Gary Dodge
Gary Dodge is a shareholder in Hatch, James & Dodge, a small, specialized law firm whose practice is focused primarily on commercial litigation, business and energy. Gary received an undergraduate degree and a law degree from Brigham Young University in the late 1970s, clerked for the Honorable Monroe McKay of the United States Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Colorado, and became a shareholder at the Salt Lake law firm now known as Parr Brown Gee & Loveless before joining his current firm. Throughout his career, Gary has represented a broad spectrum of energy clients, including industrial and commercial energy users, municipal and cooperative utilities, and energy project developers. Gary’s current focus is energy, with a specific emphasis on development of renewable energy projects.
Gary has long been a strong supporter of organizations championing civil and human rights for all. Gary is particularly proud of his educational sponsorship of his three adult children who are actively engaged in good work throughout the country in non-profit and service-oriented professions. Gary lives in Salt Lake City with his wife, Kirsten, and their young son, Alexander.
Jill Sheinberg
Jill Sheinberg has an AB from the University of Michigan, an MA in Sociology from New School University, and a JD from Hofstra University School of Law. She practiced employment law and represented not-for profit organizations. In New York Jill taught legal research, writing, and moot court at Hofstra University School of Law. She served as a mediator at the Brooklyn Mediation Center and continued her mediation practice when she moved to Utah in 1995. Jill has served on many boards, including New York Civil Liberties Board, ACLU of Utah Board, National ACLU Board, Planned Parenthood, Salt Lake Acting Company, and Adopt-A-Native Elder. Jill headed the national outreach campaign for Heart of the Sea. She was a community organizer for Independent Television Service (ITVS) in Utah and has also worked with Working Films doing outreach for films. Jill was an organizer of Perry Street for Peace in New York City and later became involved in Women Strike for Peace. She is a founding member, past president, and current member of the board of HEAL Utah.
Jonathan M. Ruga, Education Project Board Chair
Jonathan Ruga, M.B.A., C.P.A., J.D., has spent the last 25 years as a lawyer, businessman, and philanthropist. He is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Sentry Financial Corporation (www.sentryfinancial.com), a private company whose mission is to help companies grow, and to enhance the quality of life in our communities. One of Sentry’s major initiatives is to support the advancement of solar energy by providing financing and structuring services for solar energy projects. Jonathan has co-authored five books on the topic of equipment leasing and finance, and currently serves on the boards of seven U.S. companies and one based in the United Kingdom.
In addition to his involvement with the High Road for Human Rights, Jonathan is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs of Greater Salt Lake (www.bgcgsl.org); Rowland Hall St. Mark’s School (www.rhsm.org); and the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law (www.law.utah.edu). For seven years ending in 2003, Jonathan was a Board member (and for one year was Chairman) of The Road Home (www.theroadhome.org).
Jonathan graduated magna cum laude from the University of Utah College of Business with undergraduate degrees in accounting and finance, and with a Master of Business Administration degree, and obtained a law degree from the SJ Quinney College of Law, where he was a member of the Utah Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. In 2007, Jonathan received the Alumnus of the Year Award from the S.J. Quinney College of Law for his commitment to the law school and its students. Jonathan and his wife, Tina, have three children (Jared, Ashlyn, and Jordan) and reside in Salt Lake City.
Deen Chatterjee
Deen Chatterjee teaches philosophy at the University of Utah and is the Editor-in-Chief of the forthcoming multi-volume Encyclopedia of Global Justice and the Series Editor of Studies in Global Justice. His publications include, most recently, Democracy in a Global World: Human Rights and Political Participation in the 21st Century , The Ethics of Assistance: Morality and the Distant Needy, and Ethics and Foreign Intervention. Currently he is completing two books, one on the ethics of war and peace and the other on cosmopolitan justice. He is a member of the American Philosophical Association’s Advisory Committee on Applied Ethics and has been a two-term member of the Association’s Committee on International Cooperation. Deen has held visiting appointments at the University of Washington, New School University, University of Colorado, University of Oregon, and Harvard University. He has been a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at the Institute on War and Morality at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis and has sailed around the world for a semester as a visiting faculty on the “floating campus” of the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Shipboard Education.
