ABOUT
We are educators, storytellers, and digital media experts. Stewards of History. Do-Gooders on a Mission.
CORE TEAM
LAURIE PASLER
Project Director, Courtroom 600
President and Executive Director,
Descendants Media Group NFP, Inc.
Laurie is an award-winning creative director, producer, and entrepreneur who inherited her father’s hidden WWII memorabilia from working at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, and discovered a need for education about this unexposed slice of history.
READ MORE
The Courtroom 600 project was born out of Laurie’s frustration in researching the trials through available online resources—and hundreds of books.
In 2016 she founded Descendants Media Group NFP to preserve the legacy of Nuremberg and teach its lessons to future generations a new way.
Now, in partnership with educators, historians, and digital media experts, she is actively bringing the Courtroom 600 project to life.
DON FULMER
Curriculum Advisor, Courtroom 600
Department Chair, Lake Park High School Social Studies
Don Fulmer leads a team of 22 social studies educators at Lake Park High School in Roselle, Illinois, where he is in his 30th year of teaching. He currently teaches AP U.S. Government and AP European History. He holds a B.A. in European History and an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from Northern Illinois University, along with more than 90 additional graduate credits across multiple disciplines.
READ MORE
In addition to his work at Lake Park, Don has served as a researcher and education project manager with the LBJ Presidential Library. As a key curriculum partner with Courtroom 600, he helps develop instructional materials, advises on classroom implementation, and leads professional development for educators.
ADVISORS
ILAN GEVA
DANA HARVILLE
Public Affairs strategist, executive communications advisor, Founder and President of Chorus Strategic Advisors, dedicated to equipping and convening the right voices to drive meaningful impact.
DAN BROWN
DAN NACE
Award-winning writer and producer creating powerful storylines that connect with audiences and motivate them to make a change or get involved.
BOB HERCULES
Peabody Award-winning filmmaker whose work has been seen widely on PBS, Discovery Channel, IFC, TLC and in film festivals around the world.
KIRK NASH
Animation director who combines storytelling with technically accurate, immersive and visually engaging 3D environments for gaming, video, and brand/product simulations.
PHIL BERMAN
Technical advisor with a passion for building software, collaborating in teams with diverse skill sets, and helping customers leverage technology.
SCOTT WINTERROTH
Life-long history buff and public relations/integrated marketing pro, fascinated with elevating non-fiction historical storytelling into modern tech.
JONATHAN EISEN
Relationship builder developing initiatives that inspire meaningful connection through personal engagement and community programming.
ACADEMIC ADVISORS
MARK HULL
Ph.D., J.D., FRHistS, FRSA
Department of Military History,
US Army Command and
General Staff College
Advisor,
Courtroom 600 Project
Dr. Mark Hull taught international criminal and military law, and history, at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, KS. He earned his doctorate from University College Cork in Ireland, and Juris Doctorates from the Cumberland School of Law and Friedrich-Alexander-Universität in Erlangen-Nürnberg.
Prior to teaching at CGSC, Dr. Hull worked as a criminal prosecutor and served as a military intelligence officer to the U.S. Army in Iraq from 2006-7.
READ MORE
His books include Irish Secrets: German Espionage in Wartime Ireland and Masquerade: Treason, Holocaust Denial, and an Irish Imposter (University of Oklahoma Press 2017).
He is the author of numerous articles and reviews on topics ranging from prosecuting war crimes to military intelligence.
Dr. Hull is an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Distinguished Fellow at the Consortium for the Research and Study of the Holocaust and the Law, and a Fellow with the National Institute of Military Justice.
A frequent speaker at national and international venues, Dr. Hull focuses on war crimes prosecution, international law, and the relationship between the law of war and military operations.
JOSEPH A. ROSS
Teaching Assistant Professor, Peace, War, and Defense Curriculum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC)
Lecturer, College of Arts & Sciences, Lloyd International Honors College, Integrated Professional Studies, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG)
Advisor,
Courtroom 600 Project
Joseph A. Ross is a teaching assistant professor in the Peace, War, and Defense curriculum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – where he also serves on the Advisory Board of the Conflict Management Initiative – and a lecturer in the Lloyd International Honors College at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He started teaching introductory-level college history courses in 2007 to help students better understand the modern challenges facing the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
READ MORE
Over time, his interests have become more interdisciplinary, so Ross began developing courses on conspiracy theories and “fake news,” the debate between gun rights and gun regulations in America, the philosophical and moral justifications for going to war, and the development of international law and global justice.
He is most passionate about transitional justice, human rights, and the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial — and he is currently developing an immersive role-playing simulation of this historic event where students work as members of the press, prosecution, defense, or tribunal to achieve a set of objectives.
