I am happy to announce that we officially have a keynote speaker for our 3rd Annual Iowa Secularists Conference. Lori Lipman Brown, the Director of the Secular Coalition for America, will be joining us as our keynote speaker.

“Lori Lipman Brown is a former Nevada State Senator, private practice lawyer and law professor. Her legislative record in the arenas of public education, mental health care and the repeal of consensual sex crimes resulted in her being named Civil Libertarian of the Year by the Southern Nevada chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and Legislator of the Year by the Nevada chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. Brown has been a frequent political commentator on television and radio and a regular columnist in a variety of print media.”

-from the Secular Coalition website at http://www.secular.org/staff.html.

Mark your calendars for July 12th and I’ll send more details as well as information on how to register as it becomes available. Thank you to those who have sent ideas about conference sessions!

Thursday, February 21 at 7:00 PM

Zio Johno’s, Marion
755 7th Ave
Marion , IA 52302

We will have another round of fabulous conversation and expanding our secular social circles. For more information and to RSVP please visit the Meetup site here.

Tuesday, February 12th, UNI Freethinkers (UNIFI) meeting
GABSYV (Campus Edition) at the Hemisphere Lounge UNI Campus in Cedar Falls from 7-11. Topic: What’s Wrong With Christianity?

Thursday, February 14th - Saturday, February 16th, Iowa City Darwin Day. For more information, please visit the website here.

Thursday, February 14th, Iowa City Darwin Day: Live From Prairie Lights book reading - Massimo Pigliucci will read from his recent book, Making Sense of Evolution.

Friday, February 15th, Iowa City Darwin Day: Lectures to the scientific community, 101 Biology Building
3:00 Massimo Pigliucci, “Making sense of evolution: the conceptual foundations of evolutionary biology.”
4:00 Martha McClintock, “Broken Ties or Alternative Strategies? Effects of social isolation on fertility and survival.”
6:00 Dinner at Linn Street Café, Advance tickets required, limited seating available

Saturday, February 16th, Iowa City Darwin Day: The Main Event - Public Talks, Macbride Auditorium
1:00 Christopher Brouchu, “The Dead Speak: What we learned from the Tyrannosaurus.”
2:00 Martha McClintock, “Social Isolation and Breast Cancer: Psychosocial Regulation of Gene Expression”
3:00 Massimo Pigliucci, “What’s science got to do with it? When scientists misspeak about religion.”
4:00 Panel Discussion, Drs. Brouchu, McClintock, and Pigliucci
Reception

Tuesday, February 21st, Cedar Rapids Meetup. Details to come. For more information and to RSVP visit the website here.

Thursday, February 21st, Des Moines Meetup at Panera Bread,
4150 Westown Parkway in West Des Moines at 7pm. For more information or to RSVP visit the website here.

Thursday, February 21st, Iowa City/Coralville Meetup at Old Chicago in Coralville at 7pm. For more information and to RSVP visit the website here. *Note that this is the 3rd Thursday of the month instead of the 2nd.

Each Tuesday, ISU AAS meeting at 7pm in Ross 125 on the ISU campus, Ames.

Each Saturday, North Iowa Secularists meeting at 10:00am at the Mason City Airport Cafe at Hwy 122 W.

Each Sunday, Des Moines weekly meeting, 12pm Please RSVP on message board. Panera Bread on 42nd St., West Des Moines, in the back room., visit the Meetup site for more details and updates here.