This Week in Edutainment | Oct 12 - Oct 16
We connect students around the world to primary source experts from a wide variety of topics and subjects. For more information, visit edutainmentlearning.com.
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Marc Morial, one of the few national leaders to possess “street smarts,” and “boardroom savvy,” is the transformative President and CEO of the National Urban League, the nation’s
largest historic civil rights and urban advocacy organization. He served as the highly successful and popular Mayor of New Orleans as well as the President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Marc previously was a Louisiana State Senator
and was a lawyer in New Orleans with an active, high-profile practice.
He is a leading voice on the national stage in the battle for jobs, education, housing, health, voting rights, equity, and entrepreneurship. Marc is a published author; his leadership book, Gumbo Coalition: 10 Leadership Lessons That
Help You Inspire, United, and Achieve has been widely acclaimed, and his column entitled To Be Equal, reaches hundreds of thousands. He is the host of the weekly syndicated television show, America’s Black Forum.
A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, and the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Economics and African American Studies, he has been recognized as one of the 100 most influential Black Americans by Ebony Magazine, one of the top 50 Non-Profit Leaders by the Non-Profit Times, one of the 100 Most Influential Black Lawyers in America and he has also been inducted into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame in Atlanta, GA.
Marc and his father, the late Ernest “Dutch” Morial, are history makers as the first African American father/son mayors in the U.S. and were the subject of a Double Jeopardy question on the legendary Jeopardy television game show in the 1990s
Taylor A. Baird is a creative director, art director, and concept designer who helps build theme parks and immersive experiences for a living. An art director shapes how an experience looks and feels, making sure every detail tells the right story, while a concept designer is the person who dreams up what a place or attraction could be before a single brick is laid. If you have ever walked through a themed land at a theme park and felt completely transported to another world, that is exactly the kind of work Taylor does. Taylor grew up wanting to work in theme parks after a childhood trip to Walt Disney World at age 11, studied themed entertainment design at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and has spent over a decade turning that dream into a career.
Taylor has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry, including Disney and Universal. Notable projects he contributed concept design to include Universal's Epic Universe, Super Nintendo World, and Hagrid's Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure. He has also helped design parks and attractions in China, Europe, the Middle East, and South America, and has studied parks across the United States, Europe, and Asia to understand what makes great experiences work. His work on Epic Universe was recognized with a 2026 THEA Award, which is essentially the themed entertainment industry's version of an Oscar. Today he runs his own creative design practice and takes on projects around the world.
Christian Lachel is an award-winning creative leader, storyteller, director, and producer whose career has focused on bringing stories to life through film, design, immersive entertainment, and unforgettable real-world experiences.
Christian serves as the Chief Creative Officer of BRC Imagination Arts, one of the world’s leading experience design and production companies. Throughout his career, he has helped create experiences for some of the most recognizable destinations, museums, and brands in the world, including the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, World of Coca-Cola, Jameson Distillery Bow St., Heineken Experience, and Johnnie Walker Princes Street. He also recently helped lead BRC's work on the USA Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, which welcomed approximately 1.9 million visitors.
His creative career also extends into filmmaking. Christian has worked as a director, writer, and producer, with credits including Dream Big, Manufacturing Innovation, Gift of Beauty, and Alex & Sylvia.
A graduate of ArtCenter College of Design, where he later returned to teach, Christian has also completed executive education through the Wharton School. Before beginning his creative career, he served in the United States Navy. He has shared his expertise at major events including SXSW and Cannes Lions and has contributed his ideas to publications including Harvard Business Review and Forbes.
Christian’s career shows students that storytelling doesn't have to happen only on a movie screen—it can shape museums, attractions, brands, cultural destinations, and experiences visited by millions of people around the world.
JD's Faith is the foundation of his family, business and non-profit life. He is a professional communication and selling skills coach who has worked with executives and managers at dozens of organizations including Brasfield & Gorrie, the Home Depot, Coca-Cola, Southern Company, Cox Enterprises, BlackRock and the UGA Terry College of Business. JD graduated from Georgia Tech and served as an adjunct professor of communications in the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business. He is married with 3 teenage daughters (2 can drive!) and through the Tampa Bay Frogman Swim, a 5K swim in Tampa Bay every January, has raised approximately $100,000 for the Navy SEAL Foundation.
JD is one of the Founders of the City of Brookhaven and served as its first Deputy City Manager responsible for setting up all city services and the first Municipal Court.He has served on several City of Brookhaven boards and founded and is President of both the new Georgia Police Foundation and the Brookhaven Police Foundation. In its 10 years of operations, the Brookhaven Police Foundation has donated over $1,050,000 to the Brookhaven Police Department and its officers.
Theron Skees is a renowned creative designer, storyteller, author, and former senior creative executive at Walt Disney Imagineering who has spent more than 30 years helping transform imaginative ideas into real-world experiences.
During his remarkable career with Disney, Theron worked on major projects around the world, including theme parks, attractions, hotels, entertainment districts, and Disney Cruise Line. He was a leading creative force behind the transformation of Downtown Disney into Disney Springs at Walt Disney World, helping develop the detailed story and immersive environment that connects its architecture, landscaping, restaurants, shops, and entertainment. He also contributed to projects including The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disneyland Paris.
Throughout his career, Theron has helped lead multidisciplinary creative teams responsible for projects ranging from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. His work demonstrates how storytelling, architecture, design, technology, and creativity can come together to build places that people remember long after they leave.
Today, Theron is the founder of The Designer’s Creative Studio, where he applies lessons from decades in themed entertainment to help organizations create stronger experiences and emotional connections with their audiences. He is also the author of the 2025 book Creating Memorable Worlds: A Journey Into Themed Experience Design, which gives aspiring designers and creative professionals an inside look at how immersive experiences move from an initial idea to reality.
For students interested in Imagineering, theme parks, storytelling, architecture, engineering, design, entertainment, or simply discovering how creative ideas become real places, Theron’s career provides an extraordinary look at what can happen when imagination is combined with teamwork, technical knowledge, and the courage to think differently.
Dr. Francesco Ferretti is an Assistant Professor of Fisheries Management and Conservation at Virginia Tech, where he studies sharks, rays, and other large marine predators. His work combines marine ecology, conservation science, statistics, and data science to better understand how human activity is changing ocean ecosystems.
Dr. Ferretti is especially interested in reconstructing the history of human impacts on the ocean and developing new ways to protect marine life. Because scientists often have limited information about what happened in the oceans decades or even centuries ago, he uses unusual sources of data, advanced computer modeling, and modern technology to piece together changes in shark populations, fisheries, and marine ecosystems.
His research has taken him into the study of some of the ocean’s most fascinating predators, including great white sharks. He has been involved in efforts to better understand and conserve the remaining white sharks of the Mediterranean through satellite tagging, fisheries monitoring, biological sampling, and collaboration with fishing communities.
Dr. Ferretti earned his Ph.D. in Marine Ecology from Dalhousie University in Canada and previously conducted research at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station before joining Virginia Tech.
His career offers students an exciting look at how biology, mathematics, technology, field research, and conservation can all come together to answer important questions about the ocean—and help protect some of its most remarkable animals for future generations.
Edutainment Podcast
Our podcast features bi-weekly episodes that are uploaded to all major streaming platforms. Each episode comes with a downloadable student worksheet to accompany the listening portion!
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