Lectures For Lifelong Learners!

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., an agency that provides lectures throughout the United States. 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@primetimepresenters.com.

Harriet Howard Heithaus became intrigued with theater from childhood, when her family took her to summer stock musicals and community theaters. She has never lost that love for an affecting melody or a gripping story. That romance did not include appearing onstage, however. She much prefers to write about it and has happily been both music and theater critic at the Naples Daily News, for which she has won a number of Florida Press Club awards, over the last 15 years. Before that, the native Buckeye has worked for newspapers in Ohio and Indiana, where she was a government and political writer who volunteered to review to rock concerts whenever possible. Everyone could see where this was leading.

Annie Meehan is a professional keynote speaker that inspires, educates, and activates her audiences with a clear message that spurs listeners to break counterproductive patterns and be the exception! As a widely embraced international speaker, she has been a catalyst in inspiring countless organizations to choose to soar above the status quo. As an expert on living an exceptional life, Meehan encourages her audiences to remove any barriers preventing them from achieving their goals. Her myriad testimonials reveal the “wow” factor that she creates at every presentation, which in turn catapults participants to adopt the practical tools she champions for more impactful lives, both professionally and personally.

Melody Van Horn is an engaging speaker, author, and trainer who inspires audiences to live with greater confidence, courage, and connection. She holds a Master of Science in Management and Leadership and has a background in human development and business leadership. Melody brings warmth and insight to every presentation, blending real-life stories with practical wisdom that resonates across generations.

Drawing on more than two decades of experience working with people from all walks of life, she explores the heart of human connection—how we understand ourselves, relate to others, and create meaningful impact in everyday moments. She is the author of two books on emotional intelligence and personal growth, The Heart of Leadership: Emotional Intelligence from the Inside Out and Leading With Love: Emotional Intelligence for Everyday Life. Her uplifting, down-to-earth style leaves audiences encouraged, entertained, and inspired.

Dr. Linell King is an internal medicine physician who received his medical degree at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine in 1997. He completed his residency at The Johns Hopkins University / Sinai Hospital program in Internal Medicine in 2000.

An avid proponent of preventative health and wellness, Dr. King realized the answer to the high incidence of preventable illnesses was to empower the individual to take responsibility for their health. Dr. King published two Los Angeles based wellness magazines and served with the National Center for Health Behavioral Change in Baltimore, Maryland.

For over fifteen years working as an internal medicine physician, Dr. King treated thousands of patients suffering from diseases such as heart disease, strokes, diabetes, cancer and other life-threatening diseases. After discovering the truth about our current broken healthcare system which also affected his own family, Dr. King left his practice and embarked on a mission to bring health and vitality to his patients and clients. Seeing the flaws with Western medicine and its reliance on prescription drugs, Dr. King traveled the world and became trained in functional medicine, nutrition, as well as hormone balance.

Myra Mendible is Professor Emeritus at Florida Gulf Coast University, where she served as founding faculty and taught a range of courses in Comparative Literature, Film and Media Studies. As a former theater major turned teacher, Myra draws on performance skills to craft lectures that are both informative and memorable. She has been interviewed by major newspapers on cultural issues, given lively talks at museums and community centers, and published essays in numerous journals and books. Myra is also the Editor of four essay collections: From Bananas to Buttocks: The Latina Body in Popular Film and Culture (U of Texas P, 2007); Race 2008: Critical Reflections on a Historic Campaign (Brown/Walker P, 2012); American Shame: Stigma and the Body Politic (U of Indiana P, 2016); American Fury: Essays on Moral Outrage in Culture and Politics (McFarland, 2024), and the author of a monograph, American War Stories: Veteran-Writers and the Politics of Memoir (U of Massachusetts P, 2021). Her lively talks aim to spark interest in topics and issues that matter.

F. King Alexander has been a president and chancellor of four public universities in the United States for over two decades including Louisiana State University, Murray State University in Kentucky and California State University, Long Beach, which recently led the nation in improving student social mobility in the Social Mobility Index rankings. He currently serves as a professor of educational leadership, finance, law and public policy at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Florida. Additionally, he is a Senior Faculty Fellow at the Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama, a faculty researcher at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Global Higher Education (UK) and a former Faculty Affiliate at the Cornell University Higher Education Research Institute for two decades. He has authored or co-authored five books and authored thirty-two book chapters and academic journal articles. He also has testified to the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate three times on the issue of rising college costs and has been a contributor to many media outlets including The Economist, The Washington Post, the Financial Times, Politico, Inside Higher Education, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Hechinger Report and the Times Higher Education (THE) of the London Times. His areas of academic expertise are higher education and education policy, finance and law. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Oxford (UK) and St. Lawrence University in New York.

