Expertise: Classic Films

Available for in-person lectures in: All Markets

Available via Zoom? Yes

To book Dan, e-mail: dan@hudakonhollywood.com

A lifelong film lover, Dan Hudak has worked extensively as a film critic in print, radio and television. He has provided film reviews and commentary for WPLG-TV (ABC) Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, ABCNews.com, the Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, CNN.com, indieWIRE.com, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Newsday, Orlando Sentinel, San Francisco Examiner and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

He is the owner of Hudak On Hollywood, Inc., and his popular "Hudak On Hollywood" lectures are given throughout Florida and Colorado. He is the former chairman of the Florida Film Critics Circle and a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association. He studied Film History and Criticism at Bard College and the University of Miami, where he received his M.A. in Film Studies. To give Dan a piece of your mind, e-mail him at dan@hudakonhollywood.com.

Expertise: Broadway & Classic Films

Available for in-person lectures in: South Florida

Available via Zoom? Yes

To book Hap, e-mail: dan@hudakonhollywood.com

Born in Washington, D.C., Hap Erstein went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in dreary Troy, New York, where he narrowly escaped becoming an engineer. In 1994, he and his wife moved to West Palm Beach, where he assumed the position of theater critic at The Palm Beach Post and soon after added the job of film critic. He held these positions for 15 years, until retiring from the paper in 2008. Hap now writes for Palm Beach ArtsPaper, an online and hard copy arts magazine. He has taught theater appreciation courses at Florida Atlantic University's Lifelong Learning Society and been a longtime member of the Carbonell Awards panel recognizing theater excellence in South Florida. Each weekend, he can be heard on WJNO Radio talking about the latest film releases. During his career Hap has interviewed such show business legends as Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Lucille Ball, George Burns, Stephen Sondheim and Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. When not working, he can usually be found playing tennis or backgammon.

Expertise: Film History & Music

Available for in-person lectures in: South Florida & Southern New Jersey

Available via Zoom? Yes

To book Sharon, e-mail: dan@hudakonhollywood.com

Sharon Harris has worked in public relations/communications and the media since the 1980s, and currently works as a freelance business and consumer journalist. She’s always had a deep interest in classic Hollywood; she launched her adult enrichment course, "Hooray for Hollywood," in October 2016 for Stockton University's Friends of Encore Learning at Stockton (FELS) program in New Jersey. She began with the invention of the motion picture in the 1890s, and recently completed her sixth season, which focused on WWII and Hollywood's participation in the war effort. She’s been giving lectures on a variety of classic Hollywood topics since 2018. Topics include: Music of the 1960s, in depth looks at Gone With The Wind, The Godfather, and Casablanca, the early studio moguls, Jewish Vaudeville and Hollywood, the film industry before, during and after WWII, and a look at the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).

Expertise: Nutrition, Health & Wellness

Available for in-person lectures in: South Florida

Available via Zoom? Yes

To book Leslie, e-mail: dan@hudakonhollywood.com

Leslie Burman is a Registered Dietitian, Licensed Nutritionist, Certified Diabetes Educator, and is board certified with advanced certifications to adult and adolescent weight management. She also held licenses as a certified fitness instructor, hypnotherapist, and MBTI instructor. She has great passion for helping others with their personalized health and wellness journey via entertaining and educating by way of lecturing. For the past 25 plus years Leslie has been providing nutrition and wellness related services throughout Palm Beach and surrounding counties. Areas of interest included: Wellness lectures, healthy eating related programs, individualized nutrition consultations, cooking lessons, grocery shop tours, nutrition workshops, food demonstrations and more. Leslie looks forwards to providing you with lectures to better serve your health and wellness goals.

Expertise: Jewish History, Israel, Middle East

Available for in-person lectures in: South Florida

Available via Zoom? Yes

To book Alex, e-mail: dan@hudakonhollywood.com

Alex Bruner is a former international management consultant and fundraiser. A child of Holocaust survivors from Yugoslavia who remained in Europe after World War II, he has lived in and worked on three continents. His special interest is the history of the Jewish people. He lectures to educational, social, political and community groups in person and on Zoom on various topics related to Israel, the Middle East and antisemitism.

He was the chief Palm Beach fundraiser for the Weizmann Institute of Science (Rehovot, Israel). Bruner also served as the North American director for an agency established by American and Canadian business leaders to assist early-stage Israeli companies. He holds a BS, Ch. Eng. from the University of Maryland and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Expertise: Classical Music & Opera

Available for in-person lectures in: Denver

Available via Zoom? Yes

To book Betsy, e-mail: dan@hudakonhollywood.com

Music historian Betsy Schwarm spent a dozen years on the air at the vintage KVOD radio, "The Classical Voice of Denver." She has also taught university-level music appreciation, but is especially known for her user-friendly approach to talking about classical music. She gives pre-performance talks for Opera Colorado, has frequently spoken at the Colorado Symphony, and has written ten books on classical music as part of her Classical Music Insights series. The most recent of these is Classical Music Insights:  Between the Wars (2021). More than 200 of her articles are available on Encyclopædia Britannica online. Additionally, she writes for classical performers and organizations throughout the US and abroad, and teaches for the University of Denver Enrichment program, as well as other organizations.

