Item Posted: March 31, 2009

Plans Progressing for International Conference in Paris

Plans are progressing for the 2009 International Eisenhower Fellowships conference in Paris, Energy: The Challenges for Environment and Security, Oct. 1 and 2. Invited speakers include esteemed leaders such as Mohamed ElBaradei, director general, International Atomic Energy Agency; Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google; and the Honorable Christie Todd Whitman, the former administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and EF Trustee.

A special feature of the conference is the visit on Tuesday, Sept. 29 and Wednesday, Sept. 30 to the ITER Project in Cadarache (shown in photo at right), near the charming town of Aix-en-Provence. ITER is a joint international research and development program aimed at demonstrating the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion power. It is the biggest and most spectacular contribution of the worldwide scientific community to energy research: the ITER parties are the EU, Japan, China, India, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States. The visit is an unforgettable journey into the future of science. It also involves meeting with a remarkably diverse and motivated scientific community.

Registration for the ITER visit is limited and will be allowed on a first-come, first-serve basis.

According to Claude Henrion, '68, France, member of the conference organizing committee, “In my view, this might turn out to be the most striking impression of the whole conference for those who will be registering to this visit.”

Visit the conference website to learn more about conference venues, speakers, accommodations, and registration. We hope to see you in Paris!

Item Posted: March 31, 2009

EF President Meets With Fellows in Romania

On a recent trip to Romania, EF President John Wolf met with a group of Fellows in Bucharest, shortly after the Fellows formed their alumni association.

Shown in the photo below, left to right, are Fellows Florin Dolea, ’03; Calin Zamfirescu, ’96; Cosmin Alexandru, ’05; Irina Anghel, ’08; Anton Niculescu, ’99; Dan Pascariu, ’91; Radu Cojocaru, ‘93; John Wolf; and Radu Dop, '92.

Item Posted: March 31, 2009

Ag Fellow Featured in Several Publications

Hope Pjesky, '08, USA, who was EF's first agriculture Fellow to travel to Asia and the first USA Fellow to Japan, was featured along with her husband in a recent Successful Farming magazine article and web extra. The magazine article is available here, and the web extra is available here.

In addition, Pjesky wrote an op-ed for the FBNews, a publication of the American Farm Bureau, available here at the top of page 2. The article is about food safety lessons that Pjesky learned in Asia during her fellowship.

You can read about Pjesky's entire fellowship experience on her blog, Asian Agriculture Fellowship.

Item Posted: March 30, 2009

USA Fellow on TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People List

Sister Mary Scullion, '02, USA, has been nominated as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. She has helped slash homeless rates in half in Philadelphia, and more than 95% of those who cycle through her Project H.O.M.E. program have never again been forced to live on the streets, a success rate which has made the program a model for dozens of other U.S. cities.

Please take a moment to vote for her here.

Item Posted: March 23, 2009

Irish Fellow Appointed to Steering Group

Professor Joyce O’Connor, '89, Ireland, was appointed to the Steering Group on Active Citizenship by the Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach. The group will act “as a broad based group which will assist and advise on how best Irish communities and society can be strengthened in the years ahead.” Professor O'Connor is chair of the Digital Hub Development Agency.

Item Posted: March 23, 2009

Fellow Interviews Fellow on 'Wired and Active'

Rabia Garib, '07, Pakistan, who hosts a program on political activism called "Wired and Active" for Pakistan's largest English language news network, Dawn News, recently interviewed her fellow Fellow, Supinya Klangnarong, '07, Thailand, on the show. Garib and Klangarong were both a part of the 2007 Multi Nation Program. The show's topic was international political activism and blogging. Garib interviews bloggers from Thailand, Egypt, and Iran to discuss each country's stringent Cyber Crime laws and how bloggers are affected.

To view the interview, click here.

