JOIN US at the 76th Annual Conference of the American Humanist Association, June 8-11, 2017 in Charleston, SC! We’ll be honoring the following individuals who’ve contributed to the humanist community.
Adam Savage has spent his life gathering skills that allow him to take what’s in his brain and make it real. He’s built everything from ancient Buddhas to futuristic weapons, from spaceships to dancing vegetables, from fine art sculptures to animated chocolate — and just about anything else you can think of.
The son of a filmmaker/painter and a psychotherapist, Adam has been making his own toys since he was allowed to hold scissors. Having held positions as a projectionist, animator, graphic designer, carpenter, interior and stage designer, toy designer, welder, and scenic painter, he’s worked with every material and in every medium he could fathom — metal, paper, glass, plastic, rubber, foam, plaster, pneumatics, hydraulics, animatronics, neon, glassblowing, mold-making and injection molding to name just a few.
In 1993, Adam began concentrating his career on the special-effects industry, honing his skills through more than 100 television commercials and a dozen feature films, including Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Galaxy Quest, Terminator 3, A.I. and theMatrix sequels. He’s also designed props and sets for Coca-Cola, Hershey’s, Lexus and a host of New York and San Francisco theater companies.
Not only has he worked and consulted in the research and development division for toy companies and made several short films, but Adam has also acted in several films and commercials — including a Charmin ad, in which he played Mr. Whipple’s stock boy, and a Billy Joel music video, “You’re Only Human (Second Wind).”
In 2002, Adam was chosen along with Jamie Hyneman to host MythBusters, which premiered on Discovery Channel in January 2003. Fourteen years, 1,015 myths, 2,950 experiments, eight Emmy nominations and 83 miles of duct tape later, the series ended in March 2016.
Today, Adam stars in and produces digital content for Tested.com. Adam’s many regular Tested series include his One Day Builds (“Customizing Adam’s Hero Sword,” “Traveling Beaver Box”), Inside Adam’s Man Cave (“Adam’s Terminator T-800 Endoskeleton,” “Blade Runner Blaster Obsession”) and Untitled: The Adam Savage Project, a podcast with Will Smith and Norman Chan. Adam’s occasional series for Tested is called The Talking Room, in which he interviews such special guests as John Landis, Vince Gilligan, Damon Lindelof, artist Tom Sachs and chef David Chang.
Adam teaches, lectures and consults on a variety of topics to students, business folks and everyday Joes. His regular public appearances include San Diego Comic Con, Maker Faire and w00tstock (with Wil Wheaton and musicians Paul and Storm); in 2014, Adam also served as keynote speaker for the South by Southwest Interactive Festival. And somehow Adam finds time to devote to his own art — his sculptures have been showcased in over 40 shows in San Francisco, New York and Charleston, West Virginia. Otherwise, in his very limited spare time you’ll find Adam in his man cave, meticulously building anything from a costume to a movie prop to a space-glove vacuum chamber.
Adam lives in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife, twin boys and their two dogs.
Best-selling author Susie Bright, the country’s preeminent feminist sex writer, is one of the world’s most respected voices on sexual politics, as well as an award-winning author and editor who’s produced and published thousands of the finest writers and journalists working in American literature and progressive activism today. She is the author of six national best-sellers, including The Sexual State of the Union and Full Exposure, and in 2011 published her memoir, Big Sex Little Death. She is the host of the longest-running sex education program in broadcasting history, In Bed with Susie Bright, and has been profiled on CNN, BBC, HBO, and the History Channel. She is a contributing editor for the New York Times Book Review, the San Francisco Review of Books, BUST, and Jezebel.
Marty Castro is the President and CEO of Castro Synergies, LLC, which provides strategic consulting services to corporations, entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations seeking to have a positive social impact on diverse communities. Mr. Castro served as Chairman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights (“USCCR”), by appointment of President Barack Obama, from 2011 until December 2016. Mr. Castro was the first Latino Chairperson in the history of the USCCR. Mr. Castro also currently serves as the Interim CEO of Casa Central, the Midwest’s largest Latino social service agency. Mr. Castro serves on the boards of directors of the National Museum of Mexican Art and Communities in Schools. Mr. Castro is also a member of the BMW Foundation’s Responsible Leaders’ Network and a member of the Global Diplomacy Lab, an organization seeking to create alternative pathways to international diplomacy.
Mr. Castro has received numerous awards and recognitions for his community service, including the Ohtli Award, the Mexican government’s highest honor presented to those living outside of Mexico for service to the Mexican community abroad. Mr. Castro is also the recipient of Honorary Doctorates in Humane Letters from Roosevelt University and DePaul University. Mr. Castro received his B.A. in political science in 1985 from DePaul University and his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1988.