Expertise: Broadway

Available for in-person lectures in: Chicago

Available via Zoom? Yes

To book Charles, e-mail: dan@hudakonhollywood.com

Charles Troy is a retired graphic designer and former theatre lyricist who has developed more than fifty multimedia presentations on musical theatre subjects. During the pandemic, he has converted these presentations into videos, which he presents virtually. These videos combine his own original graphics with historic photos, edited audio tracks with the lyrics displayed onscreen, and illustrative video clips — all coordinated with a voiceover narrative, evolved from his extensive research, that weaves the pertinent events into a dramatic tale. Half of these videos are 80 to 90-minute programs on the stories behind many of the great musicals. Charles is based in the Chicago area.

Expertise: The Golden Age of Music, Radio & TV

Available for in-person lectures in: N/A

Available via Zoom? Yes

To book Rich, e-mail: dan@hudakonhollywood.com

Rich is a native son of Brooklyn, NY where he attended Brooklyn College and later earned a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration from Baruch College. After moving to Merrick, NY he began a long tenure as Director of Mathematics for the Copiague Public Schools. Following his retirement after 38 years as a school teacher and administrator, he began to develop a series of multimedia presentations based on his first love, the performing arts. His list of over 70 programs includes Broadway musicals, film, and opera, but Rich specializes in 20th century song writers and vocalists, and radio and television programs of the "Golden Age," for Hudak On Hollywood. Currently Rich is a resident of Omaha, Nebraska where he continues to present programs virtually via Zoom.

Expertise: The Golden Age Of Television

Available for in-person lectures in: The Golden Age Of Television

Available via Zoom? Yes

To book Brian, e-mail: dan@hudakonhollywood.com

Brian Rose is a professor emeritus at Fordham University, where he taught for 38 years in the Department of Communication and Media Studies. He’s written several books on television history and cultural programming, and conducted more than a hundred Q&A’s with leading directors, actors, and writers for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Screen Actors Guild, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Directors Guild of America. Over the last decade, he’s presented more than 500 lectures at libraries and cultural organizations around the country, including the Smithsonian, the 92nd St. Y, Film Forum in New York City, OLLI in Washington DC and JCC’s in New York, Chicago, Cincinnati and Boca Raton.

Expertise:
Politics, American History

Available for in-person lectures in:
South Florida

Available via Zoom?
Yes

To book James, e-mail:
dan@hudakonhollywood.com

James Todd is an Associate Professor and Chairman of the Department of Politics at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach. His areas of expertise include American government, constitutional law, and political history. Since he and his family arrived in Palm Beach County in 2015, Dr. Todd has been a frequent contributor to local and national media coverage of politics. He has regularly appeared as a speaker for Palm Beach County civic, community, and library groups. In 2022, Dr. Todd contributed lectures about the Constitution to the State of Florida Civics Seal of Excellence teacher training program. A native of Alabama, Todd received a B.A. in political science and economics from Jacksonville State University (2001), a law degree (2005) and Ph.D. in American politics (2015) from The University of Alabama. His most recent published work is "Why Do We Have a Constitution?" for The U.S. Constitution in Five Minutes (2023).

Expertise:
Women's Studies, Sexuality, Pop Culture

Available for in-person lectures in:
South Florida

Available via Zoom?
Yes

To book Jane, e-mail:
dan@hudakonhollywood.com

Jane Caputi is Professor of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Florida Atlantic University. She grew up in Huntington Long Island in a large family. Her first job was at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, which she loved, especially because she learned so much from the Indigenous cultures there. But Albuquerque is literally high and dry and in 1997 she moved back to the ocean, taking a job at FAU.  She has written four books, most recently Call Your “Mutha’”: A Deliberately Dirty-Minded Manifesto for the Earth Mother in the Anthropocene (Oxford University Press, 2020). She also has made two educational documentaries, The Pornography of Everyday Life (2006) distributed by Berkeley Media and Feed the Green: Feminist Voices for the Earth (2016), distributed by Women Make Movies.

Dr. Caputi was FAU’s Distinguished Teacher for 2001 and received FAU’s Research and Scholarly Activities award (Professor level) for 2005 and for 2012. In 2016, she was named Eminent Scholar of the Year by the American Culture/Popular Culture Association and in 2020 the Association for the Study of Women in Mythology gave her their annual “Saga Award” for contributions to women’s history and culture.

Available for in-person lectures in:
N/A

Available via Zoom?
Yes

To book Gregory, e-mail:
dan@hudakonhollywood.com

Dr. Gregory M. Vecchi has over 30 years of law enforcement experience and he is a U.S. Army veteran.  He is the retired Chief of the FBI Behavioral Science Unit and career crisis negotiator and served as an instructor at the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. During his career, Dr. Vecchi investigated Russian organized crime, international drug trafficking, international and domestic terrorism, and violent crime. In these positions, he gained extensive experience assessing and interacting with violent offenders, which he incorporates into his research, training, and consultation activities at SafeDefend.

Dr. Vecchi has extensive experience in teaching and training. He is a Professor of Criminal Justice, Criminology, and Homeland Security, where he develops and teaches courses at the master’s and doctoral levels. Dr. Vecchi is the Principal at Vecchi Group International LLC, where he conducts advanced law enforcement training in threat assessment, crisis negotiation, firearms, and defensive tactics. He is also a court recognized expert witness in violence, law enforcement policy and procedures, interviewing and interrogation, and confirmation bias.