2022 Programs

Dr. Charles Kutler has 20 years of experience as an Infectious Disease specialist. Dr. Kutler graduated from New York University, completed his residency training at St. Vincent’s in New York, and fellowship training at Beth Israel. Dr. Kutler has extensive experience in immunosuppressive disorders including HIV, oncology, immune system disorders, tick-borne diseases, and all infections of the body. Dr. Kutler was the Associate Medical Director of one of the largest HIV centers in the country, the Center for Comprehensive Care AIDS Center in NYC. He was the Medical Director of wound care for the Health Alliance in NY and the Medical Director of antibiotic stewardship at Nuvance in Rhinebeck, NY. He has performed multiple medical missions in resource poor countries such as Nicaragua, Honduras and Tibet. Dr. Kutler taught “The Art of Medicine” at Albany Medical Center for many years. During the beginning months of the Covid pandemic, Dr. Kutler worked exclusively at Vassar Hospital as part of the multi-disciplinary team overseeing therapeutic strategies and interventions for Covid patients. He will discuss the evolution of COVID-19 treatment and outlook in this lecture.

Over the last two million years, the human lineage went from a group of small, fangless, clawless, naked bipedal ape-like beings to the makers of stone tools, the controllers of fire, and the producers of cave art. They later became the constructors of towns, cities and empires, ultimately becoming a core force in the global ecosystem. How did this happen? Our ancestors collaborated to deal with the challenges the world threw at them. We have a cocktail of creativity and collaboration that is unique to our species—no other species has ever been able to do so well—and it has propelled the development of our bodies, minds, and cultures, both for good and for bad. We are first and foremost the species singularly distinguished and shaped by creativity.

Agustin Fuentes is a Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University. His books include “Race, Monogamy, and other lies they told you: busting myths about human nature” (U of California), “Conversations on Human Nature(s)” (Routledge), “The Creative Spark: how imagination made humans exceptional" (Dutton), and “Why We Believe: evolution and the human way of being” (Yale).