Signum University

Position/Title: At-Large Board Member

  • Peter Rybski is a man of European descent posed in front of a black background and dressed professionally in a dark suit, cheery red tie, and a blue shirt that matches his twinkly eyes!

    Peter Rybski

    Peter is a lifelong Tolkien fan who has spent more than twenty years in the U.S. Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer and Nuclear Engineer. Peter is a graduate of the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Power Program and has a BS in Economics from the United States Naval Academy, a Masters in Engineering Management from Old…

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  • Matthew M. DeForrest

    Dr. Matthew M. DeForrest is Interim Director of the Edward E. Crutchfield Center for Integrated Studies and Professor of English at Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU). His recent published works have appeared in The Yeats Journal of Korea, The Yeats Annual, W. B. Yeats’s A Vision: Explications and Contexts, and Tolkien Studies. His recent presentations…

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  • Liza H. Gold

    Liza H. Gold, MD is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. Dr. Gold has a private practice in general and forensic psychiatry in Arlington, Virginia and is an award winning author and editor. Most recently, Dr. Gold edited and contributed to Gun Violence and Mental Illness (American Psychiatric Publishing,…

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  • A man of European decent is delivering a talk with a sheaf of notes in his hand. He's ignoring the notes, however, and he has wandered away from the podium. He leans in toward the audience with a look of excitement such as he probably had when he was discovering a new cool book at the library as a small boy.

    Andrew Higgins

    Dr. Andrew Higgins received a PhD in 2015 from Cardiff Metropolitan University. His PhD thesis ‘The Genesis of Tolkien’s Mythology’ explored the first major expression of Tolkien’s mythology The Book of Lost Tales materials, with a specific emphasis on the interrelated nature of myth and language in Tolkien’s earliest world-building. He has currently just completed…

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