Members Weekend 2016

Manpreet Singh Anand

Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs

U.S. Department of State

Manpreet Singh Anand serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. Mr. Anand oversees U.S. policy towards and diplomatic relations with the South Asian countries within the bureau: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Immediately prior to taking on this portfolio, he oversaw Regional Affairs within SCA.

Mr. Anand joined the State Department from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where he served as the Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Asia Bureau. At USAID, his responsibilities included providing strategic direction and management oversight for the South and Central Asia region, consisting of staff and programming budgets across six USAID Missions and eleven countries. Mr. Anand also led efforts to elevate and engage strategic partnerships in the region, including with the private sector, emerging Asian donors, regional initiatives and diaspora communities.

In the past, Mr. Anand worked for Chevron Corporation as a Senior Policy Advisor and provided policy analysis and guidance on emerging geopolitical and socioeconomic issues. Mr. Anand has also served as the Senior Policy Advisor for South and Central Asia issues on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs and has worked in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Mr. Anand also had a previous stint with USAID as a Presidential Management Fellow in the Office of the Global Development Alliance.

Mr. Anand is a Member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, a Trustee on the Board of the World Affairs Council of Northern California, a Member of the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, Center for Responsible Business Alumni Advisory Board, and was a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Read more about his background.

15 October

Global Economic Forecast: Prospects for Growth, Innovation, and Development

02:00 PM 03:00 PM Grand Chateau, 2nd Floor

Najla Ayubi

Former Prosecutor and Commissioner

Independent Election Commission & Joint Electoral Management Body of Afghanistan

The Honorable Najla Ayubi is a former prosecutor and commissioner of the Independent Election Commission and the Joint Electoral Management Body of Afghanistan. She also served as a legal advisor to the State Ministry for Parliamentary Affairs within the Afghan Government. She previously worked as senior state attorney at the Attorney General’s Office of Afghanistan, state attorney of the Parwan province, and judge at the Court of the Parwan Province. Judge Ayubi has also served as an executive board member of the Afghan Women’s Network and global advisory board member of South Asia Women’s Regional Network.

As a lawyer and former judge, Najla Ayubi has extensive experience in the judiciary and electoral process. She has transferred this experience to civil society where she actively leads human rights and women’s empowerment initiatives.

From 2013 to May 2015 she served as the Afghanistan deputy country representative of the Asia Foundation. Prior to that, she was country director of Open Society Foundation’s Afghanistan office. Ms. Ayubi has also worked with The Asia Foundation Afghanistan as program director for law, human rights, and women’s empowerment, where she contributed greatly to crucial programming efforts including co-authoring the 2011 and 2010 surveys of the Afghan people.

Ms. Ayubi has an MA in law and politics from Governmental University of Tajikistan and an MA in post-war recovery and development studies from York University in the UK.

14 October

Campfire Sessions

07:30 PM 08:30 PM Garden

Meghan Benton

Senior Policy Analyst

Migration Policy Institute

Meghan Benton is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, and a Nonresident Fellow with MPI Europe. Her areas of expertise include immigrant integration (especially labor market integration and integration at the local level), citizenship policy, and the role of technological and social innovation in responses to the refugee and migration crisis in Europe.

Dr. Benton previously was a Senior Researcher at Nesta, the United Kingdom’s innovation body, where she led projects on digital government and the future of local public services. Prior to joining Nesta, she was a policy analyst at MPI from 2012-15, where she co-led an MPI-International Labor Organization six-country project on pathways to skilled work for newly arrived immigrants in Europe. She also worked on Project UPSTREAM, a four-country project on mainstreaming immigrant integration in the European Union.

Previously, she worked for the Constitution Unit at University College London and the Institute for Public Policy Research. She is the author of 20 publications.

Dr. Benton received her PhD in political science from University College London in 2010. Her PhD research—on citizenship and the rights of noncitizens—was published in high-ranking social and political philosophy journals. She also holds a master’s degree in legal and political theory (with distinction) from University College London, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and literature from Warwick University.

15 October

65 Million and Counting: An Unprecedented Refugee Crisis

02:00 PM 03:00 PM Chateau X, 2nd Floor

Katherine E. Bliss

Senior Associate

CSIS Global Health Policy Center

Katherine E. Bliss is Director of the Tower Scholars Program and a Senior Fellow with the Tower Center. She is also a Senior Associate with the Global Health Policy Center at the Washington, DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Her recent research has focused on United States government support for reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child health programs in lower- and lower-middle income countries; the role of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and other emerging economies in shaping a new global health agenda; international cooperation to address global water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) challenges; and public health and development policies during the Cold War in Latin America.

Previously, she served at the U.S. Department of State. As a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow Bliss served as a member of the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff before leading the Department’s effort to develop foreign policy approaches to environmental health challenges. Her work in more than fifteen countries in Latin America, Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, and the Middle East involved participating in multilateral negotiations and strengthening U.S. engagement in public-private partnerships focused on global health. In 2006 she received the Superior Honor Award from the Bureau of Oceans, Environment, and Science for her diplomatic outreach on environmental health, as well as avian and pandemic influenza.

Bliss began her career as a historian of modern Latin America. Her book, Compromised Positions: Prostitution, Public Health, and Gender Politics in Revolutionary Mexico City, was published by the Pennsylvania State Press in 2001. She is also the co-editor, with William E. French, of Gender and Sexuality in Latin America since Independence (Rowman and Littlefield, 2007). In 2000 she was awarded the Conference on Latin American History's James A. Robertson Memorial Prize. She has received research support from the U.S. Department of Education, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine D. MacArthur Foundation. She has taught at the University of Chicago, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Smith College, and Georgetown University.

Bliss completed her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago and was a David E. Bell Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. She completed her A.M. and A.B., magna cum laude, at Harvard University and studied at the Colegio de México.

15 October

The Race for a Zika Vaccine: Global Health in Action

10:45 AM 11:45 AM Chateau VIII, 2nd Floor

Elizabeth Bodine-Baron

Engineer and Director

RAND Center for Applied Network Analysis and System Science

Elizabeth Bodine-Baron is an engineer at the RAND Corporation specializing in complex networks and systems. Her research interests include network analysis and modeling for both domestic and national security issues. Her recent work has included improving the Air Force's acquisition policy related to cybersecurity, studying the impact of cyber attacks on defense systems, and social network analysis for national security, intelligence, and health applications. She has recently led several projects involving social media for policy analysis, from using Twitter data to identify ISIS support and opposition networks to developing best practices for social media analysis.

Prior to joining RAND, her research focused on the role of social networks in various engineering and economics problems, such as distributed search, matching markets, epidemic spread, and vaccination behavior. Bodine-Baron received a B.S. in electrical engineering and a B.A. in liberal arts from the University of Texas at Austin in 2006, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Caltech in 2012.

15 October

An Asymmetric Foe: Defeating the Digital Caliphate

02:00 PM 03:00 PM Glass Lounge, 1st Floor

Nell Cady-Kruse

Board of Directors & Risk Committee Chair

Barclays Bank Delaware

Nell Cady-Kruse was most recently a senior global executive at Standard Chartered Bank. She was their Chief Risk Officer, Wholesale Banking in 2011 and 2012, based in Singapore. As such she was responsible for credit risk and operational risk in over 70 countries, mainly in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. She retired from Standard Chartered in August 2014 and recently moved to Pacific Palisades, California.

