Dr.  Turner M.D is a general surgeon and assistant professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.  She is an associate program director for the General Surgery Residency Program at the University of Maryland Medical Centre. She serves as chair of the Surgical Caucus of the American Medical Association (AMA) Young Physicians Section and is a member of the Editorial Board of Surgical News. Her academic interests include teaching and training paradigms for medical students and residents in open and laparoscopic surgery.

Dr.  Turner received her medical degree at Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and completed her surgical residency at Howard University Hospital.  Throughout her residency, she was a senior staff fellow at the National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute, Laboratory of Kidney and Electrolyte Metabolism.  Dr.  Turner’s fellowship training was in minimally invasive and laparoscopic surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center & Weill-Cornell University School of Medicine in New York.  Dr. Turner's clinical practice focuses on minimallyinvasive/laparoscopic, gastrointestinal and endocrine surgery. She has a diverse research background, including studying nitric oxide and the kidneys. In organized medicine, Dr. Turner has held the position of resident on the general surgery RRC and was the resident member on the AMA Council on Scientific Affairs.  Given her considerable experience in her field, we asked Dr. Turner what was her best operation and why. “This is a tough question to answer.  I guess, I would say that every operation has a different scenario which is exciting.  It happens that I have to deal with trauma patients, life and death situations. I enjoy using new techniques (such as laparoscopy when we first tried it) which have not been employed before.  I like that kind of challenge and opportunity.  There are specific patients which resonate with you”.

Nicolas Kim Coppola was born in Long Beach, California on January 7, 1964 to August Coppola, an English professor, and Joy Vogelsang, a dancer and choreographer. He attended Beverly Hills High in L.A., which is where he developed an interest in acting prior to studying theater at UCLA. 

Nicolas Cage made his big screen debut in 1982 in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, before changing his surname name to Cage to avoid any accusations of nepotism as the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola. He then embarked on a remarkable career which has included an Oscar win in 1996 for Leaving Las Vegas as well as memorable performances in everything from Raising Arizona to Moonstruck to Face/Off to Snake Eyes to Adaptation to National Treasure 1 & 2 to The Bad Lieutenant to Kick-Ass which was #2 on this critic’s Top 10 List for 2010.

Here, he talks about his latest film, Drive Angry 3-D, a supernatural thriller where he plays a fugitive from Hell intent on rescuing his granddaughter from the gang of goons who also murdered his daughter. 

Damien Chazelle was born inProvidence,Rhode Islandon January 19, 1985, but raised in both theU.S.and France. As a teenager, he won Best Drums atAmerica’s Best High School Jazz Competition in 2003 and Best Rhythm Section Soloist at the Dunellen Invitational Jazz Festival later the same year.

Damien attended HarvardUniversitywhere he studied filmmaking and began work on his senior thesis, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. He wound up leaving school to expand the thesis into his first feature film, shooting off and on over the course of two years, and finally graduating in 2008.

Shot on black-and-white 16mm for about $60,000, Guy and Madeline premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and went on to play at over 20 other film festivals. It received a Gotham Independent Film Award nomination for “Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You”; and was named the best unreleased film of 2009 by film critics Amy Taubin (Film Comment), John Anderson (Variety), David Fear (Time Out New York), and Elizabeth Weitzman (New York Daily News).

Trumpeter/Composer/Arranger Jason Palmer is one of the most in-demand jazz musicians of his generation. He has worked with such icons as Roy Haynes, Jimmy Smith, Wynton Marsalis, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ravi Coltrane, Geri Allen, Patrice Rushen, Kenny Barron, Phil Woods, Common and Roy Hargrove. Jason took first place in the 2009 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition.

The June 2007 issue of Downbeat Magazine cited Palmer as one of the “Top 25 trumpeters of the Future.” His debut recording, “Songbook,” with Ravi Coltrane and Greg Osby, was released to rave reviews in 2008. And his second CD, “Nothing to Hide,” just dropped in September of this year.

Jason’s group has been playing Wally’s Jazz Café in Boston every weekend for the past decade. The quintet has also been featured at the Tanglewood Jazz Fest, the Stone and the Jazz Gallery in NYC, the Studio in Hartford, Connecticut, as well as numerous venues across New England. In 2007, he was commissioned by the Festival of New Trumpet Music in NYC to premier a new composition based on Sudoku at the Jazz Standard.

Besides performing, Palmer maintains a busy schedule as an educator/actor/board member at JazzBoston. Plus, he was recently hired by Berklee College of Music as an Assistant Professor of Ensembles. Here, he talks about playing a title role in Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, a jazz-driven romance drama marking the impressive directorial debut of Damien Chazelle. 

Born in Atlanta, Georgia on December 10, 1985, Raven-Symone' Christina Pearman got an early start in showbiz when she was signed by the Ford Modeling Agency while she was still in diapers.  At the age of five, Symone signed a reconrding contract with MCA Records as a solo artist.   After appearing in TV ads for everything from Cool Whip to Jello, she was invited to join the cast of “The Cosby Show.”  She’s best known for the Emmy-nominated comedy series “That's So Raven” on the Disney Channel where she played the title character Raven Baxter, a teenager who periodically has psychic visions of the future.

On the big screen, she was last seen starring in College Road Trip opposite Martin Lawrence where she played an overachieving high school student who decides to travel around the country to choose the perfect university to attend. Raven’s other film credits include The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, Dr. Dolittle and Dr. Dolittle 2. 

As for her musical career, she has released four solo albums so far, most recently "Raven-Symoné" on Hollywood Records. An innovative entrepreneur, she created a "how to" online destination for teens and ‘tweens, RavenSymonePresents.com.  The site features an easy to use video player and playlist where users can discover new content. The video clips feature Raven-Symoné personally demonstrating an array of useful tips and project ideas for her fans and supporters. 

Furthermore, Raven devotes much of her free time to her humanitarian concerns, such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which fulfills the dreams of children with life-threatening medical conditions. She’s involved with Girls Incorporated, too, a national nonprofit youth organization dedicated to inspiring young females to be strong, smart, and bold by providing vital educational programs, particularly in high-risk, under served areas. Additionally, she is involved with the Aviva Family and Children's Services, an organization that provides life-saving and life-affirming support to thousands of children and families located in Los Angeles.

Chris Jasper (born Christopher H. Jasper, Cincinnati, Ohio) has been involved in music since his childhood.  At age seven his mother noticed that he was a gifted musician and could play Motown’s songs by ear on his piano;  she encouraged him to take piano lessons.  The Isley Brothers[1] and Chris Jasper grew up on the same block in their native Cincinnati.  In 1959, the group scored their first big hit, 'Shout^[2],'  (a soul single that reflected the call-and-response style of gospel music and the vocal style of the group) and their second big hit “Twist and Shout” later covered by the Beatles in 1962^[3].  More hits followed such as "This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)" with Motown Records in 1966, produced by the Dozier&Holland team.