Eric LoMonaco

Eric LoMonaco is the director of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at Community Hospital, a position he has held since 2006. Prior to that, Eric served for 4½ years as assistant director of Radiation Oncology. Prior to coming to the Monterey Peninsula, Eric worked first as a radiologic technologist and then as a radiation therapist at several facilities, including Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center, City of Hope National Medical Center, and the Lowell General Hospital Cancer Center in Massachusetts (the latter as lead radiation therapist). Eric is a certified radiology administrator, a certified radiologic technologist, and a certified radiation therapist who holds a Master’s degree in radiology imaging sciences.

Eric devotes considerable time and energy to serving at-risk youth in our community, regularly giving talks where he shares his own personal journey out of difficult circumstances and inspires students toward academic achievement and healthcare careers. He currently serves as a mentor in CSUMB’s Pay it Forward program, is a past chair of the advisory committee for Cabrillo College’s radiological sciences program, and past chair of the board of Breakthrough, a local nonprofit organization.

Eric was also just featured on the cover of The Radiology Business Journal (2017) and selected for the Ted x Monterey “Outed for Awesome”. Prior to that Eric was voted in the Top 25 for the Monterey County Weekly’s “Movers and Shakers” and earned a feature article in 65 Degree magazine. In 2014 Eric received the Leadership Monterey Peninsula Founders Award for outstanding community service.

MORE INFO: http://www.radiologybusiness.com/magazine/2017/junejuly-2017

http://www.montereyherald.com/article/NF/20170128/NEWS/170129731


Stephen Kotkin

Stephen Kotkin is the Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.  He is also Birkleund Professor of History and International Affairs Emeritus, at Princeton University.   He is the author of Armageddon Averted: the Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000s.

A specialist on geopolitics and authoritarian regimes, including Russia and China, Dr. Kotkin writes essays and reviews for Foreign Affairs, the Wall Street Journal, and the Times Literary Supplement, and for many years was the business book reviewer for the New York Times Sunday Business Section.  He serves as an adviser on geopolitical risk for Conexus Financial, an Australia based company, as well as Mizuho Americas.  He also serves as a national security consultant to U.S. and allied governments.

He has been a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other awards.  The first volume of his biography of Joseph Stalin was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.


Alka Joshi

Alka Joshi is the internationally bestselling author of the Jaipur Trilogy: The Henna Artist, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur and The Perfumist of Paris. Her debut novel, The Henna Artist, immediately became a New York Times Bestseller, a Reese Witherspoon Pick and was LongListed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. It has been translated into 29 languages and is currently in development at Netflix as a tv series.

Joshi was born in India and came to the U.S. with her family at the age of nine. She has a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from California College of Arts. She lives on the Monterey Peninsula with her husband and a misbehaving pup.

MORE INFO: https://linktr.ee/thealkajoshi


Scott James

Scott James is an Emmy-winning veteran journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times. His most recent book is “Trial by Fire,” which reopened the investigation into one of America’s deadliest criminal cases.

“Trial by Fire” won the 2021 top prize for nonfiction from the New England Society Book Awards, plus was the subject of an episode of the CBS News program “48 Hours” and viewed by more than three million people.


Joan Luise Hill

Joan Luise Hill’s introduction to miracles evolved as a series of coincidences that ultimately could not be ignored. After a 30-year career in medical administration including hospitals, multispecialty group practices, and health insurance companies, advancing innovative medical solutions, her expertise was put to the test to save the life of her son. The experience was the impetus for Joan and her two coauthors, Katie Mahon and Meb Phillips, to write The Miracle Chase (Sterling, 2010), as a way to understand the miracles in their own lives and in the modern world.

Her second book written with coauthor Katie Mahon, The Miracle Collectors, Uncovering Stories of Wonder, Joy, and Mystery (Hachette, 2021), is the result of the outpouring of stories from others and strives to empower all of us to identify the miracles in our own lives by becoming aware, deepening connection, and finding meaning. Joan has a master’s degree from the University of Connecticut and a bachelor of science degree from Boston College.

In addition to writing, Joan’s passions include working to advance health care and educational opportunities for all. Her next book Mere Mortals: Diagnoses, Decisions, and Dignity focuses on what we each need to do to become a better patient in our high tech, low touch medical environment. Having lived in a number of states and with three adult children and families spread across the country, Joan and her husband are avid (and constant) travelers.

Link: www.themiraclecollectors.com


Rusty Gaillard

Rusty Gaillard is an executive coach, best-selling author, and speaker helping leaders accelerate their growth — without giving up everything else that matters. Rusty brings more than 20 years of corporate leadership experience to his work, including serving as Worldwide Director of Finance at Apple during the hyper-growth years after iPhone was announced.

He left Apple after 14 years with a mission of bringing personal growth to executives, helping them become more bold, decisive, and action-oriented.

Rusty holds an MBA from Stanford and a BSE from Princeton. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, and he enjoys singing karaoke with his wife and running with his high school aged son.


David Eagleman

David Eagleman is a neuroscientist & NYT bestselling author. He teaches at Stanford, is CEO of Neosensory, and directs the Center for Science and Law.

He runs the science podcast Inner Cosmos and is the writer/presenter of The Brain on PBS.

He is the author of 8 books, including SumIncognito, and his latest, Livewired. His film & television production company, Cognito Entertainment, brings scientific themes to the screen.