A firm believer in sharing knowledge with a broad audience, Ross has partnered with community organizations throughout the state to bring educational programming to North Carolinians, most recently serving as a Road Scholar with the North Carolina Humanities Council to present, “Judging Nazis: John Parker’s Nuremberg Journey.”
Ross studied history and philosophy at Western Carolina University and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from UNC Greensboro. When he’s not working, he enjoys basketball, hiking, and spending time with his family.
JUDITH HARAN
Advisor,
Courtroom 600 Project
Judith Haran retired from her first career in psychiatry in 2019 and now devotes her time to writing fiction and working in archives.
Her current project is analyzing documents for the Nuremberg Project at Harvard Law School in preparation for their online launch.
READ MORE
In 2018 she published “The Nuremberg Trials Project at Harvard Law School: Making History Accessible to All,” Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies: Vol. 5, Article 9.
Judith lives in rural Massachusetts with her husband and two cats. She is hoping to get her second novel published soon.
DAWN MILLER
Advisor,
Courtroom 600 Project
For the past 15 years Dawn Miller has worked with Serials collections in the Harvard Library. More recently, she has become a contributor on the Nuremberg Trials Project hosted by the Harvard Law School. In this capacity, Dawn creates items for Nuremberg identities in Wikidata, including individuals involved in the trials and significant sites (Nuremberg Court Prison, civilian internment enclosures, and detention centers) associated with those individuals.
READ MORE
Dawn also worked extensively with Nuremberg Trial photographs held by the U.S. National Archives by importing digital images to Wikidata and creating metadata there for enhanced discovery and access.
Her research passions are the International Military Tribunal, the subsequent Nuremberg Trials and the breadth and monumentality of the labors undertaken by the Allied powers (from soldiers, intelligence officers, lawyers, prison guards, court translators, photographers, and file clerks) to document and deliver justice.
Dawn holds an undergraduate degree in Art History from Simmons University, Boston, and a Masters in Arts Administration from Boston University. Her personal passions are family, autism advocacy, her 1946 Jeep Willys, and collecting World War II artifacts and ephemera.
DESCENDANTS MEDIA GROUP
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
JOHN M. GEIRINGER
Partner, Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg LLP
Adjunct Professor, Chicago-Kent College of Law; Co-Director, Center for National Security and Human Rights Law
John Geiringer is a nationally recognized banking attorney who advises financial institutions on regulatory, governance, and investigative matters. John also co-directs the Center for National Security and Human Rights Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he teaches classes on banking, national security, the Holocaust, and related issues.
READ MORE
John is the son of a Holocaust survivor and the co-host of a podcast called A Rabbi and a Lawyer Walk Into a Bar. He edited a book called Countering the Financing of Terrorism: Law and Policy and is developing a treatise on legal issues surrounding the Holocaust.
ANNIE YUZZI
Event Marketing & Experience Leader
Annie Yuzzi is a veteran experiential marketing leader with 25+ years of creating, developing, and executing high-impact experiences for Fortune 500 companies and startups in Silicon Valley. Her award-winning programs build brand awareness, accelerate and nurture pipelines, create customer loyalty and advocacy, and impact the bottom line.
READ MORE
ROBERT T. BERNAT, MD, JD
Principal, Bernat & Bernat, P.C.
Adjunct Lecturer, Harvard University
A physician and attorney with over four decades of experience, Bob brings a rare dual perspective to legal, regulatory, and medical issues. He currently leads all litigation and regulatory matters for his firm while maintaining a long-standing commitment to public service. Bob earned law degrees from both Oxford University and Harvard Law School and his medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.
READ MORE
He has served in leadership roles on the boards of the Harvard and Princeton Clubs of Chicago and was President of the Harvard Club from 2018 to 2020.
In the Spring Term of the 2025–26 academic year, Bob will serve as a lecturer in the Holocaust course at Harvard University, delivering sessions focused on the laws of the Third Reich and medicine in the Third Reich. He also curates and lectures on historical artifacts from Nazi Germany, using these materials to educate future generations on the consequences of state-sponsored hate and propaganda.
His past service includes appointments to the Illinois School Security and Standards Task Force and the Board of Directors of the Children’s Tumor Foundation.
BRUCE OGRON
Attorney and Educator,
Moriah Congregation
For more than three decades, Bruce was immersed in the practiced law, litigating complex cases throughout the state of Illinois. At about the time of the pandemic, Bruce pivoted to his real passion—Jewish education. Leaning heavily on his early broadcast journalism experiences, and drawing on his legal writing skills, Bruce has developed innovative and creative multimedia curricula for students of all ages and abilities.
