Enthusiastic Brights (Page 2)
Michael Shermer
Michael Shermer is a science writer, founder and publisher of Skeptic magazine, the director of the Skeptics Society, host of the Skeptics Lecture Series at Caltech, Senior Research Fellow at Claremont Graduate University , Adjunct Professor at Chapman University, and the author of many works including The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies – How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths Why We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science, Why People Believe Weird Things, and The Science of Good and Evil. He has a column in Scientific American. Visit the Skeptic website , and read his bio as the Director of the Skeptic .
Penn & Teller
This talented pair has a way of presenting complex ideas in a simple and fun way--all on their own distinctively offbeat terms--via stage, television, three best-selling books, numerous articles, and "Bullshit!” (an Emmy-nominated program that had tackled the frauds and fakes behind such topics as talking to the dead, alien abductions, feng shui, and yes, even religion). The pair received rave reviews for their Off Broadway show and Emmy award-winning PBS special, “Penn & Teller Go Public.” Their understanding of magic and ability to relate to audiences has also garnered serious academic attention (they served as visiting scholars at MIT and have lectured at Oxford University and the Smithsonian Institution). In 2001, Penn & Teller received the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award. Their Web address is www.pennandteller.com.
Kevin Schultz
Kevin lives in Sacramento and, before switching to his current employment position with the State of California (he is a programmer), he volunteered his time to maintain an online presence for several nonprofit groups based in Sacramento including the-brights.net, Freethought Day: "A Celebration of Reason, Freethought, and Church/State Separation," the local chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Atheists and Other Freethinkers. Nowadays, when not tweaking bits and bytes for his job or the-brights.net, he enjoys hiking and exploring nearby scenic areas and historical monuments.
Theo Skye
Theo has been a skeptic from an early age, and he registered as a Bright right away when he first learned of the movement in a Richard Dawkins article on the pages of Wired magazine. When residing in the Washington, D.C. area and creating websites of all sizes for varied clients in the public, private and non-profit sectors, Theo volunteered to design and build the site you are currently using. Theo is continually seeking out knowledge and enjoys getting to the bottom of usability issues in order to help make the Web more accessible and easier to use. Theo moved to New York City and joined with others in a startup enterprise, but he continued for a generous time to advise on technical matters when called upon in tough situations that once in a while.
Leo Igwe
Leo was the executive secretary of the Nigerian Humanist Movement and chairperson of the Center for Inquiry-Nigeria. He is also a former member of the IHEU Growth and Development Committee and Atheist Alliance International Board of Directors. Leo has authored numerous articles on African Humanism, skepticism and freethought (including in The Guardian). He has traveled to the U.S. to address the situation in Nigeria and at international gatherings and has called on the Nigerian National Assembly to honor its commitments as a signatory of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights documents. In articles that he writes, he calls for reason, common sense, thoughtfulness, knowledge, love, tolerance, human solidarity and empathy. He is now doing graduate work in Germany.
Mynga Futrell
The Brights' Net's Co-founder and current Director has been an educator at all levels of instruction, from elementary through university professor, including at Gallaudet University for the Deaf, Washington, DC. From Sacramento CA, she continues to coordinate a religion-neutral professional web resource for educators you can visit at: www.worldvieweducation.org. Mynga has served on the national advisory council of Americans United and currently does serve the 3Rs (rights, respect, responsibility) religious liberty project for teachers. She stays active in freethought organizations at local, national, and international levels. While president of her local group in 2002, she started an annual October Freethought Day outdoor fair that continues today and draws attendance from a large area, including San Francisco. Her primary advocacy is for civic justice and pluralism. As its co-chair for ten years, she has transformed a "freethought-focused" Darwin Day in Sacramento into a community-wide "science education event" with university and college co-sponsorship.
August E. Brunsman IV
August has been a leader in the campus freethought movement since he co-founded Students For Freethought at the Ohio State University and served as its president from the summer of 1997 to the summer of 2000. The group grew to be one of the largest and most successful campus freethought groups in the U.S. He has been a Camp Quest counselor since 1999 and now serves as Camp Director. Since 2001, August has been Executive Director of the Secular Student Alliance, which educates high school and college students around the U.S. about the value of scientific reason and the intellectual basis of secularism. He has been instrumental in bringing American youth to the humanist movement and keeping them involved.
Robert McNally
For over 25 years, Robert's professional mission has been to create computer software that is fun, beautiful, or useful. Robert also loves to teach, whether the subject is computers, juggling, or secular studies-- and he's always up for a good debate. That's why he started Tracking the Bright Idea on his web site until Google made it so easy (you'll still find comments there from all over the Web on the very beginnings of The Brights)..
Marilyn LaCourt
This Bright from Wisconsin is a former marriage and family counselor with over 25 years of clinical experience. She has published more than a hundred essays on parenting, relationships, and mental health issues. Author of The Prize (a novel about bullies and victims), she now writes a column for fun in her local press. Says Marilyn: "I wasn't born a bright. Like everyone else, my brain didn't come automatically equipped with a worldview. The worldview I was benevolently inducted into was Christian. It took a lot of reading, studying, and questioning before I was able to achieve my enlightenment. I'm proud of my accomplishment. That's the best reason I can think of for coming out of the closet. Those who know me consider me to be a good and moral person. That's another reason for wearing my worldview proudly." She takes "A Look on the Bright Side of Social and Religious Issues" in one of her essays.
Hemant Mehta
Hemant is currently the chair of the Secular Student Alliance board of directors, but he may be better known as the guy who "sold his soul on eBay" when he offered to go to the church of the highest bidder's choosing in early 2006. Since the auction, Hemant has appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Sun-Times, and Seattle Times, as well as featured on Fox News Channel and the journal Leadership. His popular blog is called the "Friendly Atheist" and his book I Sold My Soul on eBay came out in 2007.
