institute and Director of the Center for Effective Public Management. She lectured at the Kennedy School for seventeen years, and is the author of five books. She is frequently quoted in national newspapers and appears on national television.

• Trust Me, I'm a Journalist!

  Andrew Heyward is a nationally known news executive, award-winning broadcast news producer, and expert on the changing media landscape. He is a senior advisor at the Center for Constructive Communication at MIT, and professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

  Heyward was President of CBS News from January 1996-November 2005. Before that, he was executive producer of The CBS Evening News, developed and launched the weekly primetime program 48 Hours, and held other positions at CBS News. He started out in broadcast journalism right out of college, working his way up over nine years at two local TV newsrooms in New York City; he is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard with a degree in History and Literature.

• Youth Suicide: How Is Our Community Responding?

  Presented by Dr. Bart Main, M.D., and Dr. Kim Mead-Walters, M.D. They are local physicians with expertise in this topic, and they shared information about the actions our community is taking to reduce suicide risk.

• The Electoral College, Its Origins and Contemporary Impact.

  Dick Stewart recently retired from a long tenure as a history teacher at Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut. He presented an overview of the role that the Electoral College has played in presidential elections.

• Immigration: A Complex Issue.

  Presented by Rachel M. Self, Immigration Attorney & Legal Analyst. She is the attorney who made first contact with the Venezuelans who were flown to Martha’s Vineyard in 2022 and who are now suing the governor of Florida and arguing that they were wrongly transported across state lines.

• Wing Island: History Revealed Through Archaeology.

  Dr. Frederick Dunford is a Horticulture Specialist in the English village at the Plimoth Patuxet Museums. Prior to that he was the museum archaeologist at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History. He has a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Harvard University and a master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Massachusetts.