READ MORE
EMILY AHO
Director, Treasurer,
Author, and Nuremberg Descendant
Emily Aho is the daughter of Emilio J. “Leo” DiPalma, a 19-year-old son of Italian immigrants who served as Sergeant of the Guard at the Nuremberg trial of the Major War Criminals. Previously a front line soldier, Leo was sent to Nuremberg to assist with copying documents, photographs, and and evidence to be presented at the trial.
READ MORE
He was soon selected to join the courtroom guard team, despite being two inches shorter than the required height. In 2000, Emily and her father visited Courtroom 600 together, where historians encouraged him to share his experiences—“lest we forget.”
Emily’s connection to her father’s story was shaped by her own career as a popular children’s author and speaker. For over 20 years, she traveled the country signing books, visiting schools, and inspiring young people to find the stories in their own lives. She estimates she met more than 100,000 children—a most cherished experience. One of Emily’s books was honored by First Lady Barbara Bush as one of 27 books that best represent Maine, and is depicted in a granite sculpture.
Drawing on that background, Emily helped her father write Just a Kid, a Guard at the Nuremberg Trials, a memoir for 5th grade world history students that brings to life his unique experiences.
In 2009, Leo was honored with the Legacy of Nuremberg Award at the Virginia Holocaust Museum, where a mannequin likeness of him was unveiled in their recreated courtroom. He was also named an honorary member of the DOJ’s Special Operations Division. Tragically, Leo passed away from COVID-19 in early 2020, one of seventy-five veterans lost at a Soldiers’ Home.
Emily continues to carry forward his legacy—while also championing a cause close to her heart: protecting the critically endangered Newfoundland Pony. She founded a nonprofit dedicated to saving the breed and has helped rescue and rehome many of these rare equines. Building on that work, she became a certified Equine Assisted Life Skills facilitator, offering healing programs for families, children, and adults—including Heal the Heroes, a free initiative she launched after her father’s passing to support frontline workers. For her efforts, she received recognition from Senator Maggie Hassan and a Congressional Tribute. Today Emily continues helping veterans heal with the very ponies whose lives she helped save.
Emily is proud to serve on the Courtroom 600 board and to carry forward her father’s mission of remembrance, education, and justice.
MARY ELLEN DONOVAN FULLER
Nuremberg Descendant
Director, South Carolina Humanities
Mary Ellen’s association with Courtroom 600 is a personal one. Her father, James B. Donovan, an Irish Catholic fresh from law school, was General Counsel for the newly formed Office of Strategic Services (OSS, precursor to the CIA) in Europe during World War II. Donovan, a commander in the Navy, was chosen to be associate prosecutor at the International Military Tribunal, the first Nuremberg trial.
READ MORE
He was responsible for all visual evidence and made the presentation of two films to assure defendants of guilt since they were based on the Nazis own visual handiwork. George Stevens, John Ford and Bud Schulberg were integral in the creation of finished films presented by her father, who after the trial, became a pro bono lawyer for the U.S. Jewish survivors and reparations among other affiliations.
Mary Ellen is also on the Board of the South Carolina Humanities, a state-wide organization under the auspices of The National Endowment for the Arts. She came to the South as Director of Design for Springs Industries. Her forty years in the Home Furnishings industry concentrated on the arts and artists and wide travel for production. She won the HomeTex Award in her industry.
Fuller spearheaded the 2011 Humanities Festival in Sumter County and has curated several shows on sculpture, photography, and poetry. She is writing her first novel on the South and a screenplay on Cuba.
In her spare time, she has given seventy-five history speeches throughout South Carolina to clubs and schools about her father, who is portrayed by Tom Hanks in “Bridge of Spies”, a true historical movie about another chapter in her father’s life.
Mary Ellen believes raising the awareness of the mission of DMG provides the critical apex in community and national relevance and promotes the defining importance of far-reaching effects for years to come. Serving on the Board of Descendants Media Group was an exciting way to complete the circle of her father’s human rights work. DMG’s mission and its clarity combine well-needed history that is pertinent today for students, plus learning the embedded belief of knowing right from wrong.
“Laurie Pasler and the Descendants Media Group have gathered a remarkable collection of documents, photographs, and other evidence of the everyday life during the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal, the trial to mark the turn toward human rights and the judicial prosecution of war crimes.
To my knowledge, this is the first attempt to look beyond the central stage of the trial and convey the experience of individual troopers, officers, doctors, and judges.
This meticulous collection synthesizes objects with testimonies from behind the scenes to tell the quotidian story of life on the ground, offering an invaluable insight to researchers, educators, and the general public.”
Olga Touloumi
Assistant Professor of Art History
Bard College, NY
Courtroom 600 is a new kind of learning platform where the stories and lessons from Nuremberg are woven into an interactive tapestry of people, places, and events.