Nell has 30 years of global banking experience having been based in the Asia, Europe and the US. She spent fifteen years with Bankers Trust Company where she started with the Leveraged Buyout Group in New York and worked through various positions in leveraged finance, high yield bonds, private equity, portfolio and risk management, and worked in the New York, London and Los Angeles offices.

After a year-long stint as CFO of an Internet company during the dotcom bubble, Nell went on to spend 9 years with Credit Suisse in London and then Hong Kong. She moved from Head of Credit Risk Management for Europe, Middle East & Africa, based in London, to Chief Risk Officer of the Asia Pacific region, based in Hong Kong. In this role she was responsible for Credit, Market and Operational Risk in Investment Banking, Private Banking, and Asset Management.

Nell is a CFA charter holder and is a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society Chicago. She serves as member of the Cornell Alumni Council, the President’s Council of Cornell Women and the Emerging Markets Institute of Johnson at Cornell. Nell is now an emeritus member of the Johnson Advisory Committee, after actively serving for a decade and chairing the Global Committee.

Nell received her MBA from Johnson at Cornell in 1985. She received her B.S. with Honors in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University.

15 October

Global Economic Forecast: Prospects for Growth, Innovation, and Development

02:00 PM 03:00 PM Grand Chateau, 2nd Floor

Michael C. Camuñez

President & CEO

ManattJones Global Strategies

The Honorable Michael C. Camuñez is the President and CEO of ManattJones Global Strategies LLC, Chair of the Pacific Council's Mexico Initiative, and a Pacific Council director. He is the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce (2010-2013).

In his work, Michael draws upon a unique combination of political, legal, economic, and international experience to advise U.S. companies on how to take advantage of business opportunities—as well as confront challenges—in emerging markets, particularly Mexico and Latin America. He also provides strategic advice to Mexican and Latin American companies seeking to enter U.S. markets.

One of the nation’s leading commercial diplomats from 2010 to 2013, Michael was assistant secretary of commerce at the International Trade Administration, managing a global portfolio and helping to lead the government’s efforts to open new markets for U.S. goods and services. In that role, he visited more than 30 countries to advance U.S. trade and economic policy.

Michael played a critical role in rebalancing the country’s economic policy toward Mexico, leading trade and policy missions, and helping update and modernize initiatives to enhance cross-border trade and investment. He was the chief architect of the U.S.-Mexico High Level Economic Dialogue, launched during President Obama’s 2013 Mexico visit.

Before his Department of Commerce service, Michael was special counsel to the president in the Office of the White House Counsel and special assistant to the president, where he helped manage senior appointments to the domestic cabinet.

Michael promotes relations with Mexico and Latin America as a member of the binational boards of directors of the Association of Mexican Entrepreneurs and the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the board of directors of the Pacific Council on International Policy, directing its Mexico Initiative. A founding director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s U.S.-Cuba Business Council, Michael is also a director of the Center for Law and Social Policy, and senior fellow at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Read more about his background.

15 October

President's Welcome & Lunch Keynote: The U.S.-Mexico Partnership

12:00 PM 01:45 PM Grand Salon Ballroom, 1st Floor

Rachel Cardone

Global Water Scarcity Project Fellow

Pacific Council on International Policy

Rachel Cardone is the Pacific Council's Global Water Scarcity Project Fellow, a role made possible with support from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, a leader in helping the world's vulnerable and disadvantaged communities gain access to safe water.

Rachel leads the Pacific Council's comprehensive planning effort to scope the objectives and activities of our future policy work on global water scarcity.

For over 20 years, Rachel has worked on water issues with a mix of private, public, and non-profit organizations, ranging from start-up efforts to large development finance institutions, and representing a wide range of water issues. Before starting RedThread Advisors, a private consultancy firm, she helped to create the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Water, Sanitation & Hygiene team, where she also developed and managed a sizeable portfolio of systems-changing investments which continue to have impact in countries around the world. She has also served as chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee for Seattle Public Utilities, and is a current trustee of the Whole World Water Fund. Rachel graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, with a degree in history (anthropology minor) and earned an MPA from Columbia University, with a concentration in energy policy and finance. Read more about her work with the Pacific Council.

15 October

Confronting California’s Drought and the Global Water Crisis

10:45 AM 11:45 AM Grand Chateau, 2nd Floor

Derek Chollet

Counselor and Senior Advisor for Security and Defense Policy

The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Derek Chollet is counselor and senior advisor for security and defense policy at The German Marshall Fund of the United States, and author of the book, "The Long Game: How Obama Defied Washington and Redefined America’s Role in the World" (PublicAffairs, June 2016). He is a regular contributor to Defense One, and is also an advisor to Beacon Global Strategies and an Adjunct Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies.

From 2012 to 2015, Mr. Chollet was the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, where he managed U.S. defense policy toward Europe (including NATO), the Middle East, Africa, and the Western Hemisphere. In that role, he was a senior advisor to two secretaries of defense, Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel.

Prior to joining the Pentagon, Mr. Chollet served at The White House as special assistant to the president and senior director for strategic planning on the National Security Council Staff. From 2009 to 2011, he was the principal deputy director of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Policy Planning staff. From November 2008 to January 2009, he was a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team. Read more about his background.

15 October

U.S. Strategic Future: Regional Theaters in Flux

10:45 AM 11:45 AM Glass Lounge, 1st Floor

Martha Crenshaw

Senior Fellow

Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

Dr. Martha Crenshaw is a senior fellow at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation and the Freeman Spogli Institute and a professor of political science by courtesy. She was the Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor of Global Issues and Democratic Thought and professor of government at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., where she taught from 1974 to 2007. Her recent work includes “Will Threats Deter Nuclear Terrorism?” in "Deterring Terrorism: Theory and Practice," ed. Andreas Wenger and Alex Wilner (Stanford University Press, 2012) “Dealing with Terrorism,” in "Managing Conflict in a World Adrift," ed. Chester Crocker, Fen Hampson, and Pamela Aall (Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2014), and “Terrorism Research: The Record,” in the journal "International Interactions" (2014). She is also the editor of "The Consequences of Counterterrorism" (Russell Sage Foundation, 2010). In 2011 Routledge published "Explaining Terrorism," a collection of her previously published work. She is currently writing a book with Gary LaFree titled "Rethinking Counterterrorism: A Sensible Approach to Policy." Read more about her background.

15 October

Priorities in the Middle East: 2017 and Beyond

09:30 AM 10:30 AM Grand Salon Ballroom, 1st Floor

15 October

An Asymmetric Foe: Defeating the Digital Caliphate

02:00 PM 03:00 PM Glass Lounge, 1st Floor

Shelly Culbertson

Policy Analyst

RAND Corporation

Shelly Culbertson is a policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. Her research focus includes international development, education, workforce development, innovation policy, and the Middle East. She is currently conducting research about urban services and education for Syrian refugees in Jordan, Turkey, and Lebanon. She is also conducting a multi-year evaluation of the Appalachia Partnership Initiative's investments in STEM education and workforce development. She co-led a multi-year effort to advise the Ministry of Education of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq on improving its K-12 and vocational education systems. She coordinated RAND's project to design programs for the Qatar National Research Fund, which has supported over $620 million in research grants. Prior to RAND, she worked at the U.S. State Department on the Turkey Desk, and at LMI Government Consulting, conducting analysis about international trade. She has written OpEds for CNN.com, U.S. News and World Report, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and other news outlets. She received a B.S. in mathematics and political science from the University of Pittsburgh and a master's degree from the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Read more about her background.

