JOSEF TEBOHO ANSORGE, MPhil, PhD
Joey Ansorge holds a PhD and an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Cambridge. He was previously the Editor-in-Chief of the Cambridge Review of International Affairs. Joey is the author of a number of peer-reviewed articles as well as book chapters dealing with information technology in international relations and post-conflict reconstruction. From 2005 to 2007 Joey worked as a Human Rights Officer on the reform of the Armed Forces of Liberia. Most recently he worked as a law clerk for the World Bank Sanctions Board Secretariat. He is currently completing a JD at Yale Law School.
JO BECKER, M.A.
Jo Becker is the advocacy director of the Children’s Rights Division
at Human Rights Watch. She is responsible for the organization's
global advocacy strategy on issues including child labor, children and
armed conflict, and juvenile justice. As founding chairperson of the
international Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, she helped
lead the successful campaign for an international treaty banning the
use of child soldiers. She has conducted field investigations to
document violations against children in Burma, India, Indonesia,
Morocco, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Uganda and the United States. She has
testified before the US Congress, the UN Security Council, and has
written widely on children’s issues for publications such as the
Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, Asian Wall Street
Journal, and the Guardian. She holds a master's degree in political
science from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at
Syracuse University. She is also an adjunct associate professor of
international and public affairs at Columbia University, and author of
“Campaigning for Justice: Human Rights Advocacy in Practice” (Stanford
University Press, 2013).
PROSPER BERNARD, Ph.D., M.A.
In 2010 Professor Prosper Bernard was Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Governance and Public Administration and a Visiting Professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, Canada. He has been a guest speaker at the University of Québec in Montréal, Chinese University of Mining and Technology, Fudan University, and Donghua University. Dr. Bernard also has served as a consultant to private and non-governmental organizations.
Professor Bernard has expertise in the areas of political economy, human security, and international criminal justice. His regions of focus are North America, Western Europe, and East Asia. His current research focuses on government reactions to the Great Recession, middle power foreign policy strategies in a unipolar world, and the International Criminal Court.
His most recent articles have appeared in American Review of Canadian Studies, International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, Journal of Humanities and Social Science, and Options Politiques/Policy Options. He has published book chapters on topics related to international public procurement and Chinese society and politics. He is the author of External Pressure, National Response: Industrial Adjustment in Canada since the 1970s (University Press of America, 2009).
Prosper Bernard, Jr. holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York.
BARBARA BORST, M.A.
Barbara Borst has taught at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs since 2000 and led the Center’s field intensive courses to Ghana in May 2008 and June 2009. She teaches courses on democratic transitions, the news media and global affairs, global civil society, African affairs, and humanitarian aid and intervention.
In addition, she teaches international reporting at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She received an NYU award for teaching excellence in February 2007. She earned a B.A. in English Literature from Yale University and an M.A. in International Relations from Boston University’s overseas program in Paris. A journalist specializing in international affairs, she worked for The Associated Press as an editor on the international desk and frequently reported from the United Nations. The AP recently published her article and photos on the efforts of two Kenyan women to rescue their community from the AIDS epidemic. While based abroad for a dozen years, in Nairobi, Johannesburg, Paris and Toronto, she reported frequently for Newsday, The Boston Globe, The Dallas Morning News, The Los Angeles Times, Inter Press Service news agency, and others.
PETER BRORSEN, M.A., Ph.D.
Peter W. Brorsen is the founder of Social Capital Bank, a social enterprise fostering change in fragile states. He is a Fellow at the Weatherhead Institute for International Affairs at Harvard University where he researches ways to strengthen peace agreements following civil war. He concurrently serves as governance advisor with United Kingdom’s stabilization missions and as conflict advisor with Australia’s development agency, AusAID.
Peter has been stationed in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and USA for public, private and academic institutions, including United Nations, the BBC and OECD. He has studied psychology, journalism, and political science at Aarhus University (Denmark), American University (Washington, DC), the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and at Yale University. He holds two MAs and is completing his PhD (international relations) in 2012.
PATTY CHANG, D.PHIL., M.I.A.
Patty Chang holds a D. Phil. in International Relations from the University of Oxford, an M.I.A. in International Security Policy from Columbia University, and B.A. in European Studies from Barnard College. She has taught at the NYU Center for Global Affairs since 2009, offering courses on International Relations and Civil Wars in Africa. Currently, she is a consultant and researcher in international security. Her work focuses on conflict management and post-conflict peacebuilding, especially small arms and light weapons control, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants, and security sector reform. Her regional expertise is in the sub-region of West Africa and she has conducted extensive field work in Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, The Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau. Her recent research has focused on the micro-foundations of violence and small arms diffusion in civil wars. She has worked with a number of different organizations including the United Nations Development Programme, EuropeAid, the Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research, and the United Nations Department of Political Affairs.
KEVIN CHEN, Ph.D., M.S.
Kevin Chen is a founding partner and Chief Investment Officer of ACM Global Macro hedge fund. He was a Senior Portfolio Manager at Amundi alternative investment, which is a merged asset management entity of Credit Agricole and Societie Generale. He was responsible for constructing and managing multi-billion dollar hedge funds portfolios for institutional clients. Previously, he was a Director of asset allocation of Morgan Stanley and his responsibilities included designing and delivering comprehensive hedge funds advisory solutions to high-net-wealth and institutional clients of U.S. and International. Kevin joined Morgan Stanley after graduating with a Ph.D. in Finance from International Center for Financial Asset Management and Engineering (FAME), Geneva and University of Lausanne, Switzerland in 2004. Kevin also served as a consultant for several Swiss-based organizations, including Swiss Organization for Facilitating Investments, a joint initiative of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (seco) in cooperation with KPMG. Prior to that, Kevin did Master’s in Finance at CentER for Economic Research, Tilburg University, the Netherlands and Bachelor’s in Economics at Renmin University of China. Kevin spent two years with China Development Bank’s International Finance Department and Investment Banking Department. Kevin is a co-founder of CCC, a New York based charity that works on improving cultural understanding and mentors underprivileged teenagers. In addition, he is a founding council member of Absolute Return Investment Association of China and a member of Société Académique Vaudoise.
BELINDA COOPER, J.D.
Belinda Cooper is a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute in New York and a co-founder of its Program on Citizenship and Security. She writes and lectures on human rights and international law and is the editor of “War Crimes: The Legacy of Nuremberg,” which explores the interconnections between the Nuremberg tribunal and today’s international criminal tribunals. She has taught human rights, international law, transitional justice and gender and law at Humboldt University in Berlin, the New School, Seton Hall Law School and Ohio Northern University Law School.
Cooper lived in Berlin, Germany from 1987-1994, working closely with members of the East German opposition in 1988-89 and following developments in the region after the fall of the Berlin Wall. She returned to Berlin in 2002 as a fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. She has written for a wide variety of publications, including The New York Times, Newsweek, World Policy Journal, and the Christian Science Monitor. A fluent German speaker, Cooper has also contributed to German-language print media, radio and TV, appeared as a guest on German radio, and taken part in numerous panel discussions in Germany. She is also a translator of German scholarly books and articles, including many texts on the Holocaust and Nazi Germany and, most recently, a textbook on international criminal law, and has worked as a translator on the case of Turkish-German Guantanamo detainee Murat Kurnaz. Cooper has also taken part in human rights fact-finding missions and has coauthored reports on domestic violence in Armenia, Uzbekistan, and Tanzania. Cooper graduated summa cum laude with her B.A. in History from Yale College and received her J.D. from Yale Law School.
JOS DE LA HAYE, Ph.D.
Jos De la Haye, Ph.D. (Belgium) has been a conflict prevention specialist to BCPR/UNDP New York since 2010. Before coming to New York he worked as Conflict Prevention and Recovery advisor to UNDP in Georgia [2008-10]. Prior to UNDP he was a researcher and lecturer at the universities of Leuven and Brussels on conflict prevention and peace-building, including democratic transition, conflict analysis, peace and conflict impact assessment and conflict sensitivity. As Ph.D School Coordinator for Social Sciences at Leuven University he taught Research Methodology in Social Sciences, International Organizations, Peace Research, and Conflict Prevention. He holds a Ph.D. in conflict management (Leuven University, 2001, Missed Opportunities in Conflict Management: the Case of Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1986-1996).
