Presenter Biographies:

 
Frederick M. Baker, Jr.
Personal friend and fishing companion of John Voelker and Secretary-Treasurer of the John D. Voelker Foundation.  Has served as a Commissioner to the Michigan Supreme Court since 2005.  Received his law degree from Washington University School of Law.  Baker has served as an editor of numerous issues of the Michigan Bar Journal starting in 1984.

Glen Blackwood
Faculty member at Calvin College in Grand Rapids instructing courses in fly-fishing and sporting literature.  Host of the popular PBS television program “Fly Fishing with Glen Blackwood.  He also serves on the Ross Reel Company Dealer Advisory Board and the SCOTT Fly Rod Professional Staff.  Blackwood is a lifetime member of Trout Unlimited, Federation of Fly Fishers and the NRA. 

Bill Castanier
Literary journalist for the Lansing City Pulse.  Worked for more than 30 years in journalism, advertising and economic development. Member of the Michigan Notable Books Committee and board of the Kerrytown Bookfest in Ann Arbor.

Charles Cercone
Professor Cercone began teaching at Cooley Law School in 1996.  In 2003, he was promoted to full professor and was appointed Associate Dean of Faculty. He has won numerous teaching recognition awards, including the Beattie Award, and has published frequently over his career on topics including common law nuisance, hazardous waste management, the Clean Water Act, and most recently the work product doctrine. He teaches Civil Procedure and Taxation and coaches the Environmental National Moot Court team.

Matthew L.M. Fletcher
Associate Professor at Michigan State University College of Law and Director of the Indigenous Law and Policy Center. Co-author of the soon to be published sixth edition of Cases on Federal Indian Law and recently published American Indian Education: Counter narratives in Racism, Struggle and the Law.  He is currently writing a book on the history of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. Professor Fletcher graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1997 and the University of Michigan in 1994.

Joseph Heywood
Author of the Woods Cop Mystery series, a critically acclaimed series published by the Lyons Press that includes Ice Hunter, Blue Wolf in Green Fir, Running Dark, and Chasing a Blond Moon. He is also the author of the The Berkut, Taxi Dancer, The Domino Conspiracy and The Snowfly. Heywood lives and writes in Portage, MI and frequents the wilds of the Upper Peninsula.

Michael Lee
Lee is a Customer Relations Coordinator for the United States Postal Service.  His interest in Anatomy of a Murder has led him to develop a presentation based on Jimmy Stewart’s main character from the film.

Sue Marx
Academy Award-winning filmmaker and president of Sue Marx Films, Inc.  Since founding her company in 1980, Marx has produced and directed hundreds of promotional, political, educational films, television programs and radio commercials. They have aired on PBS, BBC, CBC, Bravo, the Movie Channel, Art & Entertainment and the Learning Channel.  Her films have been broadcast in England, Ireland, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Holland, New Zealand, Singapore, Russia as well as the United States. Marx received a 1987 Academy Award for her short documentary film Young at Heart.  She received and undergraduate degree from Indiana University and a graduate degree from Wayne State University.  Sue Marx Films is located in Birmingham, Michigan. 

Dick Pobst
Dick and his wife Nancy operated the Thornapple Orvis Shop in Grand Rapids, MI, from 1975 to 1995. They also served as Regional Managers for the Orvis Co. for the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.  Dick wrote books: Fish the Impossible Places - the story of the Keel Fly, Trout Stream Insects, The Caddisfly Handbook, co-authored with Carl Richards, Vest Pocket book of Mayflies, and Vest Pocket book of Caddisflies. He published two videos, Trout Madness and Super Hatches.

Prof. James Seaton
Professor in Michigan State University’s English Department who regularly teaches a course in law and literature where Anatomy of A Murder is always featured. He is a regular contributor of essays and reviews to a wide variety of journals of opinion, as well as academic journals.

Mark Shaw
Former criminal defense trial lawyer and television legal analyst turned author of nearly twenty books. They include Down For The Count, chronicling the Mike Tyson trial, Miscarriage of Justice, The Jonathan Pollard Story, and Melvin Belli, King of the Courtroom. His current book-in-progress is Code of Silence: How Robert F. Kennedy Killed His Brother Jack. He lives in East Lansing with his wife, Wen-ying Lu.

Richard Vander Veen
Vander Veen is the President and a founder of the John D. Voelker Foundation, which sponsors a Native American Scholarship program and the national Robert Traver Writing Award. He also led the team that developed and financed the Mackinaw Wind Project, Michigan's first privately owned commercial wind power project. He has thirty years of experience building coalitions and business enterprises by combining people skills and innovative applications of his sustainable business, utility and environmental legal expertise.  In 2007 Vander Veen received the Midwest Regional Advocacy Award. He is an avid fly fisherman and book collector.