The American Academy for Liberal Education (AALE) held annual elections on June 13, 2017. The Board of Trustees welcomes new members: Geoffrey Baum, Joshua Hochschild, Gary Kelly, and Amy Richards. Joining the Council of Scholars are Melissa Matthes and Kelly Sorensen.
Mr. Geoffrey Baum is the Director of Media Relations at the Milken Institute in Santa Monica (CA). A former C-SPAN executive producer, he has also worked for Public Radio’s Marketplace and ABC News, and served as assistant dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. Baum is a member and past president of the California Community Colleges Board of Governors and has served as a governing board member of Pasadena City College. He holds an M.A. in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in Economics and Literature from Claremont McKenna College (CA).
Mr. Joshua Hochschild is Monsignor Robert R. Kline Professor of Philosophy at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg (MD). He served as inaugural Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Mount St. Mary’s University and Director of the university’s freshman liberal arts seminar, the Veritas Symposium. Hochschild is the author of The Semantics of Analogy: Rereading Cajetan’s De Nominum Analogia (University of Notre Dame Press, 2010) and co-editor of Virtue’s End (St. Augustine’s Press, 2008) and Ethics Without God? (St. Augustine’s Press, 2008). He received a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame (IN) and a B.A from Yale University (CT).
Mr. Gary Kelly is a private consultant, attorney and political scientist who resides in New York (NY). He has held assignments for the Asian Development Bank, the United States Agency for International Development and the World Bank. Kelly served as a consultant in the formulation of the successful World Trade Organization accession strategy for Georgia, and creator of a World Bank model for civil society input into parliamentary process in Albania in the development of reform legislation. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Fordham University (NY), a JD from the University of Maryland School of Law, and a B.A. from the University of Maryland-College Park.
Ms. Amy Richards is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Templeton Honors College-Eastern University in Saint Davids (PA). Her area of specialization is Ethics. Richards’ administrative responsibilities include the design and implementation of a new M.A.T. in Classical Education at Templeton Honors College and admissions assessment for Templeton Honors College and its Summer Scholars Program. She holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Virginia, and a B.A. in Biochemistry and Philosophy from Eastern University-Templeton Honors College (PA).
Ms. Melissa Matthes is Professor of Government and Humanities at the US Coast Guard Academy in New London (CT), where she teaches courses in the History of Political Theory, African American Political Thought (Modern), Religion and Politics, Feminist Political Thought, and Women, Religion and Globalization. She is the author of The Rape of Lucretia and the Founding of Republics: Readings in Livy, Machiavelli, and Rousseau (Penn State Press, 2000). She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Foote School (CT). Matthes received a Ph.D. from the University of California-Santa Cruz, a M.Div. from Yale Divinity School (CT) and a B.A. from Williams College (MA).
Mr. Kelly Sorensen is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion, and Assistant Dean at Ursinus College in Collegeville (PA). He teaches and writes about ethical theory, biomedical ethics, environmental ethics, and metaethics. His work has appeared in The Journal of Philosophy, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, Kantian Review, the Journal of Moral Philosophy, Bioethics, Neuroethics, Criminal Justice Ethics, and the Journal of Medical Ethics. Sorensen holds a Ph.D. from Yale University, a M.S. from the University of Utah, and a B.S. from Brigham Young University (UT).
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