Geralyn Dreyfous
Geralyn Dreyfous has a wide background in the arts, long experience consulting in the philanthropic sector, and is active on many boards and initiatives. She founded the Philanthropic Initiative in Boston, which guides families of wealth in strategic giving opportunities. In the film arena, Geralyn taught Documentary and Narrative Writing with Dr. Robert Coles at Harvard University and was a founder of the DoubleTake Community Service Corporation, which publishes DoubleTake Magazine. She also founded the DoubleTake Summer Institute, which brought educators, activists and emerging storytellers together to explore the connections between service, moral inquiry, and storytelling. A filmmaker as well, Geralyn produced “The Day My God Died,” a documentary on the trafficking of children for sex. She also produced the 2004 Academy Award-winning documentary “Born Into Brothels” about the children of Calcutta prostitutes. The documentary spawned the Kids With Cameras Foundation to sell the photography of children in brothels, enabling them to attend school and leave the brothels.
Tom Guinney
For nearly 30 years, Tom Guinney has been Partner and Chief of Operations, Gastronomy, Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah, the parent company for The New Yorker, Market Street Grill, Market Street Oyster Bar, Market Street Broiler. Growing from a handful of employees in 1978, the firm is now a major employer in Utah’s important hospitality, convention, and tourist industry, employing more than 600 individuals in restaurants in downtown Salt Lake City, near the University, Cottonwood and at the RiverPark in South Jordan.
Tom is also a partner in Gastronomy’s real estate ventures, including the Salt Lake Hardware Building, the Ford Motor Building and the Firestone Building. All this involvement might lead you to think of Tom as a native Utahn, but the fact is, he grew up in the restaurant business in Newport Beach, California, by beginning his restaurant career as a dishwasher when he could barely reach the sink. From there, it has been a long and distinguished path, and it’s probably fair to conclude by saying that Tom Guinney has served more lobster, clams, shrimp, halibut and fresh salmon than anyone else in Utah.
Jazmynn Pok
Jazmynn graduated Cum Laude from Westminster College with a dual honors degree in Environmental Studies and Political Science. She is currently volunteering at the Maliheh Free Clinic, and hopes to continue her education to become a Physician Assistant and offer medical services to underserved populations. Jazmynn has been involved in human rights issues since she was young partially due to the fact that her father escaped from Cambodia in 1975 with his three siblings and mother. They came to join her grandfather who was then obtaining his Masters at UCLA. Jazmynn enjoys learning about progressive approaches to important issues including environmental sustainability, women’s rights, and History of Southeast Asia.
Jazmynn has been involved with High Road since its conception, as she followed Rocky from his post as Mayor to his creation of High Road for Human Rights. Jazmynn has been crucial in helping High Road build relationships with High Schools and students because she believes that students in High School are the age range in which people develop passions and the benefits of community service including maintaining a social consciousness. Jazmynn spends her free time with her five sisters and two brothers when she’s not helping out in the community.
Robert Newman
Robert Newman is Dean of the College of Humanities, Associate Vice President for Interdisciplinary Studies, and Professor of English at the University of Utah. He authored, co-authored or edited six books, including Uncommon Threads: Reading and Writing About Contemporary America; Centuries Ends, Narrative Means; Joyce’s Ulysses: The Larger Perspective; and Understanding Thomas Pynchon. He has also published numerous articles on twentieth and twenty-first century literature and culture. Robert serves as General Editor of the Cultural Frames, Framing Culture series published by University of Virginia Press. He is Executive Director of the Human Experience Coalition, a comprehensive web-based initiative currently focused on human rights issues.
Richard Sheinberg
Richard Sheinberg holds a JD and LLM in International Law from the New York University School of Law. He practiced corporate and transactional law in New York for several years then left the active practice of law to become a senior executive officer in a worldwide cosmetics and toiletries business. Richard moved to Park City, Utah where he has been engaged as a principal in real estate development. He is completing an innovative housing project that involves the re-use and complete retrofit of a Veterans Administration Hospital. Richard currently serves as the Board Chair and President of the Summit Land Conservancy and as a member of the Board of the Youth Winter Sports Alliance. Richard served as the board Chair of the Kimball Art Center and the Stratton Mountain School and as a board member of the Sugar Bowl Foundation.