Current Franklin Fellows
Bill is a Counselor in EB’s Office of International Communications and Information Policy (EB/CIP), where he advises the Coordinator on policies related to international satellite regulations, national security aspects of international communications and information policy, cyber security, and cooperation with domestic and foreign law enforcement agencies.”
An attorney, Bill has specialized in U.S. and global telecommunications and wireless technology for most of his professional career. From 1996 through 2009, he served as General Counsel and a corporate officer of Globalstar, Inc., a publicly-traded company (NASDAQ: GSAT) based in Silicon Valley, California. Globalstar operates a high-technology, low-earth orbiting, global satellite communications system serving voice and data subscribers, including many federal, state and local government agencies. Bill had responsibility for a wide range of domestic and international legal and contract matters in support of the company’s business operations and regulatory affairs. Among other duties, he represented the company before a number of foreign governments and the ITU. Immediately prior to becoming a Franklin Fellow, Bill consulted with Globalstar and other clients on international regulatory and business matters.
From 1972 through 1995, Bill worked in Washington, DC, first in two government agencies, the Civil Aeronautics Board and the Federal Communications Commission, and later in the private sector. At the FCC, he held three supervisory positions in the Common Carrier Bureau – chief of the International Facilities Division (then under Ambassador Philip Verveer), chief of the Mobile Services Division and Deputy Chief of the Bureau. Bill left government service to join Pacific Telesis Group, then one of the seven “Baby Bells,” as its executive director of regulatory affairs. In that position, he was responsible for managing the company’s relationships with all federal regulatory agencies. Bill then became a partner in a small communications law firm before accepting the position with Globalstar and relocating to California.
Bill holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a B.A. from Dartmouth College. He is licensed to practice law in D.C. and is a member of the District of Columbia Bar, the American Bar Association and the Federal Communications Bar Association.
In his leisure time, Bill enjoys travel, reading, bicycling, hiking, golf and cultural events. In that regard, he has been a trustee of a large non-profit professional theatre in Silicon Valley for twelve years and also served as a trustee of his local alumni association for seven years.
We are pleased to inform you that our 85th Franklin Fellow, Luis R. Alvarez, Jr., began his fellowship on June 6th. Luis is serving in the Office of the Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs (S/SRGIA), where he works sub-national engagement, bringing elected leaders together with their U.S. counterparts to foment peer-to-peer relationships and promote U.S. policy at the sub-national level. He also is responsible for the Department’s interaction with mayors, including the U.S. Conference of Mayors, National League of Cities and the National Conference of Black Mayors.
Luis is a trade policy expert with over ten years of experience in trade, development and negotiations. His previous experience includes work on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the Caribbean states and the European Union, which expanded access to European markets for the small island nations of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Luis also played an integral role in Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) negotiations, helping to expand U.S. private sector access to the markets of Central American and the Dominican Republic, while also securing developing country gains from the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI). Luis spent the early years of his career with Unilever as the youngest Business Unit leader in the region.
Born in Boston, MA and raised in Europe and the Caribbean, Luis holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of California and a Master of Public Administration in International Economic Policy from Columbia University and Science Po. His personal interests include SCUBA, trekking and the San Francisco 49ers.
We are delighted to welcome Luis to the ever-growing Franklin Fellows family. His deep experience in business and the region will result in important gains for the work of S/SRGIA. We thank Dr. Lewis and her colleagues for hosting our Fellows and for their continuing support to the Franklin Fellows Program.
We are pleased that our 86th Franklin Fellow, Stephen R. Bell, began his service on June 15. Stephen is working with Ambassador Philip Verveer in EEB’s Office of the U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy (EEB/CIP), where he advises on a variety of data protection and telecommunications matters.
For over 35 years, Stephen has counseled telecommunications service providers, value-added service providers, major users of communications service, investors, investment bankers, regulators and foreign governments on a wide variety of domestic and international laws and regulations affecting financing, commercial activities and regulatory obligations in the field of telecommunications. In the last 10 years, his practice has centered on issues arising from the recently-enacted and -implemented legislation (in the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions) relating to data protection, privacy, data security and data breach, with a particular emphasis on the impact such rules have on the operation of trans-border enterprises providing communications, financial, information and other Internet services.
Stephen has advised satellite service providers and satellite manufacturers on a wide range of regulatory and commercial matters. In addition, he has advised on the regulatory and commercial issues involved in the construction, operation and provision of undersea cable facilities and related terrestrial services in the North and South Atlantic Oceans, the Pacific Ocean and the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
Stephen led the legal teams advising the Governments of the Russian Federation, Hungary, Moldova and the Republic of the Congo on the creation of tele-communications regulatory regimes and on the privatization of the national telephone companies, and he has provided advice on telecommunications regulations to the Governments of Jordon and the Ukraine.
Stephen also served as a Senior Counsel for the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban affairs where he coordinated the provision of pro bono legal services to the NGOs assisting in Haitian relief and recovery.
Born and raised in Wisconsin, Stephen received an AB degree from Georgetown University and a JD degree from the University of Wisconsin, where he served as Note Editor of the Law Review. He is a member of the ABA; DC Bar Association; Wisconsin Bar Association; Federal Communications Bar Association; ITechLaw Association, and the International Association of Privacy Professionals.
Stephen served on active duty in the Navy JAGC for four years and enjoys sailing on the Chesapeake Bay.
We are delighted to welcome Stephen to the burgeoning Franklin Fellows family and are proud that the Department and EEB will have the benefit of a professional of his caliber. With his tremendous depth of experience, Stephen most certainly will make important contributions to USG telecommunications policy. We thank Ambassador Verveer for hosting Stephen and EEB for its continuing support to the FF Program.
The Franklin Fellows Program is delighted to welcome Dr. Steven Berbeco who is our 132nd Franklin Fellow. Dr. Berbeco serves in FSI’s School of Language Studies (FSI/SLS) as the Senior Adviser for Language Teaching Methodology. He works with the SLS Director for Curriculum and Staff Development, the Division Directors and the Dean’s Office to conduct research and formulate recommendations on teaching methodologies.
Dr. Berbeco comes from Boston University, where he was a Visiting Scholar in the School of Education. He has graduate degrees in education from Boston University and linguistics from Harvard University and Indiana University. He holds a Massachusetts teaching license for English and Arabic and has taught in diverse environments including a detention center for adolescent boys and a refugee camp in Hungary. Dr. Berbeco has taught in an inner-city school for seven years, directed an intensive summer language program for urban students and an intensive teacher training program for aspiring high school Arabic teachers. He is the author of the “Marhaba” curriculum for high school Arabic.
Dr. Berbeco has been an active voice in education policy. In 2008-2009, he served as a Teaching Ambassador Fellow for the U.S. Department of Education, and since then he has initiated and supported regional and municipal efforts to promote change in public education.
Dr. Berbeco recently visited Liberia, South Korea and Egypt. He is a native of Massachusetts and has been living in Cambridge and in Boston’s historic North End neighborhood for the past fifteen years.
Dr. Steven Berbeco
It is our great pleasure to welcome our 130th Franklin Fellow, Dr. Bidisha Biswas. Bidisha is assigned to DRL’s Office of South and Central Asian Affairs, where she advises on South Asia policy issues.
Bidisha is Associate Professor of Political Science at Western Washington University, located near Seattle. She has past affiliations with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (South Asia Program) and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She has also served as the Seattle Chapter Head of Women in International Security (WIIS). Much of Bidisha’s work has been supported by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), with which she has been affiliated since 2006.
Bidisha’ s expertise lies in the intersections between security issues, counterterrorism, and democratic reforms. Her regional focus has been South Asia. She has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and has also served as a speaker at several public forums on topics related to civil conflict, counterinsurgency, and democratic quality. She recently wrote an award-winning paper on Sri Lanka’s war with the LTTE for the United States Institute of Peace. Bidisha is currently completing a book manuscript, under contract with Georgetown University Press, on India’s experiences with terrorism and counterterrorism. The book examines the ways in which political violence in India has impacted the country’s democratic processes.
Bidisha, her husband, Nirav, and three year-old daughter, Samara, are enjoying their new surroundings in DC’s Eastern Market neighborhood. Bidisha loves to cook and is always on the look-out for new recipes and cookbooks.
Bidisha received her BA from the University of Delhi and her Master’s from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi. She was a resident of Washington, DC while pursuing her doctorate at the University of Maryland, College Park and is excited to be back in the city she still considers home.
Dr. Bidisha Biswas
The Franklin Fellows Program is very pleased to announce that our 104th Fellow is Ann Mei Chang of Google. Ann Mei is assigned to the Secretary’s Office on Global Women’s Issues, where she is the office's technology expert. Among other projects, Ann Mei is looking at opportunities to leverage technology to improve the lives of women and girls around the world.
Prior to becoming a Franklin Fellow, Ann Mei was the Senior Engineering Director for Emerging Markets at Google, leading a global team to bring relevant internet services to the half of the world's population which is not yet connected. Previously, Ann Mei led engineering for the software company's mobile applications and services worldwide. She oversaw 20x growth of Google's mobile business in just three years, delivering over $1B in annualized revenues.
Ann Mei has more than twenty years of engineering and leadership experience in diverse sectors of the software industry. Prior to Google, she served as the VP of Engineering at There, a high-tech startup building an online virtual world. She has also held leadership roles at several other leading Silicon Valley companies, including Intuit, SGI and a few startups.
Ann Mei is a member of the 2011 class of Henry Crown Fellows at the Aspen Institute, the GSMA Women Working Group, the International Steering Committee on the Mobile programme at the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, and the Global Telecom Women's Network International Steering Committee. She holds a BS degree in Computer Science from Stanford University.
Ann Mei Chang
The Franklin Fellows Program is pleased to welcome Patricia (Tricia) DeGennaro. She serves in USAID’s Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance - Office of Civilian and Military Cooperation (DCHA/CMC) as a Policy Advisor to support the Office and an Agency-wide Civilian-Military Cooperation Steering Committee in an extensive revision to the Agency’s Civilian-Military Cooperation Policy.
Ms. DeGennaro comes to USAID from New York University’s Department of Politics where she teaches a course on international security. In addition to her work as a professor, she is a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute and a subject matter expert for the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.
DeGennaro capitalizes on over twenty years of experience in a writer, independent political risk analyst and consultant in international relations and economic development. She has studied first hand the transition from military to civil authority in Iraq and spent much of the last five years working in Afghanistan on provincial governance and capacity building, parliamentary reform, public policy development in the Office of the President of Afghanistan and joint interagency, intergovernmental and multinational coordination.
During her tenure, she has consulted with the Asia Foundation, Director of National Intelligence Office, Department of Homeland Security, The Conference Board, Fred Friendly Seminars, World Bank, Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee chaired by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and several organizations that support the Middle East Peace Process. She also spent four years in Albania, initially as a Small and Medium Enterprise Consultant with the Peace Corps followed by a contract with the US Agency for International Development on Agra-business development. Regionally, DeGennaro continues to focus on the Balkans, the Middle East and South Asia where she travels often.
She was recently chosen by Women’s Media Center as one of 33 participants for the Progressive Women’s Voices program which provides media and spokesperson training to connect media professionals with smart, media-savvy women experts.
DeGennaro has published several articles on US foreign policy and national security topics. Her focus is to encourage an integrated international policy that looks beyond war and the use of force. She is often an expert commentator for CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, Fox News, BBC and various nationally and internationally syndicated radio programs.
DeGennaro holds an MBA in International Trade and Finance from George Washington University and an MPA in International Security and Conflict Resolution from Harvard University.
We are pleased to announce Erin Duggins as our 116th Franklin Fellow. Erin is serving in the Office of USAID’s Chief Operating Officer, where she is a Senior Advisor and will help USAID establish and institutionalize a new Internal Communications and Engagement Team. In that capacity, Erin will develop a multi-faceted, multi channel communications strategy that establishes a unified platform by which USAID can reach out to 9000 staff, plus PSCs and institutional contractors, located in 80 countries and 3 DC offices with then information needed to achieve results, keep people connected, build community and retain staff that is more than 50% new hires (within past three years).
Erin is an executive with thirteen years of experience in strategy and human capital management consulting, both in the federal government and with private sector development institutions, such as FINCA International. In those thirteen years, Erin led strategy and organizational change teams in support of large organizational transformation and technology modernization initiatives for federal government agencies, such as Veterans Affairs, Food and Drug Administration, National Archives and Records Administration and the U.S. Navy. During her management consulting career, Erin earned a reputation as a respected advisor to government and private sector executives in the areas of strategic planning, organization design and organizational change.
Erin is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, which is a public service sorority with over 1,000 chapters and 250,000 members across the globe. In Delta Sigma Theta, she is the Chair of the Eastern Region Program Planning Committee, where she assists 143 chapters in nine states, the District of Columbia, Germany and the U.S. Virgin Islands increase their impact in local communities by providing guidance, tools and training that improve local chapters' abilities to plan, implement and evaluate their public service programs.
Erin was a 2009-2010 Organizational Sciences Fellow at The George Washington University, where she earned her M.A. in Organizational Management. She also earned a Masters of Public Policy (M.P.P.) from the University of Chicago in 1999.
Erin is a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but has called the Washington metropolitan area home for the past 12 years. Her personal interests include community service, singing and blogging on strategy and leadership.
The Franklin Fellows Program is pleased to welcome Mr. Matthew Durham as the 157th Franklin Fellow. Mr. Durham is currently serving in the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance (AVC). As a Technical, Policy and Foreign Affairs Officer Mr. Durham supports several programs in the Office of Verification and Transparency Technologies. (VTT).
Mr. Durham comes from California Polytechnic State University, where he studied Arms Control Policy, Foreign Policy, Leadership, Management, Political Science and Public Policy.
Mr. Durham is familiar with the D.C. area as he began his military career at Fort Myer, VA as a member of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment known as the “The Old Guard”, the oldest active-duty Infantry Regiment in the Army, and the Army's official ceremonial unit and escort to the President. While assigned to The Old Guard, Mr. Durham participated in various ceremonies in support of dignitaries, fallen soldiers, the military and Presidential support missions. During the September 11th, 2001 Pentagon terrorist attack, Mr. Durham assisted in the recovery operations at the Pentagon while assigned to his unit and throughout Operation Noble Eagle.
During his post-military career, Mr. Durham supervised the CubeSat program which organizes and develops the Poly-PicoSatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD). The P-POD is a secondary launch vehicle interface for a small-class of satellites known as CubeSats. Working with industry, education, government and foreign organizations, Mr. Durham assisted several organizations with the development of their CubeSat programs. Mr. Durham further supervised the development of the organization’s 5th generation CubeSat known as CP5.
Mr. Durham most recently served as an advisor to a Squadron Commander at the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center. He assisted in the transition of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Enterprise from Air Force Space Command to Global Strike Command and during this process earned several awards during the inspections that were crucial to the transition.
We are pleased to announce that our 95th Franklin Fellow is Todd Fein, President of Green Diamond LLC. Todd, who began his fellowship on September 28, is serving in the Bureau of Overseas Building Operations, where he is helping to draft a 2010 Sustainability Report.
Todd joins the Franklin Fellows Program with 15 years of experience in management and technology consulting. He founded Green Diamond in 2009 to organize, plan, design and implement automated reporting and other solutions for integrating environmental, social, and financial performance.
Prior to Green Diamond, Todd founded CadenceQuest, a consulting firm which specialized in reporting automation and performance management. While launching it, he assisted the Chief Technology Officer of the State of New Jersey on special projects, ranging from e-Government services to inter-departmental collaboration. He subsequently oversaw reporting projects for many of the country’s largest companies, including Wal-Mart, Bank of America and CVS, as well as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education.. In addition, he provided similar services to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Before that, Todd helped launch and served as Director of Operations and Corporate Development for Cvent, an online, on-demand event, marketing and data analysis software company. He was responsible for cementing operations through the company’s initial period of growth, including by helping define its mission, values and vision, its go-to-market strategy and its product management and other organizational structures.
Todd began his career as a manager at American Management Systems, a global management and technology consultancy. There, he helped develop an environmental systems group and co-invented Tools for Environmental Management and Protection Organizations, a patented, enterprise-wide management system used by numerous regulatory agencies and thousands of companies and people who with interact with them.
Todd holds a Systems Science Engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science, with a concentration in environment and materials, and an Economics degree from the Wharton Business School, with a concentration in finance.
He was born and raised in Cleveland, OH, where his parents and brother still live. He was a long-time soccer player, and his personal interests include travel and food and such outdoor activities as biking and SCUBA.
We are delighted to welcome Todd to the burgeoning Franklin Fellows family. Todd’s timing is impeccable, given the critical importance and surge of worldwide activity on sustainability, and we have every confidence that his extensive experience will make a valuable contribution to Department efforts on sustainability. We are grateful also to OBO for hosting Todd as the first of what we hope will be many Franklin Fellows.
We are pleased to inform you that our 131st Franklin Fellow is Dr. Robert Forsythe of the University of South Florida. Dr. Forsythe is assigned to the Bureau of the Comptroller and Financial Services and is our first-ever Fellow in Charleston. He serves as a senior financial analyst in the Office of Global Financial Operations (CGFS/F) and will be working on special projects throughout the year.
Dr. Forsythe is the former Dean of the College of Business at University of South Florida, having stepped down on July 1. He continues to serve as a Professor of Finance at USF. Prior to that, he was a member of the economics faculty and the administrative team (Senior Associate Dean) of the College of Business Administration at the University of Iowa. He also had past affiliations with the California Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University.
Dr. Forsythe holds a PhD in Economics from Carnegie Mellon, as well as two Master’s degrees (Economics and Statistics) from the same university. His BS degree from Penn State was in Quantitative Business Analysis.
Dr. Forsythe is the author of over fifty peer-reviewed publications appearing in top-tier journals in accounting, economics and finance. He is listed in Who's Who in Economics as one of the most frequently cited economists. While at the University of Iowa, he was a co-founder of the Iowa Electronic Markets, where future contracts based on political and economic events are traded over the Internet. Begun in 1988, it was the first Internet-based electronic financial market. He has also directed numerous projects for the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education and Nasdaq.
Dr. Forsythe serves on the Board of the USF Research Foundation and the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, among other organizations, and is a former Board member of the University Area Community Development Corporation and Junior Achievement. He also is a member of the CEO Council of Tampa Bay.
Dr. Forsythe is the recipient of many awards, including the State of Iowa Board of Regents’ Award for Faculty Excellence and being named to the Leonard A. Hadley Chair in Leadership at the University of Iowa. He is the subject of numerous citations in Who’s Who in the World; Who’s Who in America; Who’s Who in Finance and Industry; and Who’s Who in American Education.
Dr. Robert Forsythe
The Franklin Fellow Program cordially welcomes Ms. Debbie Ghamkhar, the 142nd Franklin Fellow. Debbie is assigned to the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs/Office of Regional Economic Policy where she serves as Outreach Coordinator advising on initiatives that include women’s entrepreneurial start-ups, small and medium-sized business development, energy sustainability, education and social protection in the Americas.
Debbie’s impressive experience speaks for itself:
- Having started her career with the multicultural magazine COLORS co-founded by Benetton, she helped develop Benetton’s global advertising campaigns. Debbie went on to Newsweek, assigned to the foreign department researching and reporting on Bosnia, Haiti, Somalia and the Middle East.
- From print, Debbie transitioned to television where she worked as an Associate Producer with CBS News on the documentary series “Under Fire”, focusing on international conflicts. Topics included the first Gulf war, ‘racine’ or roots music in Haiti, and dissident writers with original interviews with American author Arthur Miller, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, British playwright Harold Pinter and Russian poet Irina Ratushinskaya.
- After CBS, Debbie turned her attention to domestic news, serving as Associate Producer for two PBS FRONTLINE documentaries: “Washington’s Other Scandal” with Bill Moyers which focused on U.S. campaign finance and received the Peabody Award in Journalism for investigative reporting. This production was followed by “The Crash” which looked at the 1997-98 global economic crisis and included interviews with George Soros, Paul Krugman, Stanley Fischer and Jeffrey Sachs. “The Crash” received the Edward R. Murrow Award in Journalism.
- Debbie continued in television as a Producer with ABC News on the overnight news broadcast World News Now with Anderson Cooper and Good Morning, America. She also worked on a special Millennium edition of The New York Times. Debbie received her B.A. and M.A. from New York University in Near Eastern Studies. She also received her J.D. degree from Syracuse University College of Law.
In addition to practicing law in the DC metropolitan area in recent years, Debbie has advised educational and cultural non-profits and embassies on strategic communications and public outreach engagement. She served on the Board of Adventure Theatre, the oldest children’s theater in the Mid-Atlantic region, cultivating new artistic collaborations and endorsements with such personalities as actor and environmental activist Pierce Brosnan and performer Cedella Marley of Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. Debbie is a strong advocate of the arts and its role in early childhood education. She lives in Maryland with her husband, their six-year-old daughter and their Maltese Ringo.
We are pleased to announce that our 115th Franklin Fellow is Debra Gulick. Debra, who began her fellowship on April 4th, serves in ISN’s Office of the Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs, where her duties include assisting and advising Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins in her role as Chair of the Global Partnership Working Group (GPWG) in 2012 and as the U.S. representative to the GPWG in 2013. She will be working closely with the National Security Staff and their efforts in leading the Biosecurity Working Group of the Global Partnership. She will also be serving as liaison for ISN/TR with U.S. departments and agencies for activities related to the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit.