He worked for International NGOs like International Alert and Field Diplomacy, mainly on the issue of peace and conflict impact assessment. Currently his work concentrates on peace-building and development issues that relate to national and societal dialogue mechanisms, infrastructures for peace, social cohesion and community security, and conflict analysis – with particular attention to Africa (Mali, Chad, DRC, Ivory Coast, Liberia, etc.), Middle East (Yemen, Tunisia, Sudan, Syria, etc.), Europe (Georgia, Balkan, etc.), Asia-Pacific (Sri Lanka, Myanmar, etc.).
SLOBODON ĐINOVIC
Slobodan Đinović is an innovator in democracy and technology, founding Serbia’s first wireless internet company and a founder of the Resistance! movement that ended the Milosevic era. He has since become a leader exponent of sharing strategic non-violence training for democracy movements and peaceful opposition groups in the world’s remaining dictatorships.
CHRIS GADOMSKI, M.S., M.B.A.
Chris Gadomski joined the faculty at New York University's Center For Global Affairs in September 2005 where he teaches graduate courses on Energy and the Environment, and the Economics and Financing of Energy. Current research interests include financial, social, technological and institutional obstacles to renewable and nuclear energy technology development.
As a business development consultant in the energy sector, Gadomski has advised leading multinational firms and institutions including the United Nations Development Program, World Bank, U.S. Department of Energy, and UNDP/Global Environment Facility. Current assignments include solar thermal power project development, and energy efficiency and conservation consulting in California. Chris Gadomski also directs the nuclear energy research team at New Energy Finance, a leading provider of financial information, analysis and services to investors in renewable energy and low carbon technologies. There he is developing a robust methodology for forecasting global nuclear investment in new build and innovative technologies and tracking expenditures in O&M, fuel cycle and decommissioning activities. Gadomski has published on energy and power generation topics in: Modern Power Systems, EuroMoney/ Institutional Investor's Project Finance Magazine, Nuclear Engineering International, World-Generation, The China Business Review, and Independent Energy Magazine. Gadomski is a member of the United States Energy Association and the American Nuclear Society.
ASIF GANGAT, M.P.A.
A PMP-certified project manager, Mr. Gangat has professional experience across different spheres: upstream crude market analysis, performance improvement, process management, and quality assurance – both in the public and the private sectors.
At present, he works with the Global Oil Group at PIRA Energy. While his work focuses on short and long-term global crude supply forecasts, Mr. Gangat’s regional expertise is in the Middle East, a region that Mr. Gangat has studied extensively and in which he was born and raised. More recently, at PIRA’s annual client retainer conference, he spoke on Iraq’s near and long-term crude output potential and its implications for global crude supply.
Prior to PIRA, he worked with Antoine Halff on US oil market fundamentals. Mr. Gangat also consulted to a U.S.-based desalination energy recovery device manufacturer on how the company can position itself in emerging “osmotic power” market by leveraging its current platform as a leading producer of energy recovery devices. In the field of performance improvement, he worked with New York City Housing Authority and Housing Preservation Development in New York.
Mr. Gangat studied at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where he attained his master's degree, specializing in international energy and management. His undergraduate is from Pace University. Mr. Gangat is proficient in English, Arabic, Hindi, and Urdu.
EDWARD GOLDBERG
Edward Goldberg is president of the Annisa Group, a consulting firm that advises clients on strategic and tactical issues involving globalization, trade development and trade finance.
Mr. Goldberg, an expert in Global Business Studies and the complexities of Globalization, teaches at Zicklin Graduate School of Business, Baruch College, City University of New York. He also teaches international trade as visiting faculty of University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business.
He has twice been nominated for the prestigious Presidential Excellence Award for Distinguished Teaching at Baruch College. He has also been twice awarded a grant from Mitsui USA for curriculum development in global business studies.
At Annisa Group , Mr. Goldberg has worked on global issues with such major companies as Goldman Sachs, Rockefeller Brother’s Fund, and Raiffeisen Zentralbank.
He is a much-quoted author and essayist on globalization, U.S. economics, European-American relations, International trade and U.S.-Russian relations. Among others, he has been cited by Thomas Friedman in The New York Times and in his book Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Roubini Global Economics, Yale Global on Line, and American Foreign Policy Interests. He is a regular contributor to the HuffingtonPost and the Globalist. He has been interviewed by CNBC Television, Public Radio, CBS radio, the Associated Press Radio as well as Russian State Television. He is currently writing a book on how globalization has changed American politics.
Mr. Goldberg represented the United States Department of State at the International Conference on International Relations and Problems of Globalization in St. Petersburg, Russia where he delivered the opening address. He was a member of President Barack Obama's Foreign Policy Network Team for the 2008 Presidential election.
ROBERT LANE GREENE, M.PHIL.
Professor Robert Lane Greene writes for The Economist. He has covered American politics, international affairs (including the United Nations and the European Union), and energy. He also has written a regular foreign-affairs column for the website of the New Republic magazine, and his work has appeared on the op-ed pages of the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune, and is currently writing a book on the politics of language. He is a consultant for Freedom House, an NGO monitoring political and civil rights around the world, and an adjunct lecturer in Global Affairs at New York University. He is also a frequent television and radio guest commentator. Professor Greene holds an M.Phil. in European Politics and Society from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar. He received his B.A. in International Relations and History at Tulane University, and in 1996 was a State Department intern at the US embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay.
ALAN GROSS, Ph.D., M.B.A.
Alan Gross has mediated and trained for 20 years at many venues in the Northeast US and New York City where he is currently serving as the Special Projects Coordinator for the Safe Horizon Mediation Program. He has previously acted as Senior Director, Training Coordinator, and 9/11 Family Mediation Coordinator for Safe Horizon. That work with 9/11 victims was recognized with a US Department of Justice Volunteer for Victims Award. He has also acted as ombudsman for the American Psychological Association and the New York Mayor’s Action Center, as an arbitrator for AAA, FINRA, and attorney-client fee disputes, and as mediator for the Post Office and the US Army.
Gross holds MBA and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University and was formerly Psychology Professor and Department Chair at the University of Maryland, a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and the author of a textbook and more than 50 chapters, articles and papers related to conflict resolution and social psychology. He has served as a business consultant, radio talk show host, and as founder of an innovative company trading in benefits from class action settlements. As a Founding Member and Board Member of Mediators Beyond Borders, he has, with other ADR professionals, developed and delivered trainings and other means of assisting refugees and former child soldiers in West Africa. During the past two years he has trained Liberian refugees, Ghanaian attorneys and land settlement officers, UN Special Court staff in Sierra Leone and a diverse country-wide Peace Network in Iraq. He is currently involved in peace-building projects in Colombia, Sierra Leone, and the US Gulf Coast.
RUCHIRA GUPTA
Ruchira Gupta is the Founder and President of Apne Aap Women Worldwide – a grassroots organization in India working to end sex trafficking by increasing choices for at-risk girls and women. She has strived over her 25 year career to highlight the link between trafficking and prostitution laws, and to lobby policy makers to shift the blame from victims to perpetrators. She testified in the United States Senate before the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000, and she lobbied with other activists at the United Nations during the formulations for the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons -- resulting in the first UN instrument to address demand for trafficking in Article 9. In 2009 Gupta won the Clinton Global Citizen Award, in 2007 the Abolitionist Award at the UK House of Lords. In 2009 and 2008, Gupta has addressed the UN General Assembly on human trafficking. She won an Emmy in 1997 for her work on the documentary “The Selling of Innocents,” which inspired the creation of Apne Aap. Her work has been featured in 11 books including Half the Sky by Sheryl WuDunn and Nicholas Kristof. Prior to founding Apne Aap, Gupta worked in the United Nations in various capacities in 12 countries for over ten years. She is on the board of Coalition against Trafficking in Women and the advisory councils of the Polaris Project, Vital Voices, Ricky Martin Foundation, Asia Society, Nomi Network and Cents for Relief.
LUKAS HAYNES, M.A.
Lukas Haynes is vice president of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation in New York, where he manages grantmaking programs to promote solutions to climate change, defend human rights, and invest in under-served New York City communities. From 2002-06, Haynes was program officer for international peace and security at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, where he made grants to support U.S. foreign policy institutes and a major initiative to strengthen university research at the intersection of science, technology, and security studies. From 2000-01, he served on the U.S. Department of State’s Policy Planning Staff and as a speechwriter for Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. After leaving government, Haynes was a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Haynes has taught courses in international relations at Occidental College and the University of Massachusetts in Boston. He has also given lectures on military intervention, nuclear nonproliferation, and international grantmaking at Harvard, West Point, and Princeton, respectively. From 1996-1997, Haynes served as regional representative for OXFAM in the former Yugoslavia and as OXFAM’s regional strategy adviser in Sierra Leone and Liberia. In both capacities he helped humanitarian relief operations transition to post-conflict rehabilitation programs. Prior to that, he conducted policy research at the Salzburg Global Seminar, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the International Crisis Group. Haynes is a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He earned a master’s degree in international relations from Oxford University. He is also a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of Independent Diplomat.
