This Week in Edutainment | December 1 - December 5
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Ms. Yarbrough is Professor of Government and Gary M. Pendy, Sr. Professor of Social Sciences, with teaching responsibilities in political philosophy and American Political Thought. She was a Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellow and has twice received research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her first award as a Bicentennial Fellow resulted in the publication of American Virtues: Thomas Jefferson on the Character of a Free People (Kansas, 1998). Following up on this research, she has edited The Essential Jefferson (Hackett, 2006). Her second N.E.H. grant was part of a "We the People" initiative that supported research on Theodore Roosevelt and the American Political Tradition (University Press of Kansas, 2012), which won the Richard E. Neustadt Award for 2013 (awarded annually by the American Political Science Association (APSA) for the best book on the Presidency). Ms. Yarbrough is the author of numerous articles and essays in American political thought and public policy, as well as other topics in political philosophy. Her current research involves a study of the political thought of Alexis de Tocqueville in relation to major American political figures. She has served on the editorial boards of The Review of Politics and Polity and currently serves on the editorial board of American Political Thought. She was President of the New England Political Science Association in 2005, and recently completed a Senate-confirmed appointment to the National Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2021, Ms. Yarbrough was awarded the Henry Salvatori Prize for her scholarly work and public service in upholding the principles of the American Founding.
Richard began his career as an actor, which indirectly led to him becoming a stage manager of Broadway touring shows such as Beatlemania and Ain’t Misbehavin, as well as the off broadway tour of Little Shop of Horrors. In order to get off the road, he became a Production Stage Manager at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles where he was fortunate to work with many of the outstanding Playwrights, Directors and Actors in the business. Eventually Richard decided to try to learn about filmmaking, taking any job he could get as a volunteer on student films and indies to learn the craft, in-between theatre jobs. Several years later Richard landed a job at Lorimar Television, taking a 75% pay cut to continue to learn about TV & Film. This was a Post Production Traffic coordinator position, back when TV shows were still cutting on film, and there were lots of elements traveling all over the city to track for our shows. This eventually led to Post Supervisory jobs on shows like Our House & Aaron’s way. The Studio then asked him to move over to Knots Landing which continued to run another 6 seasons and where he eventually rose to Associate Producer. Once Knots ended, he was a freelance AP mostly for Warner Bros, which had by now bought Lorimar. After a few seasons of mostly doing pilots that didn’t get picked up, Richard was offered a temporary job to help substitute for the head of Post at WB who was out on maternity leave. Originally thinking he would not enjoy this work vs being on shows, his mind was changed as he embraced the challenges from the Studio side. An opening came up at NBC Studios for a manager of Post, and he was lucky to secure that position which over a 27 year career with NBC grew from Manager to SVP of Post Production for Universal TV & Universal Content Productions, as the company grew into Comcast NBC Universal. Richard was responsible for delivering thousands of episodes of television including but not limited to shows such as Will & Grace, Homicide, House, The Office, 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, The Good Place, Parenthood, Smash, The Mindy Project, Brooklyn 99, Master of None, Monk, Battlestar Galactica, Psych, Suits, Mr. Robot, Homecoming, Umbrella Academy, Resident Alien and many more.
Jacob Bourgault is a corporate associate whose practice includes advising clients on securities transactions, corporate governance, financial restructurings, out-of-court workouts, and Chapter 11 bankruptcies.
Prior to joining White & Case, Jacob graduated magna cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School and was inducted into Order of the Coif.
During law school, he was Managing Editor for Minnesota Law Review, Student Director of the Bankruptcy Clinic, externed for a bankruptcy judge, and served as President of the professional student body. He also had six legal articles selected for publication.
Matteo Curseri is a 22-year-old actor from Brescia, Italy. Acting is his life: since childhood he dreamed of cinema, exploring other lives beyond his own. A former Mater Academy Dual Diploma student, Matteo went on to study acting in Milan and began working on short films and movie sets. In 2025, he starred in his first leading role in the film "Le Vie dell’Acqua", directed by Fabio Masi and presented at the Venice International Film Festival. Alongside his artistic path, he is pursuing a Master’s degree in Cinema Engineering in Turin, combining creativity with technical knowledge to become a well-rounded actor in the evolving world of storytelling.
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