15 October

65 Million and Counting: An Unprecedented Refugee Crisis

02:00 PM 03:00 PM Chateau X, 2nd Floor

Michael J. DeRenzo

Country Manager for Southern Africa & Director, LA Office

U.S. Trade and Development Agency

Mr. Michael J. DeRenzo currently serves as the Country Manager for Southern Africa at the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA). In this capacity, he is responsible for business development, project preparation and evaluation, and supervision of USTDA activities in Southern Africa. Prior to joining the Sub-Saharan Africa team, Mr. DeRenzo was a Project Analyst in the Europe and Eurasia region at USTDA.

Mr. DeRenzo holds a Master’s degree in International Commerce and Policy from the George Mason School of Public Policy and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science from Rutgers University. Mr. DeRenzo was the recipient of the 2008 David Ricardo Trade Award, which is given for exceptional ability, involvement, and promise in the fields of international commerce and policy.

15 October

Africa Transformed: Regional Integration, Trade, and Investment

10:45 AM 11:45 AM Chateau X, 2nd Floor

Benjamin H. Friedman

Research Fellow, Defense and Homeland Security Issues

Cato Institute

Benjamin H. Friedman is a research fellow in defense and homeland security studies. He writes about U.S. defense politics, focusing on strategy, budgeting, and war. He has co-edited two books and has published in International Security, Political Science Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Atlantic, the Philadelphia Inquirer,USA Today, the Hill, Politico, the Christian Science Monitor, and various other journals. Ben is a graduate of Dartmouth College, a PhD candidate in political science at the MIT, and an adjunct lecturer at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Read more about his background.

15 October

The Future of U.S. Global Leadership: Engagement or Retrenchment?

03:15 PM 04:20 PM Grand Salon Ballroom, 1st Floor

Jerrold D. Green

President & CEO

Pacific Council on International Policy

Dr. Jerrold D. Green has served as the president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Council on International Policy since 2008.

His career began at the University of Michigan as a professor in the Department of Political Science and the Center for Near Eastern and North African Studies. He then joined the University of Arizona, where he became a professor of political science and sociology as well as director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

An expert on Middle East policy, Dr. Green was senior adviser for Middle East/South Asia and director of the Middle East Development Council at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California, and before that, director of international programs and development, and director of RAND’s Center for Middle East Public Policy. From 2004 to 2006, Dr. Green served as a partner and executive vice president for International Operations at Best Associates in Dallas, Texas, a privately held merchant banking firm with global operations.

He holds a B.A. (summa cum laude) from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago, where he specialized in the politics of the Middle East. He uses Arabic, French, Hebrew, and Persian in his work and has lived and worked in Iran, Israel, and Egypt, where he was a Fulbright Fellow. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including World Politics, Comparative Politics, Ethics and International Affairs, The Harvard Journal of World Affairs, The Iranian Journal of International Relations, and The Huffington Post, among others. Read more about his background.

15 October

Priorities in the Middle East: 2017 and Beyond

09:30 AM 10:30 AM Grand Salon Ballroom, 1st Floor

15 October

U.S. Strategic Future: Regional Theaters in Flux

10:45 AM 11:45 AM Glass Lounge, 1st Floor

Grant T. Harris

Chief Executive Officer

Harris Africa Partners LLC

Grant T. Harris is CEO of Harris Africa Partners LLC and advises companies and organizations on strategy, policy, and mitigating risk with respect to doing business in Africa.

For four years, Harris served as the principal advisor to President Barack Obama on issues related to Africa, serving as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the White House from August 2011 to August 2015.

In this role, Harris initiated and coordinated U.S. policies toward the 49 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including political, economic, and security matters. Harris conceived of and was a primary lead in implementing the historic U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, in which President Obama hosted 51 African Leaders in Washington, DC in August 2014. The Summit generated $37 billion in new commitments to support trade, investment, and development across Africa.

Harris also initiated and coordinated the Doing Business in Africa Campaign, to encourage greater U.S. trade and investment; launched the President’s Young African Leaders Initiative, to support emerging leaders; and conceived and was the primary architect of the U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa, signed by President Obama in 2012. During his time at the White House, Harris also oversaw U.S. efforts to create and implement the National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking, and led the U.S. response to various peace and security crises across Africa.

Prior to this position, Harris was Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and a member of President Obama’s Cabinet. Read more about his background.

15 October

Africa Transformed: Regional Integration, Trade, and Investment

10:45 AM 11:45 AM Chateau X, 2nd Floor

Jennifer M. Harris

Senior Fellow

Council on Foreign Relations

Jennifer M. Harris is senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to joining the Council, Harris was a member of the policy planning staff at the U.S. Department of State, responsible for global markets, geoeconomic issues, and energy security. In that role, Harris was a lead architect of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's economic statecraft agenda, which launched in 2011. Before joining the State Department, Harris served on the staff of the U.S. National Intelligence Council, covering a range of economic and financial issues.

Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Washington Quarterly, and the World Economic Forum, among other outlets. A Truman and a Rhodes scholar, she holds degrees in economics and international relations from Wake Forest University (BA) and the University of Oxford (MPhil), and a JD from Yale Law School. Harris is the author of War By Other Means: Geoeconomics and Statecraft, coauthored with Robert Blackwill.

15 October

North Korea’s Nuclear Future: What Can Be Done?

02:00 PM 03:00 PM Chateau VIII, 2nd Floor

Roberta S. Jacobson

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico

Roberta S. Jacobson was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico on May 5, 2016. Before then, she served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs since March, 2012. Previously Ms. Jacobson was the Acting Assistant Secretary since July 18, 2011. She served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs from December 2010 until July 2011, with responsibility for regional political and economic issues, management and personnel, and regional security issues. Ms. Jacobson was confirmed as U.S. Ambassador-Designate to Mexico on April 28, 2016.

In addition to her role as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, she was the senior coordinator for the Citizen Security initiatives in the Western Hemisphere. From June 2007 until that date, she was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Canada, Mexico and NAFTA issues in the Bureau. She served as Director of the Office of Mexican Affairs from December 2002. From 2000-2002, she was Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Lima, Peru, and between 1996 and 2000, Ms. Jacobson was director of the Office of Policy Planning and Coordination in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, covering issues such as civil-military relations, human rights, foreign assistance, and counternarcotics throughout the hemisphere. Ms. Jacobson has also served as Coordinator for Cuban Affairs within the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, executive assistant to the Assistant Secretary (1993-94), special assistant to the Assistant Secretary (1989-1992), and at the National Security Council (1988).

Ms. Jacobson holds a Masters of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (1986) and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University. She also worked for the United Nations from 1982-1984 in the Center for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs. She is the author of several articles, including “The Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women” in The United Nations and Human Rights (Oxford University Press; 1990) and “Liberation Theology as a Revolutionary Ideology.”

15 October

President's Welcome & Lunch Keynote: The U.S.-Mexico Partnership

12:00 PM 01:45 PM Grand Salon Ballroom, 1st Floor

Sysvanh Kabkeo

Bureau Chief

California Department of Social Services' Refugee Programs Bureau

Since November 2012, Kabkeo has worked for the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), first in CalWORKs Employment, then CalFresh, and currently the Refugee Programs Bureau (RPB).

Prior to the state service employment, Kabkeo spent 25 years working for the Stanislaus County Welfare Department to help the poor and needy as they seek public assistance. His public assistance service began as an Eligibility Worker and a GAIN Employment Coordinator prior to being promoted into supervision and management. In Stanislaus County, he led various teams of eligibility and employment staff working in both Intake and Continuing operations and managing different programs such as CalWORKs, CalFresh, Medi-Cal, Long Term Care, Refugees, General Assistance, GAIN, and Child Care.