BRAD HECKMAN, M.A.
Brad Heckman is a Vice President of Safe Horizon, the nation’s leading victims services and violence prevention agency. In that capacity, he has overseen the agency’s Mediation, Families of Homicide Victims, Legal Services, Anti-Trafficking, Batterers Intervention, and Anti-Stalking Programs. He is currently launching and will serve as CEO of the New York Peace Institute, an independent spin-off of Safe Horizon that will provide dispute resolution services to communities, courts, schools, and individuals in New York City and beyond. Mr. Heckman served as International Director of Partners for Democratic Change, for which he developed community peacebuilding centers throughout Eastern Europe, the Balkans, South Caucasus, Latin America, and the former Soviet Union. He received a Master of Arts in International Relations and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Dickinson College.
WILLIAM F. HEWITT, M.S.
Bill Hewitt has been an environmental professional and activist for nearly 25 years. He is a writer and editor, as well as the principal of Hewitt Communications. He was the Director of Public Affairs for the New York City regional office of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for 11 years. He is the blogger on climate change for the Foreign Policy Association. Hewitt has been involved with two Presidential campaigns (Bruce Babbitt and Bill Bradley) and two NYC Mayoral races (David Dinkins and Mark Green), working primarily on environmental issues. He was an activist leader with the Sierra Club in New York working on urban issues and acid rain.
Hewitt taught on international relations, U.S. environmental politics and policy, and climate change at Pace University. His book, A Newer World - Politics, Money, Science, Technology and What’s Really Being Done to Solve the Climate Crisis, will be published by the University Press of New England in the fall of 2011. He has written articles and book reviews, as well as op-ed pieces and letters, on sustainability, energy and environmental issues for the American Planning Association, the Foreign Policy Association, Nature Reports Climate Change, Grist, DeSmogBlog, Crain’s NY Business, the Sierra Club, Greenpeace and Newsday. He has had opinion pieces and letters on international affairs published by the Financial Times, the NY Times, the New Yorker, and Snow Lion, and has published three papers in the Journal of Psychohistory. He has also written on health, nutrition, and sports for a number of publications and has published short fiction, poetry and essays in several literary magazines. Hewitt has an M.S. in international affairs from the New School where he concentrated on conflict and security issues, with particular attention to the psychology of conflict.
OREN IPP, M.A.
Oren Ipp is an international development professional with more than ten years’ experience in democratic governance. Oren’s primary expertise is post-conflict governance, with a regional focus on Afghanistan and South Asia. Among other sub-specialties, Oren has worked in the areas of political party development, election support, legislative strengthening, civil society capacity building, security sector reform and gender mainstreaming; focusing on program design, management and monitoring and evaluation. Oren is currently an independent consultant for several organizations, including most recently for the Center on International Cooperation at New York University, the Geneva Center for Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Development Transformations. During 2006-2008, Oren was based in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he directed the national and sub-national legislative programs of the National Democratic Institute (NDI). Prior to moving to Afghanistan, Oren worked with NDI in Washington, DC, supporting the Institute's South Asia programs. Among Oren's publications are the chapter “Parliamentary Oversight of the Security Sector in Afghanistan” in the forthcoming volume "Deconstructing Afghanistan's Security Sector,” and a March 2009 article in the San Francisco Chronicle titled, "Crisis in Afghanistan.” Oren holds a Master's degree in International Policy Studies from Stanford University.
SOPHIA JOHNSON, Ph.D., M.A.
Sophia N. Johnson is the CEO of the South Asia Consulting Group, LLC a strategy-driven, global economic consulting firm. Dr. Johnson and her team focus on a range of industries – including environment, manufacturing, public sector, renewable energy and social sector innovation – but her core area of work is in the analysis of governance patterns and location of economic activity after market reforms.
Dr. Johnson teaches in the interdisciplinary field of political economics, focusing on non-market, collective, and political activity of individuals and organizations, in the Department of Politics and the Center for Global Affairs at New York University.
Dr. Johnson has lived and worked in mainland South Asia. She has also taught international affairs and sustainability at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), has lectured widely, and is author of the forthcoming publication, Economic Reforms, Governance and Change in India (Cambridge, 2012).
TODD JOHNSON, M.A.
Todd Johnson is currently the Senior Research Manager for Ferrari Consultancy, a New York City-based firm that provides strategy consulting services exclusively to chief executive officers of multinational corporations. Prior to joining Ferrari Consultancy, Todd was Africa Group Director for Diligence LLC, a risk management firm that specializes in pre-investment due diligence, competitive intelligence, and political risk consulting in emerging and frontier markets. Todd began his career and served for eight years as a political-military analyst with the United States Government, where he focused on southern Africa. Todd has lived and worked in South Africa and the United Kingdom. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with distinction from the University of Kansas and a Master of International Public Policy from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, where he jointly focused on African politics and energy policy. Todd has been a contributing writer for the Jane's Information Group and appeared as a commentator for the BBC and the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
STEPHEN KASS, L.L.B.
Stephen L. Kass is a partner and founder/co-director of the Environmental Practice Group at Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP in New York. Prior to joining Carter Ledyard & Milburn, he was a founding partner of Berle, Kass & Case, a firm specializing in environmental law from the field’s inception in the 1970s. He received his B.A. magna cum laude from Yale in 1961 and his L.L.B. cum laude from Harvard in 1964. In addition to his role at the Center for Global Affairs, Mr. Kass is an Adjunct Professor at Brooklyn Law School, where he teaches courses on “International Environmental Law” and “Climate Change, Economic Development and Human Rights.” Mr. Kass has published numerous articles in the environmental field and has written regular columns on “Environmental Law” and “International Environmental Law” for the New York Law Journal since 1986. Mr. Kass served on the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch from 1985-2005 (Chair, Policy Committee; Chair, Americas Advisory Committee) and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; the Americas Society; the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (former Vice President and past Chair of the Association’s Committees on International Environmental Law, Inter-American Affairs, Council on International Affairs, Consumer Affairs, Social Welfare Law and its Special Task Force on Downtown Redevelopment; and current Chair, Committee on International Human Rights). He is a member of the New York State Bar Association and the American Bar Association and since 1986 has served on, and for 10 years chaired, the Board of Directors of the National Center for Law and Economic Justice.
Rick Levitt, currently at Macquarie Capital, he has spent the last 16 years managing global financial research for investment banks in the US and Great Britain. Prior to that he was with the Centre for European Security Studies (Groningen, The Netherlands) and what is now the EastWest Institute (New York), two think tanks specializing in the political and economic development of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union after the fall of communism. Additionally, Professor Levitt was a US Foreign Service Officer, serving in Washington DC, Mexico City and London. He holds a master's degree in international relations from Columbia University, where he specialized in Western European studies, and a bachelor's degree from the University of California (Berkeley), where he specialized in diplomatic history.
Professor Levitt has taught International Relations Since World War Two at the Center for Global Affairs for two years.
Andrew Little is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Politics at New York University. His research focuses on elections in developing countries, more specifically on electoral fraud, election monitoring, and other forms of democracy promotion. Before coming to NYU, Little received a B.A. in Mathematics and International Relations at Carleton College and worked as a regulatory analyst in environmental and transportation policy for ICF international in the DC area. He has taught courses in statistical methods both at Carleton and NYU.
MARK LITTLE, M.Phil
As Director at Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), Mark works closely with companies to implement robust sustainability practices. His focus areas include strategy and integration, corporate transparency, ethics, human rights, stakeholder engagement, and supply chain sustainability. Mark has advised companies on both global and country-level sustainability initiatives, and has worked extensively in China, Japan, Europe and the United States.
Mark's primary focus is in the healthcare industry, and he leads BSR's Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology practice worldwide. He is an expert on international public health, and has published several articles on his work with India's National AIDS Control Organization. Mark holds a B.A. in Economics from Northwestern University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and an M.Phil in International Development from the University of Oxford, St. Antony’s College.
JODI LISS, M.A.
Jodi Liss is a specialist in natural resources, conflict and development. Her most recent project is “Wealth-sharing, Extractive Resources and Peace” for the World Bank. In addition, she has worked on post-conflict issues for the United Nations Department of Public Information/Strategic Communications (“Lessons from Rwanda”) and for the United Nations Development Programme/Bureau of Crisis Prevention and Recovery on Post-Conflict Economic Recovery: Enabling Local Ingenuity.
