Team
Dan Forbush
Named one of the 100 most influential public relations practitioners of the 20th century by PR Week, Dan launched ProfNet as an email-based expert network for reporters in 1992. After serving in senior communications positions at Syracuse University, the University at Stony Brook, and Skidmore College, he launched Smartacus in 2015 to explore the content-creating power of collaborative media. Since 2022, he has been working with Warren County’s Department of Planning and Community Development to spotlight historic points of interest on Stories from Open Space and to produce smartphone audio tours on Explore Warren County.
Bill Walker
Bill is a seasoned expert in academic public relations, with a distinguished career spanning several of the nation’s top institutions. After serving as Skidmore College’s communications chief in the 1970s and 80s, Walker assumed a series of communications vice presidencies at the College of William and Mary, Rutgers University, Dartmouth College, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The Council for Advancement and Support of Education presented Walker its Distinguished Service Award in 2018. Since retiring in 2013, he has continued to actively consult on strategy, communications, and marketing with academic institutions, serving in interim vice presidencies with the University of Arizona, Brandeis University, and the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.
Dominic Giordano
Dominic Giordano connected with Smartacus in 2021 after completing a standout internship with the Warren County Historical Society, where he curated a compelling exhibition of Warren County maps produced between 1757 and 2007. A senior at North Warren High School at the time, Giordano highlighted works by notable mapmakers like Seneca Ray Stoddard and Verplanck Colvin. Upon earning a B.A. in political science in May, he’s now spearheading the development of an immersive audio tour of Lake Luzerne narrated by the AI-generated voices of celebrated figures in the community’s history.
Prairie Gunnels
A Skidmore sophomore, Prairie Gunnels is working with Constitutional scholar Beau Breslin in the imagining of new constitutions that are better suited for life in the modern day. Publishing here, she’s using ChatGPT to mirror the perceptions, attitudes, and constitutional preferences of Americans stratified by the seven generations, from the Greatest Generation to the Alpha Generation. She is now working with Dominic on his project with Lake Luzerne by organizing the AI-generated voices for the audio tour.