Kabkeo graduated from California State University, Stanislaus with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and another Master’s in English with an emphasis on TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). He also earned a Bachelor Degree in Mathematics from the University of Utah.

Kabkeo has been happily married for almost 30 years with two grown children. He was born and raised in Laos and came to the United States on November 9, 1979, after spending three long years in a refugee camp in Thailand. In the United States, he lived first in upstate New York, then Utah, and currently in California since 1987.

15 October

65 Million and Counting: An Unprecedented Refugee Crisis

02:00 PM 03:00 PM Chateau X, 2nd Floor

Mickey Kantor

Partner, Mayer Brown LLP; U.S. Secretary of Commerce (1996-1997); U.S. Trade Representative (1993-1996)

Mickey Kantor concentrates his practice on corporate and financial international transactions. He has extensive experience in market access issues, as well as the expansion of client activities in foreign markets through trade, direct investment, joint ventures, and strategic business alliances. Prior to joining Mayer Brown, Mickey was the United States Secretary of Commerce (1996-1997) and the United States Trade Representative (1993-1996). He has been called “arguably the finest trade negotiator in the world” (Chambers Global 2006) and is said to be “blessed with fantastic political insights and connections” (Chambers USA 2007). He was recently recognized in The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers - Trade & Customs 2009. Among the many awards and honors he has received are the following: the Civic Medal of Honor by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Order of the Southern Cross Award by The Government of Brazil, 2001, the William O. Douglas Award by the Constitutional Rights Foundation, the Thomas Jefferson Distinguished Public Service Medal from the Center for the Study of the Presidency, the Albert Schweitzer Leadership Award from the Hugh O'Brien Youth Foundation, and Elihu Root Distinguished Lecturer, Council on Foreign Relations.

14 October

Dinner and Keynote Interview

05:30 PM 07:30 PM Grand Salon Ballroom, 1st Floor

Hyuk Kim

Resident Fellow for the Nonproliferation and Nuclear Security and James A. Kelly Korean Studies Programs

Pacific Forum CSIS

Mr. Hyuk Kim (ROK) is a resident fellow for the Nonproliferation and Nuclear Security (NPNS) and James A. Kelly Korean Studies programs. Prior to join Pacific Forum CSIS, Mr. Kim served as a guest researcher at Dual-use and Arms Trade Control Programme of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, research assistant at Export Control and Non-proliferation Program of the James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies, and international trader at Daewoo International Corporation. His research interests cover non-proliferation issues in East Asia, export controls, sanctions, and trade data analysis. Hyuk Kim holds a MA in Non-proliferation and Terrorism Studies, BS in Nuclear Engineering, and University Diploma in International Nuclear Law.

15 October

North Korea’s Nuclear Future: What Can Be Done?

02:00 PM 03:00 PM Chateau VIII, 2nd Floor

Kay Ko

Community Outreach Specialist

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Kay Ko grew up in Los Angeles, California, and attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, a Master of Arts degree in Art History, and a Doctoral Degree in Comparative Education. After teaching the Korean language at UCLA and Claremont McKenna Colleges, Ms. Ko joined the FBI in December 1993 as a language specialist. From 1995 to 2008, she worked as an intelligence analyst and also earned a Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School in 2002. From June 2009 through July 2012, Ms. Ko served as a supervisory intelligence analyst.

During her 23 years of service with the FBI, Ms. Ko assisted case agents and FBI management as a linguist and an analyst in a variety of assignments, including terrorism, counterintelligence, money laundering, and organized crime. She organized a number of counterintelligence conferences by working closely with the members of U.S. intelligence community.

In the current position as an FBI community outreach specialist, Ms. Ko coordinates meetings and events where FBI employees participate as guest speakers and presenters, attend various community events to educate the public about FBI priorities, and visit schools to educate students about good education and being model citizens as part of the FBI’s Youth Program. Ms. Ko also serves as the regional lead for the White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders in the southwest region covering California, Nevada, and Arizona.

Ms. Ko was appointed to the California State Board of Accountancy by Governor Jerry Brown in November 2013, and has served on the Board of Visitors at the Graduate School of Education and Psychology at Pepperdine University.

15 October

An Asymmetric Foe: Defeating the Digital Caliphate

02:00 PM 03:00 PM Glass Lounge, 1st Floor

Scott Kraft

Deputy Managing Editor

Los Angeles Times

As deputy managing editor, Scott Kraft is responsible for the front page, the Column One feature and major investigative, explanatory and narrative reporting projects. During more than two decades at The Times, Kraft has been a national and foreign correspondent as well as a news department head. He joined the paper as a staff writer in its Chicago bureau and later was bureau chief in Nairobi, Johannesburg and Paris. After a decade abroad, Kraft moved to Los Angeles and became deputy Foreign editor. A year later, he was named National editor, overseeing national correspondents and the Washington bureau. Kraft returned to writing in 2008 and helped anchor coverage of the earthquake in Haiti. He became the Page One editor in 2011 and was named deputy managing editor in August 2012. He came to The Times from the Associated Press, where he was a national correspondent based in New York and a 1984 Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing.

15 October

Priorities in the Middle East: 2017 and Beyond

09:30 AM 10:30 AM Grand Salon Ballroom, 1st Floor

Mitchell Landsberg

Deputy Foreign and National Editor

Los Angeles Times

Mitchell Landsberg is the Deputy Foreign and National Editor for the Los Angeles Times, helping to supervise and edit the Times’ global network of correspondents, with particular oversight of coverage from Asia. Previously, he was an Assistant Foreign Editor and a reporter on the Times’ Metro Desk.

As a reporter, his beats included general assignment, education and religion. He covered the 2008 presidential campaign, with a particular focus on the role of religion in the race, and has reported for the Times from China, the Middle East and Haiti, among other places. He was part of a team that wrote a series of investigative articles about the troubled King Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles, for which the paper won a 2005 Pulitzer Prize. He was also part of a team that won a 2004 Pulitzer for coverage of California wildfires.

Before coming to the Times, Landsberg spent 19 years with The Associated Press, mostly based in New York as a writer and editor, including several years as a roving national correspondent. His last two-and-a-half years with the AP were spent as a correspondent in Moscow. A native of Sacramento, Calif., Landsberg is a graduate of UCLA.

15 October

U.S. Strategic Future: Regional Theaters in Flux

10:45 AM 11:45 AM Glass Lounge, 1st Floor

Mel Levine

Counsel

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP

A member of the Pacific Council on International Policy’s Board of Directors, Mel Levine is Counsel at the law firm of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, where he specializes in international transactions and governmental strategic counseling. Mr. Levine is a former member of the U.S. Congress, where he served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and its subcommittees on International Economic Policy and Trade, Europe and the Middle East, and Asia; the Committee on the Interior and Insular Affairs; and the Committee on the Judiciary and its subcommittee on Intellectual Property. He was also Chair of the House Task Force on Exports and the Democratic Caucus Task Force on Latin America. Before his tenure in Congress, Mr. Levine served in the California State Assembly. Mr. Levine served as U.S. Chair of the Anti-Incitement Committee, member of the U.S.-Israel Science and Technology Commission, and Presidential appointee to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Mr. Levine founded and co-chaired Rebuild America, an educational foundation to improve U.S. competitiveness. He also served, at the request of Vice President Al Gore, as Co-President of Builders for Peace, the private sector effort to assist the Middle East peace process. Mr. Levine is a former President of the American Friends of the Rabin Center in Israel. He is President of the Board of Commissioners of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, a member of the Advisory Board of the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California (Berkeley), Chair of the Advisory Board of the Center on Public Diplomacy of the Annenberg School at USC, and is Co-Chair of the California Coalition for Public Education. He was named one of the "100 Most Influential" lawyers in California and is listed in America’s Best Lawyers.