She has written widely on resource issues for the World Politics Review, the Foreign Policy Association blog (Energy and Natural Resources), World Policy Journal blog, The Punch (Nigeria) and other publications, as well as the chapter on the resource curse for Green Politics. Her paper “Negotiating the Marcellus: The Role of Information in Building Trust in Extractive Partnerships” will be published by Harvard University’s Negotiation Journal this fall.
Liss has also worked for UNICEF and, in the private sector, for International Management Group. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Security Studies from Georgetown University and a B.A. in philosophy from Fordham University. Her graduate paper “Making Monetary Mischief: Using Currency as a Weapon” was published by World Policy Journal in 2008.
ROBIN LUDWIG, Ph.D.
Dr. Robin Ludwig is a specialist in elections and democratization, with over 30 years of experience at the United Nations. She has provided assessments, advice, and assistance for elections in East Timor, The Gambia, Indonesia, Kenya, Kosovo, Malawi, Moldova, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and South Africa. While in Malawi, she advised the Government on preparations for and the conduct of a national referendum that led to Malawi’s first multi-party elections the following year. She managed the long-term United Nations observation mission for both electoral events. In 2001 Dr. Ludwig spent a sabbatical semester at Yale University, studying voter expectations, hopes and fears in the aftermath of first time elections. She has published a variety of articles and monographs on the subject of UN electoral assistance. In addition to her elections work, Dr. Ludwig helped to establish the annual observance of the International Day of Peace, working with a network of over 400 civil society organizations world-wide, and served as Special Assistant to the first United Nations Deputy Secretary-General. Beginning in 2003, Dr. Ludwig became project manager of an innovative university program funded from a 1997 $1 billion contribution to the United Nations by Ted Turner. As part of the program, Ms. Ludwig engaged the participating universities in a global project on human security. She has lectured widely at universities in Asia, Europe and the US and given talks and provided training to a variety of regional and civil society organizations. Ms. Ludwig has a BA from Albion College, MIA from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in World Politics from the University of Michigan.
BETH LYONS, J.D.
Professor Beth S. Lyons has been a defense counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) since 2004, in Prosecutor v. Aloys Simba and Prosecutor v. Ndindiliyimana (“Military II” case). Previously, she worked as a Legal Aid criminal defense and appeals attorney in New York City. She has also served as an Alternate Representative to the U.N. for the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) for more than a decade. She has made presentations and published on the challenges to the ICTR and international justice, truth and reconciliation commissions (South Africa and East Timor), business accountability for human rights violations, and joint criminal enterprise. She is accepted to the Assigned Counsel lists for the International Criminal Court, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the ICTR. She received her J.D. from CUNY Law School at Queens College.
YOUSSEF MAHMOUD, MA, MS, PhD
Dr. Mahmoud is a Senior Adviser at the New York-based International Peace Institute (IPI). Before retiring from the United Nations early this year, Dr. Mahmoud was the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT). From 2007 to 2009 he served as Executive Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Burundi (BINUB).
Prior to these assignments, he held several other senior positions, notably as United Nations Resident Coordinator in Guyana, Director in the UN Department of Political Affairs, and Head of the Office of the Undersecretary-Secretary-General for Political Affairs. Before joining the United Nations in 1981, Dr. Mahmoud was Assistant Professor at the University of Tunis. He received his PhD in Linguistics from Georgetown University in 1979. He has written or co-authored a number of articles on peacebuilding and recently taught a course at Columbia University on the challenges of building sustainable peace in Africa.
Over the past year, he has focused his attention on the democratic transitions in Tunisia and Egypt. He is leading an IPI initiative to support civil society leaders in creating a platform for the exchange of experiences and lessons learned in meeting the challenges and opportunities presented by these transitions
FRANCESCO MANCINI, M.I.A.
Professor Francesco Mancini is currently Deputy Director of Studies at the International Peace Institute (IPI), where he serves as principal liaison between the program staff and the office of the Senior Vice President Edward C. Luck and the President Terje Rod-Larsen. He also heads the larger IPI program “Coping with Crisis, Conflict, and Change” and directs IPI work on peace operations. When he joined IPI in 2004, he served in the Security-Development Nexus program, covering in particular security sector reform. Francesco is also an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and held the same position at New York University. Since 2004, he has been teaching a graduate-level seminar on conflict assessment. Prior to joining IPI, Francesco served as an Associate at the EastWest Institute in New York. From 1996 to 2001, Francesco was a senior management consultant at Charles Riley Consultants International in Paris, where he focused on business strategy and change management, managing multi-million dollar reforms in major public sector companies in France, Italy, and Morocco. Francesco earned his B.S. in Business Administration from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. He received a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs where he studied International Security Policy and Conflict Resolution. While at Columbia, he was awarded a fellowship within the Satzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. In 2002, he researched the peace negotiations in Cyprus at the University of Cyprus in Nicosia. Recent publications include “Security & Development: Searching for Critical Connections” (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2009), “The Company We Keep: Private Contractors in Jamaica,” in Gordon Peake, Eric Scheye and Alice Hills (eds.), Managing Insecurity: Field Experiences of Security Sector Reform (London: Taylor & Francis, 2008) and In Good Company? The Role of Business in Security Sector Reform, Policy Paper (London and New York: Demos and International Peace Academy, 2005). He also contributed to Richard Samuels (ed.), Encyclopedia of United States National Security (London: SAGE Publications, 2006).
MARIE-HELEN MARAS, Ph.D., M.Phil, M.A.
Marie-Helen Maras is an adjunct assistant professor of the Center for Global Affairs. Her background includes approximately seven years of service in the US Navy with significant experience in security and law enforcement from her posts as a Navy Law Enforcement Specialist and Command Investigator. While in the Navy, she supervised her personnel in conducting over 130 counter-surveillance operations throughout Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
Maras holds several graduate and undergraduate degrees: a DPhil in Law and an MPhil in Criminology and Criminal Justice (University of Oxford); an MA in Industrial and Organizational Psychology (University of New Haven); a BS in Psychology and a BS in Computer and Information Science (University of Maryland University College). The majority of her research and publications have focused on the legal, economic, social, and political implications of security measures in the United States and the European Union. She has several publications; including articles in peer-reviewed academic journals, a chapter in an edited volume, and books. She recently published a major work at Jones and Bartlett (February 2011), a book titled, Computer Forensics: Cybercriminals, Laws and Evidence, and is presently working on another book on terrorism and counterterrorism.
Maras is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at the State University of New York. She has also taught several graduate courses on terrorism and counterterrorism, crisis management and disaster preparedness, transnational organized crime, and crime scene investigation at the King Graduate School, Monroe College. Moreover, Maras has taught graduate seminars in Security and the War on Terror and the Burdens of Seeking Security at the Center for Criminology, University of Oxford. Furthermore, she is an International Editor for the Journal of Applied Security Research and the President-Elect of Protect New York, a professional organization that brings together academics and professionals concerned with responding to the threat of terrorism, as well as the creator and co-editor of the Protect New York Newsletter.
Her research interests include security, terrorism, organized crime, human rights, criminal profiling, and cybercrime.
ERICA MARAT, Ph.D.
Erica Marat, PhD, has extensive field work experience in Central Asia and Russia researching crime, corruption, and state-crime relations. She was a research fellow at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program, which is affiliated with the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University. She is an expert on security issues in Central Asia, with a focus on military, national, and regional defense, as well as state-crime relations in Eurasia. Marat has published widely, both in peer review journals and policy-oriented forums. She is a regular contributor to the Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst and to the Eurasia Daily Monitor. Her most recent book is The Military and the State in Central Asia: From Red Army to Independence. She is currently working on a project comparing police reforms in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia. Marat teaches Human trafficking and smuggling at New York University and political development of Central Asia at American University. She received her PhD degree in Political Science from the University of Bremen, Germany.
COLETTE MAZZUCELLI, Ph.D., M.A.L.D.