Dr. Ahmed S. Elshall is a groundwater hydrologist whose work focuses on understanding and managing water resources in a changing climate. His research combines field observation, computer modeling, and stakeholder engagement to improve groundwater sustainability —especially in coastal areas vulnerable to sea-level rise and drought. He has worked on a wide range of projects related to water quality, resilience, and equity, as well as climate and Earth system modeling, including studies of soil processes and harmful algal blooms. Dr. Elshall is currently an assistant professor at the U.A. Whitaker College of Engineering and The Water School at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Mark Danni is the Founding Artistic Director of TheatreZone, Naples’ professional Equity theatre company, where he has directed and produced over 100 musicals and plays. He also created and runs the theatre program at The Community School of Naples and has directed and collaborated on joint productions with Opera Naples, Gulfshore Opera, and Florida Gulf Coast University. After starting his career as a drummer/percussionist on Broadway for Chicago, Grand Hotel, Miss Saigon, Les Misérables, Joseph… Dreamcoat, Annie Get Your Gun and Nunsense, he moved up to conduct the national tours of Les Misérables and Barnum. He also toured with The Phantom Of The Opera, 42nd Street, Hair, Evita, Les Misérables and Fame. As a director, Mark’s Off- Broadway directing credits include Aggravation, and What Would Esther Williams Do In A Situation Like This? He has directed many Broadway veterans and celebrities such as Gary Sandy (WKRP In Cincinnati), Andrea McArdle (Broadway’s original Annie), Donna McKechnie (A Chorus Line), and Georgia Engel (Mary Tyler Moore & Everybody Loves Raymond). In addition, Mark directed productions of The Medium and The Telephone at Artis-Naples, West Side Story (starring Grammy Award winner Isabel Leonard) at Opera Naples, Brigadoon at Gulfshore Opera, and Sweeney Todd at Opera Roanoke. Originally from Buffalo, NY, Mark attended Baldwin-Wallace University in Cleveland, Ohio, and is a member of The Society of Directors and Choreographers, and the American Federation of Musicians.

Mary Helen Conwell is originally from Speedway, Indiana, home of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, and a proud graduate of Indiana University-Bloomington undergraduate and law school. She holds an active license to practice law in the State of Indiana. For the past 25 ½ years, she has been a Professor of Paralegal Studies at Florida SouthWestern State College in Fort Myers, Florida. She is a national expert on paralegal education and served as a member of the American Bar Association Approval Commission for Paralegal Education from 2020 to 2023. She has been a site team leader for the American Bar Association visiting colleges across the United States to determine if their paralegal programs meet and/or maintain the standards for American Bar Association approval. She has been a presenter at conferences of the American Association for Paralegal Education. Her professional interests include people empowering themselves through embracing technology and urgent issues facing the legal professions such as access to justice. In her limited free time, Mary enjoys swimming, golf, and visiting museums. She is also an avid animal lover and is especially fond of cats, dolphins, cheetahs, sea turtles, and kangaroos.

Michael J. Tougias is a NY Times Bestselling author of over 30 non-fiction books, including The Finest Hours which was made into a Disney movie starring Chris Pine and Casey Affleck. Tougias delivers edge-of-your-seat slide presentations covering topics such as lesser known WWII incidents, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and true survival and rescue at sea. He has spoken to groups large and small in almost all 50 states and has been featured in national media such as The Weather Channel, ABC’s 20-20, Fox, CBS Sunday Morning, National NPR, The NY Times, The Wall Street Journal and more. His presentations are designed to entertain, inform and inspire.

“I love speaking and surprising the audience with events that surprise the audience. All of my programs include amazing slides from the actual incident and some of the images are breath-taking.” Tougias splits his time between Hobe Sound FL and Boston MA. When not speaking or writing, Tougias is on the ocean fishing, working in his vegetable garden, or enjoying his remote cabin in Vermont.