Featured Presenters | Session Presenters | Masterclass Presenters

IAM is pleased to present a diverse and vibrant selection of leading culture creators, artists, and speakers from around the world during the three inspiring evening plenaries and featured sessions at Encounter 09.

Billy Collins

Billy Collins was born in New York City in 1941. He is the author of several books of poetry, including Ballistics (2008), She Was Just Seventeen (2006), The Trouble with Poetry (2005); Nine Horses (2002); and Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (2001). In 2001, Collins was named U.S. Poet Laureate. His other honors and awards include fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. More »

Limón Dance

Acclaimed for its dramatic expression, technical mastery and expansive, yet nuanced movement, the Limón Dance Company illustrates the timelessness of José Limón’s work and vision. Founded in 1946 by José Limón and Doris Humphrey, the Company is now led by Carla Maxwell, who worked closely with Limón before becoming Artistic Director in 1978. The Company’s repertory, which balances classic works with commissions from contemporary choreographers, is of an unparalleled breadth, creating unique experiences for audiences around the world. More »

Helen Sung

Pianist Helen Sung has been called “one of the brightest emerging stars in jazz today.” Her music is described as “marvelously imaginative,” “astonishing;” and her CD Helenistique (Fresh Sound Records) was praised as “…one of the year’s most exciting listens.” (JazzTimes). She revently won the Kennedy Center’s 2007 Mary Lou Williams Piano Competition. More »

Nicholas Wolterstorff

Nicholas Wolterstorff was the Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale University, and taught at Yale from 1989 until he retired in June 2002. Previously, he taught at Calvin College, the Free University of Amsterdam, and the University of Notre Dame and was visiting professor at several institutions. After concentrating on metaphysics at the beginning of his career (On Universals), he spent many years working primarily on aesthetics and art philosophy (Works and Worlds of Art, Art in Action). More »

Eva Flatscher

Eva Flatscher is a Viennese painter and performer, working in an avant-garde combination of painting, dance and music known as LIGHTPAINTING. She performs frequently with renowned musicians from differing backgrounds (classical, jazz, new music) and performs with dance and other stage performers. She has performed LIGHTPAINTING throughout Europe.

Ljova and the Kontraband

LJOVA AND THE KONTRABAND (formerly Ljova & the Vjola Contraband) - is chamber-jam music for the "remix generation". As if by alchemy, Eastern-European and Gypsy melodies, Latin rhythms, Jazz-inspired improvisations, and deeply rooted Classical forms are given new meanings in original compositions that fearlessly forge a new direction, with a nostalgic gaze towards the past.

Makoto Fujimura

Makoto Fujimura (born in 1960 in Boston, USA), a 21st Century Contemporary Artist, studied extensively in the U.S. during the 1980s and 90’s, graduating with a B.A. from Bucknell University. He later studied in a traditional Japanese painting doctorate program for several years at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. His lengthy arts education bore fruit with a fusion between fine art and abstract expressionism together with the traditional Japanese art of Nihonga. Makoto is the founder of International Arts Movement. More »

Alice Rhee

Alice Rhee is a two-time Emmy award winning television producer who has covered breaking news and special events for NBC News and MSNBC for over a decade. From 2000 to 2004, Rhee was a national political producer and field producer for "The News with Brian Williams" and "The News" on MSNBC and CNBC. In the past decade, her assignments have taken her around the country as well as overseas. She worked as a field producer at the crash of TWA 800, the Columbine High School shootings, the Oklahoma City bombing trial, the execution of Timothy McVeigh, and the 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush.

Susan Isaacs

Susan is an actress and writer with many TV and film credits. She's an alumnus of The Groundlings and holds an MFA in screenwriting from USC. She's read her essays on Weekend America, published on Fresh Yarn, Infuze, and Burnside Writers Collective; and written specials for DirecTV hosted by Amy Grant and Darrell Waltrip. Susan teaches for Act One, and was recently chosen to receive a writing fellowship from Art Within. More »

David Sacks

David is a photographer whose client list includes The New York Times Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, and the Hard Rock Cafe. He has won many awards for his photography, and has shot in over twenty countries. His exhibition "Portraits of Hope," featuring photographs taken in Africa, supports the work of Covenant Mercies, which serves AIDS orphans in Uganda, Ethiopia, and Zambia. For more information on David, visit www.davidsacks.com. .

Roberta Ahmanson

Roberta Green Ahmanson is a writer and philanthropist whose public activities are focused on deepening awareness and understanding of the role of religion in public life, the importance of knowing history to understand the present, and the vital role the arts play in shaping human experience.

Steve Garber

A teacher of many people in many places, Steven Garber is the director of The Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation, and Culture. A professor for many years particularly interested in the relationship of political culture to popular culture, he authored The Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief and Behavior, and is a frequent contributor to various journals. Married to Meg, they have five children and are members of The Falls Church in Virginia.

Nigel Goodwin

Nigel is Chaplain to the Arts for Encounter 09. He trained as an actor and worked in film, television and theatre before combining this experience with a theological training. His background enables him to understand and encourage those in the arts and media.

Dick Staub

Dick Staub is an experienced broadcaster, writer and public speaker, a thoughtful observer of belief in contemporary culture. Staub is particularly fascinated with America's spiritual quest which today is often unlinked from organized religion. He believes there is a vibrant ongoing conversation about "ideas that matter" and belief going on in today's popular culture through movies, books, theatre and music. In 2006 Dick launched "The Kindlings Muse", a podcast (heard at www.thekindlings.com) of "intelligent, imaginative, hospitable explorations of ideas that matter in contemporary life."