15 October

Priorities in the Middle East: 2017 and Beyond

09:30 AM 10:30 AM Grand Salon Ballroom, 1st Floor

Tanvi Madan

Director, The India Project

The Brookings Institution

Dr. Tanvi Madan is a fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, and director of The India Project. Madan’s work explores Indian foreign policy, focusing in particular on India's relations with China and the United States. She also researches the intersection between Indian energy policies and its foreign and security policies.

Previously she was a Harrington doctoral fellow and teaching assistant at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where she completed a dissertation entitled "With an Eye to the East: The China Factor and the U.S.-India Relationship, 1949-1979." She has also previously been a research analyst at the Brookings Institution.

15 October

U.S. Strategic Future: Regional Theaters in Flux

10:45 AM 11:45 AM Glass Lounge, 1st Floor

John Mecklin

Editor-in-Chief

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Mr. John Mecklin is the editor-in-chief for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. He was previously the editor-in-chief of Miller-McCune (since renamed Pacific Standard) and the editor of High Country News. As an investigative reporter for the Houston Post, he covered the Persian Gulf War from Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Mecklin’s writing has been honored with a number of awards, including the Investigative Reporters and Editors certificate and the John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism.

15 October

North Korea’s Nuclear Future: What Can Be Done?

02:00 PM 03:00 PM Chateau VIII, 2nd Floor

Jesse Medlong

Litigation Associate

DLA Piper

Jesse is a lawyer at the global law firm DLA Piper. He was selected as a Krantz Fellow working exclusively on pro bono matters for his first year. During that year, his time was divided between providing legal services to military veterans and supporting New Perimeter, DLA Piper’s unique global legal nonprofit. He is now a litigation associate in DLA Piper's San Francisco office. His practice focuses on regulatory compliance and environmental law.

Jesse has focused academically and professionally on international law and policy. He has a master’s degree in international relations. As a law student at the University of Michigan, he spent a semester supporting the U.S. delegation to the Human Rights Council. He is also part of a team of lawyers representing Georgia at U.N. climate negotiations, including the historic COP21 negotiations in Paris. Before going to law school, he served for ten years in the U.S. Navy, where he received a commendation for his performance on over 100 maritime interdiction operations that helped prevent the illicit export of oil and import of weapons into Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

Jesse writes on veterans issues, military law, executive power, and the law of war, and he is a member of Pacific Council on International Policy and the Truman Security Project's Defense Council. Read more about his background, and check out his article on globalization and trade.

Read more about his background, and check out his article on globalization and trade.

15 October

Global Economic Forecast: Prospects for Growth, Innovation, and Development

02:00 PM 03:00 PM Grand Chateau, 2nd Floor

Steve Miska

National Security Consultant

Steve Miska consults on matters of national security, having retired as a colonel after 25 years of service in the military. His last assignment was teaching three years as the army chair at the Marine Corps University. He has taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Previously, he served in the White House as a director for Iraq on the National Security Council. In 2007, on his second of three combat tours in Iraq, Steve led a team that established an underground railroad for dozens of interpreters from Baghdad to Amman to the United States. He has published numerous articles, most recently on protecting local allies during conflict. He earned top academic honors as a counterterrorism fellow at the College of National Security Affairs and has taught national security at Marine Corps War College.

He has spoken on Iraq-based threats at the Defense Intelligence Agency, RAND, and numerous media outlets and think tanks. He holds degrees from Cornell University, National Defense University, and the United States Military Academy at West Point. He also serves as a consultant to several nonprofits, including the Global Peace Foundation, No One Left Behind, IRAP, and the i5 Freedom Network in Southern California. He is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy and the Cornell Club of LA.

15 October

An Asymmetric Foe: Defeating the Digital Caliphate

02:00 PM 03:00 PM Glass Lounge, 1st Floor

John Mueller

Senior Research Scientist and Woody Hayes Chair Emeritus of National Security Studies

Ohio State University

John Mueller is Ralph D. Mershon Senior Research Scientist and Woody Hayes Chair of National Security Studies Emeritus at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, and adjunct professor of political science at The Ohio State University. He is also a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C.

Mueller is currently working on terrorism, particularly the reactions and costly over-reactions it often inspires. His book, Chasing Ghosts: The Policing of Terrorism, written in collaboration with engineer and risk analyst Mark Stewart, was published in 2016 by Oxford University Press. A related book, Terrorism, Security, and Money: Balancing the Risks, Benefits, and Costs of Homeland Security, also written with Stewart, applies cost-benefit analysis to issues of homeland security and was published in 2011 by Oxford University Press.

Mueller's 2010 book, Atomic Obsession: Nuclear Alarmism from Hiroshima to Al Qaeda (Oxford University Press), suggests that atomic terrorism is highly unlikely and that efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation frequently have damaging results. He has also written Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them (Free Press, 2006). The New York Times called the book "important" and "accurate, timely, and necessary." Read more about his background.

15 October

The Future of U.S. Global Leadership: Engagement or Retrenchment?

03:15 PM 04:20 PM Grand Salon Ballroom, 1st Floor

Lori Esposito Murray

Adjunct Senior Fellow

Council on Foreign Relations

Lori Esposito Murray is an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to joining CFR, she held the distinguished national security chair at the U.S. Naval Academy sponsored by the Class of 1960. She is also president emeritus of the World Affairs Councils of America (WACA), the largest nonpartisan, nonprofit grassroots organization dedicated to educating and engaging the American public on global issues.

Murray was special advisor to the president on the Chemical Weapons Convention during the Clinton Administration, where she helped oversee the bipartisan approval of the convention. She is also the former assistant director for multilateral affairs of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency at the U.S. State Department, responsible for multilateral negotiations on nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons issues.

She also served as executive director of the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender-Integrated Training in the Military and Related Issues, established by Secretary of Defense William Cohen.

Murray’s congressional experience includes having worked for almost a decade as a senior legislative assistant on national security policy for Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-KS), a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Her responsibilities included the full spectrum of foreign policy, defense, intelligence, and trade issues. Read more about her background.

15 October

The Future of U.S. Global Leadership: Engagement or Retrenchment?

03:15 PM 04:20 PM Grand Salon Ballroom, 1st Floor

Dawn Nakagawa

Executive Vice President

Berggruen Institute

Dawn is the Executive Vice President of the Berggruen Institute. In this position, Dawn is responsible for building the institution to become an organization of global reach and influence. Prior to joining the Berggruen Institute, Dawn was the Executive Vice President of the Pacific Council on International Policy, a global leadership network dedicated to enhancing awareness of and developing solutions to global challenges. In her position she oversaw all aspects of the organization and drove several special initiatives including the Energy, Environment and Security Committee and the Equitable Globalization Committee. She also co-directed the project on California’s Adaptation to Climate Change, recruiting the members of the taskforce which ultimately was appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to be the California Adaptation Advisory Council to the State. Prior to joining the Pacific Council, Dawn worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Company where she developed growth strategy for Fortune 500 companies in a variety of industries, including high tech, medical device, biotech, consumer products and retail industries. She holds an MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the McGill University in Canada. Dawn sits on the board of the Values Schools charter school organization, and an active member of the California Peace Action Network and California League of Conservation Voters.