Dr. Colette Mazzucelli has taught a variety of courses at the Center for Global Affairs since 2005 including peacemaking and conflict resolution, international relations in the post-Cold War era, ethnic conflicts, and EUrope in the 21st century. In addition, she is introducing an India regional course in the MSGA Program. Her passion for global affairs was nurtured as an undergraduate in history, philosophy, and modern languages at the University of Scranton (BA, magna cum laude, 1983). Her graduate studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University (MALD, 1987), the Center for European Studies, Harvard University, and the Department of Government, Georgetown University (PhD, 1996), also reflect her engagement in the transatlantic community. Dr. Mazzucelli's doctoral research, conducted as a Fulbright Scholar at the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) Paris in 1991, contributed to the volume France and Germany at Maastricht Politics and Negotiations to Create the European Union (Routledge, 1999; Kindle Edition, 2007). In 1992-93, she assisted with the ratification of the Treaty on European Union in the Federal Republic of Germany as a Bosch Foundation Fellow. Dr. Mazzucelli is the author of numerous chapters in edited volumes as well as diverse commentaries for the AICGS Advisor (Johns Hopkins University), Atlantic-Community.org, Enduring America (University of Birmingham), LIBERTAS, as well as Conversations on Diplomacy and Power Politics. In 2007 she was a Fulbright Scholar in Belgium and Germany. As an educator, Dr. Mazzucelli is a member of the UN Chronicle Advisory Group at the United Nations and the Board of Directors at the Center for War/Peace Studies. She has an extensive background in technology-mediated learning and is increasingly focused on the uses of mobile phone technology in global affairs education as part of her research at Teachers College Columbia University. She is the recipient of 11 national and international fellowships in 7 countries, including Bosch, Fulbright, and Rotary. Her biography appears in Marquis Who's Who in the World 2011 and Marquis Who's Who in America 2011.
JONATHAN MCCLELLAND, M.A.
Jonathan McClelland has spent the last eleven years consulting to the power and utilities sector. Prior to joining MJ Beck he worked in London with Power Capital, a financial advisory firm focused on Renewable Power industry. In this capacity, Jonathan specialized in quantifying the impact of various national, regional and international renewable energy policies on power asset valuation. In North America, Jonathan worked in Washington DC as part of the Global Gas Group of PFC Energy where he analyzed the natural gas operations and strategies of major international and national oil companies. Jonathan began his career in the energy practice of PA Consulting group where he delivered operational, benchmarking and strategy assignments for utilities in Australia and North America. He is the founder and former President of the New York Association for Energy Economics, the current VP of the US Association for Energy Economics and a member of the AP Board of Economists. He also sits on the AOL Energy Editorial Advisory Board. Jonathan holds a Masters in International Relations & Economics from the Johns Hopkins University where he focused on International Energy Policy. Additionally, he holds Bachelor degrees in Economics and Commerce from the University of Queensland, Australia.
ANDREW MICHELS, J.D., M.B.A., Ph.D.
Andy Michels serves as the Senior Civilian Advisor for the Pakistan Afghanistan Coordination Cell (JPACC) on the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Department of Defense.
Prior to joining the JPACC, Andy was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Kingston Jamaica, where he led the USAID Democracy and Governance team leader, overseeing the implementation of a multidimensional security sector reform program. In 2010, Andy served on the Strategic Interagency Assistance Team (SIAT) in Islamabad, Pakistan. Also in 2010, Andy led a security sector assessment of Guatemala and served as the transitional security adviser at the United States Embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
From 2008 and 2009, Andy was seconded to the International Civilian Office (ICO) in Pristina, Kosovo where he served as the Head of the Security Affairs Unit. The ICO is the joint US/EU organization charged with supervising Kosovo’s recently declared independence. Andy supervised the creation of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency, the Kosovo Security Council, and the Kosovo Civilian Aviation Authority. He also led the successful combined inter-state/ICO demarcation of the Kosovo-Macedonia border.
Andy is a leader in the fields of peacekeeping, security sector transformation and rule of law issues, and post-conflict transitional administration. Before joining ICO, Andy was Director of Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Affairs at DynCorp International. There, he developed the company’s peacekeeping portfolio from inception to more than $130 million in revenue.
Mr. Michels served in the United Nations, during which he was posted to Africa and the Balkans. In 1999, Andy was appointed as the first President of the U.N. Registration Commission of Kosovo. Andy has also served as a UNHCR protection officer in Sudan, Executive Director of the International Human Rights Law Institute of DePaul University College of Law, and lecturer in law at Sydney University.
Andy is an Adjunct Professor at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University and the Elliott School of Internaiomal Affairs at George Washington University. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and universities (including the Swedish Military/Folke Bernadotte, US Army War College, the Naval War College Strategic Studies Group and the British Joint Doctrine and Concepts Center and the International Institute for Law and Justice).
Mr. Michels received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Southern California, a Master of Business Administration jointly conferred by New York University, the London School of Economics and HEC-Paris, and is currently enrolled in the PhD. Program in international relations at the London School of Economics. He is member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the Truman National Security Project, the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, and the Academic Council of the United Nations. He has also completed courses at the Joint Special Operations University, National Defense University, and the Foreign Service Institute.
Marianne Møllmann is senior policy advisor at Amnesty International's headquarters. She joined Amnesty International after 8 years with Human Rights Watch, working first as researcher on women's rights in Latin America, then focusing on women's rights more globally as advocacy director. She has a background in strategic brand planning with Young & Rubicam Europe and Leagas Delaney in London, as well as more than a decade of experience in the not-for-profit world, in communication, advocacy, research, management, and fundraising.
Marianne’s opinion pieces on women’s issues have appeared, among other places, in the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, and she is frequently cited on issues related to human rights and social change in the US and international media. She regularly blogs on RHRealityCheck.org and the Huffington Post.
Marianne constantly grapples with the tension between policy effectiveness, political realities, and how to actually generate change. She has an impressive track record of bridging seemingly insurmountable differences on issues ranging from abortion and rape in war, to luxury car purchases and making apples look “bad” (in a good way).
Marianne holds a MSc from Ecole des Affaires de Paris in France and an LL.M. in international human rights law from Essex University in the United Kingdom. She grew up in Copenhagen, Denmark, and is now settled in Brooklyn, NY, though she spends a lot of her time in London. Marianne speaks fluent English, Spanish, and Danish, and can hold her own in French.
NAIRA MUSALLAM, M.A, A.B.D
Naira Musallam is an adjunct faculty at Columbia University, and is a doctoral candidate in the Social-Organizational Psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her doctoral work examines key factors related to the effectiveness of NGOs working in conflict zones, and more specifically, NGOs operating in the Palestinian Territories. For the last seven years she has been working at the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution, at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she conducted research related to Dynamical Systems Theory, intractable conflicts, power, identity, and peace processes. She is currently editing the Arabic version of the “Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice”.
She has over ten years of experience in the Middle East working with governmental agencies, educational institutions, and the nonprofit sector. She has worked with a variety of organizations that address political, educational, humanitarian, and development issues related to the Middle East including United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Amideast, International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), Adler Research Center, Mar Elias Institutions, Amnesty International, and local NGOs. She is the recipient of several fellowships and awards granted by U.S Department of State, the Earth Institute, and Columbia University.
PATRICIO NAVIA, Ph.D., M.A.
Patricio Navia is a Master Teacher in the Liberal Studies Program and an adjunct assistant professor at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University. He is also a professor of political science at the Instituto de Ciencias Sociales of the Universidad Diego Portales and the director of the Observatorio Electoral at the same school. Before obtaining his Ph.D. (May 2003), he was a graduate student in the Department of Politics at New York University. Previously (April 1995-August 1997), he served as Assistant Director of Student Development Services at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 1992, he graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology and obtained a Master of Arts in Political Science at the University of Chicago in 1994.
MICHELLE PATRON, M.A.
Michelle Patron is a Senior Director at PIRA Energy Group where she oversees PIRA’s political risk coverage. She has over a decade of experience analyzing international energy issues. Prior to joining PIRA in 2004, Ms. Patron was an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and conducted energy research at Deutsche Bank. She spent five years as an international policy advisor at the U.S. DOE under the Clinton and Bush administrations. During that time, she advised the U.S. Energy Secretary and other senior U.S. officials on relations with major energy-producing and -consuming countries, including Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil, China, Nigeria and the EU. In 2001, Ms. Patron served as Energy Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Prior to the DOE, she worked at the International Energy Agency, the White House, UNICEF and the Center for International Environmental Law.
Ms. Patron holds a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She is a commentator to CNBC, BBC, NPR, the New York Times and the Economist and has written for Foreign Affairs, The Financial Times and The Los Angeles Times.
