Moderator

• Lehigh Valley Public Media

  Lehigh Valley Public Media is the home to PBS39 and WLVR News.

Participants

• 
  Jen Rehill

  Panelist

  Jen Rehill is the moderator of the evening's discussion. Jen brings fifteen years of media experience to WLVR at stations such as WHYY, WITF, WHP, WVIA, WQLN and WDUQ. She has worked as a program producer, reporter, podcast producer, host and Pennsylvania State Capitol Bureau Chief, where she helped craft a new bureau and news service with coverage on state politics and national elections. Jen has garnered journalism awards from the Radio and Television News Directors Association, Pennsylvania AP Broadcasters Association, The Society of Professional Journalists and Public Radio News Directors, Inc. She once scored a regional Edward R. Murrow award for a feature report on women’s roller derby.

• 
  Bill George

  Panelist

  Co-Founder Touchstone Theatre - Bill received his B.A. in English Literature from Lehigh University and his M.F.A. in Acting/Directing from the Dallas Theatre Centre of Trinity University. He studied mime with Paul Curtis of The American Mime Theatre, NYC; founded the People’s Theatre Company in 1977; and later co-founded Touchstone Theatre in 1981 where he was Producing Director until 1990. During a hiatus from Touchstone in 1996, Bill created Little Pond Arts Retreat in Nazareth, Pennsylvania with his wife Bridget–a retreat center dedicated to exploring the art of transcendence–and toured to Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, and throughout Canada and the United States with his original dramas: The Kingfisher’s Wing and The Marriage of Munirih Khanum.

• 
  Candece Tarpley

  Panelist

  Candece is of the Sissipahaw, Tuscarora, and Tsalagi Nations. She is a Playwright, Poet, Storyteller, Actress, and Champion Powwow Dancer, writing and performing since childhood. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild, National Association of Black Storytellers, SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and ASCAP (American Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers). She is the Producer/Host for her show “Pathways to the Dream Lodge Café” a cable television show which can also be seen on YouTube. She is also a Teaching Artist and Craftsperson working in many schools, Museums and events around the New York, New Jersey and Long Island areas. Her crafts work has been in the Museum of Natural History, The Children’s Cultural Center of Native America as well as her being a puppeteer at the Center.

• 
  Deirdre Van Walters

  Panelist

  Deirdre is an actor, playwright, poet and veteran of the US Army. Ensemble work was introduced as a member of the Paul Robeson Black Arts Ensemble, Rutgers University. She has studied and performed throughout the NY, NJ, PA, CT areas. Some of her recent roles were, Lady in Brown, For Colored Girls..by Ntozake Shange; Angel, in Marisol by Jose Rivera; and Magdelena, in the Hidden Seed, Bethlehem's Lost Utopia, written by S. Moglen and W. George. Prior to the pandemic, she was scheduled to perform the role of Marianne Angelle in The Revolutionists, by Lauren Gunderson. She often works with pre high school students to help them find, own and express their voice and in 2018, was awarded her local NAACPs "Celebrating the Arts' Award. She actively serves as President to Basement Poetry, a nonprofit, social activists theatre ensemble based in Bethlehem, PA.