15 October

How Nations Survive and Thrive in a World in Decline

04:45 PM 05:45 PM Grand Salon Ballroom, 1st Floor

Rima Nashashibi

Managing Partner

Nashashibi International Consultants LLC

Born in Jerusalem, Palestine, Rima Nashashibi is an Internationally Recognized Speaker, Political and Community Leader/Activist with more than 20 years of experience in public speaking, conducting seminars, and media appearances promoting openness, equal opportunity, tolerance, fairness, and justice for persons of all genders, ethnicity, religious backgrounds, and political persuasions. Ms. Nashashibi has been a guest speaker and trainer locally, nationally, and for the US Department of State internationally in places such as Jerusalem, Qatar,Bahrain and Kuwait.

Selected as one of 10 public figures, elected officials, and activists profiled in Paul Findley's book Silent No More: Confronting America's False Images of Islam (Amana Publications, 2001).

Founded and led local, regional,national, and international organizations such as the Coalition of Women from Asia and the Middle (Educating on/Preventing Domestic Violence), the Arab American Democratic Caucus, the CA Democratic Party; One Voice In Unity PAC; and the Latino Arab American Advisory Committee. She was the Vice Chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County for 10 years, President of the National Women Political Caucus of Orange County, President of the Insurance Professionals of Orange County and the first Arab American Woman to run for Statewide office in California in 1998. Ms. Nashashibi was also elected Deputy Director in District 2 of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Ms. Nashashibi is currently a member of the Advisory Board of Friends of UNRWA, USA and the Arab American National Museum;the Community Chair of the Middle East Studies Initiative at University of California at Irvine.

Prior to immigrating to the United States in 1980, Rima received her degree in Economics from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. Since then, she has been living in Orange County, California, and presently is Managing Partner of Nashashibi International Consultants LLC, a consulting firm which offers a number of services including professional transition, cultural sensitivity training, business and non-profit management and development and event coordination and planning (both political and non-political).

14 October

Campfire Sessions

07:30 PM 08:30 PM Garden

Peter Neffenger

Administrator

Transportation Security Administration

Vice Admiral Peter Neffenger was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the Transportation Security Administration’s sixth administrator in June 2015. He leads a workforce of nearly 60,000 employees, including the Federal Air Marshal Service, and is responsible for security operations at nearly 450 airports throughout the United States and shared security for highways, railroads, ports, mass transit systems and pipelines.

Under his leadership, TSA is continuing to evolve as a risk-based, intelligence-driven, professional counterterrorism agency dedicated to protecting the U.S. transportation systems.

Before joining TSA, Neffenger served as the 29th Vice Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, a position he held since May 2014. Prior to this, Neffenger served as the Coast Guard’s Deputy Commandant for Operations, where he directed strategy, policy, resources and doctrine for the employment of Coast Guard forces globally. He is a recognized expert in crisis management, and most notably served as the Deputy National Incident Commander for the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest and most complex in U.S. history.

Neffenger has had extensive operational and command experience throughout his career, which began with his commissioning in 1982 through the Coast Guard Officer Candidate School.

He holds a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University, a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College, and a Master of Arts in Business Management from Central Michigan University. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from Baldwin Wallace University. He is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy and a former fellow on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

14 October

Campfire Sessions

07:30 PM 08:30 PM Garden

Amy J. Nelson

Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow

Council on Foreign Relations

Dr. Amy Nelson is currently a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California Berkeley in December of 2013. Dr. Nelson completed her dissertation while a Research Fellow at SIPRI North America and the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C. and subsequently worked as a policy analyst at the State Department.

Dr. Nelson's book manuscript focuses on the effect of uncertainty on the negotiation of arms control agreements. More precisely, the project addresses uncertainty about the capabilities and intentions of rival nation-states within a decision-theoretic framework. She argues that when nation-states rely on risk reduction and threat elimination strategies during arms control negotiations, they tend to produce agreements of limited scope, scale and duration--outcomes that aren't necessarily conducive to security goals of long-term peace and stability. The irony is that, in many cases, these kinds of agreements are the best we can hope for because they remove barriers to reaching negotiated outcomes. Broader agreements that are loaded with confidence- and security- building measures do tend to last longer because they are more effective at managing uncertainty about capabilities and intentions in the long run. To address these issues and help inform best practices for negotiating new agreements, Dr. Nelson has assembled a dataset of arms control negotiations dating from 1945 to 2010. Read more about her background.

15 October

North Korea’s Nuclear Future: What Can Be Done?

02:00 PM 03:00 PM Chateau VIII, 2nd Floor

Arthur J. Ochoa

Senior VP, Community Relations and Development

Cedars-Sinai Health System

Arthur J. Ochoa is a health care executive and lawyer in Los Angeles. Art is responsible for all of Cedars-Sinai's development, marketing, communications and community benefit, as well as other external functions. Prior to joining Cedars-Sinai in 2001, Art practiced transactional and tax law for individual, corporate and not-for-profit clients at two of Los Angeles' most respected firms - O'Melveny & Myers LLP and Irell & Manella LLP. He is also a past chairman of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Tax Exempt Organization Committee. Art began his career in Washington, DC as an advocate and policy analyst at Youth Service America during the formative years of the national and community service movement. Art is vice-chair of the boards of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles and Women's Heart Alliance in Washington, DC. He is a trustee of the Marlborough School and the immediate past board president of the Center for Early Education. Art is a director of the Pacific Council on International Policy and an honorary trustee of the Mexican American Bar Foundation. Art is a graduate of the University of Southern California (cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) and the Yale Law School.

15 October

The Race for a Zika Vaccine: Global Health in Action

10:45 AM 11:45 AM Chateau VIII, 2nd Floor

Penny Pritzker

U.S. Secretary of Commerce

Penny Pritzker has served as the 38th U.S. Secretary of Commerce since being sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden on June 26, 2013. As Secretary of Commerce, she is focused on providing American businesses and entrepreneurs with the tools they need to grow and hire.

Secretary Pritzker is a key member of President Obama’s economic team, with 27 years of private sector experience. Since taking office, she has worked closely with the business community and helped advance the President’s priorities of expanding growth and opportunity for all Americans. Guided by conversations with more than 2,100 CEOs and business leaders, Secretary Pritzker has developed the “Open for Business Agenda.” This bold strategic plan and policy blueprint for the Commerce Department is comprised of five pillars that guide the diverse activities of our 12 bureaus: trade and investment, innovation, environment, data, and operational excellence.

As the country’s chief commercial advocate, Secretary Pritzker leads the Obama administration’s trade and investment promotion efforts. Secretary Pritzker has traveled to more than 38 countries and is the first Commerce Secretary to visit Myanmar. She has led successful trade missions to Mexico, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Ghana, Japan, and Korea, as well as a joint trade mission with the U.S. Department of Energy to China focused on clean energy technologies and commercial diplomacy missions to Turkey, Poland, Ukraine, Tunisia, and ASEAN. A prominent advocate for America’s economic growth, Secretary Pritzker has initiated the U.S. High Level Economic Dialogue with Mexico, expanded our Foreign Commercial Service presence around the world, and worked with the American business community on urgent issues, such as the crisis in Ukraine. Read more about her background.