TED PERLMUTTER, Ph.D., M.A.,
Ted Perlmutter, director of knowledge management, Columbia University’s Center for International Conflict Resolution, is a technology consultant and information systems architect. He is responsible for Web site coordination and database development, and has been involved in creation of the Religious Peacemaking Database project. Perlmutter’s research interests focus on how Internet technology can promote knowledge networks among political and social activists. Presently a visiting fellow at the Center for European Studies at New York University, he is developing a course on internet technology and international conflict resolution. Perlmutter’s research in this area includes work with Suzette Brooks Masters on a Ford Foundation sponsored project entitled "Networking the Networks: Improving Information Flow in the Immigration Field." He has published numerous articles and book chapters on immigration, refugees, political parties, and civil society. Perlmutter taught in the New York University political science department as a lecturer and an assistant professor (1987-1992). He has been the recipient of a German Marshall Fund Grant for the Study of Germany and the Fulbright Commission Fellowship for Study in Italy for research on xenophobic politics in Europe from 1993 to 1995. He was a visiting fellow at the Italian Academy for Advanced Italian Studies on America at Columbia University (1997-98). Perlmutter holds a B.A. in political science from Wesleyan University, and an M.A. and Ph. D. in sociology from Harvard University.
CATHERINE SHEVLIN PIERCE, M.A.
Catherine Shevlin Pierce is a consultant in international development. She worked in international organizations for 28 years, initially at The World Bank and subsequently at the United Nations. She has assisted countries to identify and implement policies and programs addressing the interaction between population trends, resources, environment, migration and sustainable development. Professor Pierce has extensive experience in the areas of human rights, reproductive health and women’s micro-finance initiatives and has served as a member of the United Nations Population Fund’s delegation and technical resource team for several UN Global Conferences (Environment; Human Rights; Population; and, Women). She managed the UN Global Training Program in Population and Development situated in universities in Botswana, Chile, Egypt, India and Morocco and chaired the UN Development Group Task Force on Knowledge Sharing. From 2000 to 2003, as the Director of the UNFPA Technical Services Team for the Pacific based in Suva, Fiji, Professor Pierce advised governments and civil society organizations on strategies to address the impact of population trends, environmental degradation and globalization on small island countries.
Elected to the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, Professor Pierce has written widely on population and development issues and has been an invited speaker at various international conferences and professional meetings. She has taught courses on history, international relations, refugees and internally displaced persons, and humanitarian assistance and humanitarian intervention. Professor Pierce graduated cum laude from Marymount College and holds a M.A. in history from Purdue University and an M.A. in demography from Georgetown University. In 2005 she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Purdue University. Professor Pierce is a member of the Board of Directors of Engender Health, an international NGO addressing health needs in developing countries.
LUCILLE PILLING, Ed.D., M.P.H., R.N.
Dr. Lucille Pilling teaches courses in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and NYU School of Continuing Professional Studies, Center for Global Affairs. She also teaches global public health management and policy at NYU/Wagner. Her research is on the management of multi-organizational alliances; Pilling’s book, Global Health Alliance: Lessons Learned was published in February 2007. Her current research is on the metrics of CSR. An article on the intersection of brand and social responsibility will be published in 2009.
Pilling is a CSR strategist with subject matter expertise in corporate sustainability, public health and public private partnerships. Her firm, Pilling and Associates collaborates with corporations, non-profits, and environmental organizations to develop and implement CSR business, marketing and communication strategies. Recent clients include: Griffin Health Services Corporation, Association for Corporate Contribution Professionals, Africare, LIMRA, Henry Schein Inc. a Fortune 500 company, Tunnell Consulting Government Services, The Green Standard, Business Council for International Understanding, John Snow Inc. and JHPIEGO at Johns Hopkins.
Earlier, Dr. Pilling served as Vice President for International Programs at Planned Parenthood Federation of America; Senior Program Officer at Columbia University where she managed a $50 million Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation initiative; and Program Officer at UNFPA. She lived and worked in Africa and Latin America for 13 years (Ghana, Kenya, Bolivia, Costa Rica and Zimbabwe) and provided technical assistance in Liberia, Thailand, the Philippines, Romania, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and Haiti. Her contracts were with Program for Africare, Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), JHPIEGO, John Short Associates, John Snow Inc., Johns Hopkins University, Aga Khan Foundation, ILO, USAID in Ghana, Kenya, Bolivia and Costa Rica, and US Peace Corps in Kenya and Zimbabwe.
Working in the private sector before moving to Africa, she had broad experience in pharmaceutical advertising for Kallir, Philips, Ross and in international marketing for Avon. Pilling earned an EdD in Organization and Leadership and a MPH from Columbia University following a BS in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania.
SRDJA POPOVIC
A native of Belgrade, Popovic was raised in a political environment with both parents working in the media. His father was a prominent television reporter and his mother a popular news anchor on state television. A founding member of Otpor, Popovic’s main responsibility was human resources and training Otporactivists in nonviolent action. In a sarcastic reference to Yugoslavia’s communist past, Popovic was sometimes called Otpor’s ideological commissar, an appropriate label as he studied and translated the literature of nonviolent strategy, including books by the American scholar Gene Sharp. Popovic worked as a behind the scenes strategist, drafting speeches and writing training manuals. He was elected to the Parliament of the Serb Republic in late 2000 where he also served as environmental affairs advisor to the Serbian Prime Minister, Zoran Djindjic until Djindjic’s assassination in March 2003. He left the Parliament in late 2003 and co-founded the Center for Applied Non-Violent Actions and Strategies (CANVAS), a group that supports nonviolent democratic movements through the transfer of knowledge on strategies and tactics of nonviolent struggle.
WILLIAM POWERS, M.S.
William Powers is a Senior Fellow at the New York City-based think tank World Policy Institute, where he focuses on international development, environmental policy, and sustainable consumption. His award-winning winning book, Twelve by Twelve (New World Library, 2010), a national green-living bestseller currently in its fourth printing, will appear in Chinese this fall. He also is the author of two books from Bloomsbury/Macmillan: Blue Clay People: Seasons on Africa’s Fragile Edge, an on-the-ground account of Powers’ two years as an aid worker in Charles Taylor’s civil war Liberia, was a Publisher’s Weekly notable book of 2005. Whispering in the Giant’s Ear: A Frontline Chronicle from Bolivia’s War on Globalization (2006) has been featured on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross and in Newsweek.
For over a decade Powers led development aid and conservation initiatives in Latin America, Africa, and Washington, D.C. From 2002 to 2004 he managed the socio-economic components of a project in the Bolivian Amazon that won the Roy Family Award for environmental partnership from Harvard's JFK School of Government. His essays on global issues have appeared in the Atlantic, New York Times, Washington Post, and the International Herald Tribune, and have been syndicated to three hundred newspapers around the world and translated into a dozen languages. He has been keynote speaker, lecturer, and panelist at over a hundred university-sponsored and other events in the U.S. and abroad. Powers has worked as a Fellow at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.; Head of Programs for Catholic Relief Services in Liberia; Chief of Party of a USAID / Conservation International rainforest conservation program in Bolivia; and Facilitator of the DFID / IUCN-World Conservation Union forest law-enforcement, governance, and trade dialogues project in Liberia. He holds international affairs degrees from Brown University and Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
DEVANAND RAMIAH, M.A.
Devanand Ramiah [Sri Lanka] is the Regional Team Leader for Asia Pacific in the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR) of UNDP. In this capacity he provides advisory and program management services in the area of crisis prevention and recovery to countries in the region - Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanmar, Nepal, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, Philippines etc. Before taking on this role Devanand served as the Conflict Prevention and Recovery Advisor for Asia Pacific for three years. Preceding his move to New York, Devanand served as the Peace and Development Specialist for UNDP Sri Lanka. His UN experience includes serving in the United Nations Peacekeeping Missions in Kosovo and East Timor. Prior to joining the UN, Devanand served as the Coordinator of the Peace and Conflict Analysis Unit at the Center for Policy Alternatives, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Devanand is a Fulbright scholar and holds a Masters degree in Conflict Transformation from Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), Virginia, USA. Devanand is a peace building practitioner with training and teaching experience. He has served as visiting faculty for the Post Graduate Conflict Resolution Program of Bradford University, and the United Nations University for Peace. He currently co-teaches the Masters course on Applied Peace Building at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York. Devanand is a member of the Board of Reference for the Centre for Justice and Peacebuilding, EMU and an Associate at the Centre for International Conflict Resolution, SIPA.
PATRICK REED, Ph.D., J.D., M.A.L.D.