Staceyann Chin is the recipient of the 2007 Power of the Voice Award from The Human Rights Campaign, the 2008 Safe Haven Award from Immigration Equality, the 2008 Honors from the Lesbian AIDS Project, the 2009 New York State Senate Award, the 2013 American Heritage Award from American Immigration Council, and the 2016 Planned Parenthood Excellence in Media Award. Chin is also the 2017 LGBTQ Humanist Award recipient. She unapologetically identifies as Caribbean and Black, Asian and lesbian, woman and resident of New York City.
A proud Jamaican National, Staceyann’s voice was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, where she spoke candidly about her experiences of growing up on the island and the dire consequences of her coming-out there.
Widely known as co-writer and original performer in the Tony Award-winning Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, her poetry has seen the rousing cheers of the Nuyorican Poets’ Café, one-woman shows Off-Broadway, and writing-workshops in Sweden, South Africa, and Australia. Chin’s three one-woman shows, “Hands Afire,” “Unspeakable Things” and “Border/Clash” all opened to rave reviews at the Culture Project in New York City.
Staceyann is the author of the memoir The Other Side of Paradise, and is currently touring MotherStruck, her critically acclaimed solo theater piece, directed by Cynthia Nixon and produced by Rosie O’Donnell, which chronicles her incredible experiences with motherhood. It opened in New York in December 2015.
Be it on “60 Minutes,” in the New York Times, or The UK’s Guardian, Staceyann has a reputation for telling it exactly like it is.
Dr. Sylvia A. Earle is Explorer in Residence at the National Geographic Society, Founder of the Sylvia Earle Alliance (S.E.A.) / Mission Blue, Founder of Deep Ocean Exploration and Research Inc. (DOER), Chair of the Advisory Council for the Harte Research Institute and former Chief Scientist of NOAA. Author of more than 200 publications and leader of more than 100 expeditions with over 7,000 hours underwater, Dr. Earle is a graduate of Florida State University with M.A. and PhD. degrees from Duke University and 27 honorary doctorates. Her research concerns the ecology and conservation of marine ecosystems and development of technology for access to the deep sea. She is the subject of the Emmy® Award Winning Netflix documentary, Mission Blue, and the recipient of more than 100 national and international honors and awards including being named Time Magazine’s first Hero for the Planet, a Living Legend by the Library of Congress, 2014 UNEP Champion of the Earth, Glamour Magazine’s 2014 Woman of the Year, member of the Netherlands Order of the Golden Ark, and winner of the 2009 TED Prize, the Walter Cronkite Award, the 1996 Explorers Club Medal, the Royal Geographic Society 2011 Patron’s Medal, and the National Geographic 2013 Hubbard Medal.
Dot Scott is a resident of N. Charleston, SC, where she manages her real-estate rental business, PCAAN REALTY.
Ms. Scott retired after 31 years from Bellsouth Telecommunication where she worked as a Sales and Service Manager and a Corporate Instructor. She is a graduate of Charleston Southern University and Webster University where she earned Bachelor of Science and Master’s Degrees in in Human Resource Development. She is also a fellow of Furman University’s Riley Institute of Diversity.
A committed and passionate Civil Rights Activist, Ms. Scott is serving in her 17th year as President of the Charleston Branch of the NAACP. Chartered on Aptil 14, 1917, the branch is the oldest NAACP branch in the state of South Carolina at 100 years old. In this leadership role, she is deeply involved and committed to making a difference in the Charleston and N. Charleston communities. Improving the lives of those in need, protecting Civil and Social Rights with the goal of improving race relations is at the heart of what she does.
With membership and affiliations in numerous civil and social organizations, and having received numerous awards, she contends that her most important and rewarding role is that of mother and grandmother to a daughter and two grandsons.
Herb Silverman is founder of the Secular Coalition for America and founder of the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry in Charleston, South Carolina. He ran for Governor of South Carolina in 1990 to challenge the state provision that prohibited atheists from holding public office. After an eight-year battle, he won a unanimous decision in the South Carolina Supreme Court that nullified the anti-atheist clause in the South Carolina Constitution. He is Distinguished Mathematics Professor Emeritus of the College of Charleston. He is the author of Candidate without a Prayer: An Autobiography of a Jewish Atheist in the Bible Belt (Pitchstone, 2012). His newly-released book is An Atheist Stranger in a Strange Religious Land: Selected Writings from the Bible Belt.
