Item Posted: January 29, 2009

Eisenhower Medal Recipient Named Middle East Envoy by President Obama

U.S. President Barack Obama named former Senator George J. Mitchell as a Middle East envoy who will try to assist with Arab-Israeli peace talks. Mitchell, the 2008 recipient of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Medal for Leadership and Service, has a history of helping settle long-running violent conflicts: In 1996, the governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland asked Senator Mitchell to chair the peace negotiations in Northern Ireland. The Senator led the negotiations for two years, work that ultimately resulted in the historic Good Friday Accord that ended decades of conflict.

Eisenhower Fellowships congratulates Senator Mitchell on his new appointment and wishes him well in his endeavors.

Item Posted: January 28, 2009

Romania Fellow Named EU's 2008 Woman of the Year

Monica Macovei, '97, Romania, was named the 2008 European Woman of the Year by Parliament. Macovei, a former minister of justice in Romania and a former anti-corruption advisor in Macedonia, currently works for the government of the United Kingdom as a justice reforms consultant.

According to an article in The Parliament magazine, Macovei was recognized for her "efforts in rooting out political corruption in her own country. She described the award as a 'great honor' and praised the other candidates who came from 11 different countries. Dedicating the prize to 'all Romanians who believe in the rule of law,' she said, 'Tackling corruption has been the most challenging thing in my life but I will continue because I believe in zero corruption.'"

Item Posted: January 28, 2009

CIPPEC Named Among Top Five Think Tanks in Latin America

Diego Valenzuela, '08, Argentina, is on the board of CIPPEC, or the Center for Implementation of Public Policies for Equity and Growth, which was recently named one of the top five think tanks in Latin America and the Caribbean by Foreign Policy magazine. The full index can be found here. Valenzuela is also a program host for Radio Continental.

CIPPEC is a private, non-profit organization that strives to create a more just, democratic, and efficient state in Argentina to improve the quality of life for all Argentine citizens.

Item Posted: January 28, 2009

Fellow Promoted to Vice Rector, Moscow State Linguistic University

Vera Zabotkina, '01, Russa, was promoted to the position of vice-rector for international projects at Moscow State Linguistic University. She was previously a vice-rector for international projects at Kaliningrad State University.

Item Posted: January 28, 2009

Two Appointments for Romania Fellow

Irina Anghel, '08, Romania, was appointed President of the Future of the Profession Commission of the Association Internationale des Jeunes Avocats, the largest global association of young lawyers. She was also appointed as an Ambassador of the Global Entrepreneurship Week (the Week has five ambassadors worldwide). Anghel is founding partner of the Law Office of Irina Anghel.

Item Posted: January 27, 2009

Indonesia Fellow Profiled for Documentary

Nia Dinata, '08, Indonesia, has been featured in several news articles this month for her work as a filmmaker, as well as for a recent documentary of which she was the subject. An article in TIME magazine announced the release of her DVD boxed set, The Nia Dinata Collection. And an article on the Muslimah Media Watch website describes a documentary that was made about Dinata during the release of her film Chants of Lotus, as well as her experiences with filmmaking in Indonesia.

The following is an excerpt from the Muslimah Media Watch article, "Swimming Against the Current: A Look at Nia Dinata via Dispatches."

...Dinata tells us that she continues to fight the censorship boards for not only her films but for the future of Indonesian films and the for the rights of the audiences to watch complete films. She fights on despite the fact that the courts have ruled against her in her case against them, but that the courts have said that the censors need to find better ways of working with the film makers. Fatah then ends the documentary by stating that, for Dinata, the best way for her to balance being Muslim and modern was to continue telling the gritty stories of her films.

Item Posted: January 23, 2009

USA Fellow Elected Chairman, Snake River Sugar Company

Duane R. Grant, '03, USA, of Rupert, Idaho, was elected Chairman of the Board at Snake River Sugar Company’s January 7th annual board meeting. Grant has been a Board Member since 2003, has been a member of the Executive Committee since 2004, and 1st Vice Chairman since 2006. Grant is a partner in Grant 4-D Farms, and produces approximately 5,000 acres of sugarbeets annually. Grant has previously held numerous industry leadership positions, including serving for five years on the Advisory Committee on Biotechnology to the US Secretary of Agriculture. He is a member of the Farm Foundation, and was the 2003 Eisenhower Agriculture Fellow.

Snake River Sugar Company is a grower-owned cooperative, producing approximately 10% of the sugar consumed annually in the US from 200,000 acres of sugarbeets planted in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. The 1,200 member cooperative purchased Amalgamated Sugar Co. in 1997, and is headquartered in Boise, Idaho.

Item Posted: January 21, 2009

USA Fellow Promoted to Director, Ethics and Business Conduct

Stephanie F. Pope, '08, USA, is the director of Ethics and Business Conduct for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. She is responsible for leading the IDS global ethics program, ensuring the appropriate deployment of ethics programs and initiatives throughout the business, and helping to maintain a robust compliance management process.

Pope works across the organization to help provide leadership in engaging employees in communicating openly and working cooperatively in identifying and resolving issues and integrating the Boeing values in all aspects of our work environment. She serves on the IDS Leadership Team, co-chairs the IDS Compliance Assessment Team and serves as a member of the IDS Compliance Review Board.

Prior to this assignment, Pope was the Finance Director for the Training Systems & Services (TSS) Division of Boeing's Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) Business Unit in St. Louis. Her responsibilities include providing financial and business expertise to support execution and growth for the TSS business.