Dr. Patrick Reed has taught the politics of international economic relations and related subjects in the international relations program at NYU-SCPS since 1995. He is an international trade lawyer with the law firm of Simons & Wiskin. His law practice concentrates on U.S. international trade, customs, and import-export law, including international trade agreements such as the World Trade Organization agreements and the North American Free Trade Agreement. He regularly represents business clients in administrative proceedings before federal agencies responsible for international trade matters and in litigation in the U.S. Court of International Trade and other federal courts. Mr. Reed graduated from Indiana University. He received his law degree from Columbia University School of Law. He received a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in international relations from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, with concentrations in international law and international economic relations. He is the author of a treatise on judicial review in international trade matters, The Role of Federal Courts in US Customs & International Trade Law (Oceana 1997). His most recent publication is "Relationship of WTO Obligations to U.S. International Trade Law: Internationalist Vision Meets Domestic Reality," 38 Georgetown Journal of International law 209-249 (2006).
JOHN P. RENNINGER, Ph.D., M.A.
Dr. John Renninger retired from the UN Secretariat in 2005 after 30 years of service. He is now an international consultant and lecturer. Beginning in 1992, Mr. Renninger occupied senior positions in the UN Department of Political Affairs (DPA), where he was the senior American. His last two positions were Director, Americas and Europe Division (2003-2005) and Director, Asia and Pacific Division (2001-2003). In these positions he provided political advice and helped shape the diplomatic initiatives of the Secretary-General, particularly regarding early warning, preventive action and peacemaking. He represented the United Nations at many meetings of other intergovernmental organizations, including the European Union, the Council of Europe and the OSCE. At UN headquarters he was intimately involved with the transition to independence in South Africa, where he served as an election monitor. He also helped plan the consultation leading to the independence of East Timor and played a key role in designing the UN mission dispatched to Afghanistan following the overthrow of the Taliban regime. From 1989 to 1992, he worked in the fields of inter-agency coordination and economic affairs. From 1974 to 1989 he was at UNITAR, eventually becoming Senior Advisor to the Executive Director for Research. In this position he had many contacts with the academic world and authored various books, monographs, and articles concerning UN issues. Mr. Renninger attended Northwestern University (BA, political science), The George Washington University (MA. International Affairs) and the University of Pittsburgh (Ph.D., International Affairs). From 1969 to 1971 he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone.
PIRO REXHEPI
Piro Rexhepi is a scholar of democratization and institutional development. He has worked with various international organizations, such as the UN and USAID on projects of good governance and economic reconstruction. He is currently a Writer in Residence in the New York Public Library's Wertheim Study.
DAVID RICE, M.A.
David Rice is currently the Managing Director of Development Equity Partners, a consulting firm advising investors and corporations in the US and Europe on how to invest in emerging markets to maximize shared value between profit and prosperity. As part of this role, he spent five months traveling through eight countries and southern and eastern Africa conducting research for s series of case studies (davidriceadventures.blogspot.com). David is also co-‐founder and senior advisor to the Micro Equity Development Fund – a “private and social equity fund” making micro investments in small to medium-‐ sized enterprises in emerging markets.
Prior to his current role, David served as Executive Director of New York University’s Development Research Institute where he worked alongside global development economist William Easterly. David managed the Institute’s staff and fellows, budget and administration, and design and execution of Institute research, programs and events. Before NYU, David managed Africa programs and conducted policy research and analysis for the Milken Institute – an independent financial and economic policy think tank headquartered in Los Angeles.
David has extensive experience working in developing countries. Previous to joining the Milken Institute, through Strategic Policy Concepts, the consulting firm he founded, David completed projects in several African nations and other developing countries in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. Notable projects including a national reform plan for the government of Nigeria, a policy analysis training program for senior ministers in Tanzania, and an ongoing advisory role to a microfinance organization operating in Malawi and Zambia.
Other former positions include serving as a Senior Research Analyst at Global Insight, specializing in analyzing the political economy of the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand; Senior Project Manager with the World Economic Forum in Switzerland; and political and policy advisor to two different U.S. governors (Vermont and Massachusetts).
David has also taught undergraduate courses in government and international relations as an adjunct professor at Bentley University and Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his Master’s degree from Harvard University and has been a Fellow at the University of Vermont’s Snelling Center for Government and the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C.
David speaks French and has traveled extensively for work throughout Africa, to Central and South America, Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, Western Europe, and Cuba. For his humanitarian work in Honduras, he was granted Honorary Citizenship in 1999 by then-‐President Carlos Flores and awarded a commendation by Rotary International.
MAYA SABATELLO, Ph.D., LL.B.
Dr. Maya Sabatello is a human rights and international law specialist, and teaches at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs and Columbia University’s Human Rights Program. Her fields of interest also include law and society, public policy, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and comparative politics and she has lectured on subjects including terrorism, torture, comparative human rights, politics of identity, disability, and bioethics. Dr. Sabatello has worked extensively with human rights organizations, and has been a permanent representative for a nongovernmental organization at the United Nations where she participated in the UN sessions on the formulation of the International Convention on the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, at the UN's Commission on the Status of Women, and in the UN's Working Group on Girls. Dr. Sabatello has published in journals including Human Rights Quarterly, The Journal of Medicine and Law, Disability and Society, and the International Journal of Children’s Rights. Her book, "Children's Bioethics: The International Bio-Political Discourse on Harmful Traditional Practices and the Right of the Child to Cultural Identity" (Martinus Nijhoff/ Brill Publishing) was published in 2009, and her book, “Voices From Within: Civil Society’s Involvement in the Drafting of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,” is forthcoming.
Dr. Sabatello has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Southern California, an LL.B. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is a member of the Israeli Bar Association.
PATRICIA A. SAMWICK, M.I.A.
Professor Patricia Samwick is the president of Samwick Management Group (SMG), a consulting firm specializing in marketing, fundraising and sales. She has spent more than 20 years working the in the field of international finance, as well as advising global NGOs. Her consulting projects have included work on a major UN affiliate’s donor base repositioning. Prior to forming her own consulting group, Professor Samwick spent more than eighteen years with Citigroup working extensively in Latin America, South Asia and the Middle East. Her most recent position was the Sales Director for the Global E- Business Group, where she was responsible for sales to universities in Argentina, Brazil, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland and the U.S. Currently, she is working on a book detailing the life of a female consultant in Kuwait. Professor Samwick has been an adjunct lecturer at Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs for the past 6 years and joined the faculty of the NYU Center for Global Affairs in early 2004. Professor Samwick holds a B.A. from Connecticut College and M.I.A. from Columbia University’s School of International Affairs. She also earned a certificate from NYU in Fundraising and Philanthropy.
ROGER SCHER, M.B.A., M.A.
Roger Scher is the Head of Country Risk for the Americas at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ. He has had a long career as a Country Risk specialist in the private sector, government service and academia. He was a professor of international political economy and international relations at the Whitehead School of Diplomacy at Seton Hall University (2009-2012) and lectured in Country Risk at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) (2001-2009). He was Managing Director and Head of Latin American Sovereign Ratings at Fitch Ratings, overseeing this department from 2000-2007. He won the Fitch Credit Award for Coverage of Brazil, 2003. Mr. Scher was also Group Vice President and Head of Asian Sovereign Ratings at Duff & Phelps Credit Ratings Company during the Asian crisis (1997-2000), and an Associate Director for Sovereign and Bank ratings at Standard & Poor’s. He was the Head of Latin American Economic Research and Bank Analysis at S.G. Warburg. Mr. Scher is a General Securities Representative (FINRA’s Series 7 Examination).
Mr. Scher was a Foreign Service Officer and Vice Consul based at the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela. He was a Senior Market Analyst covering the German economy in the Foreign Exchange Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Mr. Scher was also an aide to Senator Al Gore during his 1987-88 presidential bid.
He has written a column on the Rising Powers for Foreign Policy Blogs of the Foreign Policy Association. He was a member of the Board of Advisors of the Inter-American Dialogue’s Latin America Advisor and a frequent contributor to the newsletter. He is also the author of three novels.
He holds the following academic degrees: Master of Arts in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), with concentrations in American Foreign Policy and International Economics; Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, with a concentration in Finance; and, Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Summa Cum Laude, from Tufts University. He also attended the London School of Economics.
LISA SCHUMANN-PONTI, Ph.D., M.B.A.
Before entering the world of academe, Dr. Ponti worked for over 15 years in commercial banking as first a corporate credit analyst then as a corporate lending officer for the U.S. operations of international banking institutions. Her experience includes international trade lending in developed as well as developing European markets. Since leaving banking, Dr. Ponti has taught courses in corporate finance, as well as both microeconomics and macroeconomics. She is presently a member of Delti Pi Epsilon, American Educational Research Association, and the American Economic Association and serves as a member of the Policies Commission on Business and Economic Education.