Debra graduated from Michigan Technological University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Medical Technology with an emphasis in microbiology. This led her to work in several clinical laboratories, where she specialized in microbiology/immunology. From there, she branched out into environmental microbiology and gained knowledge in mycology and quality assurance. She is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Society of Microbiology (ASM) and the American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP).
The events of 9/11 and the Amerithrax incident sparked Debra’s desire to pursue a Masters of Science degree in Biodefense at George Mason University, where she intends to graduate this spring. She recently attended the ASM Biodefense conference in Washington, DC.
Debra has resided in Springfield, Virginia for the last twenty years, raising two boys and involving herself with volunteer positions surrounding their activities. These included PTA, Boy Scouts of America, Band Parent and Soccer Parent. Now, she intends to nurture her own interests by joining a hiking club and enjoying new restaurants.
Prior to becoming a Franklin Fellow, Jimmy spent four years at Hewlett-Packard as a Program Manager focusing on Merger & Acquisition technology integrations. Some of his more recent M&A integrations included the HP acquisitions of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and 3Com Corporation. Jimmy also has served at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, where he worked on business development and new media, and at Time Warner working on data communications infrastructure.
Jimmy received a Bachelor’s of Business Administration from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and his MBA from American University’s Kogod School of Business here in Washington, DC. He currently is a graduate student at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where he is working on a Master’s degree in Security Policy Studies.
International travel has also played a role in his decision to enter into the public sector and pursue a career in foreign service. Jimmy has traveled to 17 countries and had the opportunity to live abroad in London, England and Beijing, China. His private sector experience also allowed him to work on international projects in India, Brazil, Australia, China and Canada. Some of his stronger interests lie in international relations & economics, foreign policy, weapons proliferation and homeland security.
Mr. Corey Holmes, the Department’s 144th Franklin Fellow, serves in IRM’s Office of eDiplomacy. Among the projects Mr. Holmes will advance is the Virtual Student Foreign Service (VSFS) Program, with a goal to recruit more diverse undergraduate and graduate students to participate.
Mr. Holmes possesses a range of unique skills and knowledge he has already begun to apply to the VSFS Program. His background includes work in international corporations and start-ups, as well as with international entrepreneurs. He spent 2009 in South Africa providing support to small businesses in the lead up to the World Cup there. His assignment with Enablis Entrepreneurial Network, a nonprofit that supports entrepreneurship in the developing world, helped facilitate sustainable growth, expansion, or joint ventures throughout South Africa. Following the Enablis assignment, Mr. Holmes served as a management consultant to the Randburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry to implement strategic initiatives, including expanding its membership base. He accompanied South African President Zuma to India to deepen commercial ties between South Africa and India.
Following his return from South Africa, among other activities, Mr. Holmes served as a SCORE counselor supporting business development in Detroit. He is passionate about foreign affairs, politics, international business, social responsibility, and community engagement. The list of Mr. Holmes’s active volunteerism goes well beyond the above-enumerated projects.
Mr. Holmes received an MBA in Global Management from the University of Phoenix and a BA in Business Administration/Accounting from Clark Atlanta University.
The Franklin Fellows Program is pleased to introduce the 141st Franklin Fellow, Mr. Christopher Hucke, now serving in the Bureau of Counterterrorism’s Office of Terrorist Designations and Sanctions (CT/HSMA/D). He brings to his position unique field and technical experience in the Islamic world and in counterterrorism. In fact, Chris joins the Department after completing a 15 month deployment to Kabul where he served as a management consultant on a key NATO Afghan National Security Force Training Mission there. Immediately before deploying to Afghanistan, Chris conducted strategic communications analysis on terrorist and insurgent propaganda, with an emphasis on Iraqi terrorists. The goal of his reporting at the time was to highlight important themes in terrorist/insurgent thinking and practices in order to develop communication plans that would counter terrorist propaganda.
Chris also served as a research assistant at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. His research focused on the links between extremist funding and recruitment and radicalization in Western Europe and Southeast Asia.
Chris holds a BA in Political Science from Denison University and a MA in International Policy/Terrorism Studies from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, as well as a certificate in project management from Georgetown University. He speaks Arabic, basic Dari and some German. While at university, Chris served as an intern in the Office of Senator Richard Lugar.
Ludmilla Huntsman serves as a business adviser in the Office of Public-Private Partnerships in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs / Policy and Evaluation. She is a consultant on effective mechanisms, models and frameworks for public-private partnerships. She is using her private-sector background and international development expertise to advise on new models of partnerships with multinational companies, foundations and non-governmental organizations. Her primary focus is coordinating analytical research and analysis of business strategies, trends and models for educational and cultural partnerships in four major areas - innovation and technology, entrepreneurship, civil society, and English education alliance. In this capacity, Ludmilla contributes to shaping strategies and policies for interaction between business and foreign policy issues, and the wider political and economic context.
Prior to becoming a Franklin Fellow, Ludmilla worked as CFO of Equilibrium Networks, a research and development startup that delivered innovative technologies for the Department of Defense. At Equilibrium, she was nominated for the Northern Virginia Technology Council's “Best CFO Award” for her successful management of a multi-million dollar budget. Earlier, Ludmilla served as Director of International Development at Charity Network Inc. (Abolish Child Trafficking (ACT) Now Inc.), a DC-area NGO dedicated to combating child trafficking worldwide. In both of these positions, Ludmilla spearheaded international partnership initiatives and forged relationships with international partners.
Ludmilla’s core know-how includes executive management, financial planning, investment management, linguistics, regional expertise in the political, economic and cultural context of the post-Soviet space and significant international expertise. As a consultant for the private sector development program at the International Finance Corporation (a member of the World Bank Group) in Kyiv, Ukraine, she lived and worked in a transitional democracy with a capital-starved economy. Later, she gained significant international development experience through her consulting work with global corporations, Fortune 50 companies, and dozens of congressionally sponsored international exchange programs including Open World, Community Connections, and International Visitor Leadership.
Ludmilla earned a MBA from Waynesburg University under a full scholarship award from the U.S. Entrepreneurship Support Fund. She also holds bachelor and master degrees in linguistics from Cherkasy National University (Ukraine). Ludmilla has native proficiency in Russian and Ukrainian, and has a working knowledge of German. Her extensive travels throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia have instilled in her a firm belief in the importance of investing in education and fostering mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.
Alan joins the Office of the Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary (E/STAS), where his portfolio includes critical elements and the return on investment for federally funded research.
Alan is on leave from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico where he was until recently the Director of the Lujan Neutron Scattering Center at LANSCE for over a decade. As a materials physicist, Alan is personally interested in the techniques of scattering neutrons and x rays to determine where atoms reside in a material and how atoms move. This information is needed to connect structure, composition and performance of any material and illuminates the path toward advanced materials.
In recent months, Alan spent a short sabbatical at the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) where he studied critical materials supply risk factors. A co-author of the acclaimed 2011 report on energy critical elements by the American Physical Society and the Materials Research Society, Alan applies the methods of complexity science blazed by SFI to critical materials issues.
Alan has a Bachelor’s degree in physics from the Colorado School of Mines and both Master’s and PhD degrees in physics from the University of Colorado, where he was a National Science Foundation Fellow. After a two-year postdoc and one teaching year at Brandeis University, Alan worked for 16 years at Sandia National Laboratories doing basic materials science and managing fundamental materials research. He moved to Los Alamos in 2001. In 2007, Alan was President of the Materials Research Society, which continues to be his major professional society, along with the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
In his spare time in New Mexico, Alan enjoys playing trumpet with the Los Alamos Symphony Orchestra and several community groups, skiing and cooking with his fiancée, Michelle.
Dr. Alan Hurd
Roger serves in the Secretary’s Global Health Initiative (S/GHI), where focuses on creating strategic partnerships resulting in health and well-being in our interconnected world.
Roger notes that he could have continued a life in Hawaii but chose instead to come to Washington, DC. Many people have asked him why. In response, he explains it is to use his background in organizational effectiveness and international psychology to be of service to our country and, potentially, to create an encore career here in Washington. His assignment as a Franklin Fellow will use his background as a PhD psychologist with experience in international organizational effectiveness, leadership training and management consulting.
Roger’s education shows his passion for an international perspective, beginning with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and interest in international cooperation at the University of California at Irvine to the PhD level and beyond to a Post-Doctorate at the University of Southern California in organizational change and psychotherapy.
Roger’s career followed the path of his education. He was a management and psychology professor for the U.S. Navy in Alaska and elsewhere. He has also served as a consultant on organizational development for Native Alaskan Corporations with goals of education improvement, participative leadership and economic improvements. In the same way, his passion for international relations led him to serve as a consultant to the Cabinet of the Presidency of Mexico on development projects through coordination of federal agencies.
In all of his geographical and complex organizational efforts, his extensive career, yet to be completed, has aimed at creating a strategy for results, both for-profit and non-profit organizations.
Yet, there is still time in his career for pursuit of other interests. These include but, in his words, are not necessarily limited to, tennis, swimming, cooking, reading, gardening, architecture, interior design and enjoyment of life with his partner and with his son, a jazz pianist in NYC.
Dr. Roger Ingram
The Franklin Fellows Program welcomes Ms. Sharon P. Jackson. She enters the Oceans, International Environment and Science Bureau’s Office of International Health and Biodefense (OES/IBH) as an expert advisor for policy. OES/IHB’s many goals include strengthening biodefense and enhancing global health security and systems.
Ms. Jackson could not come more prepared for these responsibilities: She comes to the Department with over thirty years of experience in political/military affairs, national security, and public health. In addition to serving as a research leader and senior analyst at Battelle Memorial Institute and SAIC, respectively, Ms. Jackson has served with a number of critical national security agencies. These include the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security where she worked in both analytic and policy positions on a variety of national security/public health intersections. She is an expert in the areas of infectious disease epidemiology and WMD.
Ms. Jackson earned a Master of Public Health degree focusing on Infectious Disease Epidemiology and a graduate certificate in Environmental Health from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and a Master of Arts degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in East Asian Studies and International Economics. For her Bachelor’s degree, she pursued a double major in International Relations and Economics at The Catholic University.
The Franklin Fellows Program proudly welcomes David Kligerman, who serves as an attorney-adviser in both the Office of African and Near Eastern Affairs (L/AN) and the Office of Legislation and Foreign Assistance (L/LFA). While with L/LFA and L/AN, David will provide advice on U.S. foreign assistance (including for antiterrorism programs, and for Afghanistan and Pakistan); oil and gas infrastructure protection; various domestic and international legal issues relevant to the Near East or Africa; and certain Appellate Briefs and Amicus submissions.
Before becoming a Franklin Fellow, David worked as a senior analyst for the Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute (HSI), a Congressionally-established think-tank for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. At HSI, he provided expertise on DHS law enforcement operations and authorities, border security, radicalization and immigration and emergency management, among other legal areas.
David is not new to the Department. He previously served as a Program Officer in EUR’s Office for U.S. Assistance to Europe and Eurasia (EUR/ACE).
David holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was a Fiske Fellow. He has a Master's Degree in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. He was an Anna Sobel Levy Fellow at the Hebrew University and received a B.A. from Amherst College in Political Science.
The Franklin Fellows Program is pleased to welcome Leonid Lantsman. He is the 148th Franklin Fellow. He serves in the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Office of Criminal Justice Assistance and Partnership (INL/CAP) office as a Foreign Affairs Officer (Expert) to contribute to the office’s work on transnational criminal issues, measuring effectiveness of program operations, and research and development for ongoing and future police, corrections and rule of law programs. In addition, he is assisting the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP) in program design, analysis, and evaluation.
Mr. Lantsman comes to us from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where he is currently a fourth year doctoral student. Previously, he worked as a journalist for a Nigerian news magazine, TheNEWS, covering human rights and local NGO issues before beginning the doctoral program at the Graduate Center-City University of New York (GC-CUNY), housed at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Over the past two years he worked concurrently with the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor to identify and analyze organized criminal groups at the Port of New York and New Jersey. In addition, he completed a summer research program at Stevens Institute of Technology focused on small vessel security in the harbor of New York.
Mr. Lantsman’s research interests focus on developing a framework of seaport vulnerability to organized crime, by examining seaport’s physical, logistical and administrative conditions that create vulnerability to criminal network usage. His articles on organized crime and maritime transportation have appeared in numerous prestigious journals, such as Jane’s Intelligence Review and Crime, Law and Social Change.
He holds two master’s degrees from GC-CUNY and John Jay College, and an undergraduate degree from Cornell University.
The Franklin Fellows Program is pleased to welcome Mr. Ahmad Maaty. He is the 158th Franklin Fellow. Mr. Maaty serves as an Analyst for Economic Growth (Foreign Affairs Officer/ Expert) in the Policy Analysis unit of the Office of U.S. Foreign Assistance Resources (F/PA) to contribute to the office’s work on planning, budgeting, execution and assessment of State and USAID foreign assistance, ensuring strategic allocation and effective use in support of U.S. foreign policy priorities.
He returns to the State Department nearly ten years after first joining as an intern with the U.S. Mission to the United Nations (USUN), assisting the Political Section’s Middle East docket before the UN Security Council for Ambassador John D. Negroponte and senior Mission staff.
Mr. Maaty has considerable experience in analysis and implementation of human development programs, specifically as applied within Asia, Africa and the Middle East. He has been working for the past six years with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, first with Middle East and North Africa Country Operations and later with the IsDB's Poverty Fund. This included socio-economic research and operational fieldwork engaging with many of IsDB’s member country governments and communities toward the design of poverty reduction projects, technical assistance and capacity building.
Previously, Mr. Maaty has worked with the World Bank's Operations Evaluations Department and UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Arab States in evaluating development programs and monitoring portfolio progress.
Mr. Maaty holds a Masters of Public Administration from Cornell University, concentrating in International Development and Fiscal Policy, and a Bachelors in Business Administration from George Washington University. Mr. Maaty has fieldwork experience in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Chad, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Tajikistan. He is fluent in Arabic.
The Franklin Fellows Program is pleased to welcome Mr. Jeffrey A. McLean. He is the 147th Franklin Fellow. Mr. McLean serves in the Bureau of East Asian Pacific Affairs; Economic Policy office as a Foreign Affairs Officer. Mr. McLean is assisting the State Department’s overall objective in harnessing Asia's growth and dynamism stands central to American economic and strategic interests. The United States central focus on the Asia-Pacific region reflects a profound recognition that the future security and prosperity of our nation will be largely defined by events and developments in the region.
Mr. McLean joins the Franklin Fellows Program after accumulating thirty years of business experience leading both U.S. and global commercial teams. He brings a wealth of experience in leadership, strategy development, emerging markets and a broad spectrum of commercial expertise. Mr. McLean is currently pursuing his PHD at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and recently authored his first book. In addition to his engagement with the State Department, Mr. McLean is a guest lecturer at Sacramento State University; sits on two non-profit Boards and will be an Advisor to Frontier Strategy Group as well as consulting for CooperVision Incorporated on their emerging market strategy.
Mr. McLean holds a master's degree in Strategic Leadership from New England College and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland.
The Franklin Fellows Program cordially welcomes Mr. Emilio M. Ortiz. He serves as an advisor to the Secretary’s Special Representative managing projects related to technology, trade, investment and economic development.
As a consultant, Mr. Ortiz specialized in international commerce and technology, providing policy and technical guidance to small and medium-sized enterprises through ‘I Consulting’, a firm he founded in 2002. In 2009, Mr. Ortiz assisted the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration with the development of international markets for U.S. textiles. From 1996-2002, he served as Director at Intrepid Corporation, overseeing the turnaround of the international steel trading company by developing strategic partnerships via the representation of the firm in Asia, Europe and Latin America.
A lifetime supporter of freedom and equality, Mr. Ortiz served in and supported efforts of organizations including, The Marshall Legacy Institute (2012), The Women’s Court in Bangalore (2011), The Mercy Center in Bangkok (2011) and Friendship Bridge Microfinance (2010).
Mr. Ortiz holds an MA in International Economic Policy from the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies, an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and a BA in Political Science from Boston College. He is a Microsoft Systems Engineer, a licensed Pilot and a member of the Denver Council on Foreign Relations.
Emilio M. Ortiz
The Franklin Fellows Program warmly welcomes Pamela N. Phan. She serves in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs as a Special Advisor to the Office of Investment Affairs (EB/OIA). Her role is to advise on matters relating to U.S. investment, promotion of market-based investment standards, and encouragement of sound investment policies in the East Asia and Pacific region, with an emphasis on China. She also supports on investment protection, promotion, policy, and disputes involving other regions of the world and assists in multilateral international investment negotiations.
A specialist in international investment and Chinese law, Pam joins the State Department from Stanford Law School, where she taught and ran the Master of Laws Program in International Economic Law, Business and Policy from 2010-2012. Prior to teaching at Stanford, Pam spent nearly six years as a corporate and finance lawyer in New York, Hong Kong, and Beijing. She held teaching positions at the George Washington University School of Law, as well as Wuhan University School of Law and Northwest University of Politics and Law in China. She also worked on Capitol Hill at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, serving as the Commission’s Acting General Counsel during the 110th Congress and advising on human rights and rule of law developments in China during the 109th Congress.
Pam’s research interests focus on international investment law, law and development, and the international and domestic law issues posed by China’s economic reforms. She has published on such topics as urban development, property rights, social justice, and the teaching and practice of law in China. Since 2008, she has served on the Board of Trustees of the Yale-China Association. She currently chairs the Association’s Law Subcommittee.
Pam holds a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law and a B.A. from Stanford University. She is licensed to practice law in New York and California. A native speaker of English and Vietnamese, she is also fluent in spoken and written Mandarin Chinese.
Waymond’s primary research and practical areas include auditing, commercial lending decisions, decision modeling, ethics, trust issues, intellectual capital and knowledge management. His recent work has been in the area of knowledge transfer, which includes conceptual processes and system/transactional processes, such as how to perform a particular job task. Further, he has studied the ability to track and measure effectiveness of the information that can help management determine whether the knowledge-based assets (intangible assets) are being retained and capitalized on to benefit the organization.
Waymond comes to the FF Program from the University of California, Riverside and is the first Franklin Fellow academic from a California school. Previously he was a professor at UC Irvine and a visiting professor at the University of Arizona. His professional auditing and banking experiences include working as an auditor with Ernst & Young and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, as well as a commercial loan officer with Union Bank. He has consulted with organizations such as CitiCorp, FedEx, Microsoft, Italian Phone Company, Petrobras and Airbus, among others.
Waymond is a C.P.A. (California and Michigan), and his degrees are from Michigan State University, B.A. in Accounting; University of Detroit-Mercy, M.B.A. in Finance; the University of Southern California, Ph.D. in accounting information systems; and an experimental psychology post-doctorate from the University of Michigan.
Waymond has published in Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory; the Communications of the ACM; European Accounting Review; Journal of Business Ethics; Journal of Applied Social Psychology; Journal of Economic Psychology; Journal of the Association of Information Systems; International Journal of Accounting; Management Science; and Organization Studies, among other journals. Finally, he is the recipient of major research grants from the CGA Canada Research Foundation Grant; Citicorp’s Foundation Grant; Ford Foundation; Franklin Fellows Program; National Institute of Health; National Science Foundation; Department of Defense; and the Navy Personnel Research and Development Center.
Dr. Waymond Rodgers
The Franklin Fellows Program is pleased to introduce Mr. Mark A. Rosmann, the 146th Franklin Fellow. He is assigned to the Office of Global Food Security where he serves as an advisor on the Feed the Future Program, New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, and food and agricultural policy around the world.
Mr. Rosmann brings to the Department years of experience in farming and agriculture stem from the family’s organic farm in rural southwest Iowa. He and his family believe strongly in sustainable and organic agricultural practices to grow and maintain economic and environmental sustainability, and many have emulated their system and methods.
Mr. Rosmann also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras from 2009 to 2011. There, as a Protected Areas Management Specialist, he assisted two rural farming communities in central Honduras. He taught environmental science in the local school, dental hygiene, family gardening, fertilizer management for coffee producers, and environmental education for communities located in protected forests. Mr. Rosmann also saw the completion of a two-room school addition, installation of latrines and public trash receptacles in his assigned community, and construction of a vehicular bridge providing year-around access into the town.
In 2008, Mr. Rosmann received his B.S. in Agronomy and a B.A. in History at Iowa State University, and is pursuing a master’s degree in Professional Agriculture via distance education from ISU. He is fluent in Spanish.
Courtney is serving as an attorney-adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser, Office of Treaty Affairs (L/T). Her primary focus is advising lawyers and policy-makers on international and domestic treaty law related to Western Hemisphere Affairs, East Asian Affairs, and Oceans, International Environment, and Scientific Affairs.
Courtney has several years of experience in foreign policy analysis and international conflict resolution. She held positions at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Carter Center and the United States Institute of Peace. Her work has addressed issues related to the rule of law in societies emerging from conflict, such as transparency in elections, public participation in constitution-making processes and the harmonization of formal and customary justice systems. Courtney was a contributing author to Guiding Principles for Stabilization and Reconstruction, a strategic guide for civilians engaged in peacebuilding missions, published in 2009. Earlier, at the CFR, she did research for and editing on the book Winning the Peace: An American Strategy for Post-Conflict Reconstruction.
Courtney worked on civil liberties issues at the American Civil Liberties Union of the Nation’s Capital and served as a Judicial Extern for the Honorable Roger W. Titus of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. She is a member of the Maryland State Bar and a graduate of the University of Southern California (J.D.) and Wesleyan University (B.A.).
Elaine Sarao is our 67th Fellow, working in SCA’s Office of Press and Public Diplomacy (SCA/PPD), where she is working with the Pakistani Diaspora in the US to create project proposals with action plans aimed at societal stabilization in Pakistan. For Sri Lanka, Elaine is addressing, with a focus on women, threshold society development for social, economic and governance development. Her efforts on both counties also are aimed at fostering U.S. public diplomacy, as well.
Elaine comes to us from the NGO, Foreign Aid Through Education (FATE), where she has been Executive Director. She has served as Congressional Fellow on Foreign Affairs for Congressman Major R. Owens from March 2000 until January 2007, when he retired. At that time, Congressman Owens represented the largest voting Pakistani-American constituency in the U.S. Elaine is a expert on threshold societal stabilization through economic, social and educational development.
Elaine holds an MFA, which is a terminal degree, in Communication/Advertising from Syracuse University and a BFA in Communications Design from Parsons and the New School. She is also Associate Rector of Wisconsin International Ukraine University in Kyiv and is the Research Associate for the Center for Gender, Culture and Development at the Kigali Institute of Education. Additionally, Elaine has participated in a working group addressing "Al Qaeda in Africa" for the National Defense University.
Karen will be serving in DRL's Office of African Affairs (DRL/AF), where she focuses on Senegal, Gambia, Cape Verde, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau and is responsible for monitoring, analyzing, and reporting on human rights conditions and democracy-related developments.
Karen is the first Franklin Fellow nominated and sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), a New York-based, private, non-profit federation of 70 national scholarly organizations. Created in 1919, the ACLS is dedicated to the advancement of humanistic studies in all fields of learning in the humanities and social sciences. It made its first grants, totaling $4500, in 1926. In 2010, ACLS awarded over $15 million to more than 380 U.S.-based and international scholars.
Karen is an inaugural fellow of the ACLS’ newly-established “Public Fellows Program,” which is placing eight recent Ph.D.’s in government and the non-profit sector for two years. The Public Fellows Program, made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, aims to demonstrate that the capabilities developed in the advanced study of the humanities have wide application in government and beyond.
Karen is a sociocultural anthropologist, who specializes in religion and politics in West Africa. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Her doctoral dissertation explored Muslim clerics’ and laypeople’s understandings about the legitimacy of religious and political leaders in the Fouta Djallon region of Guinea. Her B.A. was from Carleton College.
Karen has worked as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Islamic Studies at the University of Southern California, a Visiting Professor in Linguistic Anthropology at the University of South Florida and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Texas at Austin. She published articles and reviews in journals including American Ethnologist, Islamic Africa, Contemporary Islam and Anthropology News. Karen conducted field research in Guinea, Senegal, Mali, Egypt and the United States. She has served as a country condition expert on Guinea for several asylum cases since 2009.
Karen speaks Pular, the language of Peul/Fulani people in west-central Africa. She is a member of the American Anthropological Association and the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology. Her hobbies include yoga, rock climbing and reading literary fiction.
Dr. Karen Smid
Laurel, our 117th Fellow, is assigned to DRL’s Office of International Religious Freedom, charged with monitoring and reporting on religious persecution and discrimination and with formulating U.S. policies and programs to promote religious freedom around the world. Laurel will oversee policy development and program activities in a portfolio comprising countries in Eastern and South-Central Europe.
Laurel is the second Franklin Fellow nominated and sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), a New York-based, private, non-profit federation of 70 national scholarly organizations. Created in 1919, the ACLS is dedicated to the advancement of humanistic studies in all fields of learning in the humanities and social sciences. It made its first grants, totaling $4500, in 1926. In 2010, ACLS awarded over $15 million to more than 380 U.S.-based and international scholars.
Laurel is an inaugural fellow of the ACLS’ newly-established “Public Fellows Program,” which is placing eight recent Ph.D.’s in government and the non-profit sector for two years. The Public Fellows Program, made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, aims to demonstrate that the capabilities developed in the advanced study of the humanities have wide application in government and beyond.
Laurel recently received her doctorate in Literature from the University of California at Santa Cruz. She spent the last three and a half years living in Sarajevo, where she conducted dissertation and postdoctoral research. Her thesis examined evolving discourses of cultural identity in Bosnia from the death of Tito to the present day, with a focus on the media of underground music, mosque architecture and diaspora literature. For her postdoctoral research, Laurel looked at the contributions of women cultural producers to public discourses about challenges facing post-socialist Bosnia, and she identified ways in which their voices could be strengthened. Her research was supported by the ACLS, the American Association of University Women and American Councils for International Education.
Laurel earned a Master’s degree from the University of Chicago in Comparative Literature, with an emphasis on the 19th-century French and Russian novel. Her Bachelor’s is from The College of William & Mary in Literary and Cultural Studies.
Laurel has contributed essays and articles to several books and journals in the fields of avant-garde art and literature. She also worked as a grant-writer for the Sierra Club and has served as a volunteer for organizations that assist refugees, facilitate interfaith dialogue and strengthen women’s role in civil society.
Laurel moved from Sarajevo with her husband and daughter. Her personal interests include cooking, travel and yoga.
The Franklin Fellows Program is pleased to welcome Mr. Michael Wasco as the 150th Franklin Fellow. Mr. Wasco is an international human rights lawyer and this is his first time working for the State Department.
Mr. Wasco’s interests and expertise include the codification of rights in Islamic Constitutions, unilateral mechanisms for combating sexual and gender based violence in conflict, and the workings of the Inter-American human rights system.
Most recently, Mr. Wasco worked in Khartoum, Sudan, managing programs for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. Working with local civil society organizations, Mr. Wasco designed and implemented programs on electoral law reform, election monitoring, and constitutional review.
While serving as head of United Nations Advocacy for the Institute for Inclusive Security, Mr. Wasco successfully advocated for the increased role and number of women in peace processes. He has also worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland and the Inter-American Human Rights Court in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Prior to his international career, Mr. Wasco was a successful civil litigation attorney in Chicago, where he tried over thirty jury trials to verdict.
He has authored numerous publications on international law and human rights and holds a master's degree from Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies and a J.D. from Chicago Kent College of Law.
We are pleased to announce that our 119th Franklin Fellow is Lilian Zia. Lilian is serving in IRO’s Office of eDiplomacy, where she is the Senior Innovation Advisor. Lilian’s portfolio is to look for opportunities to leverage technology for diplomacy around the world.
Lilian has many years of engineering and leadership experience. She is on a one-year leave of absence from Intel Corporation, where she is a Senior Product Manager, working on software platforms for mobile devices. Prior to her current role at Intel, she was a Senior Product Marketing Engineer, responsible for open source projects marketing for Mobile Internet Devices. Before Intel, she served various engineering roles at Qualcomm, where she worked on several mobile platforms and products.
Lilian graduated from McGill University (Montreal, Canada) with a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering and a Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering. She also graduated from Cambridge University (Cambridge, U.K.) with a Master’s in Business Administration. Lilian has a broad exposure to different cultures, as she has lived in many countries. She speaks Aramaic and Arabic and has good knowledge of French.
We are proud to welcome such an experienced professional to the ever-growing Franklin Fellows family. We have every confidence that Lilian will make important contributions to eDiplomacy’s global efforts. We thank IRM for its interest in the Franklin Fellows Program and eDIP Director Richard Boly and his team for welcoming another Franklin Fellow to their office.
Franklin Fellows Alumni
We are pleased to announce that our 71st Franklin Fellow is Dr. Irina Adamashvili, who is serving in CA/PPT’s Office of Strategic Planning and Cost Analysis (CA/PPT/SPCA), where she works on the Management Information System and other data bases.
Irina comes to us from the Louisiana University Health Sciences, School of Medicine in Shreveport, where she was an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Genetics. She has been involved in various research projects in the field of Genetics and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles in prestigious journals. She has delivered invited lectures at UCLA and the NIH and has served as committee chairperson of international conferences in Genetics.
In her earlier career in Georgia, Irina was affiliated with the Institute of Pediatrics in Tbilisi as head of International Affairs. In that position, she organized collaborative ventures between the Institute of Pediatrics and institutions of foreign countries. She established contacts with various medical societies from the U.S. and Europe and organized visits by them to Georgia.
Irina holds an MS in Molecular Genetics from Tbilisi State University and a PhD in Human Genetics from the Institute of Medical Genetics in Moscow. She is a past member of a number of organizations, including the American Human Histocompatibility Society; the Genetic Society of America; the New York Academy of Sciences; and the European Society of Human Genetics.
Dr. Irina Adamashvili
Louisiana University Health Sciences, School of Medicine
Franklin Fellow Eli Adashi is the outgoing Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences and the Frank L. Day Professor of Biology at Brown University. Dr. Adashi is a physician, scientist, educator and executive with over 25 years of experience in health care and the life sciences. Mentor to over 50 trainees, Dr. Adashi has written or co-written over 250 peer-reviewed articles, over 120 book chapters or reviews, and 13 books focusing on ovarian biology, ovarian cancer and reproductive health, as well as on freedom and human rights.
A native of Israel, Dr. Adashi earned his medical degree in 1973 at the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University. After residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Tufts University, a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology at Johns Hopkins and postdoctoral study of reproductive biology at UC San Diego, Adashi began his academic career at the University of Maryland. There he served as the director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology, the Fellowship Training Program in Reproductive Endocrinology and of the Residency Training Program (1981-1996). In 1996, he became Chair of the Department Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center, where he founded and led the Ovarian Cancer Program. After a sabbatical with the Quality Improvement Group at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Dr. Adashi earned his MS in Health Care Management at the Harvard School of Public Health (2005). In 2004, Dr. Adashi became Dean of Medicine at Brown University.
Dr. Adashi belongs to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the Association of American Physicians and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the Global Agenda Council on Population Growth of the World Economic Forum, the Maternal and Perinatal Health Research and IMPAC groups of the World Health Organization, the Board of Directors of Physicians for Human Rights, the Advisory Board of Doctors for America, the Advisory Board of Maternova, and the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University.
Dr. Adashi has lectured extensively in the United States and abroad, and is the recipient of numerous awards. Presently on sabbatical leave, Dr. Adashi contributes to the Washington Post, Medscape, Science Progress and provides comments for Latino Public Radio.
Dr. Eli Adashi
Dr. Karim Altaii joins the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs as a Franklin Fellow in the Office of Iraq Provincial Reconstruction, Transition and Stabilization Staff as Foreign Affairs Officer-Expert to help in capacity building in Iraq, especially in Higher Education. He will also serve with interagency working groups on a variety of issues in support of Bureau interactions with other stakeholders in soliciting input and formulating recommendations.
Dr. Karim Altaii has been a professor with James Madison University, Energy Academic Team in Integrated Science and Technology (ISAT) department, since 2000. Prior to that, he served on the faculty at the University of Turabo School of Engineering in Puerto Rico and the City College of New York, New York. A Magna Cum Laud graduate of the University of Baghdad-School of Engineering in 1980, he holds M.E., M. Phil. and Ph.D. in Mechanical engineering from the City University of New York. He worked three summers with NASA and Sandia National Laboratories in the Wind Energy and Solar Thermal areas. His interests are in international education, engineering education, education in crises-affected countries, fluid-thermal sciences and renewable energy applications. He recently applied for two patents; one of them is related to solar energy tracking to increase the efficiency of photovoltaic cells.
Dr. Karim Altaii
James Madison University
Lauren E. Baer is joining the Office of Policy Planning as a Franklin Fellow, where she will oversee the democracy, human rights, and labor portfolio.
Prior to commencing her fellowship, she was a senior associate in the Litigation/Controversy Department at the New York office of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP. Ms. Baer’s practice focused on representation of institutional and individual clients in complex civil litigation, criminal investigations, and arbitral proceedings, with an emphasis on international disputes, compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and federal appellate and Supreme Court matters. Ms. Baer also had an active pro bono practice, which included representing clients in immigration proceedings and successfully defending the constitutionality of the “soft money” provisions of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in the recently decided RNC v. FEC.
Before joining WilmerHale, Ms. Baer clerked for the Honorable Robert D. Sack on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and was a policy consultant to The Albright Group LLC, the global strategy firm headed by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Ms. Baer is a 2007 graduate of Yale Law School, where she was the editor-in-chief of the Yale Journal of International Law and a director of the Immigration Legal Services Clinic. In 2004 she earned an MPhil in Development Studies from Oxford University, where she was a Marshall Scholar. Ms. Baer earned her B.A. from Harvard University, magna cum laude, in 2002.
Ms. Baer is the Director of Programs and a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of Marshall Scholars, an avid marathoner and triathlete, and an enthusiastic chef.
Lauren E. Baer
Tracy Bernstein is the 38th Franklin Fellow. She is serving in the Office of the Chief of Protocol (S/CPR) as Senior Advisor- identifying artists, vendors and production teams to assist the Gifts Unit with the selection and presentation of official gifts. In addition, she is assisting with the Program for Diplomatic Partnerships’ ”Experience America” program.
Tracy comes to us from the position of a consultant in several areas. As an advisor to the President of Blissliving Home, she worked to provide business opportunities for artisans in developing countries. In her position working with News Distribution Network, she connected this internet start-up company with established media organizations looking to bring aggregated video content to media websites. In her work with non-profits, she performed public outreach, event planning and fundraising.
Tracy worked on the 2008 Presidential campaign, serving on the National Leadership Board for Hillary Clinton for President and the Board for Maxed out Women. She later served with Obama National Women’s Leadership. Tracy worked in the field during the primaries in Iowa, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Tracy’s career with non-profits includes serving as a Board member of Sasha Bruce Youthworks, which provides services to “at-risk” youth in D.C. She has been one of the co-chairs for the Vital Voices Gala for the past two years and works with the developing artisans program. Tracy belongs to the Trustees Council at the University of Pennsylvania, served on the campaign board for Sidwell Friends School and on the advisory board for the Jewish Foundation for Group Homes. She began her career in the fashion industry with the May Company and later ran “Private Lines,” a fashion consulting business.
Tracy received a degree in Communications and Marketing from the University of Pennsylvania. She volunteers for “Autism Speaks” and enjoys travel, reading and golf while raising four children.
Tom Burns comes to the Franklin Fellows program from Novozymes, a leading biotechnology company headquartered in Denmark. Having held a variety of positions during his 16 years with the company, Tom most recently was a technical manager in the biofuels division, supervising a team of chemists and engineers focusing on the grain-to-ethanol conversion process.
Previously, Tom was based at the Novozymes subsidiary in Brazil, and along with an earlier career as a secondary-school science teacher he has over 11 years' experience living in Latin America. He is a 1981 graduate of SUNY Brockport.
As a Franklin Fellow, Tom will lend his expertise in the areas of alternative and renewable energy to the DOS Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, where he is supporting projects in three offices – Science and Technology Cooperation, Global Change, and Space and Advanced Technology.
We are pleased to welcome Brian J. Campbell, of Los Angeles, California, as our 56th Franklin Fellow. Brian is a member of the Vice Presidential Advance Team and travels nationally and internationally to assist with site preparation and logistical support for Vice President Biden’s events. Brian also recently completed three projects in Missouri and Virginia for the Department of Commerce in connection with the 2010 Decennial Census.
Brian brings a well rounded private sector business background to his current position as Foreign Affairs Officer (consultant) in the Bureau of Consular Affairs, Passport, Office of Inte-grity and Internal Controls. As a licensed real estate AGENT, principal, developer and own-er/operator, Brian has developed a number of commercial real estate projects, and recently com-pleted his second resort development project in Southern California. Brian served as senior vice president for Beitler Commercial Realty in Sherman Oaks, California, where he specialized in multi-family, retail and commercial real estate investments. Prior to his commercial real estate career, Brian was Division Agency Manager for Farmers Insurance Group, where he was respon-sible for the supervision of the operations of 258 independent insurance agencies in West Los Angeles and Long Beach, California. Brian served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of "The Groundlings" Theatre, during which he represented the famous improvisational comedy group in the purchase of their landmark theatre building on Melrose Boulevard in West Los An-geles.
Brian graduated from Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, receiving a Ba-chelor of Science degree in business administration, with an emphasis in organizational commu-nications. While at Truman State, he was awarded the President’s Honorary Scholarship as well as an athletic scholarship for tennis, twice earning NCAA All-American honors in singles and doubles. He was inducted into the Truman State University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998. Brian has continued his interest in competitive tennis, achieving more than a dozen USTA Na-tional Rankings in the past two decades and was ranked as high as no. 3 in the United States in men's doubles. Brian was awarded a “bronze ball” at the 2005 USPTA National Indoor Cham-pionships in Park City, Utah, and won his first international doubles title in Isenhagen, Germany, in 2008.
Brian's grandfather, Lucio Villegas, was a Chilean tennis champion and served as Chilean Consul General, with missions in Japan and the United States. Brian has traveled extensively in Europe, Asia, and South and Central America, and intends to continue his family’s legacy by pursuing his interest in foreign service upon completion of his Franklin Fellowship Program.
We are delighted to announce that we have reached an important milestone in the growth of the Franklin Fellows Program, the arrival of our 100th Franklin Fellow. James Carden comes to us three and a half years after our very first Fellow, Paul Scott, began his service. James, who reported on October 12, is serving in EUR’s Office of Russian Affairs (EUR/RUS), where he works as an advisor to the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission.
James joins the program, most recently having worked at the foreign exchange desk at JP Morgan Chase in New York. There, as a member of the FX Hedge Fund Marketing Team, he executed spot and forward FX trades on behalf of the bank’s institutional clients. James has several years of foreign exchange experience, having served not only at JP Morgan but also Deutsche Bank.
He is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) where he was a Russia/Eurasia concentrator. His coursework covered a broad range of issues, including political economy, energy policy and economics.
Upon graduation from SAIS, James took part in a pilot graduate-level exchange program between SAIS and the Moscow State University Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) in Moscow. While there, he took courses in contemporary Russian politics, Russian language and Russian foreign policy issues. He also traveled widely in Russia and Eastern Europe.
James called Brooklyn Heights, NY home for the past ten years. His hobbies include running and skydiving.
We are pleased to welcome James to the Franklin Fellows family and are proud that we can support EUR with a professional of his caliber. We thank EUR for continuing to host our Franklin Fellows and for its interest in the FFP.
Anna Cave served as a Franklin Fellow in the Secretary’s Office of War Crimes Issues (S/WCI) in 2009. In 2010, she joined the office as a Special Advisor to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues and as a War Crimes Specialist in the Civilian Response Corps. In her tenure as a Franklin Fellow and as a Special Advisor, Ms. Cave advised on a variety of issues relating to international humanitarian law and war crimes tribunals, the ICC and positive complementarity, transitional justice and justice sector-reform, witness protection and domestic accountability mechanisms, and atrocity prevention. She focused on developing accountability mechanisms for war crimes in Africa.
Ms. Cave is a graduate of Columbia Law School (J.D.), where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and a recipient of a Skadden Law Student Fellowship, and Duke University (B.A.). Ms. Cave clerked for Judge Lawrence McKenna in the Southern District of New York and is a member of the N.Y. State Bar. She previously practiced in the litigation department of the international law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell, where she initiated the firm’s international human rights pro bono practice and collaborated with grassroots and international NGOs and academic human rights institutions, including HRW, PILPG, ICTJ, Timap for Justice, the Salvation Centre Cambodia, and Fordham Law School’s Leitner Center for International Law & Justice. Ms. Cave is a co-author of publications on grassroots efforts to eradicate FGM in Sierra Leone and land rights and forced eviction in Cambodia.
Julie is Special Advisor to Special Representative Reta Jo Lewis in the Office of Global Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of State. She facilitates state and local government contacts with their foreign counterparts. Prior to joining the Department of State, Julie was an attorney in private practice. Among her many roles, she has served as in-house counsel for Verizon Communications and the Smithsonian Institution. Julie was also the Chief Legal Officer for the United States Tennis Association, where she was responsible for providing legal and business counsel for the organization and its activities, including the U.S. Open Tennis Championships and as a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee. Julie was also a partner of a major international firm, litigating cases in the areas of employment, securities, antitrust, and breach of contract, among others.
Julie has served on a number of civic and professional organizations, including as a member of the Steering Committee of the DC Bar Section on Arts, Entertainment, Media and Sports Law and of the Anne Arundel County Board of the Central Maryland Chapter of the American Red Cross. She received her J.D. from the University of Michigan where she was a Yee Scholar and holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Irvine. Julie is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and in the states of New York, California and Illinois.
We are pleased to welcome that our 91st Franklin Fellow, Miguel Diaz, serving in DRL’s Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, where he is responsible for the Bureau’s Central America portfolio.
Miguel has a long and distinguished career as a Latin Americanist. Most recently, he worked for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence as a Professional Staff Member responsible for providing oversight of U.S. intelligence activities in Latin America and of DHS's Office of Intelligence and Analysis. He has also served as the Director of the South America Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, as a Senior Latin America Economist for Nikko Research Center, and as a Central America Analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency. He also was an instructor on the Southern Cone at FSI and a briefer for departing ambassadors to Central America.
Miguel has an M.A. in Latin American Studies and International Finance from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He holds a BA from Hobart College in upstate New York, where he majored in Political Science and Religious Studies.
Jennifer joins OES’ Office of International Health and Biodefense, where she serves as the action officer on maternal and child health. Her portfolio includes Global Health Governance and health issues that may accompany G8/ G20 agendas. She also covers trade and investment policies and their interactions with international public health and the environment.
Jennifer has a health and legal background and has been affiliated with various organizations, including the legal clinic at Universidad Centroamericana in Managua, Nicaragua, and the International Institute for Sustainable Development in Geneva, Switzerland. Further, she has conducted HIV/ AIDS education courses in rural Tanzania and provided neuro-rehabilitation training to physicians and nurses in Turkey.
Jennifer holds a JD from Seattle University School of Law, an MA in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Maryland and a BS with that same major from Old Dominion University. In 2010, she was named a Duke University Fellow in Global Policy and Governance in Geneva. She is a member of the American Society for International Law and the American-Speech Language and Hearing Association.
Jennifer has resided in a variety of locales, from the Pacific Northwest to Southern California to New Mexico's Navajo reservation. Her personal interests include traveling, hiking and reading. She speaks Spanish and French and loves homemade vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting.
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Randall Doyle is our 82nd Franklin Fellow. Randall, who began his fellowship on May 19, is serving in DRL’s Office of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, where he is researching press freedom in South Asia.
Randall has taught, studied or lived in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America during his academic career. Prior to becoming a Franklin Fellow, he taught East Asian History, Pacific Rim History, Modern China and American Diplomatic History at Central Michigan University from 2005 to 2011. Earlier, he was a Visiting Professor at North China University of Technology in Beijing; Ocean University (Qingdao, China); and Aichi University (Nagoya, Japan). At these institutions, he taught courses on American foreign policy, U.S. politics and China’s law and politics.
Randall also was selected to be a Visiting Scholar at the International Center for Chinese Studies (Nagoya, Japan); International Christian University (Tokyo); the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Beijing); and at the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Research Centre at the University of South Australia (Adelaide).
Randall will publish his fifth book this fall (co-authored with Chinese scholar Dr. Zhang Boshu), Modern China and the New World: The Reemergence of the Middle Kingdom in the 21st Century. His fourth book, The Roots of War in the 21st Century: Geography, Hegemony, and Politics in Asia-Pacific, was nominated and considered for the renowned Lionel Gelber Book Prize associated with the University of Toronto. This specific book award is for outstanding academic and literary works concerning international affairs.
In 2010 and 2011, Randall was a selected as a finalist for Professor of the Year and for a Creative and Innovative Teaching commendation at Central Michigan University in the College of Humanities and Social Behavioral Sciences.
We are delighted and proud to welcome such a distinguished scholar to the burgeoning Franklin Fellows family. Randall is well-placed to make an important contribution to DRL’s work on the EAP region. We remain most grateful to DRL for welcoming our Fellows and for being a great partner with the Franklin Fellows Program.
The Franklin Fellows Program is very pleased to announce our 94th Fellow, Jennie Duran. Jennie is serving in the Office of Civil Rights (S/OCR), where she is working on diversity issues, EEO investigations and other legal issues regarding EEO and employment.
A Mexican/Apache from Flagstaff, Arizona, Jennie has focused her career on EEO law. She is a graduate of SUNY Buffalo Law School and is certified in Diversity Management from Cornell University. She holds a BA from Northern Arizona University.
Jennie has worked in Los Angeles with homeless individuals on Skid Row and on worker's rights issues with migrant farm workers. She also has practiced tribal law for the Hualapai and Havasupai tribes in Arizona. Jennie taught Chicano Studies at Northern Arizona University and was an integral member of the University’s Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity, ensuring that NAU met its commitment to diversity.
Jennie was Director of the Peace of Mind Program at the Los Angeles Public Council Law Center. There, she oversaw a project to ensure care for children whose parents died of AIDS or cancer. She also served as Guardian Ad Litem for children who were victims of abuse by foster parents. Her commitment to human rights extended to translating legal documents into Spanish, helping Hondurans and Nicaraguans apply for temporary work permits in Los Angeles and traveling to migrant worker camps in Colorado to educate workers on wage claims and taxation laws.
The Franklin Fellows Program is pleased to announce the arrival of our 75th Franklin Fellow, Dr. Marlese Durr of Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Marlese, who began her service on February 9, is assigned to IO’s Office of UNESCO Affairs, where she is the Office’s primary advisor on social and human sciences.
Marlese is Professor of Sociology at Wright State, has served as the Director of Women’s Studies at Wright State and has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Nebraska. She holds a Ph.D. and MA in Sociology from SUNY Albany, as well as an MA in African and Afro-American Studies and a BS in Liberal Studies from Albany.
Marlese is the author of several articles and two edited books entitled Race, Work, and Family in the Lives of African American Men and Women (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006) with Shirley A. Hill and The New Politics of Race: From Du Bois to The 21st Century (Praeger Press 2002). Her most recent works are entitled “Keep Your “N” In Check: African American Women and The Interactive Effects of Etiquette and Emotional Labor” (forthcoming in a 2011 Special Issue of Critical Sociology) with Adia Harvey Wingfield; “Inner-City African-American Women’s Adolescence as Stressful Life Events: Understanding Substance Abusing Behavior” ( Journal of African American Studies, Vol. 14. No.3, pp. 202-219) with LaFleur Small, and Eloise Dunlap (2010); and “Small Town Life: A Study in Race Relations.” Ethnography, Vol. 11(1): 127–143.
Marlese has served as President of Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS); Publications Chair of Gender & Society; and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of Black Sociologists. Additionally, she has served as an Editorial Board Member for American Sociological Review, Social Problems, Social Forces, and Gender & Society. Within the American Sociological Association, Marlese has held various positions, including member of the Committee on Nominations, Organizations, Occupations, and Work Election Committee; Chair of the Community and Urban Sociology Section Student Award Committee; and as Section Chair for Race, Gender, and Class. She currently serves as the Division Chair of Racial and Ethnic Minorities, for the Society for the Study of Social Problems and is a member of the American Sociological Association Committee on Professional Ethics (COPE).
Dr. Marlese Durr
Wright State University
We are pleased to announce that our 83rd Franklin Fellow is Ms. Elizabeth M. Edelstein. Elizabeth, who began her fellowship on May 23rd, is serving USUN’s Political Section, where she focuses on women, peace and security. She will also cover some aspects of the African and Eastern European portfolios.
Elizabeth has a Juris Doctor from Emory University, where she received both the Dean’s Award in International Human Rights and the Founder’s Award. She holds a Masters of International Affairs from Columbia, where she was given an Earth Institute Award. Her BA is magna cum laude from Cornell.
A published author and attorney, Elizabeth has past affiliations at South Brooklyn Legal Services, Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, and has received five professional honors and awards. More recently, she has worked with various United Nations entities and affiliates, including UNICEF, UNDP, UN OIOS, UNA-USA, and UN peacekeeping missions in Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire.
Her experience with national governments includes both the UK House of Commons and the US Judiciary, where she worked for United States Judge Richard M. Berman in the Southern District of New York. In addition, Elizabeth has served on the Board of For One World, an organization that sponsors American students to teach over the summer in Techiman, Ghana, and the Human Rights Watch New York Network. She is also a member of the American Society of International Law, the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar.
The daughter of two history professors, Elizabeth has been traveling since she was 22 months old. She has been to approximately 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Central and South America and speaks English and French, as well as some Italian, Swahili, and Twi.
We are delighted to welcome Elizabeth to the burgeoning Franklin Fellows family. She is a superb fit for USUN/POL and will, we are confident, make important contributions on women’s and other issues. We thank USUN for its strong and continuing support to our Fellows and to the larger Franklin Fellows Program.
Franklin Fellow, Professor Mark E. Emblidge is Director of the Literacy Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. His research and work has focused on literacy for at-risk populations; workforce education; school reform; integrated student services; and post secondary transitions.
Dr. Emblidge will serve in the Office of the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan, where he will work with General Gration in designing education programs for Sudan.
In 1995, President Clinton appointed Dr. Emblidge to the Board of the National Institute for Literacy, where he served as chair from 1998 to 2002. As Affiliate Professor and Director of The Literacy Institute at VCU, Dr. Emblidge works with policy makers on the issues of illiteracy and how to address them. He has most recently worked on a series of federal literacy grants focused on children and adults in poverty.
Twice appointed to the Virginia Board of Education, Dr. Emblidge served as Board President until January 2010. Virginia’s Board sets standards for curricula, teachers, and accreditation; sets graduation requirements and approves state testing programs; and recommends how much to fund public education. Governors Warner and Kaine also appointed Dr. Emblidge to the Southern Regional Education Board. He is currently vice-chairman of this regional organization devoted to helping southern states improve and share resources in higher education.
Dr. Emblidge is Director of and founded both the Virginia Literacy Foundation and Communities in Schools of Virginia, which he started with U.S. Senator Mark Warner and former U.S. Senator George Allen.
Dr. Emblidge was a member of the first elected school board in Richmond, Virginia. Beginning in 1994, he served four terms and was elected as its chair three times.
Dr. Emblidge consulted for Prime Minister Thatcher’s government on Communities in Schools and integrated student service, has written columns for the Richmond Times-Dispatch and has advanced the cause of education at all levels through his service on numerous bodies in Virginia and the surrounding region.
Active in state and national politics, Dr. Emblidge has served on gubernatorial and presidential campaigns and transition teams. He holds a PhD and an MA in Education from the University of Virginia and a BA in Political Science from Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. He and his wife, Robbie Banning, have two daughters, Catherine and Caroline.
Dr. Mark E. Emblidge
Virginia Commonwealth University
Margi English joins the Franklin Fellows Programs, working in the Secretary’s Global Partnership Initiative office. Margi is serving as S/GPI’s Communications Advisor, where she will be building presence and exposure for the office, both internally (in the form of a usable knowledge database) and externally (print collateral, website revision, talking points, article placements and broadcast opportunities).
Most recently, Margi was the Executive Director of Development and Communications at Santa Clara University’s Jesuit School of Theology. Before going to Santa Clara, Margi founded Lumina Pictures, which develops and produces feature films, by raising investment capital from Wall Street investors. She established her own line of home furnishings, designing and marketing products, including a commemorative city scarf for the Office of the Mayor of San Francisco. She also is an appointed member of the Asthma Task Force of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
In 2009, Margi earned an FAA private pilot license and enjoys seeing the world from 3000 feet. She has studied at the University of San Francisco, Dominican University and the Sorbonne. She speaks French and Spanish.
We are delighted to announce that our 90th Franklin Fellow is Anna M. Fader, who began her fellowship on July 5. Anna is an Agricultural Trade Specialist in the Biology and Textile Trade Division of EEB’s Office of Bilateral Trade Affairs (EEB/TPP/ABT), where she manages bilateral agricultural biotechnology objectives for the South and Central Asia regions.
Anna is an internationally trained lawyer and business woman specializing in international trade and government affairs. Having lived and trained in China, Hong Kong, Australia and the United States, she has problem-solved across various languages, legal systems, cultures and customs. She is a Master Level Mediator and President of her own mediation firm. She was one of ten mediators selected worldwide to participate in a Ford Foundation-sponsored forum in Berlin on international mediation.
Known for her creative problem solving, Anna is a highly sought-after mediator for her ability to quickly identify underlying issues and instinctively bring quick resolution to difficult and complex cases. She has served on numerous mediation/arbitration panels, including for the SEC, AAA and the District of Columbia Superior Court.
Anna co-founded and became the first Board chairperson of the Minnesota Affirmative Action Association. She was the first woman in Minnesota to negotiate major labor agreements and, as an entrepreneur, also became the first woman in Minnesota history to own a pharmacy in her own right. Her pharmacy was the first licensed by the state of Minnesota to a non-pharmacist and an independently owned enterprise.
Between 1999 and 2006, Anna and her family lived in Singapore, China, Hong Kong and Australia, where she pursued her law degree and Masters in International Trade at the prestigious University of Technology, Sydney. She also continued to work internationally as a mediator and arbitrator. Anna relocated to Washington, D.C. in 2006 to pursue the interest in government which, fortunately for us, led her to the Franklin Fellows Program.
We are pleased to welcome Anna to the burgeoning Franklin Fellows family. Her extensive international experience as a lawyer, businesswoman and mediator will enable her to make important contributions to the work of EEB. We again thank the Bureau for hosting Anna and several other Franklin Fellows. EEB has been a consistent and strong supporter of the Franklin Fellows Program, for which we are grateful.
The Franklin Fellows Program is pleased to welcome Amanda Fazzone as our 81st Franklin Fellow. Amanda is a Foreign Affairs Officer assigned to DRL’s Office of International Religious Freedom (DRL/IRF), where she focuses on NEA issues.
Since 2004, Amanda has worked on Middle Eastern issues, with a focus on democracy and labor. Most recently, she served as Director of U.S. Government Relations for the OneVoice Movement, an international grassroots movement that works with Israeli and Palestinian young political leaders to build consensus for a two-state peace agreement to end the conflict. In this capacity, she briefed senior U.S. government officials and foreign diplomats, connecting them with OneVoice's Israeli and Palestinian Youth Leaders, and spoke at multiple diplomatic events.
Previously, Amanda was the Jordan and Palestine Country Director at the Education For Employment Foundation, a nonprofit that provides training and job-placement services to unemployed youth in the Middle East and North Africa through academic, corporate, and governmental partnerships. She also served as Chief Operating Officer of a nonprofit established to support microfinance initiatives in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as in Israel (between joint groups of Arab and Jewish entrepreneurs). Amanda has attended economics conferences such as Sanabel: The Microfinance Network of Arab Countries, the Palestine Investment Conference, and the Civil Society Policy Forum of the World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings.
Before pursuing a career in international development, Amanda was a journalist. She was Assistant Managing Editor at The New Republic magazine, where her articles were covered by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and National Public Radio. She was Senior Editor and Writing Fellow at Media Matters for America and Programming Coordinator at the SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival. She has written for numerous media outlets, including Slate.com, SPIN, and the Washington City Paper, and has edited four nonfiction books.
In 1997, Amanda graduated magna cum laude from Boston College, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Theater. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
The Franklin Fellows Program warmly welcomes our 76th Franklin Fellow, Jason Flippen. Jason is serving a split tour as Innovation Advisor in the Secretary’s Office of Innovation (S/SAIT) and the WHA’s Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs (WHA/PDA). His portfolio includes projects where the mission of the Secretary’s Office of Innovation – to determine how technology can be leveraged to help achieve our diplomatic and development goals – intersects with the policy issues of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.
Prior to joining the Department, Jason spent nearly fifteen years working in the publishing industry, holding a variety of management positions. Most recently, he launched the electronic media marketing program at W.W. Norton & Company, where he worked with authors, editors and technologists to bring innovative new media products to market. While waiting for his security and ethics clearances, he consulted for the Council on Foreign Relations, leading a business review and discovery process to uncover opportunities for improvement and to guide their digital strategy.
Jason holds a B.A. in English from the University of Oregon and studied at the Universidad Autónoma de Queretáro in Mexico. He recently moved to Washington from Portland, Oregon with his wife, who is a Foreign Service Environment Officer with USAID. They served for many years as volunteer Naturalists for the Nature Conservancy of Oregon.
Tim Ford serves as a Franklin Fellow in the Office of Japan Affairs, in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
Prior to joining the State Department as a Franklin Fellow, Tim worked in Corporate Strategy and Business Development at Lockheed Martin’s Corporate Headquarters in Bethesda, MD supporting the development of strategy initiatives, analyzing strategic conditions, and assessing the corporation’s overall strategic direction.
Tim joined Lockheed Martin in 2005 as a financial analyst on the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program in Orlando, FL at Lockheed Martin Simulation, Training & Support (LM STS). In 2007, he moved to the financial planning and analysis team focusing on developing and reporting the financial metrics and long range plan for LM STS.
Tim is a graduate of the Financial Leadership Development Program (FLDP) of Lockheed Martin, a three year program for entry-level professionals to develop leadership skills in the finance discipline through rotational assignments and technical curriculum. He was a catcher on the baseball team at the University of Central Florida where he received both his bachelor’s degree in accounting and his MBA. He is currently sitting for the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam and resides in Rockville, MD.
Tracey K. Friedlander is an attorney who works in the Office War Crimes Issues. Tracey is the second Franklin Fellow to serve in S/WCI, who focuses on war crimes issues relating to the DROC and Rwanda.
Tracey Friedlander is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Dickinson College and has a JD from Washington College of Law. She honed her international negotiating abilities advising Timothy Shriver in planning for the 2007 Special Olympics in Shanghai, China. Previously, she successfully negotiated the privatization of state-owned enterprises with the governments of Argentina, Turkey, Venezuela and Panama. She drafted immigration policy for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and human rights reviews for the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights. She helped provide legal assistance to the disadvantaged with the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless and with Ayuda, bringing her fluency in Spanish to bear. She contributed to redefining the mission of the River School, a private elementary school here in Washington, D.C. She also organized three political seminars for U.S. presidential candidates, including Vernon Jordan, Madeleine Albright and Richard Holbrooke, among the speakers.
Dr. Nisha Jain Garg joins the Franklin Fellows Program from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, TX where she serves as the Professor of the Departments of Microbiology & Immunology and Pathology. She also serves as a member of the PTHE study section at the National Institutes of Health and Associate editor of the American Journal of Pathology.
As Franklin Fellow at the US Department of State/US Agency for International Development (USAID), she will serve as Senior Technical Advisor for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). She will be USAID's primary representative at the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and other organizations financing country programs to address selected Neglected Tropical Diseases throughout the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. She will work closely with USAID's Bureau for Global Health, Office of Health, Infectious Diseases and Nutrition, the team planning and implementing the Neglected Tropical Diseases program for President Obama's $63 billion Global Health Initiative (GHI). Additionally, she will assist in the development of policy and practice to meet President Obama's GHI goal to eliminate onchoceriasis from the Americas by 2014.
Dr. Garg holds a PhD and MS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Haryana Agricultural University, India, and a BS in Biology from the Kurukshetra University, India. She has developed a strong and successful research program in the field of tropical infectious cardiomyopathy. Her research efforts on pathogenesis of and vaccine development against Chagas disease, funded extramurally, have produced 45 peer-reviewed journal articles and built international collaboration with Chagas researchers in Argentina, Mexico and Brazil.
Dr. Nisha Jain Garg
University of Texas Medical Branch
Shaun is our first-ever Fellow in the Bureau of Counterterrorism (CT). Serving in the Counterterrorism Finance Office (CT/CTF), he works on the development and implementation of anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing training courses and monitors international implementation of anti-money laundering and counterterrorism finance action plans.
Shaun joins the Franklin Fellows Program with over 12 years of law enforcement and intelligence experience including five years as a Special Agent with the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division, in which he conducted criminal investigations for the Army involving fraud, assaults, murder, crimes against children, terrorism, forgery, counterfeiting and larceny, among other crimes.
Prior to his service in the Army, Shaun served in the U.S. Marine Corps. For two years, he was a Correctional Officer at Camp Pendleton, and for two additional years was a Military Police Officer at Camp Pendleton.
Shaun is a 2008 graduate of Valdosta State University where he studied Philosophy, Law and Business. In 2007, he completed a criminal law internship with the firm Maniklal & Dennis in Valdosta, GA. Shaun was also a member of the honor societies Phi Sigma Tau (Philosophy) and Pi Sigma Alpha (Political Science).
Shaun holds current memberships in the Association For Intelligence Officers and the National Military Intelligence Association.
Lisa J. Gambone will be working with the Office of International Organizations/Human Rights, Humanitarian and Social Affairs. She will be working on topics brought before the UN Human Rights Council, the General Assembly debates, and also on women’s issues.
Before becoming a Franklin Fellow, Gambone worked as an attorney at an international US law firm in London. She has also worked with the Prosecution for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, specifically in the Karemera proceedings and researching the prosecution of sexual violence under international criminal law; she observed the Caprivi treason trials in Namibia on behalf of Lawyers without Borders; she prepared reports on atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo with regard to prosecutions before the International Criminal Court; and she worked on cases before the European Court of Human Rights involving corporal punishment in UK schools and the expulsion of Roma ("gypsies") from Italy. Gambone also worked with British and Northern Irish organizations on transitional justice issues in the devolution process.
Ms. Gambone holds a J.D. with a specialization in international law from Columbia University, an M.A. in International Economics and European Studies from Johns Hopkins (SAIS), a Masters in Political Science from Stockholm University, and a BA in International Relations – Security and Diplomacy Studies from Brown University.
Lisa J. Gambone
Clint Gardiner has been a member of the United Technologies Corporation legal department for more than 16 years. In his most recent position as Vice President, Government Business Controls, he has been responsible for leading an effort focused on government contracts risk management issues.
Gardiner has held senior level executive positions in the United Technologies legal department for the last 10 years, including Vice President and General Counsel of Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation and Deputy General Counsel of Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, both wholly-owned subsidiaries of United Technologies. While at Hamilton Sundstrand and Sikorsky he became increasingly involved in supporting international business objectives and experienced first hand the challenge of enforcing and protecting intellectual property both in the United States and abroad.
Before joining United Technologies, Gardiner was an associate with Crowell & Moring, a Washington law firm, where he began his professional career as a lawyer. During his eight years there he focused primarily on government contracts and business crime matters.
Clint received his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his law degree from Rutgers-Camden School of Law.
Carrie Mae George is serving in DRL’s Office of International Labor and Corporate Social Responsibility. In DRL/IL, she will be responsible for the EAP and Supply Chain Portfolios.
Carrie joins us from STR Responsible Sourcing where she developed training and verification programs to improve working conditions in supply chains. While with STR, she also established an oversight body of international labor rights auditors – the Global Monitoring Institute – and was a temporary social compliance manager for a leading apparel brand.
Previous to STR, she analyzed the social and environmental risk of various business sectors, worked on a participatory rural development project in India, and developed the business model of a small development project in South Africa.
She holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Cornell and a Bachelor’s degree in International Development and Composite Dance from Brigham Young.
Carrie Mae George
STR Responsible Sourcing
Professor James E. Girard will serve in the Bureau of Oceans, Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES), Office of Environmental Policy. He will serve as the senior technical advisor on preparations for the 2009-2010 UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) and will lead an interagency process to prepare the United States National report on sustainable development of transportation, mining, chemicals and waste management, as well as sustainable consumption and production, all of which are being addressed by the UN CSD in this cycle. The UN CSD is the intergovernmental process established by the UN to follow-up on the "Rio Earth Summit" on Environment and Development in 1992 and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.
Professor Girard is Chairman of the Chemistry Department at American University. Since he has been at American University, he has supervised over 45 theses and Ph.D. dissertations and received more than 3 million dollars in external grants. He is also the author of two textbooks. The first book, Principles of Environmental Chemistry, was first published in 2004 and a second edition has been released in the summer of 2009. The second book, Criminalistics: Forensic Science and Crime, was first published in 2007. The manuscript for a second edition is being written now for a spring 2010 release.
Professor Girard is a specialist in analytical chemistry. He has published over 70 articles on the methods and techniques used to separate and identify complex mixtures. He has directed research projects that developed methods for the analysis of environmental pollutants in soil and water. Additionally his students have perfected chromatographic techniques to determine the amount of neurotransmitter present in humans and animals.
James E. Girard received his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. He has also taught chemistry at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts and worked as an industrial chemist. Prior to coming to American University, he was employed by General Electric's Corporate Research and Development Laboratory.
Dr. James E. Girard
Dr. John L. Graham joins the Franklin Fellows Program from Delaware State University (DSU) in Dover DE, where he serves as Assistant Vice President for International Affairs. He was also Associate Dean in the College of Agriculture and Related Sciences. Prior to joining the University, John was Country Representative for Africare, Inc. in Kampala, Uganda where he served for three years implementing food security initiatives and related development assistance programming in cooperation with USAID. He is primarily responsible for advancing the University's international engagement strategy, which includes coordinating study abroad programs and facilitating international service learning and development experiences for students and faculty. He has led efforts that resulted in the establishment of forty faculty-driven institutional partnerships in Africa, Asia, Europe, Caribbean and the Americas.
John holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Extension Education with a concentration in international and community development from Michigan State University and an MA in the same field, as well as a BS in Business Administration from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, MD.
As a Franklin Fellow, John will join the Bureau of African Affairs' Office of Economic and Policy Staff as Foreign Affairs Officer-Expert to help in the analysis of local policies on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa. He will also serve on interagency working groups and Policy Coordination subcommittees on a variety of other issues and will support Bureau interactions with other stakeholders in soliciting input and formulating recommendations.
Dr. John L. Graham
Delaware State University
The Franklin Fellows Program is delighted to have Carol Grose as our 79th Fellow. She is serving in the Office of the Chief of Protocol (S/CPR), where she is the Outreach Advisor responsible for the planning, coordination and execution of special outreach program projects and large official functions hosted by the Chief of Protocol.
Carol began her financial career in New York on the fixed income trading floor at Salomon Brothers. She then moved to Smith Barney and Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette, where she managed fixed income portfolios and strategies for municipalities, pension funds, banks and money managers. After leaving Wall Street, Carol worked at Asset Strategies, supervising a large staff that identified and liquidated troubled assets. She has also been a financial consultant, as well as developing and teaching training seminars on fixed income and derivatives for various corporations.
Carol has an active interest in education, first as an after-school tutor and then by working with a group of writers to facilitate a creative writing and advanced literacy program in the Manhattan Correctional Institute's Women's Prison. She served on the Founding Committee and as a Trustee at the inception of CityYear London, which is modeled on and affiliated with the service model established by CityYear in the US.
While living in London, UK with her family, Carol became active in Democrats Abroad, UK, serving on the Executive Committee during a period of ten-fold membership growth. During this time, she helped found and served as Global Vice Chair and Co-Chair of the Democratic Expat Leadership Council, which organized major donor fundraising for the Democratic National Committee from overseas Americans.
She holds a BA in History from Mary Baldwin College and an MFA from New York University. Her personal interests include occasionally producing and co-producing theater, both on and off Broadway.
Lorraine is served as a Franklin Fellow in the Office of Economic Policy in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Lorraine's portfolio included a broad range of issue areas related to the Asia Pacific, Africa, and EU as well as the international trade and investment portfolio. Lorraine supported a wide range of international clients and monitored developments in international and domestic energy, trade, investment and fiscal policies, as well as political trends which impact the energy industry and Chevron's international operations and investments. Lorraine joined Chevron in 1999 and has served in International Affairs since 2005.
Lorraine's academic background includes an undergraduate degree in Journalism from the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications. Lorraine has also studied Political Science and History at Oxford University in Oxford, England and Energy and Environment in Developing Countries at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Jeff is serving in the Office of the Senior Advisor to the Secretary for Civil Society and Emerging Democracies (S/SACSED). He will be working to create and implement new initiatives to strengthen civil society and support emerging democracies.
Prior to becoming a Franklin Fellow, Jeff was a vice president at Goldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd. in Tokyo, where he served in the investment banking division. His role was advising corporate and private equity clients on divestitures, acquisitions and equity offerings. Previously, Jeff was an executive director at Goldman Sachs International in London, where he advised private equity clients on merger-related transactions. He began his career in New York as an associate at Goldman, Sachs & Co. and an analyst at Morgan Stanley & Co.
Jeff earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
Emily Hsu is serving as a Franklin Fellow Writer/Adviser at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Press and Public Diplomacy section.
Before joining the Franklin Fellowship Program, Emily spent several years in Washington, DC, both as a reporter and a program/policy specialist. At the U.S. Institute of Peace’s Center for Post-Conflict Peace and Stability Operations, she studied security, governance and development issues related to the stabilization of conflict-affected countries. She also published several reports/articles on peace building topics, including NGO-military relationships and the development of media in post-conflict zones. In 2009, she co-wrote the Guiding Principles for Stabilization and Reconstruction, the first-ever doctrinal manual written for civilians operating in these environments.
Before joining the Institute, Emily worked as a journalist for a defense trade publication, covering Pentagon policy, weapons procurement, and budgetary and legislative affairs, with a focus on the U.S. Army. She also worked as a research consultant for the Social Science Research Council, studying the impacts of post-9/11 U.S. homeland security policies on Muslim and Arab American communities in the United States.
Emily has an MA in International Security from Georgetown University (School of Foreign Service) and a BS in Journalism from Northwestern University (Medill School of Journalism).
Jed Ipsen recently joined the State Department as a Franklin Fellow in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs where he handles issues involving economic development and terrorism.
Jed is currently the associate director of the Caux Round Table in Washington, DC. Previously, he served on the professional staff as a special advisor on terrorism with the U.S. Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee through a fellowship with the Brookings Institution. He also served as a research associate with the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science and a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy and International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Caux Round Table
Franklin Fellow Dr. Robert Ivker is working at the US Mission to the United Nations in New York (USUN/PD). Before becoming a Franklin Fellow, Dr. Robert Ivker graduated from the George Washington University where he received his BA in political science. He went on to receive his medical degree from the University of Des Moines. While working as a board certified radiation oncologist for the past twelve years, Robert has also pursued his interest in international affairs. He became a credentialed journalist at the United Nations, and has published dozens of articles in national and international publications.
Dr. Robert Ivker
Our newest Fellow, Martin Jacobson, was a partner in the law firm Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett LLP from 1984 through 2008. He focused on financing projects, infrastructure and transportation equipment, using a wide variety of financing methods. Jacobson has been recognized as a leading business lawyer by several publications, including the International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers and the Who's Who of Aviation lawyers.
He has worked as a representative of the New York City bar association with the United States Delegation the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law. His work there contributed to the development and adoption by the United Nations of the Legislative Guide on Privately Financed Infrastructure Projects. He was appointed by the Securities and Exchange Commission to the Market Transactions Advisory Committee, which analyzed and suggested changes following the 1987 market crash. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and is a visiting lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.
Jacobson served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy where he headed a department on a destroyer and also served as administrative assistant to a Navy admiral. Jacobson received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, an MBA from New York University and was graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Jacobson is a competitive sailor, and in his sailboat has won numerous regattas and races, including the Marion to Bermuda Ocean Race in 2009.
Pooja Jhunjhunwala, Franklin Fellow #89, began her service on July 5. She is assigned to the PA Front Office, where she is working on a number of international and domestic communications and outreach programs and policies.
Pooja recently transplanted from San Francisco, where she was CEO of her very own startup media consulting company, Ajoop Media. She decided to strike out on her own after working in local San Francisco politics for years. She had worked for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in different capacities, including legislative aide, communications strategist, political liaison and, most memorably, as sole budget staffer to the Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, on a $6 billion budget with a $600 million dollar deficit.
Earlier, Pooja worked on women’s health issues in Austin, as Access Coordinator for NARAL Pro Choice Texas, and did groundbreaking research on the availability of urgent health services for rape survivors in all Texas counties.
Pooja grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She holds an MPA from the University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs (MPAff 2002). She also holds two BAs, in Psychology and in Women and Gender Studies from Louisiana State University, as well as a minor in Classics (Latin). Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors for the LBJ School of Public Affairs Alumni Association.
We are pleased to announce that our 98th Franklin Fellow is Albana Karakushi. Albana, who began her fellowship on October 5, is serving in DRL’s Office of European Affairs, where she is responsible for preparing aid programs to sustain and build democracy and for editing the Department’s Human Rights Reports. Her portfolio includes Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Turkey, the Balkans, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Albana recently graduated from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs with a Master’s Degree in International Affairs. Her focus at SIPA was on contemporary political, economic and social development in post-Soviet countries. At Columbia, she performed extensive research on the Balkans and their specific geostrategic importance. Her BA is from City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Before attending Columbia, Albana worked at a not-for-profit NGO based in Fortaleza, Brazil. The NGO aimed to combat poverty and increase access to services in underdeveloped parts of the country by, among other things, teaching Brazilian youth English and other foreign languages. The NGO also provided computer classes and courses in hotel management and tourism development to increase students’ chances of employment in Brazil’s growing tourism industry.
Albana has also served as a research assistant at the United Nations University, War & Peace Foundation, and as an Assistant to the Second Secretary for the Albanian Mission to the United Nations.
A native of Albania, Albana witnessed firsthand the oppressive regime of Enver Hoxha. She was inspired to join the Franklin Fellows Program as a chance to work with people who fight for liberty and human rights.
We are delighted to have Albana as a member of the ever-growing Franklin Fellows family and are glad to be able to provide another excellent Fellow to contribute to DRL’s vital work. Again, we thank DRL for continuing to host Franklin Fellows and for its strong support to the FFP.
We are pleased to announce that our 102nd Franklin Fellow is Dr. Jeffrey Kealing. Jeffrey is serving in the ECA’s Office of Private Sector Exchange, where he is helping to coordinate Department public-private partnerships in education and technology sectors.
Jeffrey is a faculty member at the University of Southern California, Rossier School of Education, in the Master’s in Teaching (MAT) program. He is a PhD graduate of the USC Rossier School of Education with a concentration in international and intercultural education and has taught at USC for many years for both online and on-campus cohorts. In the online program, he regularly teaches courses on learning theories, teaching methods and a specialized course entitled “Teaching in an International and Intercultural Context.”
Jeffrey has considerable experience on international development programs and research projects. He recently served as Country Coordinator for State’s English Language Fellows project in Indonesia. He also has conducted large-scale projects and done international outreach work in Thailand, Japan, Vanuatu and Romania.
His current research interests include empowered adult education approaches, English as an instrument for international development and public-private collaborative models in education.
Dr. Jeffrey Kealing
Franklin Fellow R. Scott Kemp serves as the Physical Scientist in the Office of the Special Advisor for Nonproliferation and Arms Control (S/SANAC). The Special Advisor reports to and provides advice and support to the Secretary, the Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security and other Department Officials on nonproliferation and arms control issues. The Special Advisor also helps develop and implement Administration policies and diplomatic strategies in those areas.
Scott provides advice to the Special Advisor on a wide range of technical issues regarding nonproliferation and arms control, develops policy positions and prepares technical analyses of the complex issues involved. He also serves as liaison with relevant parts of the USG community on those issues.
Prior to joining the program, Scott was at Princeton University, where he was a member of the research staff at the Program on Science and Global Security. He was a Science and Technology Consultant for the Proliferation Pathways project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC. He was the Executive Director of the Journal for Youth Investigators and also served as a member of the Board of Directors and Trustee of the Foundation.
Scott has many publications on Gas Centrifuges, Nuclear-Weapon Proliferation and Detection of Clandestine Fissile Material. He received a B.A. in Physics from the University of California at Santa Barbara; a Ph. D. on Nonproliferation in the Centrifuge Age from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, and studied at the International Policy Institute of London’s King’s College on a Fulbright Scholarship.
Dr. Scott Kemp
The Franklin Fellows Program welcomes Haeyoung Kim, who has joined the Korea Desk to serve as its Science and Technology officer. As a policy analyst and researcher, Haeyoung Kim has worked with the California State Assembly, the Korea Policy Institute, the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice in Seoul, Republic of Korea, the International Forum on Globalization, and the Center for International Policy’s Asia Program in Washington, DC. Her work for the California Assembly included drafting California’s Iran Contracting Act of 2010 while serving as liaison to Assemblyman Mike Feuer’s district.
Ms. Kim received her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago, and her Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government where she was Co-Chair of the National Asian Pacific American Conference on Law & Public Policy and Senior Editor of the Asian American Policy Review. She speaks Korean and Italian, and is learning Chinese and Spanish.
Franklin Fellow Steven R. Koltai, as Senior Advisor for Commercial Affairs, forms United States policy on business, including U.S. Government advocacy for business, in the Office of Commercial and Business Affairs.
Mr. Koltai is an executive with over 25 years of experience in international finance, strategic planning and entrepreneurship gained in the banking, entertainment and Internet industries. He was Corporate Senior Vice President for Strategy and Business Development at Warner Bros Inc; Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Event411.com; Co-founder of Europe's largest private television satellite company, SES/Astra, and has served in various capacities at the Export-import Bank of the United States, McKinsey & Company, Salomon Bros. and Bankers Trust. Steven was an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in 1985.
Mr. Koltai received a BA from Tufts University, an MA from Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and was a Fulbright scholar at University Libre de Bruxelles.
Steven R. Koltai
Stephen Kopanos serves in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor with the Office of East Asia and the Pacific and the Western Hemisphere(DRL/AWH) where he works on issues of democracy promotion.
Most recently Stephen was the Vice President of Public Policy and Systems Advocacy for Mental Health America of Colorado, working on health policy, reform, access to care, and ensuring fair, quality treatment for people with mental health conditions. Stephen served as the regional coordinator on policy for Colorado, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota.
Prior to Joining Mental Health America of Colorado, Stephen worked as a Program Manager and Clinical Director with the State of Colorado, Department of Human Services in the Division of Youth Corrections. Stephen is a Licensed Professional Counselor and has served on the board of Directors for the Colorado Child and Adolescent Mental Health Coalition.
Stephen has a Masters degree in Counseling, and Bachelors degrees in Youth Ministry and Biblical Studies.
Our 61st Fellow, Dr. Georgianna A. Land, joins us from the New York City Department of Education. She will serve with the Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs, where she will facilitate deepening relationships of state and local governments in the United States with their foreign counterparts.
During her career in the New York City school system, Dr. Land, managed a district personnel department, and served as assistant director of the citywide employment program, designed the curricula for two new Gifted and Talented Schools, coached teachers and managed their professional development. She served on sabbatical as Vice President for Administration at AME University in Liberia, taught education at Stony Brook University and Medgar Evers College. As Executive Director with the BICNET Foundation, Dr. Land designed a comprehensive telecommunications project for a consortium of institutions. She has served as Executive Director of the Congressional Caucus on Science and Technology and as Program Director for the American Public Transit Association.
Dr. Land holds a PhD. from the University of Maryland, a Master’s degree from Pace University in New York and a Bachelor’s degree from Allen University. She has received numerous awards during her career in education and written articles in her field.
Dr. Georgianna A. Land
New York City Department of Education
The Franklin Fellows Program is very pleased to announce that our 114th Franklin Fellow is David Mandel-Anthony. David, who began his fellowship on March 14, joins the Office of Global Criminal Justice (formerly the Office of War Crimes Issues). His portfolio in J/GCJ includes accountability and transitional justice issues in Sudan, South Sudan, and Kenya and ongoing legal and policy planning in regards to international criminal tribunals.
David’s background in international criminal law, transitional justice and human rights includes experience with various organizations: the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; the Open Society Justice Initiative; Human Rights Watch–International Justice Program; the International Center for Transitional Justice; the Center for Constitutional Rights; Humanity in Action;, and the Public International Law & Policy Group. David has also served as a federal criminal defense lawyer in New York; consulted on post-conflict constitution drafting and land rights initiatives in Liberia and Nepal; and completed an ethnographic academic thesis on trans-national racial formation and labor rights among Guatemalan immigrants in Mississippi, for which he received top honors.
Most recently, David spent 13 months in Kampala, Uganda, advising the justice-sector authorities of the Ugandan Government on transitional justice and war crimes policy, specifically on the establishment and operation of a domestic war crimes tribunal to prosecute members of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The first trial of the International Crimes Division of the High Court of Uganda, against LRA Commander Thomas Kwoyelo, began in July 2011.
David holds a JD from Fordham University School of Law, a BA from the University of Texas at Austin (Plan II Program) and is licensed to practice law by the state of New York. He was named a 2010-2011 James E. Tolan Fellow and a 2008-2010 Crowley Fellow at the Leitner Center for International Law & Justice at Fordham Law.
David enjoys reading literary fiction, historical non-fiction and political theory; travelling; cooking; exploring new cities; eating Tex-Mex; and ethnomusicology.
Marshall Lilly recently joined the State Department as a Franklin Fellow in the Office of Iranian Affairs, located in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA). He currently assists in covering nuclear non-proliferation issues, as well as negotiations with the UN and IAEA.
He holds an A.S. in Applied Science, a Bachelor of Specialized Studies in Political Media, and an M.A. in Political Science from Ohio University. He recently completed coursework for a second M.A. in History. He also studied Arabic through the University of Wisconsin's Arabic/Persian Immersion Program during the summer of 2007. Between the M.A. programs, Marshall also taught Political Science courses at Ohio University covering American Government, International Relations Theory, and Middle Eastern Politics. At age 23, he was the youngest person in the department with full teaching responsibilities.
Marshall's research for the past seven years has been almost exclusively focused on the Middle East, particularly Iraq and Iran. He has presented research on Iraqi democratization, and the effects of Sunni/Shi’a tensions on the region to both the American Political Science Association and the International Studies Association.
As a Franklin Fellow, Dee works with the Office of the Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance (F), which provides leadership, strategic planning and coordination for United States Government Foreign Assistance. Dee supports initiatives and issues in U.S. foreign assistance. She is also completing a review for F's Office of Global-Functional Issues to improve the Standardized Program Structure and Definitions, a tool used by the Department and USAID to account for foreign assistance resources. This tool, an F innovation, provides common terms and definitions as an improved platform for program and budget efficiency and analysis that also increases transparency.
Before joining the Franklin program, Dee pursued a career as a social worker, psychotherapist and program manager with experience in the public, private and non-profit sectors. She managed adoption, foster care and federal funding programs, served as a statewide program auditor, developed and managed quality assurance and mediation programs, provided legislative analysis, trained staff and community partners for state government. Dee works collaboratively with communities identifying service needs, building partnerships and developing community-based programs including hot meal programs for homeless persons; free and low cost community and school-based counseling programs for children and families; and inner city medical camps for persons of low income. As a therapist, Dee works with children, adults, families, couples and groups with specialized interest and training in best practice methods for treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Trauma.
Dee volunteers with the American Red Cross as a disaster responder, disaster mental health responder, repatriation mental health volunteer and emergency shelter co-manager. Dee worked with the American Red Cross on the Hurricane Katrina Relief Effort, serving as a Manager of Mental Health Services; leading teams of disaster volunteers through a hurricane; planning emergency evacuations for disaster shelters; developing and leading multi-disciplinary search and rescue teams; writing disaster operations plans; supervising disaster mental health programs and volunteers, and working collaboratively with communities and organizations to develop, manage and rebuild post-disaster emergency mental health services and infrastructure for the Gulf Coast of Mississippi.
The Franklin Fellows Program proudly welcomes our 52nd Fellow is Merida Lopez, who is working with Rusty Graham and company in USUN’s Office of Host Country Affairs (USUN/HC). Merida is the first Franklin Fellow to serve in USUN/HC. In her work there, Merida helps to carry out U.S. obligations as host country to the United Nations, including accreditation for diplomats and their families among the 40,000 people with the UN.
Merida joins USUN from the Brooklyn Legal Aid Society, where she provided representation on matters of family law and domestic violence. In addition, Merida has performed extensive research on the value of affirmative action on legal employment in the public interest sector. She has also worked for the Kings Country District Attorney’s office, focusing on domestic violence and services to victims, and with private law firms in New York.
Merida is a graduate of the City University of New York (CUNY) Law School and holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from Lafayette College, Pennsylvania. She is a member of the New York State bar and the American Bar Association.
Please join the Franklin Fellows Program in welcoming Yadira Maldonado, our 134th Franklin Fellow. At USAID, Yadira serves as an Advisor for Financial Management Policy and Implementation in the Financial Policy & Support (FPS) Division of the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) in the Bureau for Management. As part of the FPS policy team, Yadira reviews existing financial management policy directives and revises and coauthors the Automated Directive Systems (ADS) Financial Management series. Yadira updates policies related to financial management principles and standards, accounts receivable, and debt collection to promote OCFO’s mission to maintain “world-class” financial management practices on a worldwide basis, advancing USAID’s mission, goals and objectives.
Yadira is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) with more than 10 years of experience. She started her career as an external auditor for a public accounting firm, and later transitioned to the private sector, directing the Internal Audit and Finance Departments for a healthcare system, and managing the accounting function of a child welfare agency in Florida.
Yadira earned a Master’s of Business Administration with a Specialization in International Business from Florida International University’s Executive MBA Program, and a Bachelor’s in Business Administration with a Major in Accounting from the University of Puerto Rico. Yadira also pursued international business research at Alma Graduate School in Bologna, Italy with a focus on European economies, and business cluster models in Northern Italy.
Yadira is a member of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, and the Puerto Rico Society of CPAs. Yadira’s personal interests include: culture and nature-based tourism, outdoor activities, research, reading, and writing.
We are pleased to announce that our 73rd Franklin Fellow is Dr. Peter Mandaville of George Mason University. Peter, who began his fellowship on January 31, is serving in Policy Planning, where he is the Department’s expert on political Islam. He also will cover Middle East policy and some aspects of the portfolios of counterterrorism/countering violent extremism and broader Muslim engagement.
Peter is Founding Director of GMU’s Center for Global Studies and is Associate Professor of Government & Islamic Studies there. He has past affiliations at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and at the University of Kent at Canterbury in the UK. He was a member of the Steering Roundtable of the U.S. Global Citizen Diplomacy Initiative and of the “NATO in Afghanistan” Expert Advisory Group. Also, Peter served on the National Board of Advisors at the Center for the Study of Congress and the Presidency; the Board of Directors at the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy; and the Committee for Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association.
Peter is the author of two books, Global Political Islam (2007) and Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma (2001), and has also co-edited four volumes of essays in the fields of international relations and Islamic Studies. In addition, he has testified before the U.S. Congress on political Islam and has consulted widely for the media and various government agencies. He has directed research projects for the National Bureau for Asian Research and conducted research with the support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Pew Research Center.
Dr. Peter Mandaville
George Mason University
Frank Manfredi entered the Franklin Fellows Program from Plan International USA (Plan USA), where he served as Disaster Management Coordinator and Program Development Officer for Asia.
Prior to working at Plan USA, Frank served for two years with the International Rescue Committee’s Joint Voluntary Agency in Thailand, where he worked in refugee processing.
As a Franklin Fellow, Frank worked in the Office of the Director of US Foreign Assistance from April 2008 to April 2009, focusing on Humanitarian Assistance as a member of the Global Functional unit. Upon leaving the Program, Frank returned to Plan USA.
Frank holds a BA in Government from Harvard College and an MA in Political Science (International Relations and Comparative Politics, with a concentration in Southeast Asia Studies) from Northern Illinois University.
Jeff is sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and will serve in EUR’s Office of Russian Affairs, where he will focus on strategic planning, policy coordination and policy implementation related to Russia's security relationship with the United States and Europe.
Most recently, Jeff was an Adjunct Fellow for Russia Studies at the CFR and concurrently the Associate Director for International Security Studies at Yale. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in International Security Studies at Yale, a National Security Fellow at Harvard and a Guest Fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center. He also was an intern at Embassy Moscow and in EUR. He is a member of the CFR and has held Boren and other similar fellowships.
Jeff has a Ph.D. in History with concentration in Security Studies and an MA in Political Science from Yale and a BA summa cum laude from the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of numerous publications, including a 2009 book titled Russian Foreign Policy: The Return of Great Power Politics, and articles in Foreign Policy, The Washington Quarterly, numerous CFR publications and many others.
Dr. Jeffrey Mankoff
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
Alison serves as the Assistant Media Relations Officer in PA’s Washington Foreign Press Center (PA/WFPC). She will focus on Western Europe, will advise State bureaus, embassies and other USG entities on media relations with Western European journalists and will assist the WFPC Director in assessing the effectiveness of FPC programs.
Alison has taught Modern U.S. History at the University of New Hampshire and Civil War and Reconstruction at other institutions. She holds Ph.D. and Master’s degrees in history from New Hampshire and a BA from Rutgers. She was a Fellow for the United States Capitol Historical Society, was nominated for UNH’s Graduate School Teaching Assistant Award and is a member of numerous professional organizations, including the American Historical Association, the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Historical Society of Washington.
Dr. Alison T. Mann
Frederick W. Marrazzo became a Franklin Fellow in September 2009 and served in the Bureau of International Information Programs, Office of East Asia-Pacific Affairs. He was a Policy Analyst on issues affecting new media and public diplomacy toward China. Frederick came to the State Department from the San Francisco Bay Area, where he produced his own public access television program. In 2006 he produced and directed a small documentary video called “Forgotten Voices: Italian Americans in the Santa Clara Valley,” which included interviews with local Italian Americans describing their experience and memories of growing up in the Santa Clara Valley. In 2007, Frederick completed a book project on the local Italian community in the Santa Clara Valley.
Frederick majored in East Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Maryland and received his MBA degree at the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Frederick W. Marrazzo
The Franklin Fellows Program is pleased to welcome our 43rd Fellow, Julie McCarthy, who reported to USUN on June 29. Serving in the ECOSOC section, Julie will focus on peacebuilding, development assistance and financing for development. Specifically she will assist Ambassador Barton in engaging the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), including advancing and supporting an assessment mission to Liberia and representing the USUN at various PBC sessions and relevant meetings on development assistance and other topics.
Julie was a co-founder of the Revenue Watch Institute (RWI), where she oversaw strategic planning and program development, as well as establishing RWI capacity-building partnerships with the World Bank, the Norwegian Government and other institutions. Prior to that work, Julie oversaw the Open Society Institute’s Revenue Watch Program, ran an OSI monitoring program on post-conflict Iraq, and was the global coordinator for the Soros Foundation Network on the Millennium Challenge Account. Julie also looked at energy policy for the Institute for Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, was a Founding Research Associate for the Vital Voices Global Partnership and served as a White House intern with the Office of Political Affairs during the Clinton Administration.
Julie is a cum laude graduate of Cornell University and is finishing her MA from Yale, where she concentrates on governance in fragile states. She also studied at the London School of Economics.
The Franklin Fellows program proudly welcomes our 57th Fellow, Paul McCulloch-Otero, who will serve as Special Advisor to Reta Jo Lewis, the Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs in the Office of the Secretary (S/SRGIA). He will bridge between state and local elected leaders in the U.S. and their counterparts abroad by reaching out to domestic and foreign leaders, engaging state and local officials, and coordinating peer-to-peer opportunities for sub-national dialogue.
Most recently, Paul worked at the World Bank as the Senior Analyst to the High Level Commission on the Modernization of World Bank Group Governance. After working as an attorney for the New York City Commission on Human Rights, he studied at the University of London, where he received an LL.M. in International Law with a concentration on International Finance and Development. While in London, he worked for the General Counsel at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), supporting project finance initiatives and providing legal technical assistance to EBRD countries of operations.
Paul attended Temple University Law School where he received his J.D. with a focus on International Law. He graduated with a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish Literature from Emory University, having studied abroad in Oxford and Havana. While an undergraduate, Paul worked for the Latin America and Caribbean Program at the Carter Center. After college, he studied Russian language and culture in St. Petersburg, and then worked briefly at the Foreign Service Institute of the State Department.
Paul is admitted to the New York State Bar, and is a member of the American Society for International Law, the American Bar Association, and the New York County Lawyers Association. Paul is fluent in Spanish and proficient in Russian.
Marsha has joined the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Office of Public Diplomacy as a Franklin Fellow. She is self-funded through her own consultancy business, McLean & George Ltd. which specializes in facilitating cultural change in organizations.
Marsha has been working in the field of organization change and development for over 30 years and as such brings a wealth of experience with her from both the public and private sectors. She received her Master's Degree from Case Western Reserve University, Weatherhead School of Management while she was a Director of a retail conglomerate based in Cleveland.
Subsequently Marsha travelled to the UK to pursue her PhD at the University of Bath where she founded, along with colleagues, her own consultancy. Her consulting has spanned both sides of the Atlantic plus SE Asia and Australia. Along with her husband, Adrian, she has pioneered methods to help organizations understand their culture(s) and to support them through periods of change. She always looks to discover and build on the natural strengths already present within her client systems using collaborative methods of inquiry, dialogue and the adoption of an "appreciative eye".
She is a successful businesswoman having established two start up businesses. She has found way of combining her passion for organization change with professional education and development as a co-founder of the first Master's Program in Organization Consulting at a prominent business school in England. She is also the co-founder of Appreciative Inquiry Consulting, an international network focusing on strength- based approaches to change.
She hopes to bring her experience with the private sector to the State Department by helping to establish private/public partnerships; coaching leaders in new approaches to management; and designing and facilitating events which encourage generative dialogue and high participation.
McLean & George, Ltd.
Dr. Quinn Mecham is a Franklin Fellow on the Policy Planning Staff of the U.S. Department of State, where he leads policy planning for Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf states. He is also charged with helping to direct and coordinate policy related to political Islam across the globe. He comes to the Policy Planning Staff from Middlebury College, where he is an Assistant Professor of Political Science.
Dr. Mecham is a scholar of civil conflict and political Islam, focusing primarily on the Middle East and North Africa. He has written extensively on Islamist movements and political parties in Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, and Senegal. He has traveled throughout the Middle East and Africa, and has done ethnographic research in many countries of the region. He teaches political science and Middle Eastern studies at Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT, and is also a Research Associate at George Washington University. He was recently in residence at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies and has also worked as a management and organizational consultant with McKinsey & Company. He previously worked in the political Islam section at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and at the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration at the U.S. Department of State. He received MA and PhD degrees in Political Science from Stanford University.
Dr. Quinn Mecham
We are pleased to announce that our 101st Franklin Fellow is Eric Medoff. Eric is serving in IO’s Office of Peacekeeping, Sanctions and Counter-Terrorism (IO/PSC), where he is the Bureau’s point of contact on issues related to North Korea, Sudan, Liberia, and Cote d’Ivoire Sanctions, as well as conflict minerals issues.
Eric joins IO after having served several years as a lawyer and legal consultant. Most recently, Eric worked as a litigation attorney in Miami-Dade County, Florida, where he represented clients in issues such as criminal and immigration law. He also served as a privacy consultant in a business development firm in Florida.
As a law student, Eric served as an intern in USUN’s Legal Section. In USUN/L, he was responsible for coordinating U.S. activity regarding the UN’s Legal Committee, which included debates on the rule of law and administration of justice. He also served in Japan as a reporting officer to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the United Nations, where he analyzed the Overseas Development Assistance Workshop.
Eric holds a BA in International Law and Asian Studies from The University of Redlands. He earned his JD from Saint Thomas University School and an LLM in National Security & US Foreign Relations Law from The George Washington University Law School. He is a member of the Florida and DC Bars.
McKenzie Millar will serve in IO’s Office of Human Rights, Humanitarian and Social Affairs (IO/HR), working on topics brought before the UN Human Rights Council. McKenzie comes to us from the World Organization for Human Rights USA, where she conducted research for civil litigation on behalf of victims of human rights abuses. Previously, she held research and policy positions at a number of issue-oriented nonprofit organizations, including the The Justice Project, American Rights at Work and the Save Darfur Coalition. In these positions, she conducted research and extensive policy reviews, created factsheets and other materials for members of Congress and created written content for organizational newsletters and web content. She has also analyzed best practices and made policy recommendations to executive–level staff and contributed to the Institute for Policy Studies’ Unified Security Budget for FY 2009.
McKenzie holds a Masters in Peace Operations from George Mason University’s School of Public Policy and a BA in Political Science from the University of Virginia.
The Franklin Fellows Program is delighted to announce Thomas Miller our 77th Franklin Fellow. Tom, who began his fellowship on February 14, is serving in NEA's Office of Egypt and Levant Affairs (NEA/ELA), where he will focus on Jordan and Egypt.
Tom comes to us from the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), where he served as a Senior Research Analyst and, more recently, as Associate Director of Sales. At CEB, he acquired more than 70 executive-level clients in the Middle Market Finance Practice and worked on a research team that served Chief Investment Officers in the Asset Management industry. For his work, he received CEB's President's Circle Award.
Tom also has worked for Merrill Lynch and, while in graduate school in Vienna, had stints at the UN Office of Drugs and Crime and at Erste Bank. At the Bank, he researched economic and political trends in emerging economies in Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Tom holds a BA in Economics from Indiana University and a Master of Advanced International Studies from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna in Austria. At the Academy, his thesis was "Is Montenegro a Nation?"
Tom's interests include running and cooking. He has traveled in Jordan and elsewhere in the region and speaks German and some Arabic.
Corporate Executive Board (CEB)
We are pleased to announce that our 99th Franklin Fellow is Dr. Samuel Millington. Sam, who began his fellowship on October 11, is serving with USAID at Embassy Conakry, where he is developing an Innovation Unit which will focus on developing sustainable public-private sector partnerships to address some the of critical needs facing Guinea and its population.
Sam joins the program after having sold the management consulting firm he founded. As a firm co-located in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Wailuku, Hawai`i, nueva ola management consulting focused on strategic planning, program and resource development, financial management, crisis management, advocacy, community relations, executive coaching and Board support. Clients included a wide range of non-profit service organizations, foundations, government programs and small businesses.
Over the years, Sam has also served as Executive Director of several non-profits, where he was able to develop a number of award-winning projects that leveraged public- and private-sector resources in order to address critical gaps in service.
Sam holds a PhD in Applied Anthropology from Columbia University and several Masters degrees. He earned his BA from the University of Virginia. He spent much of the 1980s abroad and looks forward to re-acquainting himself with various cultures around the world.
The Franklin Fellow Program staff is delighted and proud to welcome Sam to the Franklin Fellows Program. He is our third overseas Franklin Fellow and the first to be recruited in the U.S. specifically to serve his entire fellowship overseas. We are confident that his wide professional background and education will enable him to make important contributions to the work of Embassy Conakry and to improving the lives of the people of Guinea. We are grateful to USAID, where several Fellows already have served, for their strong and continuing partnership on the FFP. We appreciate, also, the work to lay the groundwork for what we hope will be a new overseas chapter in the Franklin Fellows Program.
Dr. Samuel Millington
Maryam Mujica, Franklin Fellow Number 58, recently joined the Office of Iranian Affairs as a Foreign Affairs Officer. Her portfolio includes outreach regarding sanctions as well as other relevant political issues concerning Iran. Prior to joining the Iran desk, Maryam worked in the Bureau of Public Affairs, as an Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary. She worked with the Bureau’s outreach and strategic planning efforts, using the State Department’s assets to influence national and international media outlets. Before joining the Department of State, Maryam worked at Stanford Law School’s External Relations office. Previously, she worked as a real estate litigation attorney in San Francisco.
During law school, Maryam clerked at the San Mateo District Attorney’s Office; the Santa Clara Public Defender’s Office; and for The Honorable Richard A. Kramer in the Complex Litigation Department in San Francisco Superior Court. Maryam received her Juris Doctor from Santa Clara University and her undergraduate degree from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. She speaks Spanish, French and Farsi.
Franklin Fellow Andre Murphy is a Marketing Specialist in the Office of Current Issues in the Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP). Andre’s role is to market a mobile version of www.America.gov in order to amplify IIP’s mission to engage foreign publics in discussion about ideas, issues, policies and values that help advance global understanding of the U.S. foreign policy. Andre will use his experience in communicating with international audiences and marketing background to create awareness and engagement on the mobile and online websites.
Andre has over 15 years of management experience with Verizon, IBM, and Coca Cola. He worked on overseas projects in Spain, Chile, and Australia, including marketing and operations work on three different Summer Olympic Games. Andre volunteered to work on the telecommunications requirements of the 2008 Obama presidential campaigns in Maryland, Virginia and D.C., before serving as a team captain for the inauguration. As Director of Operations at AMGTC, a consulting company, he managed customer relations. He has a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Oswego and an MBA from The George Washington University.
Cora joins EB’s Office of Commercial and Business Affairs (EB/CBA), where she is a Senior Advisor to the Global Women’s Business Initiative (GWBI). The GWBI is part of CBA’s Global Entrepreneurship Program. In particular, Cora helps coordinate the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP), which was launched by Secretary Clinton in 2010 and has since become a flagship women’s entrepreneurship program for the State Department. She also serves as liaison to the International Council on Women's Business Leadership and is involved in MENA region efforts, wPOWER and more.
Cora has extensive experience in international development, women’s issues and policy analysis. As founder and former director of RAND Corporation’s African First Ladies Initiative, she worked closely with first ladies and public and private leaders from 15 African nations and various international NGOs to assist first ladies in their efforts to influence change in the areas of health and women’s issues – including women’s entrepreneurship.
Cora has convened multiple international meetings focused on women’s issues and has a successful track record in building alliances among private, non-profit and public entities and leaders on programs related to women’s issues.
Cora has her MPH in Public Health from Columbia University, a BA in political science from University of New Mexico and is completing her doctorate in International Development at University of Oxford, UK. Her interests/hobbies include yoga, dance, travel, art and - having grown up in Montana - the great outdoors.
The Franklin Fellows Program is delighted to welcome our 57th Fellow, Karen Newman. Karen will split her service between PA’s New York Foreign Press Center (PA/NYFPC) and USUN’s Office of Press and Public Affairs (USUN/PPA).
Karen comes to the FF Program after ten years with UNDP, UNICEF and the UN Global Compact. During her career in the public, private and international sectors, she has developed expertise with building strategic partnerships, resource mobilization, corporate responsibility and economic development. Her work often includes consulting for companies like Microsoft and Philips Healthcare, as well as with large initiatives supporting the Millennium Development Goals. She worked on the World Business Development Awards 2010 in conjunction with the International Business Leaders Forum, the International Chamber of Commerce and UNDP, and promoted the 2009 Business Call to Action in New York and South Africa.
Karen’s experience with government includes economic development work for New York and Chicago city governments. In Chicago, she worked at The Michael Jordan Foundation and United Way in community affairs and grantmaking. Recently, Karen served on the New York Committee for the World Food Program USA and worked at the Hunger Project raising funds and awareness on poverty and hunger issues. Karen has also served on the Board of NEXCO and Women in International Trade.
Karen earned her MBA and a Masters in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago.
John O'Connor joined the Department of State as a Franklin Fellow in the Bureau of Resource Management. He helped transform the way the Department and the private sector work together in an effort to imbed relevant private sector perspectives and methods in appropriate areas of Department management. John was a Franklin Fellow with RM from October 2008 to May 2009.
Most recently John worked as a manager in Ernst & Young's Advisory Services practice. He was responsible for managing a wide range of projects for multinational corporations, including financial and operational audits, process improvement reviews, and risk assessments. During his eight years at Ernst & Young, John focused particularly on risks relating to contractual agreements and helped to build Ernst & Young's Contract Risk Services practice globally. John has worked in over 25 countries around the world and lived in the United Kingdom while on assignment.
Prior to joining Ernst & Young, John graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business with a B.S. in Business Administration and a minor in Anthropology.
Ernst & Young
The Franklin Fellows Program welcomes our 66th Fellow, Jennifer Osetek. She will be working on U.S. biological weapons control policy as part of Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Policy office in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation.
LT Osetek is a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve where she is stationed in the Office of Counterterrorism and Defense Operations. Recently, she served on active duty for 5 months at the National Incident Command participating in the USG’s response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Prior to this assignment, she was stationed at Sector Long Island Sound in New Haven, CT and served as the acting assistant Logistics Officer as well as the special project officer responsible for the relocation, outfitting, and dedication of the new Sector command building.
LT Osetek is currently studying for her PhD in Biodefense with an international security concentration from George Mason University. She holds a Master’s of Homeland Security in Public Health Preparedness from Pennsylvania State University’s College of Medicine and continues to serve as a teacher’s assistant with the program. She also holds a Bachelor’s Degree with Specialized Honors in Neurobiology from Drew University. Following her graduation from Drew, she spent three years conducting cellular and molecular research on Alzheimer’s disease at the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital.
Amaka joins PRM’s Office of Refugee Admissions (PRM/A) which manages the US Refugee Admissions Program. She will serve on the Admissions Health Team as a consultant on refugee resettlement, particularly in areas related to refugee health.
Prior to joining the Franklin Fellows, Amaka practiced immigration law as an attorney for Church World Service in Miami, Florida where she represented clients from the Cuban-Haitian population, as well as other immigrant and refugee communities. Her litigation experience includes advocating on behalf of clients at hearings before Immigration Court and USCIS field offices. She assisted clients on an array of immigration matters, including asylum petitions, adjustment of status applications, naturalization and immigration relief under the Violence Against Women’s Act (VAWA).
In addition to her legal background, Amaka has collaborated on various projects examining the intersection of health and human rights issues within specific communities, such as immigrants and children. To that end, her health advocacy experience includes service as a Patient Advocate for the AmeriCorps VISTA program as well collaboration with the government agency Desarollo Integral del La Familia (DIF) Guadalajara, in Jalisco, Mexico, where she served on a team of professionals researching and conducting workshops on prominent public health and human rights issues concerning children and other vulnerable populations.