14 October

Dinner and Keynote Interview

05:30 PM 07:30 PM Grand Salon Ballroom, 1st Floor

Vijaya Ramachandran

Senior Fellow

Center for Global Development

Dr. Vijaya Ramachandran is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. She works on private-sector development, financial flows, food security, humanitarian assistance, and development interventions in fragile states. Most recently, she coauthored an essay titled "Development as Diffusion: Manufacturing Productivity and Africa's Missing Middle,” published in the Oxford Handbook on Economics and Africa. Currently, she is looking at the unintended consequences of rich countries’ anti-money laundering policies on poor countries, and at better ways to deliver humanitarian assistance.

Ramachandran has published her research in various journals includingWorld Development, Development Policy Review, Governance, Prism, and AIDS and is the author of a CGD book, Africa’s Private Sector: What’s Wrong with the Business Environment and What to Do About It.

Prior to joining CGD, Ramachandran worked in the Africa Private Sector Group of the World Bank and in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. She also served on the faculty at Georgetown University and Duke University. Her work has appeared in several media outlets including the Economist, Financial Times, Guardian, Washington Post, New York Times, National Public Radio, and Voice of America. Read more about her background.

15 October

Global Economic Forecast: Prospects for Growth, Innovation, and Development

02:00 PM 03:00 PM Grand Chateau, 2nd Floor

Carla Robbins

Clinical Professor of National Security Studies & Faculty Director

MIA Program, Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, Baruch College CUNY

A specialist in national security and diplomacy, Dr. Carla Robbins is a nationally known journalist and foreign policy commentator. She served for six years as Deputy Editorial Page Editor and Assistant Editorial Page Editor at The New York Times. Before that, she spent 13 years in Washington covering diplomacy and national security for The Wall Street Journal. Robbins has reported from Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Central and South America.

Robbins is also an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. She writes and comments frequently on national security and defense issues with a particular focus on American politics and foreign policy, Washington’s budget battles, defense spending, US military rivalries and interventions, and the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.

She was awarded Georgetown University’s 2003 Edward Weintal Prize for diplomatic coverage. At the Journal she also shared in two Pulitzer prizes: the 2000 Prize for National Reporting on the Post-Cold War defense budget and the 1999 Prize for International Reporting on the Russian financial crisis. She is also a co-winner of the 2004 Elizabeth Neuffer Prize from the U.N. Correspondents Association, the 2004 Peter R. Weitz Prize from the German Marshall Fund and the 1984 Morton Frank Award from the Overseas Press Club.

Robbins is a graduate of Wellesley College and holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard and a media fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group and the Council on Foreign Relations. Read more about her background.

15 October

The Future of U.S. Global Leadership: Engagement or Retrenchment?

03:15 PM 04:20 PM Grand Salon Ballroom, 1st Floor

Carlos M. Sada

Ambassador of Mexico to the United States

On April 21, 2016, Carlos Manuel Sada was approved as Mexico’s new ambassador in Washington. Ambassador Sada is a highly respected career diplomat who previously served as the Consul General of Mexico in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, San Antonio, and Toronto, Canada. He also serves as Co-Chair of the Pacific Council’s Consul General Advisory Board, which works to strengthen ties with California’s diplomatic community.

With Ambassador Sada's help and support, the Pacific Council recently launched our new “Mexico Initiative” to position the Council as a thought leader promoting closer ties and relations between Mexico and the United States, with a focus on California. The initiative aims to expand programming, strengthen outreach and recruitment efforts, and produce analysis and commentary to inform public discourse regarding the U.S.-Mexico bilateral relationship. It was formally launched on April 7, 2016, at an event co-hosted by the Pacific Council and others focusing on Mexico’s political and economic outlook. Other important activities are planned for the remainder of 2016 and 2017.

15 October

President's Welcome & Lunch Keynote: The U.S.-Mexico Partnership

12:00 PM 01:45 PM Grand Salon Ballroom, 1st Floor

Dan Schnur

Director, Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics

University of Southern California

Dan Schnur is the Director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California, where he works to motivate students to become involved in politics, government, and public service and teaches popular classes in politics, communications, and leadership. He also is the Founder and Director of the USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences/Los Angeles Times poll series.

Dan has worked for years as a political reformer and has held several leadership positions in this field. In 2010, Dan was appointed Chairman of the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC). During his tenure, he implemented groundbreaking campaign finance disclosure requirements for independent committees, appointed a bipartisan task force to update California’s 1978 Political Reform Act, and worked to assure the disclosure of campaign finance and spending practices, fair elections, and government transparency. Dan also was a founder and co-chairman of the Voices of Reform project, the bi-partisan statewide effort whose work laid the foundation for California’s landmark redistricting reform.

After completing his FPPC term, Dan registered as a no-party preference voter and launched Fixing California, an organization dedicated to campaign finance and political reform. In 2014, Dan ran for statewide office as a non-partisan candidate for California Secretary of State. Dan’s campaign focused on rebuilding the political center, the need for campaign fundraising reform, and increasing civics education in California schools. Dan plans on continuing the discussion on how to fix a current broken system of politics in California to address the challenges facing the state. Read more about his background.

15 October

The Future of U.S. Global Leadership: Engagement or Retrenchment?

03:15 PM 04:20 PM Grand Salon Ballroom, 1st Floor

Ann M. Simmons

Global Development Writer and Editor

Los Angeles Times

Ann M. Simmons is a global development writer/editor on the foreign desk of the Los Angeles Times, where she covers global sustainability issues. In her most recent role she served as a video and multimedia journalist. She has worked as a metro reporter and national and foreign correspondent. She has been based in Russia, Kenya and South Africa and has reported from Iraq and several other countries across the globe. A Brit, Simmons holds a double honors bachelor’s degree in Russian and Norwegian from the University of Anglia in Norwich, England, and a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School Journalism. She was a Nieman fellow at Harvard in 2003. Read more about her background.

14 October

Dinner and Keynote Interview

05:30 PM 07:30 PM Grand Salon Ballroom, 1st Floor

15 October

65 Million and Counting: An Unprecedented Refugee Crisis

02:00 PM 03:00 PM Chateau X, 2nd Floor

Dina Smeltz

Senior Fellow, Public Opinion and Foreign Policy

Chicago Council on Global Affairs

Dina Smeltz joined the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in February 2012 as a senior fellow for public opinion and foreign policy. She has over 20 years of experience in designing and fielding international social, political and foreign policy surveys.

As the director of research in the Middle East and South Asia division (2001-2007) and analyst/director of the European division (1992-2004) in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the US. State Department's Office of Research, Smeltz conducted over a hundred surveys in these regions and regularly briefed senior government officials on key research findings. Her experience includes mass public and elite surveys, as well as qualitative research. She has written numerous policy-relevant reports on Arab, Muslim, and South Asian regional attitudes toward political, economic, social, and foreign policy issues. Her writing also includes policy briefs and reports on the post-1989 political transitions in Central and Eastern Europe, and European attitudes toward a wide range foreign policy issues including globalization, European integration, immigration, NATO, and European security.

With a special emphasis research in post-conflict situations (informally referred to as a "combat pollster"), Smeltz has worked with research teams in Bosnia, Kosovo, Cyprus, Israel-Palestinian Territories, and in Iraq (2003-2005), where she was one of the few people on the ground who could accurately report average Iraqis impressions of the post-war situation. Smeltz has consulted for several NGOs and research organizations on projects spanning women's development in Afghanistan, civil society in Egypt, and evaluating voter education efforts in Iraq. Read more about her background.