Dr. Ponti received her doctorate from New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development and her MBA in Finance and International Business from New York University’s Stern School of Business. Her research interests include financial and economic literacy among college students and the population at large.
CHRISTINE SHAW, Ph.D., M.A.
Christine Shaw worked for the United Nations from 1969 until recently. There she was engaged in analytical work geared toward both the diplomatic and academic communities. She served as Senior Economic Affairs Officer in the Development Policy and Planning Office of the Department for Economic and Social Affairs. She was the Department’s trade specialist, writing regularly for the UN’s World Economic and Social Survey, as well preparing policy-oriented papers and background material for the Committee for Development Policy and serving as a Report Writer for a number of United Nations World Conferences and Summits. For several years, she has been teaching courses in micro- and macro-economics and international economics at FIT/SUNY. A specialist in trade, development and globalization, she holds a B.A in Economics and Sociology from Harvard, an M.A. in Economics, Statistics and Demography from Cambridge University, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University. She is a member of the American Economic Association.
JOSEPH STEPHANIDES, L.L.B., L.L.M.
Mr. Stephanides served with the United Nations Secretariat for 28 years. Before his retirement, he served as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Georgia. He was based in Sukhumi where the United Nations Observer Mission(UNOMIG) maintained its operational headquarters. Prior to the above appointment, he served as Head of the Addis Ababa Office of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).
Mr. Stephanides` broad experience in UN Peacekeeping Missions includes service as Head of the Office of the UN Secretary-General in Iran(UNOSGI), in connection with the implementation of Security Council resolution 598(1987) on ending the war between Iraq and Iran and regional security issues. He also served as Head of the Kamanjab and Sesfontein Political Office of the United Nations Transition Assistance Group(UNTAG).The latter prepared the ground for Namibia`s independence by stabilizing the situation and supervising free and fair elections.
At the UN Headquarters in New York, Mr. Stephanides served as Director of the Security Council Affairs Division, Department of Political Affairs, as Deputy Director of the same Division and Chief of the Sanctions Branch, as well as Chief of the Security Council Practices and Charter Research Branch. During his tenure, he actively encouraged improvements to the working methods and practices of the Security Council. He was instrumental in launching the Interlaken, Bonn-Berlin and Stockholm processes which greatly assisted the work of the members of the Security Council in applying better targeted and less injurious to civilian populations sanctions measures. He also encouraged members of the Security Council to favorably consider the appointment of panels of independent experts, who could be counted upon to expose patterns of violations of sanctions regimes.
Before his assignment to the Security Council Affairs Division, he served as Deputy Director of the West Asia Regional Division in the Department of Political Affairs. Other United Nations positions held by Mr. Stephanides, include the position of Senior Officer at the UN Centre for Science and Technology for Development, as well as Deputy Chief of the New York Liaison Office of the United Nations Human Rights Division.
As an Adjunct Professor of United Nations studies, he teaches Modern Diplomacy at the Long Island University, Graduate UN Certificate Programme. He is a member of the International Law Association (ILA) and a former member of the ILA Human Rights Sub- Committee. He is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Sanctions and Security Research Program of the Fourth Freedom Forum and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
Before joining the United Nations in September 1980, Mr. Stephanides held diplomatic postings with the Cypriot Foreign Service in Bonn, Washington D.C. and New York, including that of Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
Mr. Stephanides holds an L.L.B degree from Athens University, School of Law and an L.L.M degree in International Legal Studies from New York University, School of Law. He pursued further postgraduate studies at Georgetown University, School of Law and at Bonn University, School of Law.
CHRISTOPHER WALKER, M.A.
Christopher Walker is Director of Studies at Freedom House, a non-governmental organization supporting democratic values and standards around the world, where he helps oversee a team of senior analysts and researchers in devising overall strategy for Freedom House's analytical publications. These projects include Countries at the Crossroads: A Survey of Democratic Governance; Nations in Transit: Democratization in East Central Europe and Eurasia; Freedom of the Press: a Global Survey of Media Independence; and Freedom in the World: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties. Professor Walker is responsible for generating special studies and reports, initiating task forces, and responding to critical news and democracy issues through statements and op-eds. Before joining Freedom House, he worked at the EastWest Institute and the European Journalism Network. He has contributed to a wide range of publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune, Barron’s, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The National Interest, The Moscow Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Newsday. Walker received his undergraduate degree from Binghamton University, State University of New York, and Master's Degree from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.
IAN WILLIAMS
Born in Liverpool, UK, Ian Williams graduated from Liverpool University despite several years’ suspension for protests against its investments in South Africa. Consequently, he had a variegated career path, which included a drinking competition with Chou En Lai and an argument about English literature with Mme Mao before taking up journalism, briefly taking time off to be a speech/article writer for British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock in the 1987 election campaign.
A lay union official with the railworkers, he was a full time executive of the union from 1980-83, before taking a Nuffield Fellowship to study Indian unions, during which time he began writing professionally. Ian Williams has conducted media training courses for UNDP, the UN and many NGOs across the world.
He is a senior analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus, Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, a contributor to World Policy Journal and a contributing editor to the Common Review. He regularly writes for the Guardian, Tribune and the New Statesman in the UK and the Asia Times. He is also contributor to Emerging Markets Report, FTSE Global Markets and many other business publications.
A regular commentator on Press TV and Al-Jazeera, he also “pundits” on BBC, CNN, MSNBC, FOX, CBC, Russia Today, and innumerable radio stations. He appears on everything from Scarborough Country to the O'Reilly Factor arguing for rational and balanced coverage of the world.
His first book was The Alms Trade, on the historical development of NGO's, and the second was The UN for Beginners. He also wrote Deserter, on Bush’s Vietnam war record, and Rum: A Social and Sociable History, and contributed to many others including George Orwell into the 21st Century - T Cushman end, Paradigm Publishing, (2005) Irving Howe, Ed. John Rodden, University of Nevada Press (2005) including The UN And World Affairs (1993), and No Peace To Keep (1995). Currently he is working on The Global History of Tequila.
He wrote the chapter “The UN and Iraq.” in The Iraq War: Causes and Consequences, He also contributed to The Cambridge Companion to George Orwell, Ed. John Rodden Cambridge University Press. He has written papers for publications such as International Human Rights Journal, Vereinte Nationen, World Policy Journal, and the Chatham House monthly, Foreign Policy, on the United Nations.
Apart from the media, his areas of special interest are global governance and the United Nations, with particular attention to the “Responsibility to Protect” -which he has debated with Noam Chomsky, and the changing nature of sovereignty. He has studied the international criminal justice system from its inception in Rwanda and the Balkans. He maintains interest in UK politics, the end of empires, has been following and writing about the Middle East and the role of lobbies in US foreign policy.
JOHN M. ZINDAR, M.A., M.B.A.
John Zindar is a partner with American Business Organization, Inc., a transatlantic business development consultancy, and also with Strategic Ventures & Research Inc., a venture capital advisory group. He is also an advisory board member for Turtlesnap Ventures, Inc., a Baltimore-based technology transfer consultancy.
Zindar served ten years as a U.S. Army Intelligence officer with Meritorious Service, and acquired a very real-world foundation in training, psychological warfare and international negotiation & diplomacy. As a liaison officer with the British Military Intelligence Corps, he developed a special expertise in terrorism counter-action and low intensity conflict operations. Working in politics in Washington, D.C., he contributed to the conclusion of the 1993 peace treaty in El Salvador, lobbied for free trade initiatives, produced award-winning, PBS-broadcasted programs on third world conflict, and initiated a reforestation project in Guatemala. In addition to work as a free-lance journalist in Central America, Professor Zindar has spent nearly 20 years in business and economic development and international risk analysis under various consulting engagements in Europe, North America and Latin America. He has served as an advisor to the Minister of Economics of Germany, as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Panama. He has also given expert testimony on the teaching of torture at the School of Americas before the U.S. Congress, and on the Western Sahara for the United Nations.
Professor Zindar has been published. in American Defense Monitor, Doing Business with Germany, Economist, International Herald Tribune, London First Magazine, Military Intelligence Review, The Times of London, Wall Street Journal Europe, and the Washington Business Journal. Zindar holds an MA in international economics and Latin American studies from The Johns Hopkins University, an MBA from the Edinburgh Business School, and a triple-major BA from Ripon College (Wisconsin) where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa.