College Columns December 2016 | Page 2

Officers

G. Christopher Meyer

Chair

Marc A. Levinson

President

Hon. Mary Grace Diehl

Vice-President

Grant T. Stein

Vice-President

R. Patrick Vance

Vice-President

Thomas E. Lumsden

Treasurer

Susan M. Freeman

Secretary

Board of Directors

Marc Abrams

Francis X. Buckley, Jr.

Daniel C. Cohn

Dennis Connolly

Lawrence D. Coppel

Jeffrey H. Davidson

Karen A. Giannelli

Annette W. Jarvis

Eric W. Lam

Stephen D. Lerner

Patrick Thomas McCarthy

Claudia Z. Springer

Catherine Steege

Jane L. Vris

Howard J. Weg

Deborah D. Williamson

Ex Officio Directors

Michael L. Cook

Mark D. Bloom, Chair, ACB Foundation

Board of Regents

Richard E. Mikels

Chair, Board of Regents

Mark N. Berman (1st Cir.)

Dennis F. Dunne (2nd Cir.)

David B. Stratton (3rd Cir.)

Richard L. Wasserman (4th Cir.)

Berry D. Spears (5th Cir.)

Taft McKinstry (6th Cir.)

Kenneth J. Malek (7th Cir.)

David A. Warfield (8th Cir.)

Thomas E. Patterson (9th Cir.)

Carl A. Eklund (10th Cir.)

Sarah R. Borders (11th Cir.)

Timothy R. Coleman

At Large

Hon. Joan N. Feeney

At Large

Prof. Melissa B. Jacoby

At Large

Scholar-in-Residence

Prof. Ralph Brubaker

Counsel

William J. Perlstein

Executive Director

Shari A. Bedker

American College of Bankruptcy

P.O. Box 249

Stanardsville, VA 22973

434-939-6004

www.amercol.org

Email: [email protected]

President's Column

Marc A. Levinson, President

College Luncheon Meeting in San Francisco

Almost 200 Fellows attended

the October 26, 2016 luncheon meeting at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis held in connection with the NCBJ annual meeting. After lunch, there were remarks and reports from Chris Meyer, Chair of the College Board of Directors, from Mark Bloom, Chair of the Foundation Board, and from the Chairs of the Distinguished Service Award Committee and Senior Fellows Committee (Zack Clement and Bob Rosenberg, respectively). Thereafter, Tara Twomey, Project Director for the National Consumer Bankruptcy Rights Center, related anecdotes and examples of the good use by consumer bankruptcy agencies of the College’s and the Foundation’s grants (which exceeded $320,000 in 2015 and will exceed $468,000 in 2016) – hopefully encouraging Fellows to dig deep and donate prior to year-end.

While the presentations were interesting and informative, the clear highlight of the luncheon was the keynote address by Willie L. Brown, Jr., the former Speaker of the California Assembly (1980-1995) and two-term Mayor of the City of San Francisco (1996-2004). Mayor Brown currently serves as a director or trustee of several charitable and educational institutions, including the Smithsonian’s National Museum

of African American History and Culture. He writes an enlightening and entertaining column for the Sunday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, commenting on San Francisco culture, politics and quirks, and reviewing a movie. Mayor Brown is the ultimate San Francisco insider, and is considered by many to be the heart and soul of that fascinating city.

Covering a wide range of topics, Mayor Brown shared his thoughts about how he came to serve as a newspaper columnist, about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and the election that would be held two weeks later, and about California and national politics, generally. The talk was educational, amusing and, in a word, riveting. His witty and informative responses during the question and answer period were the icing on the cake.

Willie L. Brown, Jr.

Fostering Diversity

Like any institution, the College is only as good as the next generation of its membership. For 27 years, the various Circuit Admissions Councils and the two Nominating Committees have recommended the admission of only those bankruptcy

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