Amaka is licensed to practice in the State of Washington. She holds a Juris Doctorate Degree from Seattle University School of Law where she was a PILF Grant recipient. She has a Bachelors degree in Journalism from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Ms. Ozobia is also pursuing an MSW at Howard University, where she aspires to gain further knowledge examining the psychosocial influences that can impact the health of underrepresented communities.
Amaka was reared with her brother and sister in Las Vegas, Nevada by immigrant parents. She speaks Spanish and is studying American Sign Language and Portuguese. With wanderlust in her heart, she loves discovering new cultures and cuisine. Her other hobbies include the piano, listening to world music (especially Salsa and West African highlife), reading and running in 5k races.
Agnieszka Paczynska is an Associate Professor and the Director of Undergraduate Program at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution and Associate Faculty at the Center for Global Studies, George Mason University. She has been a research fellow in the Sociology Department of the Warsaw School of Economics and at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences of the American University in Cairo. She has also worked as the Managing Editor of The Bulletin of Regional Cooperation in the Middle East published by Search for Common Ground and has served on election observing missions to Ethiopia and Liberia.
Her research interests include the relationship between economic and political change and conflict, the relationship between globalization processes and local conflicts and post-conflict reconstruction policies. She has published articles on structural adjustment policies, democratization, and development and security. She is the author of a forthcoming book, Labor, State, and The Transition to a Market Economy: Egypt, Poland, Mexico and the Czech Republic. Another title, Rebuilding Society, Downsizing the State (2009): Post-Conflict Economic Reconstruction Policies, which examines the relationship between peace building and economic policies after civil wars.
She holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia and a MA and BA in political science from New York University, New York City. She has also studied Arabic at the Center for Arabic Studies Abroad at the American University in Cairo and at Middlebury College in Vermont.
Dr. Agnieszka Paczynska
George Mason University
We are pleased to announce that our 93rd Franklin Fellow is Dr. Douglas Padgett. Doug is serving in DRL’s Office of South and Central Asia (DRL/SCA), where he covers Central Asia.
Doug comes to us from George Mason University, where he has taught Asian religions and globalization studies in both the Department of Religious Studies and the Global Affairs Program. Doug previously served as a consultant at The Center for the National Interest, where he worked on a range of topics, including the Arab spring, Muslim immigration to Europe, and Mexican drug-related violence. His consulting experience extends to the wine trade where he once worked. In addition, Doug is a former naval officer and served in the Gulf region and Western Pacific.
Doug has studied and conducted field research in Vietnam and within Vietnamese refugee communities. Doug's work on the global dispersion of Asian religions has resulted in articles and papers on Vietnamese religious history, the Vietnamese Diaspora, Thai American Buddhism, and conversion to Asian religions in North America.
Doug holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Indiana University with concentrations in the study of East Asian religions (primarily Chinese and Vietnamese Buddhism) and religion and American culture. His Master’s degree is from the University of Florida, and he holds a BA from Duke. His book on religion and culture in the Vietnamese diaspora is under review. He enjoys gardening, cooking and skiing and, once upon a time, could stand up on a moving surfboard.
Dr. Douglas Padgett
George Mason University
We are pleased to announce that our 97th Franklin Fellow is Michelle Perez. Michelle, who began her fellowship on September 28, is working on water issues in OES’ Office of Environmental Policy (OES/ENV). Her focus there is trans-boundary water issues and integrated water resource management, as it pertains to peace, security, development, technology, finance and climate.
Michelle has a BA in International Relations from Boston University and an MS from the Pratt Institute in Environmental Systems Management. She has field experience both domestically and abroad in sustainable planning, community planning, workshop facilitation and bringing large-scale state and national policies down to a local level for implementation. Much of her focus has been on incorporating sustainable infrastructure to communities while engaging constituents in a participatory approach, with emphasis on water resources management, water and sanitation systems and technologies and urban upgrading.
Prior to becoming a Franklin Fellow, Michelle worked at the Suffolk County Health Department in New York in the Division of Environmental Quality, where she focused on wastewater management implementation from a public health perspective. She also had an active role in the development of an international initiative now known as jungledrum.org, which contributes and advocates for solutions that boost international cooperation on global challenges via information and communications technologies and web development.
The Franklin Fellows team is grateful to OES for hosting Michelle, and we are sure that her considerable experience will bring valuable insight and perspective on water issues to the Bureau and to the Department.
Franklin Fellow Shelly Porges is serving in the Office of Commercial and Business Affairs (EEB/CBA), where she will serve as the Senior Advisor for the Global Women’s Business Initiative, encouraging women entrepreneurs and promoting gender equity for prosperity throughout the world.
After a long career as both a corporate executive and entrepreneur herself, Shelly was most recently Board Chair of a non-profit; Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence. She also founded Global Payments Experts, a business consulting firm. Her career in finance and marketing includes serving as Chief Marketing Officer with Scudder Weisel Capital among other online firms and as an executive with Bank of America and American Express. She has taught at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and has a Master’s degree from Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. Shelly speaks Hebrew, French, Italian and Spanish.
We are pleased to announce that our 84th Franklin Fellow is Robert Ransom, who has had a long career working on disability and development, primarily in Africa. Bob, who began his fellowship on June 1, is serving as Advisor on Inclusive Development in the office of the State Department’s Special Advisor for International Disability Rights (SADR). Bob brings a wealth of experience at many levels of the development process: government policy formulation and program design, organizational development and management, and international, national and grass roots project design, implementation and evaluation.
Bob is a former Senior Disability Specialist with the International Labor Organization (ILO) covering Africa and the Caribbean (1986‐2005). During his ILO career, he provided technical guidance on the training and employment of persons with disabilities to governments and civil society organizations in over 35 countries in Africa and some 10 countries in the Caribbean. He also managed a number of ILO technical cooperation projects covering vocational skills training, community‐based rehabilitation and small enterprise development implemented by both government agencies and non‐governmental organizations (NGOs). From 1998‐2002, Bob was Deputy Director of the ILO Office in Ethiopia.
Prior to joining ILO, Bob was International Program Director for Goodwill Industries International (1978-1985). Goodwill Industries is the largest private sector employer of persons with disabilities in the U.S.
Bob is founder and the Executive Director of the Ethiopian Center for Disability and Development (ECDD), a local civil society organization established in Ethiopia in 2005. ECDD promotes and facilitates organizational capacity building for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in mainstream government service delivery and NGO development projects in Ethiopia.
In his work with SADR, Bob will assist the Department, our embassies and contractors, and USAID, its missions and implementing partner organizations, to promote disability rights and the inclusion of persons with disabilities in U.S. foreign policy and assistance programs. Specifically, Bob will be helping the SADR to ensure that Department regional and thematic bureaus are aware of and include disability rights issues in areas such as religious freedom, worker rights, child labor, gender violence, trafficking, refugees and others.
Bob is author of an overview on the situation of children with disabilities in Africa, Missing Voices: Children with Disabilities in Africa, published by the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF). He has contributed chapters to several development publications, including Poverty and Disability, published by Leonard Cheshire Disability and Community‐based Rehabilitation (CBR) Guidelines, published by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Bob is originally from Michigan and is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the American University School of International Service (SIS). He is a member of the Rotary Club of Addis Ababa West and is an active member of the Addis Ababa Hash House Harriers running club. He plans to return to Ethiopia and his wife Kitui (from Kenya), two sons and six grandchildren after his Franklin Fellow assignment.
The Franklin Fellows Program is delighted to welcome Bob and to have such a deep expert on international disabilities issues as a member of our growing Franklin Fellows family. He is the first Franklin Fellow to work on disabilities matters, and we know that he will make a major contribution to the Department’s efforts to advance such rights across the globe.
Our 64th Franklin Fellow, Wendy Reid, began her service on December 6. She provides advisory and assistance support to the regional offices of Sudan and other countries in North Africa and the Middle East.
Wendy comes to us from Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), where she was a Senior Vice President and Operations Manager in the Analysis, Simulations, Systems Engineering & Training Business Unit. At SAIC, she managed an organization that supported national security customers in global threat reduction and nuclear deterrence; policy and technical analysis; and strategic planning consultation. Before that, her work at SAIC focused on nonproliferation, arms control and missile defense. She served on SAIC’s board which decides on ethical compliance of SAIC project teams involved in human subject research and served as project lead for improvement of SAIC’s policies and procedures. She also was the first legal research director for the non-partisan Project on National Security Reform.
Before joining SAIC, she worked in civil rights litigation and criminal law as an Associate with Willoughby & Associates. Ms. Reid holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University, a JD from UCLA and a Master of Laws (with Distinction) in National Security Law from Georgetown University. She is a member of the California Bar. Wendy speaks Spanish and enjoys books, music and her Labrador, Charlie.
Mimi Reisner, our 63d Franklin Fellow, will serve in the Office of the Chief of Protocol (S/ CPR) where she will assist and advise in the areas of communications and ceremonies: Ms. Reisner will work with the Public Affairs officer to develop a press and communication plan for the office. Her goal is to establish a process for media outreach and assist in drafting speeches and press releases. Mimi will also work with the Ceremonials division on event presentation and design.
Mimi brings a background in communications and freelance journalism. She is a reporter for “The Washington Scene,” at The Hill Newspaper and is also a contributing writer for DC Modern Luxury Magazine. She covers social events with an emphasis on the philanthropic and her pieces highlight the contributions of the many organizations dedicated to social improvement in the DC area.
With an extensive background in fashion and interior design, it will be her goal to develop and present ideas for image and décor for events at State. Mimi has worked on many not-for-profit benefits including events for Dress for Success, The Jewish Board of Family and Children Services, and The Nightingale-Bamford School. She looks forward to contributing and is honored to serve as a Franklin Fellow.
We are pleased to welcome our 88th Franklin Fellow, Stephen Rickard, who began his fellowship on June 29. Stephen is Advisor for Human Rights in DRL’s Front Office, where he will be supporting the ongoing work of the Bureau and helping develop proposals to strengthen the procedures for human rights vetting of U.S. military assistance and commercial arms sales.
Stephen comes to us from the Open Society Institute, where he was the Director of the Washington Office and Executive Director of the Open Society Policy Center. He joined OSI in 2003. Since 1989, he has been a leading Washington advocate for human rights, helping to pass important human rights legislation including the Leahy Laws on U.S. military assistance and the Freedom Investment Act.
Stephen has served as the Washington Director for Amnesty International USA (1996-2000), Director of the RFK Memorial Center for Human Rights (2000-2001) and created the Nuremberg Legacy Project (2001-2003). He created and managed the Freedom Investment Project (2003-2008) and served as Coordinator of the Human Rights Leadership Coalition (2001-2004).
Earlier, Stephen was Senior Advisor for South Asian Affairs in the State Department (1994-96), where his primary responsibilities included human rights. He received the Department’s Superior Honor Award in 1996. He served as Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to Senator Patrick Moynihan and as a Senior Professional Staff Member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1989 to 1994. Among other things, he helped secure Senate approval for numerous treaties on international human and labor rights.
Stephen was a litigator with the law firm White & Case in New York, Washington, and Stockholm (1983-1989), where he specialized in international arbitration and helped manage the firm’s pro bono legal aid program. While in New York, he served on the Advisory Committee of Asia Watch and co-authored two book- length reports for Human Rights Watch (Elections in Taiwan and Chile and the Plebiscite).
Stephen grew up in Michigan and is a graduate of Adrian College (summa cum laude, BA 1979). He holds an MPA from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School (1983) and is a graduate of Yale Law School (JD 1983). At Yale, he was a member of the Moot Court Board and an editor of the Yale Journal of International Law. Currently, he is on the Board of the US-East Timor Society and a member of the bar of the State of New York.
Stephen lives in Washington, DC, is married to Kathryn Rickard and has two children, Christopher and Sasha.
Michael Roffman recently joined the State Department as a Franklin Fellow in the Office of International Labor Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility (part of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor). He will be covering the issues of labor rights, corporate social responsibility, and Internet freedom, with a regional focus on East Asia.
Michael lived in both China and Taiwan for a total of nearly three years and is an advanced speaker of Mandarin. He has several years of experience in commercial banking and also has worked as a translator and a journalist. Michael previously worked for the State Department as an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing in 1996. He holds a Bachelors Degree in History from Duke University, a Masters Degree in Chinese to English Translation from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and an MBA in Finance from Fordham University.
Midmei River Enterprises
Prior to joining the State Department as a Franklin Fellow, Paul worked in Business Development for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics through the development of international marketing strategies, competitive analysis, opportunity development, and customer relationship management. Paul supported a wide range of international customers including Korea, Japan, Singapore, and a number of domestic customers such as the US Navy, Marines, and Air Force.
Paul joined Lockheed Martin in 2001 as a system test engineer and spent approximately two years on the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program in Fort Worth. Paul then moved into strategic planning and the development of new technology initiatives and derivatives for a number of Lockheed Martin programs.
Prior to joining Lockheed Martin, Paul worked for approximately 2 years as a lead software engineer at L3Communications. Paul was raised in the small farming town of Clint, Texas. He pole vaulted on the track team at the University of Texas at El Paso where he received a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is currently attending the University of Texas at Austin where he will receive an M.B.A. in June 2008. He currently lives in Arlington, Virginia.
Dr. James H. Small is the first ever Franklin Fellow at the United States Agency for International Development. James serves in the Office of Development Partners/Private Sector Alliances at USAID, where he is primarily responsible for forging public-private sector alliances and providing technical/advisory services in the agricultural, agribusiness, energy, and small-medium enterprise growth sectors of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Sub-Sahara Africa. Part and parcel with these areas and regions of concentration, Dr. Small performs an integral role in advancing the Africa Bureau’s Agribusiness and Trade Promotion Project, and designing the strategic development plans for the Latin America and Caribbean Bureau. Finally, Dr. Small serves on several Inter-Agency Working Groups, (including, Economic Growth and Global Financial Crisis) as well as a member of the Technical Evaluation and Higher Education Review Panels for the Africa Bureau.
Dr. Small comes to USAID from the private sector, where he worked for several years in the residential and commercial real estate business, (Southern Engineering Corporation) as a project developer, supervisor, and legal advisor. Additionally, James worked in the international investment field, where he founded an agribusiness company, (Harvest Development Group, LLC) which invested and developed sustainable agricultural/agribusiness projects with local joint-venture partners in Latin America. Finally, as a board and council member of international development and micro-finance organizations, (including, Katalysis Partnership, Acción International, and the American Refugee Committee) Dr. Small has participated in the development, financing, and oversight of numerous micro-finance projects in several developing countries.
Recently, James earned an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in Political Economy, where he specialized in economic development, enabling environment, governance, institutionalism and agricultural value chains. In addition to his doctorate degree, James received a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where he subsequently focused on real estate, land-use, zoning, contract negotiation, and commercial transactions in his professional career in the real estate and construction business.
Dr. James H. Small
Southern Engineering Corporation
We are pleased to announce that our 96th Franklin Fellow is Jacalyn Piatt Spedding who is serving in EEB’s Office of Commercial and Business Affairs (EEB/CBA). She works on the Global Entrepreneurship Program, where she is Senior Advisor for the Global Women’s Business Initiative (GWBI). While working with established programs, African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP), APEC Women’s Leadership Network and Pathways Access Initiative, she will also be involved in expanding the GWBI to other regions.
Jackie comes from the Arkansas retail giant, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Walmart), where she led Global Women’s Supply Chain Inclusion in Global Sourcing. She was instrumental in developing the vision, strategy and supply chain mapping for the recently announced Walmart Clinton Global Initiative: E-Commerce Empowerment Solution for Women. During the four-year commitment, women from nearly two dozen countries in Africa and Latin America will be impacted. A joint recipient of the WEConnect Vision Award, 2009, Jackie has leveraged relationships with NGOs, multi-laterals, government agencies and academia to build strategic alliances. She traveled frequently to speak on best practices and de-mystify the supply chain for women in the global environment.
Born and raised in Goshen, Indiana, Jackie graduated from Hanover College with a degree in Psychology. She most recently completed an intensive International Certification in International Supply Chain Management (ISCM) from the International Trade Centre in Geneva.
Jeffrey Stacey is a Franklin Fellow working in the Civilian Response Operations (CRO) division of the Office of the Secretary's Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS). He is working on operationalizing lessons learned and developing doctrine for R&S officials, as well as collaboration with international partners such as the EU, UN, and NATO.
Dr. Stacey has joined the State Department from Tulane University, where he teaches US Foreign Policy and International Relations. Upon receiving his BA from the University of Michigan, Dr. Stacey worked in the British Parliament for former Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath before moving on to work in the European Parliament in Brussels. He then received his MPhil from Oxford University, before obtaining his PhD in International Relations from Columbia University. Dr. Stacey taught at NYU and Fordham universities before moving to New Orleans to join the Political Science Department and the Murphy Institute of Political Economy.
Dr. Stacey's research interests were initially related to Europe as a region and international organizations and political economy as issue areas, but in recent years his work has incorporated the regions of Asia and the Middle East and the issue areas of international security and democratization. He has recently published articles on Iraq and Burma, and his book on the European Union will be published later this year by Oxford University Press. Dr. Stacey previously worked in Washington as a consultant for the Open Society Institute's democracy promotion arm.
Dr. Jeffrey Stacey
Tiffany Starr, our 46th Franklin Fellow, will serve in ECA’s Office of Exchange Coordination and Designation, where she will focus and advise on collaborative public-private partnerships with the private sector (a subject near and dear to our hearts).
Before becoming a Fellow, Tiffany assisted people in California communities as an ambassador for Heart Care America. In addition, she managed Silverlion Productions, where she worked with high tech communications companies, event producers, health and fashion companies. While teaching English in France and Switzerland, she directed the documentaries “The Skipper” and “Unity,” which have been shown at several film festivals in the United States.
Tiffany grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her outside interests include figure skating, competitive swimming, track, water skiing, cycling, karate, archery and fencing. She has traveled through Europe, Turkey, Thailand and the Sahara. Her hobby is photography, and she pursues interests in history, psychology and philosophy, as well.
Tiffany has a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from California State University Los Angeles, a Business degree from Ferris State University in Michigan and a Certificate in French from Language de Accord in Paris, France.
We are pleased to welcome Jennifer Stein as our 72nd Franklin Fellow. Jennifer, who started her service on January 31, is serving in the Office of War Crimes Issues (S/WCI), where she focuses primarily on war crimes issues involving Senegal, Sierra Leone, Cambodia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Jennifer most recently worked at Thompson Hine LLP in the International Trade & Customs Group where she focused on advising clients regarding the movement of goods, services and technology. She represented clients in government investigations before various administrative agencies, including the Bureau of Industry and Security, the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, the Office of Foreign Assets Control and Customs and Border Protection.
Jennifer was also active in pro bono, which included advising NGOs on constitutional drafting issues, the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants in post-conflict society, analysis of conflict mineral issues and advising an NGO on the potential filing of a petition challenging anti-gay legislation. Prior to practicing law, she worked as an extern for Federal District Judge John M. Manos.
Jennifer is a 2006 graduate of Duke Law School and earned her B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis, from which she graduated cum laude. She also studied abroad in Brisbane, Australia. She is admitted to practice law in Ohio and the District of Columbia.
The Franklin Fellows Program welcomes our 53rd Fellow, Arsalan Suleman, who will serve as the Deputy to Rashad Hussain, President Obama's Special Envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (IO/OIC). Arsalan will assist the Special Envoy in the Administration's efforts to deepen and expand the partnerships the President announced in Cairo, Egypt last June.
Arsalan graduated from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service with a B.S. in Foreign Service as an International Security Studies major and with a Certificate in Muslim-Christian Understanding. As a George Mitchell Scholar, he earned a Master's degree in International Peace Studies from Trinity College, Dublin. His J.D. is from Harvard Law School, where he published several articles on national security and the law and was a Fellow with the Harvard Negotiation Research Project. After law school, Arsalan clerked for Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, a federal district court judge in the Southern District of New York, and worked as a litigation associate at the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.
Arsalan is admitted to the New York State bar and is a member of the New York State Bar Association and the American Bar Association.
We are pleased to welcome our 129th Franklin Fellow, Dr. Severus Tackett. Severus serves in the Secretary’s Office of the Special Representative for Global and Intergovernmental Affairs (S/SRGIA), where he works with the U.S. interagency community, stakeholders and both foreign and domestic state and local leaders, ultimately playing a key role in developing and monitoring S/SRGIA office management policies and SOPs. He also works on several of the Office’s functional interests, including sustainable urban development, trade and economic issues, finance and multilateral/international organizations and institutions.
Severus comes to us from his own consulting firm, S.D. Tackett & Associates, which offers business development services to SME IT companies. He started his professional career as a young executive at the General Motors Corporation, World Headquarters, continuing in the private sector at several Fortune 100 companies, including as Senior Program Manager IV at Oracle Systems Corporation and as a Principal Financial Analyst at Coca-Cola. As a Senior Research Psychologist at Science Applications International Corporation, he designed and implemented the first-ever scientific research study absent of simulator sickness at the Federal Highway Administration Research Center.
Severus has extensive global professional experience extending to over 20 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. He was a Professor of Psychology with the University of Maryland’s European Division in Heidelberg. While there, he developed and taught undergraduate and graduate programs in psychology, sociology, statistics and research methodologies. Among other successes, he initiated a program whereby senior NCOs and Officers in forward deployed operations could enroll troops in courses. As a credentialed psychologist, he often volunteered his professional expertise in deployed and remote military hospital command operations. In recognition of his service in forward deployed theatres, he is the recipient of the U.S. Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, three NATO Meritorious Service Medals for work in Bosnia and Kosovo and many other distinguished military honors, medals and awards.