15 October

How Nations Survive and Thrive in a World in Decline

04:45 PM 05:45 PM Grand Salon Ballroom, 1st Floor

Vera Songwe

Regional Director for West and Central Africa

International Finance Corporation

Dr. Vera Songwe is Regional Director for West and Central Africa at the International Finance Corporation. She is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institute with the Global Economy and Development and Africa Growth Initiative. Her main areas of interest are fiscal policy, innovative financing mechanisms for development, agriculture, energy and economic governance. She is a member of the African Leadership Network. Prior to becoming Director, she was a Lead Economist at the World Bank and the Advisor to the Managing Director who oversaw the World Bank Operations in the Africa, Europe and Central Asia and South Asia regions, as well as Human Resources, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. She is a member of the World Bank Group team that recently raised a historic US$49.3 billion dollars in concessional financing for the low income countries of the World as part of the International Development Association (IDA) 16th replenishment. Prior to this, she worked in the East Asia and Pacific Region’s - Poverty Reduction and Economic Management unit, as Country Sector Coordinator and Senior Economist for the Philippines, where she led the dialogue on macroeconomic, fiscal policy and governance issues. She has worked in Mongolia, Cambodia and Morocco managing different World Bank programs and the economic and growth policy dialogue. Prior to joining the Bank, Dr. Songwe was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Southern California and at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, USA. She has published several articles on governance, fiscal policy, agriculture and commodity price volatility and trade.

Dr. Songwe holds a PhD. in Mathematical Economics from the Center for Operations Research & Econometrics from the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium. She holds a BA in Economics and a BA in Political Science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Read more about her background.

15 October

Africa Transformed: Regional Integration, Trade, and Investment

10:45 AM 11:45 AM Chateau X, 2nd Floor

Jonathan Tepperman

Managing Editor

Foreign Affairs

Jonathan Tepperman is the managing editor of Foreign Affairs magazine and author of the upcoming book, "The Fix: How Nations Survive and Thrive in a World in Decline" (Crown, September 2016).

Tepperman has spent close to twenty years working on international affairs as an editor, writer, and analyst. He started his career in foreign policy working as a speechwriter at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1994. After stints as a reporter at the Forward and the Jerusalem Post, he joined Foreign Affairs in 1998 as a junior editor. He later moved to Newsweek International, where he was deputy editor (under Fareed Zakaria), and then worked as a political risk consultant before returning to Foreign Affairs in January 2011.

Tepperman has written for a range of publications, including Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, the New Republic, and others, on subjects ranging from international affairs to municipal politics to food and fashion. Read more about his background.

15 October

How Nations Survive and Thrive in a World in Decline

04:45 PM 05:45 PM Grand Salon Ballroom, 1st Floor

Barton H. Thompson, Jr.

Robert E. Paradise Professor of Natural Resources Law

Stanford Law School

Barton H. “Buzz” Thompson, Jr., JD/MBA ’76 (BA ’72) is a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. A leading expert in environmental and natural resources law and policy, he has contributed a large body of scholarship on environmental issues ranging from the future of endangered species and fisheries to the use of economic techniques for regulating the environment. He is the founding director of the law school’s Environmental and Natural Resources Program, Perry L. McCarty Director and senior fellow of the Woods Institute for the Environment, and a senior fellow (by courtesy) at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. In 2008, the Supreme Court appointed Professor Thompson to serve as the special master in Montana v. Wyoming (137 Original). Professor Thompson is chairman of the board of the Resources Legacy Fund and the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, a California trustee for The Nature Conservancy, and a board member of both the American Farmland Trust and the Sonoran Institute. He previously served as a member of the Science Advisory Board for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1986, he was a partner at O’Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles and a lecturer at the UCLA School of Law. He was a law clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist ’52 (BA ’48, MA ’48) of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Joseph T. Sneed of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Read more about his background.

15 October

Confronting California’s Drought and the Global Water Crisis

10:45 AM 11:45 AM Grand Chateau, 2nd Floor

Steve Westly

Founder & Managing Partner

The Westly Group

Prior to founding The Westly Group, Steve Westly served as the Controller and Chief Fiscal Officer of the state of California – the world’s seventh largest economy. As Controller, he chaired the State Lands Commission and served on 63 other boards and commissions, including CalPERS and CalSTRS, the nation’s two largest public pension funds, which together invest more than $350 billion.

In the 2008 election cycle Steve served as a California co-chair of the Obama for America campaign. He also served on the Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board as a representative for the venture capital industry.

Before running for office, Steve helped guide the online auction company eBay through its period of most rapid growth, serving as the Senior Vice President of Marketing, Business Development, M&A and International. Steve helped bring eBay to Europe and Asia and developed the marketing and acquisition strategies that paved the path for the firm’s exponential growth. Read more about his background.

15 October

Confronting California’s Drought and the Global Water Crisis

10:45 AM 11:45 AM Grand Chateau, 2nd Floor

Members Weekend 2016

Speakers

Sessions

Newsroom

Sponsors

Schedule

Paramount Pictures Field Foray

Welcome Reception

Dinner and Keynote Interview

Campfire Sessions

Nightcap Reception

Morning Yoga Session

Breakfast

Priorities in the Middle East: 2017 and Beyond

Africa Transformed: Regional Integration, Trade, and Investment

Confronting California’s Drought and the Global Water Crisis

The Race for a Zika Vaccine: Global Health in Action

U.S. Strategic Future: Regional Theaters in Flux

President's Welcome & Lunch Keynote: The U.S.-Mexico Partnership

65 Million and Counting: An Unprecedented Refugee Crisis

An Asymmetric Foe: Defeating the Digital Caliphate

Global Economic Forecast: Prospects for Growth, Innovation, and Development

North Korea’s Nuclear Future: What Can Be Done?

The Future of U.S. Global Leadership: Engagement or Retrenchment?

Coffee Break

How Nations Survive and Thrive in a World in Decline

Closing Reception

Manpreet Singh Anand

15 October

Global Economic Forecast: Prospects for Growth, Innovation, and Development

Najla Ayubi

14 October

Campfire Sessions

Meghan Benton

15 October

65 Million and Counting: An Unprecedented Refugee Crisis

Katherine E. Bliss

15 October

The Race for a Zika Vaccine: Global Health in Action

Elizabeth Bodine-Baron

15 October

An Asymmetric Foe: Defeating the Digital Caliphate

Nell Cady-Kruse

15 October

Global Economic Forecast: Prospects for Growth, Innovation, and Development

Michael C. Camuñez

15 October

President's Welcome & Lunch Keynote: The U.S.-Mexico Partnership

Rachel Cardone

15 October

Confronting California’s Drought and the Global Water Crisis

Derek Chollet

15 October

U.S. Strategic Future: Regional Theaters in Flux

Martha Crenshaw

15 October

Priorities in the Middle East: 2017 and Beyond

15 October

An Asymmetric Foe: Defeating the Digital Caliphate

Shelly Culbertson

15 October

65 Million and Counting: An Unprecedented Refugee Crisis

Michael J. DeRenzo

15 October

Africa Transformed: Regional Integration, Trade, and Investment

Benjamin H. Friedman

15 October

The Future of U.S. Global Leadership: Engagement or Retrenchment?

Jerrold D. Green

15 October

Priorities in the Middle East: 2017 and Beyond

15 October

U.S. Strategic Future: Regional Theaters in Flux

Grant T. Harris

15 October

Africa Transformed: Regional Integration, Trade, and Investment

Jennifer M. Harris

15 October

North Korea’s Nuclear Future: What Can Be Done?

Roberta S. Jacobson