Academy Award Winning Actress Marlee Matlin To Kick Off Upper St. Clair Lecture Series

UPPER ST. CLAIR, PA - Academy award-winning actress Marlee Matlin will be among the speakers at this year’s Town Hall South lecture series held at the Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Town Hall South is a philanthropic organization dedicated to bringing nationally and internationally acclaimed lecturers to the Pittsburgh’s South Hills. It was founded in 1969 as an outreach program of the church.

The lineup for the 2017-18 series:

• Marlee Matlin, Oct. 3.

Matlin received critical acclaim for her film debut in “Children of a Lesser God,” for which she received the Academy Award for best actress. She lost her hearing when she was 18 months old and has helped raise awareness for better hearing health for millions of deaf and hard of hearing children and adults in developing countries. She currently serves as a spokesperson for The American Red Cross and was instrumental in getting legislation passed in Congress in support of Closed Captioning.

• Michael Sandel, Nov. 7

Sandel, a Harvard political philosopher and bestselling author, challenges audiences to examine ethical dilemmas they confront in politics and their everyday lives.His lectures have been the subject of television series on PBS and the BBC. His ongoing BBC Radio series “The Public Philosopher”, engages audiences in debates about the big philosophical questions lying behind the headlines.

• Tom Gjelten, Dec. 5.

Gjelten is a veteran journalist who covers a wide variety of global security and economic issues for NPR News. Over a 30-year career, he has covered wars in Central America, the Middle East, and the former Yugoslavia, as well as major stories in the United States. He is a regular panelist on the PBS program “Washington Week,” a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the Editorial Board at World Affairs Journal.

• Theresa Payton, Feb. 6

ayton is one of America’s most respected authorities on Internet security, data breaches, fraud mitigation, and technology implementation. The first female to serve as White House Chief Information Officer, Payton oversaw IT operations for the president and his staff from 2006–2008. She is founder and CEO of Fortalice LLC, a leading security, risk, and fraud consulting company.

• Fabien Cousteau, March 6

As the first grandson of Jacques Cousteau, Cousteau spent his early years aboard his grandfather’s ships, learning how to scuba dive on his 4th birthday. Today, the aquanaut, business strategist, and documentary filmmaker continues to fulfill his family’s legacy of protecting and preserving the planet’s extensive and endangered marine inhabitants and habitats. In 2016, he founded the Fabien Cousteau Ocean Learning Center dedicated to the restoration of the world’s water bodies through active community engagement and education.

Matlin photo via Town Hall South.