Severus received a bachelor's degree in Advanced Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley and a doctorate in Applied Experimental Psychology from Oxford University. He was a post-doctoral Dean's Scholar in Psychology at Stanford University.
His interests include his family, global travel, foreign cultures and world leaders, with special interests in military history.
Dr. Severus Tackett
The Franklin Fellows Program is pleased to have brought onboard our 80th Fellow William Tarpai. William is serving in the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS), where he works in the Office of Civilian Response Operations (CRO) on readiness issues related to fielding our U.S. civilian surge capacity.
William had a long career with UNHCR, retiring in July 2010. His career work involved emergency response capacity building, human rights and refugee law advocacy and helping both refugees and internally displaced persons help themselves find durable solutions. He had assignments in Bosnia, Mozambique, Uzbekistan, Angola, Pakistan and Switzerland. He was twice an emergency team member – being deployed to Mozambique monitoring isolated rural border crossing points with Zimbabwe.
Earlier, William was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic, promoting rural community development close to the Haitian border. Then, after service as a United Nations Volunteer with UNHCR in Somalia, William worked as a Peace Corps staff member. He worked with volunteer recruitment in Chicago and subsequently as the first Associate Country Director for Administration in Bulgaria.
William was born in northeastern Ohio and grew up in southern California. He learned Spanish working with migrant farm-workers, has traveled in every state of Mexico and bicycled from Mexico City to the Panama Canal. Military service taught him how to be self-sufficient. He holds a BA in Social Sciences from California State University – San Bernadino and a Master’s of Public Administration from the same university. He also did graduate research on social welfare administration at Uppsala University in Sweden as part of CSU’s International Program.
William is currently a Volunteer Chair of the Measles Initiative in the National Capital Region with the American Red Cross. His passions are helping to rear grandchildren with his wife, Helen, and advocating for citizen involvement to achieve successful outcomes against the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 around the globe.
Dr. Adrian Taylor of Bowie State University is currently serving in The Bureau of African Affairs’ Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. He will have responsibility for the Horn of Africa and will advise AF/PDA teams focused on resolution of regional conflicts and outreach to the African diaspora.
At Bowie State, Dr. Taylor teaches African Government and Politics; Philosophy; Rhetoric; and African-American History. Dr. Taylor’s research concentrates on Counterterrorism, Human Development, and Human Security. He has written on terrorism in the Horn of Africa and is investigating homegrown terrorism, particularly among U.S. citizens inspired and radicalized by transnational terrorists from Southwest Asia and Africa.
Dr. Taylor knows Africa well from his travels, his studies at the Arabic Language Institute in Morocco, his work with the International Research Foundation in Ghana and his study and work with the UNDP and UNESCO in Senegal. He was Africa Affairs Director of the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area. Dr. Taylor worked on political framing and voting rights as a Policy Analyst with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Additionally, he was a Teaching Fellow at George Mason University and recently served as a member of the Foreign Service Selection Boards.
Dr. Taylor has been a member of the International Studies Association, the African Studies Association, the Human Capability Association, the United Nations Association of the National Capitol Area and the American Philosophical Association. He has earned three degrees from Howard University — a BA and MA in Philosophy and a Ph.D. in African Studies.
Dr. Adrian Taylor
Bowie State University
Franklin Fellow Kim Tingley is the Senior Urban & Municipal Services Advisor in USAID's Water Team in the Office of Natural Resources Management and the Urban Team in the Office of Infrastructure and Engineering. The office helps developing countries provide drinking water supply and sanitation. Tingley provides advice to the Agency in headquarters and the field on water and sanitation service delivery and expansion; urban planning and municipal services; and infrastructure finance.
Kim Tingley started Tingley Construction Company in 1992 to build communities of moderately priced single family homes on a "for profit" basis. He is also a Consulting Engineer and has been the Vice-president and Regional Manager of Atlantic Homes Corporation. While he was there, Atlantic received the Governor of Virginia's Affordable Housing Achievement Award. Affordability innovations included applying for and receiving special financing from the Virginia Housing Development Authority and downpayment assistance from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. Previously, Tingley served as Director of Public Works and Utilities in York County Virginia where he initiated a $10,000,000 water and sewer construction project. He is also a past president of the Homebuilder's Association of Virginia.
Tingley received his MBA from the College of William and Mary and a Masters in Civil Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Swarthmore College. While he is serving as a Franklin Fellow, his wife, Deborah Lawrence, is simultaneously serving the Department of State as a Jefferson Fellow in the Bureau of Oceans and Science (OES). They are the first combination of husband and wife Franklin and Jefferson Fellows.
Dr. Kim Tingley
Tingley Construction Company
The Franklin Fellows Program warmly welcomes Fellow # 74, Dr. Alan J. Tomkins of the University of Nebraska. Alan, who began his service on February 2, has joined the Secretary’s Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative (S/GHFSI) as primary advisor on the diplomatic side of the Feed the Future Initiative.
Alan is the Director of the University’s Public Policy Center, where his research interests include public input to and public trust/confidence in government, and issues of justice and fairness. He has coordinated a multi-year project in which the City of Lincoln (NE) obtains citizen input for municipal budgeting and performance measurements. As part of this work, he and his colleagues have created online and face-to-face opportunities for residents of Lincoln to provide input about their preferences for programs to be reduced or eliminated – or tax increases – required for the City to meet its budget, and identified preferred benchmarks to use to evaluate City service performance outcomes (e.g., police need to respond to 90% of traffic accident calls within 10 minutes).
These public engagement activities are now entering their fourth year, and the trust/confidence data the team has collected shows an increase in the public’s confidence after they have participated in the engagement activities, particularly the face-to-face discussions. The Center’s engagement outreach has become an integral part of the policy approach taken by City Hall and anecdotally appears to now be part of the public’s expectations (residents are eager to weigh in with their perspectives).
Alan’s other current research includes a study pertaining to Congress’s public engagement requirement for nanotechnology research and development (why and which forms, features, contexts of public engagements are meaningful to participants and produce information and insights useful to scientists and policymakers); a project examining resilience and adaptive management related to water resources; and a project development of Geographic Information System (GIS) applications for law enforcement use.
Alan holds a J.D. and Ph.D. from Washington University and a B.A. from Boston University. He is a member of policy and psychology professional societies and is a fellow of two divisions of the American Psychological Association (Psychology-Law and Psychology Study of Social Issues). He also serves as co-editor of Court Review, the journal of the American Judges’ Association. He formerly served as editor of Behavioral Sciences & the Law, an international academic journal that publishes studies and analyses of the social science-and-law intersections.
University of Nebraska
Prof. Dr. Ashok K. Vaseashta, our 65th Fellow, comes to us from Norwich University Applied Research Institutes, where he serves as Director of the Institute for Advanced Sciences Convergence and the International Clean Water Institute. Dr. Vaseashta will serve in the Bureau of Arms Control Verification and Compliance, Office of Verification and Transparency Technologies (AVC/VTT) where he will evaluate arms control requirements for treaties, both present and future.
Dr. Vaseashta previously served as a Foster Fellow to the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, working with the Office of Weapons of Mass Destruction and with the Terrorism and Foreign Consequence Management Program. He has also been a professor of physics at Marshall University’s Graduate Program in Physical Sciences, where he was the Director of the Nanomaterials Processing & Characterization Laboratories. He holds a visiting professorship at the 3 Nano-SAE Research Centre, University of Bucharest, Romania and is visiting scientist at the Helen and Martin Kimmel Center of Nanoscale Science at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.
Dr. Vaseashta has earned several other fellowships and awards for his meritorious service including 2004/2005 Distinguished Artist and Scholar award. Dr. Vaseashta’s research interests include counter-terrorism; advanced and nanomaterials for development of chemical-bio sensors/detectors; water safety and security; environmental pollution monitoring, detecting and remediation; and green nanotechnology.
Dr. Vaseashta is one of the leading researchers in the field of green nanotechnology. Dr. Vaseashta has authored over 200 research publications, edited/authored four books on nanotechnology, presented many keynote addresses and lectures worldwide on nanotechnology, environmental risk-assessment, and water safety and security. He served as the Director of three NATO Advanced Study Institutes and co-chair of an International Symposium on Nanotechnology. He also joined the U.S. Department of Commerce, NIST, and ANSI delegation to the U.K. representing the U.S. position on Standards in Nanotechnologies at the inaugural meeting of the ISO/TAG to TC-229. He is a member of NATO-SET-040, an exploratory team panel investigating security and surveillance applications of nanotechnology. He serves as an expert counsel to the UNESCO, ObservatoryNANO, and COSENT – south-east consortium on Nanotechnologies on NANO-Science and Technologies. He is an active member of several national and international professional organizations.
He earned his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech,, a Master’s Degree in Materials Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Delhi. Dr. Vaseashta speaks Japanese and French.
Prof. Dr. Ashok K. Vaseashta
Norwich University Applied Research Institutes
The Franklin Fellows Program welcomes our 78th Fellow, Jonathan Turner. Jonathan serves as the primary advisor for press and public diplomacy in EUR’s Office of Policy and Regional Affairs. EUR/PRA takes the Bureau lead in planning, formulating and implementing policy on nonproliferation, civil nuclear cooperation, arms control, space policy and security assistance issues.
Prior to becoming a Franklin Fellow, Jonathan worked as a Marketing Consultant in New York City, specializing in Public Affairs. He was a Congressional Liaison Officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and worked in advertising for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center.
Jonathan received his M.A. in History from the George Washington University with a concentration in Imperial and Colonial Studies. He holds a B.A. in History from New York University, where he was a University Honors Scholar and a member of Phi Alpha Theta, the History Honor Society.
Jonathan’s hobbies include photography, travelling, hiking, whitewater rafting and wilderness expeditions, while his main interests are history, politics and international affairs.
The Franklin Fellows Program welcomes Dr. Frederi Viens, who will join the Bureau of African Affairs’ Economic Policy Staff (AF/EPS) as an advisor for environment, science and technology issues.
Dr. Viens is sponsored by Purdue University, where he is a Professor of Statistics and Mathematics and Director of the Computational Finance Program. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in probability, statistics, quantitative finance, and insurance mathematics. His research centers on stochastic analysis, a multi-disciplinary scientific field that seeks to find rules behind random and chaotic natural and sociological phenomena. Dr. Viens’ applied interests include climate forecasting, actuarial science and econometrics. He is the author, editor and organizer of numerous research articles, books and conferences on both theoretical and applied topics.
Dr. Viens earned a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of California, Irvine. He has been awarded a number of fellowships and grants from the National Science Foundation and has held two postdoctoral positions in Europe. He has many international collaborators, including in countries of southern Africa, where he currently is involved in research and outreach activities.
Dr. Frederi Viens
Howard Wachtel is a Franklin Fellow in the Political Section (Sanctions Unit) of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York, where he focuses on the al Qaeda/Taliban, Cote d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, and Iraq sanctions regimes. During the course of the year, Howard will be monitoring each of these regimes, attending Security Council sanctions committee meetings, and contributing to the negotiation and drafting of Security Council resolutions related to each regime. He comes to the U.S. Department of State from Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett LLP, where he is a litigation associate.
The Sanctions Unit is responsible for advocating and implementing U.S. policy at the United Nations related to current UN sanctions regimes, as well as helping to maintain existing sanctions regimes and developing new ones. Mr. Wachtel is primarily responsible for USUN's interaction with the Security Council on issues related to al-Qaeda/Taliban sanctions (the “1267 regime”). He is responsible for providing guidance and recommendations regarding the strategic direction of the 1267 regime, including new measures to address recent litigation challenging the regime and to ensure that the regime adapts to the evolving nature of the terrorist threat.
Mr. Wachtel represents the United States on the Security Council Committee which oversees this regime, advocates U.S. opinions in the Committee and negotiates with other Committee members to advance U.S. foreign policy priorities. He also provides detailed reporting and analysis to Washington about developments in the 1267 Committee.
In addition to his duties related to the 1267 Committee, Mr. Wachtel supports USUN efforts on other sanctions regimes, most significantly for Cote d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, and Iraq. This may require attending Sanctions Committee meetings, negotiating texts, managing paperwork and assisting in the drafting of new Security Council resolutions.
Mr. Wachtel has worked as an attorney for three years, where he has been exposed to a diverse litigation practice, which includes securities law, international arbitration, reinsurance law, and antitrust law. Prior to beginning his practice as an attorney, he worked as an extern in the Office of the Legal Adviser (Treaty Affairs) at the U.S. Department of State. He has also worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies in London, in addition to serving as an intern on Capitol Hill. He has published three articles relating to the intersection of international law and foreign policy and has presented a fourth article for discussion at a Yale Journal of International Law symposium.
Mr. Wachtel received a Juris Doctor, as well as an LL.M. in international and comparative law, from Duke University. He received an undergraduate degree from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and a General Course Diploma in international relations from the London School of Economics.
Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett LLP
The Franklin Fellows Program is proud to welcome our 87th Fellow is Michael Wack, who entered on duty on June 20. He is serving as Counselor to Ambassador Philip Verveer in EEB’s Office of the U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy (EEB/CIP), where he focuses on privacy and data protection policies, cloud computing, internet governance and freedom and preparations for the World Conference on International Telecommunications Economic Issues.
Michael comes to us with an extensive background in politics, regulation and business. He began his career as an aide to U.S. Senator John Glenn (D-Ohio), concentrating on regulated industries, principally communications. He ultimately rose to the twin positions of Legislative Counsel and Deputy Director of Issues and Research of the Senator's 1984 Presidential campaign.
Michael performed two tours of duty at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). During the first, his work focused on interconnection issues and economic incentive regulation of wireline telephony companies. During the second, he led a team of lawyers and economists that developed a series of FCC orders ending state regulation of wireless telephony rates and market entry. He is a recipient of the FCC Silver Medal for Distinguished Service to the Commission.
In the private sector, Michael practiced law at the firm of Reed Smith Shaw & McClay. Thereafter, as Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of NextWave Telecom, Inc., a wireless start-up firm, he was instrumental in guiding the company through years of complex and contentious proceedings before Congress, the FCC, and multiple federal courts -- including the U.S. Supreme Court -- concerning the company's wireless spectrum license rights, culminating in the sale of those rights for more than six billion dollars.
Michael was born in Washington, DC, and grew up there and in Rockville, Maryland, where he lives today with his wife, Nancy. He is a graduate of the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America and has been named a Distinguished Alumnus of his alma mater, Towson University. He is a member of the District of Columbia and Federal Communications Bar Associations.
We are delighted to welcome Michael to the Franklin Fellows family. His legal and communications background, both in and out of government, will be a huge asset to the Department and EEB. We again thank EEB and Ambassador Verveer for hosting our Fellows and for their strong and continuing support to the FF Program.
M. Karen Walker comes to the Franklin Fellows program while pursuing her doctoral degree in rhetoric and social change at the University of Maryland College Park. Her dissertation research will develop the rhetorical dimension of soft power, evinced through public-private partnerships in international diplomacy. Supporting areas of study include argumentation theory, public sphere theory, Diaspora studies, and analysis of leadership and ideologically-based social movements.
For example, Ms. Walker presented an analysis of transformational diplomacy at the 2007 annual meeting of the National Communication Association; addressed the narrative strategies of the Millennium Challenge Corporation at the 2008 NCA gathering; published an essay exploring the Arab public sphere, and is currently preparing a book chapter on American Exceptionalism. Ms. Walker has taught an undergraduate course on argumentation and public policy, and led an undergraduate seminar on rhetorical analysis relevant to terrorism studies. Also in the terrorism studies domain, Ms. Walker authored a chapter on "New Media's Influence on the Assessment of Publicly Communicated Terrorist Threats" in Information Warfare 2.0: How States and Armed Groups Compete for Strategic Influence. Ms. Walker's web site, www.rhetoricalens.info, informs policy development and advocacy in the domains of security studies, terrorism studies and public diplomacy by highlighting areas of interest and inquiry in common with the field of rhetoric.
Ms. Walker began her Fellowship with the Global Partnership Initiative, where she outlined regional and Departmental strategies for Diaspora community engagement and contributed to the evidence base for innovative approaches to partnership building. Ms. Walker currently serves in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Office of Near East and South Central Asia, managing democracy and governance programs and policy planning in Iraq.
Ms. Walker brings to her position expertise in program management, strategic planning, public diplomacy, and relationship management attained through her ongoing research as well as prior government service. Ms. Walker previously served as a public information officer in the U.S. Information Agency; supported energy efficiency and environmental security programs managed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; conducted environmental diplomacy, commercial diplomacy and public diplomacy programs for the U.S. Department of State; and brought the social and behavioral sciences to bear in meeting homeland security and information analysis requirements.
Ms. Walker's professional affiliations include the International Communication Association, National Communication Association, and Rhetoric Society of America. In support of the sciences generally, Ms. Walker is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
M. Karen Walker
University of Maryland
Dr. David Weinberger writes about the effect of technology on our ideas about our world, our businesses and ourselves. He is a co-author of the bestselling The Cluetrain Manifesto, a pioneering book for business about the Internet revolution. His most recent book is Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder. His work has appeared in Harvard Business Review, USA Today, Wired, Salon, The Guardian, Foreign Affairs, and many others.
David is a commentator on National Public Radio and is a columnist for KMWorld and Il Sole 24 Ore (Italy's leading financial daily newspaper). The Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council named him "Mover and Shaker" of the year in 2007. He writes the blog Joho (www.JohoTheBlog.com), and gives talks around the world to business, government and academic audiences.
He is currently a Senior Researcher a Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and has taught internet policy and culture at Harvard Law. He is currently also consulting to Harvard Law Library's Digital Lab.
David has served as marketing VP at technology companies that introduced the first "WYSIWYG" text and graphics word processor, the first corporate document management system, the first corporate intranet suite, and the first search engine behind Yahoo. As a marketing consultant, he has worked with many companies, from startups to Fortune 500s.
He has been an Internet adviser to presidential campaigns, including to the Howard Dean campaign. He has remained active in e-government projects.
David has a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Toronto and taught college philosophy for six years before entering high tech. When not serving as a Franklin Fellow, he lives in Boston, where he is working on a book about the Internet's effect on expertise and knowledge.
Dr. David Weinberger
The Franklin Fellows Program is delighted to welcome our 47th Franklin Fellow, Ana West. Ana will serve in the Office of International Health and Biodefense (OES/IHB), where she will serve as a Foreign Affairs Officer, working on matters specifically related to family planning, reproductive health, maternal and children’s health issues, and bioterrorism/biodefense; assessing the relationship of reproductive health, maternal health, infectious disease, health systems, and sustainable development questions to assist foreign policy and international efforts.
Ana served with the Southern Region Model United Nations (SRMUN) for seven years, assisted the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign with their fundraising efforts and coordinated data resources for Good Shepherd Services. She has studied in St. Petersburg, Russia and Olomouc, Czech Republic and holds a BA in Political Science from Valdosta State University. Ana also has a Master’s Degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from the John C. Whitehead School of Diplomacy at Seton Hall University and is working toward a Doctorate in Health Policy and Management at New York Medical College.
Dr. Vivienne Wildes is currently serving in DRL’s Office of International Labor and Corporate Social Responsibility (DRL/ILCSR), working on business and human rights.
Dr. Wildes comes to us from The Pennsylvania State University, where she teaches courses in Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Human Resource Management (HRM) in the School of Hospitality Management in the College of Health and Human Development. Her research agenda is interdisciplinary and encompasses issues surrounding corporate responsibility.
Dr. Wildes has worked at international, national and local levels. She wrote curriculum and instructed on Information Sharing projects funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Bhutan and is an instructor for the Bhutan Middle Management Hotel Programme (BMMHP). In 2009, she initiated Books for Bhutan, an outreach effort to help build a library for the new tourism school. She is a Fellow at the Rock Ethics Institute, active member of Principles for Management Education (PRME) and was a board member for the National Association of Fellowship Advisors (NAFA). She is a member of the Commission for Women and Global Programs at Penn State.
Dr. Wildes holds a Ph.D. in Man-Environment Relations (MER) and a Master’s degree in Management from The Pennsylvania State University, as well as certifications from the Institute of the World Bank and the University of Nairobi.
Dr. Vivienne Wildes
The Pennsylvania State University
Our 92nd Franklin Fellow, Shaun Yavrom serves in the Office of Population and International Migration in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, where he covers policy issues of detention of irregular migrants and immigration reform as well as matters arising from the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Shaun comes to us from Dallas, Texas, where he practiced immigration law. He has represented clients in deportation proceedings as well as assisted clients to obtain immigration benefits through various paths, including the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and U-visas for victims of certain crimes. He has also presented before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights regarding the rights of undocumented workers in the U.S. Shaun holds a JD and a Master’s in international politics from American University. He received his BA in Sociology from the University of California, Davis.
Shaun is licensed by the State Bar of Texas. He is a member of the board of directors for Mil Mujeres, a non-profit organization in DC, which provides legal services to low-income individuals with immigration and family law issues.
Youngha Yu is serving as a Franklin Fellow in the Office of Economic Policy in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. He works on a variety of topics including energy, transportation and macro-economic policy issues facing the region. Young joins the Franklin Fellows from Goldman Sachs & Co. where he is a Vice President in the prime brokerage area of the Securities Division. He applies an in-depth and practical knowledge of a wide range of products, global markets and investment strategies in order to manage the daily prime brokerage relationship with a number of Goldman Sachs & Co. hedge fund clients.
Young holds a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics from Boston College and is a CFA charter holder.