Item Posted: January 21, 2009

Left to right: Professor John Zysman, EF Trustee Jonathan Murray, Dr. Khalid Al-Ruwaihi, and another speaker at the ICT Forum

Several Fellows Convene at Symposium in Bahrain

In early December, several Fellows of the 2008 Multi Nation Program gathered in Bahrain for the ICT Forum, which was hosted by Dr. Khalid M. Al-Ruwaihi, Bahrain, at the University of Bahrain, where Dr. Al-Ruwaihi is dean of the College of Information Technology. In attendance were Suuad Alharthi, Saudi Arabia; and Irina Anghel, Romania; as well as EF Trustee Jonathan Murray, Worldwide Technology Officer, Microsoft Corporation.

Left to right: Suuad Alharthi and Irina Anghel

The symposium was an outcome of Dr. Al-Ruwaihi's fellowship. The event originated during his meeting with University of California Professor John Zysman.

Item Posted: January 21, 2009

Former EF President Dorie Friend Profiled

Theodore "Dorie" Friend, EF president from 1984-1996, was recently featured in The Daily Gazette, the newspaper of Swarthmore College. Friend was president of Swarthmore before becoming president of EF.

Below is an excerpt from the article (which can be found in full here):

...Friend was offered the presidency of the Eisenhower Fellowships, which sponsors professionals aged 32–45 to come to the U.S. for a program in their field, as well as sending American professionals abroad. Friend accepted on the condition that the Fellowships raise an endowment: “otherwise,” he said, “it couldn’t survive.” The board said that was okay, but only if Friend was the one to do the actual fundraising.

Friend originally got onto the board, in 1982, with the help of Tom McCabe, who was the founding chairman; Friend served as president from 1984 to ‘96. Colin Powell is now the current chairman.

The programs “aren’t purely academic—in fact they’re all practical, in fields from agribusiness to medical research to government and law.” Swarthmore is nothing if not purely academic, but the common thread between the Fellowships and Swarthmore, Friend said, was the “talent and motivation” of its participants.

Some people had told Friend that, having done a small school, he should go be president of some big university. He said, though, that he knew the scale he preferred: “small and excellent, like Swarthmore.” He did find that in the Eisenhower Fellowships: “I loved that job too.”

Item Posted: January 20, 2009

US Ambassador to Macedonia Philip Reeker (left) and Dr. John M. Sumansky (right)

USA Fellow Leads First Ever National Business Plan Competition in Macedonia

Dr. John Sumansky, '94, USA, and a Fulbright Scholar to Macedonia, organized the first ever national Business Plan Competition for university students in the Republic of Macedonia in the fall of 2008. The competition was made possible through a grant from Public Affairs Democracy Grants Program at the U.S. Embassy. The competition culminated in an awards dinner on November 21, 2008 – to coincide with the worldwide celebration of Global Entrerpreneurship Week, sponsored in part by the E. M. Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, MO.

To promote the program with faculty and students, Dr. Sumansky made presentations to more than 600 university students in a two-week period in October 2008. The competition produced 37 business plans in three different languages. From these 37, a panel of judges selected 10 finalists to travel to Tetova and the State University for a day-long program at which each finalist made an oral presentation before a distinguished panel of judges. The highlight of the day occurred when U.S. Ambassador Philip Reeker joined the group in Tetova to make a brief speech on entrepreneurship and announce the winners, who received $1,000 cash.

Item Posted: January 19, 2009

Fellow Appointed Trustee, Presidental Trust Fund of Tanzania

Olive D. Luena, '94, Tanzania, was appointed as one of the Trustees of the Presidential Trust Fund, which was created 25 years ago to help fight poverty in Tanzania through microfinance provisions. She was appointed by His Excellency the President of United Republic of Tanzania Hon Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete. The appointment is for three years, effective January 2009. Luena is also CEO of Tanzania Gatsby Trust.

Item Posted: January 15, 2009

Fellow Selected for Schwartz Fellows Program by Asia Society

Simon S.C. Tay, '02, Singapore, was named a 2009 Bernard Schwartz Fellow at the Asia Society in Manhattan. Tay, who is chairman of the Singapore Insitute of International Affairs, will also teach at Yale University on international law, the environment and Asia.

The Bernard Schwartz Resident Fellows Program seeks to help meet the large and growing need for a nuanced public dialogue on important issues related to the growing importance of Asia in the world and global economy by selecting Fellows to serve in residence at the Asia Society headquarters in New York or in its Washington Center.

Tay also published a novel, City of Small Blessings. Visit the book's Facebook page here.

Item Posted: January 14, 2009

Fellow Named One of India's Pioneers of Change

Sunil Kaul, '04, India, was profiled as one of India's Pioneers of Change for his work as founder of the Northeast Action Trust (ANT). According to the article, "He is a product of India who is trying to save Bharat. That, in a gist, sums up the good doctor who, in the middle of Bodoland in Assam’s Chirang district, is bringing about a silent movement eradicating the deadly malaria, running a weavers’ network and guiding other NGOs in the region."

Read the full profile here.

Item Posted: January 13, 2009

Turkey Fellow Receives 2008 Young Scientist Award

Bulent Yildiz, '07, Turkey, has received the 2008 Young Scientist Award from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) for his significant scientific contributions to the fields of two public health problems: polycystic ovary syndrome and obesity.

The TUBITAK Awards are the most prestigious science awards of Turkey, conferred on the basis of outstanding scholarly achievements. Yildiz’s award was presented by President Abdullah Gul (on left in photo) in a ceremony that was held at the Presidential Cankaya Palace for the 43rd traditional awards of TUBITAK on December 23, 2008.

Click here to read Fellow News from December 2008.