Les Charles

Glen and Les Charles were the co-creators, executive producers and head writers of Cheers.  Their script for the original episode won both the Emmy and Writers Guild Award for best comedy script.  It laid the groundwork for a series that, under their guidance, lasted 11 seasons, rose from a slow beginning to number one in the ratings, and won numerous awards in America and abroad.

Glen and Les began their careers as free-lance writers for such classic television comedies as MASH, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and The Bob Newhart Show.  They became producers for the first time on the Mary Tyler Moore spin-off Phyllis, and then went on to be producers and head writers of The Bob Newhart Show and Taxi.  They wrote some 25 scripts for Taxi (including the episode that introduced the Reverend Jim), several of which were nominated for Emmys, and won three Emmys as producers.

They created Cheers along with partner and fellow executive producer Jimmy Burrows.  Cheers received the third highest total of Emmys ever won by a series, including four for best comedy, and has the second highest number of nominations ever.  It also resulted in Frasier, the most successful spin-off in TV history.  The final episode of Cheers, which Glen and Les wrote, was one of the most watched programs of all time.

Glen and Les have won a total of 8 Emmys for writing and producing.  They were also awarded the Writers Guild Paddy Chayefsky Award for Lifetime Achievement in Television.  They’re currently trying to get started on a comedy about procrastination.


Glen Charles

Glen and Les Charles were the co-creators, executive producers and head writers of Cheers.  Their script for the original episode won both the Emmy and Writers Guild Award for best comedy script.  It laid the groundwork for a series that, under their guidance, lasted 11 seasons, rose from a slow beginning to number one in the ratings, and won numerous awards in America and abroad.

Glen and Les began their careers as free-lance writers for such classic television comedies as MASH, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and The Bob Newhart Show.  They became producers for the first time on the Mary Tyler Moore spin-off Phyllis, and then went on to be producers and head writers of The Bob Newhart Show and Taxi.  They wrote some 25 scripts for Taxi (including the episode that introduced the Reverend Jim), several of which were nominated for Emmys, and won three Emmys as producers.

They created Cheers along with partner and fellow executive producer Jimmy Burrows.  Cheers received the third highest total of Emmys ever won by a series, including four for best comedy, and has the second highest number of nominations ever.  It also resulted in Frasier, the most successful spin-off in TV history.  The final episode of Cheers, which Glen and Les wrote, was one of the most watched programs of all time.

Glen and Les have won a total of 8 Emmys for writing and producing.  They were also awarded the Writers Guild Paddy Chayefsky Award for Lifetime Achievement in Television.  They’re currently trying to get started on a comedy about procrastination.


James Burrows

James Burrows is one of television’s most respected and honored creative talents. Over his distinguished career, Burrows has been the recipient of ten Emmys, five Directors Guild of America Awards, the 1996 American Comedy Awards’ Creative Achievement Award, and in 2014 the Television Critics Association’s Career Achievement Award in 2006 he was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Science’s Hall of Fame and was honored by the US Comedy Arts Festival with their Career Tribute award. He has been the recipient of 22 nominations for the Director’s Guild of America Award, thus bestowing him the honor of being the most nominated director in the history of television at the Guild. He was recently honored by the DGA with the Inaugural 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award in Television. In November of

2015 he directed his 1000th episode which was recognized by a TV Special on NBC in January of 2016. In June of this year, he was honored with the “Achievement in Television eXcellence Award at the ATX TV Festival.

Burrows’ success as the director of television pilots is legendary. He began the 2023 TV season at the helm of the new CBS re-boot series of, “Frasier.”  The current primetime television schedule features one show “Neighborhood,”- whose pilot episode Burrows directed. In January of 2020, he received his fifth DGA Award for directing the Emmy award winning show “Live in Front of a Studio Audience #1: Norman Lear’s All in the Family and The Jeffersons.” He was also asked back to direct “Live in Front of a Studio Audience #3: Different Strokes and The Facts of Life” in December of 2021. In June of 2022, he embarked into a new market when he published his autobiography, “Directed by James Burrows.” It has received quite a bit of attention and praise from the industry.

Burrows is probably best known as co-creator, executive producer, and director of the critically acclaimed series, “Cheers.” The hit show, which aired for 11 seasons, is tied for the most nominated Comedy series in the Television Academy’s history and is in third place for most Emmys received by a Comedy Series.  Burrows has also received numerous awards for his work on “Will & Grace,” “Frasier,” “Friends,” “Wings,” “Night Court,” “Taxi,” and “Dear John.” For the first time in 25 years, he returned to the stage in the spring of 1998 to direct the highly acclaimed “Man Who Came to Dinner” at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, starring John Mahoney.

Burrows learned his trade from the very best, the legendary writer/director Abe Burrows, whose noted career included such classics as “Guys and Dolls,” “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and “Cactus Flower.”

Born in Los Angeles and raised in New York, Burrows graduated from Oberlin College and continued his education at Yale, where he earned a master’s degree in fine arts. Burrows relocated to Hollywood to work as a dialogue coach for “O.K. Crackerby!,” a short-lived television series starring Burl Ives. When the show ended, he returned to New York and initially worked as a stage manager before directing several off-Broadway shows, such as “The Castro Complex,” and stock productions of “The Odd Couple” and “Never Too Late.”

In 1974, Burrows moved back to the West Coast when he was invited to visit MTM Productions in Los Angeles and offered a job directing an episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”

Mr. Burrows and his wife, Debbie, reside in Los Angeles and between them they have a quartet of daughters.