About the Authors

Site Founders


Kevin Curran
Arbiter of Succession

Kevin is one of the co-founders, along with Matthew, of Treknobabble. The project grew out of their mutual love of watching hours of Star Trek and then talking for hours about then Star Trek they just watched. Kevin has been a trekkie since he was 9 years old, and saw a rerun of TNG on television. As co-Captain of the blog (kind of like Kirk and Spock in the movies), Kevin handles the tech end of the podcast and the artwork for the blog. He is obnoxiously proud of the okudagram he designed.

By day, Kevin is a lawyer who works for a non-for-profit helping survivors of domestic violence. He's reasonably certain it was all the TNG he watched in his formative years that is responsible for his social conscience. The whole being gay thing he blames on a comparable number of hours spent watching The Golden Girls. He secretly awaits the crossover episode that will never come.

Kevin's official title here at Treknobabble is Arbiter of Succession. Why was Kevin chosen as Arbiter? Because no Klingon could be trusted. That's why.

Kevin's "Why I Love Star Trek" Essay

Matthew Weflen
Galactic High Commissioner

Matthew has been a fan since about 1986, when Star Trek IV hit the theaters. At the tender age of 9, Star Trek forever altered his world view. He watched all of the following series with his family and then with his friends, and then 4 or 5 times on his own, to boot, before hooking his wife in 2005 (see below). Thankfully, by then, he no longer needed his worn-out VHS copies, taped off of broadcast.

When not frittering his time away on this site, Matthew is an adjunct professor of Philosophy at St. Xavier University in Chicago. He also teaches at Wilbur Wright College. He is finishing his Ph.D. work in same at Marquette University. If he isn't summarily granted control of the Trek franchise by the acclamation of his peers, he'll probably end up teaching full time with said doctoral degree.

Mathew's "Why I Love Star Trek" Essay


Contributors


Kelly Pollock
Communications Officer 

Before 2005, Kelly had never seen an episode of Star Trek. Since then, she has seen every episode of every series (most more than once), seen all of the movies, read countless Star Trek novels, and can answer Star Trek trivia with the nerdiest of Trekkies (well, not the nerdy Trekkies on this site, but the rest of them out there). Kelly blames her husband, Matthew Weflen (site co-founder) for this turn of events.

Kelly is the Communications Officer of Treknobabble, running the Facebook page and Twitter feeds, and regularly coming up with crazy ideas like setting up our own domain name and starting the CafePress store. Kelly also sewed her own Star Trek uniform (seen above), which was debuted at the Chicago Star Trek Convention. When not thinking about Star Trek and marketing, Kelly is a college administrator, knitter, and Mom to a toddler Trekkie.

Kelly's "Why I Love Star Trek" Essay

Richard Lorenc
Free Market Analyst

Richard originally became a Star Trek fan as a fifth grader after he helped his father paint his parents' rental property. A reward came with the help, and he chose a Lt. Commander Data action figure at Target because he had seen an episode of Star Trek on TV the week before. That purchase catalyzed a great many more, which he always justified by saying the hundreds of action figures, starship toys, and trading cards would "be worth something someday." (As a kid, however, he took them out to play, and so they're not worth quite as much as they might be otherwise.)

Richard contributes to the blog sporadically, writing on what Star Trek means to him and comparing its fictional world to the real one. For his real job, Richard develops new ways to incorporate the profit motive into fundraising for nonprofit social movement organizations and runs a Chicago-based social and educational organization.

Richard's "Why I Love Star Trek" Essay

Elizabeth Calderon
Junior Communications Officer

Elizabeth is Matthew's little sister and a part-time contributor to Treknobabble.  Elizabeth has been a Trekkie since the premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation way back in 1987.  She remembers watching the show with her entire family after dinner each week.  It was a time of family bonding/nerdiness.  Elizabeth's favorite series is Deep Space Nine.

Elizabeth is currently editing her second novel, with the hopes that someone, someday, will publish her literary works. Meanwhile, she is a full time college administrator.

Elizabeth's "Why I Love Star Trek" Essay
 
Glenda Kenyon

Glenda is a life-long fan, who has been watching since she was a wee little trekkie.  She remembers her best friend in first grade and her being star trek characters for halloween, going to the Adler Planetarium and getting a star trek actin figure, and staying up late to watch TNG reruns.  She is a proud third generation trekkie, and is pretty sure she wouldn't be the awesome nerd she is today without it in her childhood.  She sometimes even embarrassingly refers to characters as "Grandpa Picard" and "Uncle Riker".  Just don't tell anyone that.  She now enjoys it as an adult, thinking of the lessons it taught her.  She watches it with her boyfriend and tries to convince him which star trek movies are actually worth his time.

When she's not geeking out on trek, Glenda is a leasing agent out in the Northwest suburbs.  Glenda is also a full-time nerd, blogging as much as she can (20sidedwoman.blogspot.com) about nerdy movies and shows, video games and RPGs.  She also dreams of being a famous author, and tries to write when she has the time.  Her only problem is having too many story ideas and not enough time. 

Glenda's "Why I Love Star Trek" essay