Item Posted: March 23, 2009

2007 CIP Fellow Founds Sustainable Planet Institute

Sanjeev Sanyal, '07, India, is the founder and managing trustee of The Sustainable Planet Institute (SPI), an organization whose mission it is to "turn India from a victim of Climate Change to provider of solutions." Sanyal was previously the chief economist for the Asia Pacific region at the Deutsche Bank. His book "The Indian Renaissance: India's Rise After a Thousand Years of Decline" was published by Penguin in 2008.

Item Posted: March 20, 2009

Fellow's Film to Screen at Muslim Voices Festival

"Love for Share," a film written and directed by Nia Dinata, '08, Indonesia, will be shown as part of the first-ever Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas festival, which will take place in Brooklyn, NY, June 4-15, 2009. The festival will celebrate the extraordinary range of artistic expression in the Muslim world and is sponsored by the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Asia Society, and New York University's Center for Dialogues. For more details and to view a full schedule of events, click here.

Dinata's film also recently screened at the Berlin Film Festival.

Item Posted: March 20, 2009

1960 Fellow Publishes Memoirs

Juan Antonio Gonzalez Arechiga, '60, Mexico, has published his memoirs, entitled "Memorias." In the book, he includes a lengthy chapter on his experiences as an Eisenhower Fellow. He writes, "I consider that my participation in the Eisenhower Fellowship has been very important in my life, because it helped me to open my mind to new ways of visualizing life, and made me capable to dedicate [my life] to education, both as a teacher and as Founder and Rector of a University." Gonzalez Arechiga was formerly the Rector of Universidad Mexicana del Noroeste.

Item Posted: March 20, 2009

Fellow's Books Featured as Series

Geoffrey Moss, '68, New Zealand, has six books featured as a "Secrets Series" for Cengage Learning. The latest book is "Secrets for Career Change." Moss is an international consultant in extension training, communication planning and management skills. He has worked in a dozen of Asian and Pacific countries and has conducted regular workshops at Singapore Institute of Management for more than a decade.

Item Posted: March 19, 2009

L-R: Tarek El-Sheikh welcomes Daniel Biau, Director of Regional and Technical Cooperation Division, UN HABITAT, and H.E Sheikh Al-Adsani, Executive Director of Arab Towns Organisations

Fellow Appointed Head of Mission, UN Human Settlements Program

Tarek El-Sheikh, '07, Egypt, was appointed as Head of Mission for the United Nations Human Settlements Program in Kuwait, where his scope of work will focus on offering support to local organizations in creating sustainable urban development. He was previously an Associate Professor for the National Housing and Building Research Centre, and a Housing Policy Advisor for UN-HABITAT in Cairo. El-Sheikh was part of EF's first-ever Common Interest Program, which focused on the challenges of urbanization.

Item Posted: March 13, 2009

L-R: Julie Schaekel, ACE Group; Gema Moreno, '08, Mexico; Eden Kratchman, ACE INA; and '88 Fellow Marta Pascual, Argentina, at EF's 2008 Women's Forum

ACE INA Podcast Discusses 2008 Latin American Women's Leadership Forum

The ACE Group of Companies launched a new audio podcast featuring the company’s support of the Eisenhower Fellowships’ Latin American Regional Program, which brought together approximately 25 Latin American executives for a three-month leadership training program in the U.S.

In the podcast, Eden Kratchman, Executive Director of the ACE INA Foundation, and Julie Schaekel, Executive Vice President and Chief Auditor for ACE Group, provide an informative overview of ACE’s support of the program’s Latin American Women’s Forum, which took place in New York. To access the podcast (approximately 9 minutes in length), click here.

“We have been a proud supporter of the Eisenhower Fellowships since 2001, bringing together promising leaders to broaden their capabilities, their perspectives and their contacts,” noted Ms. Kratchman. “The Latin American Regional Program provided opportunities for Fellows to meet U.S. business leaders in politics, finance, insurance and the non-profit arena, and to have a better understanding of how to apply this newly-acquired knowledge to their own work,” she said.

As part of the program, the Women’s Forum consisted of an all-day conference that offered panel discussions and presentations by U.S. women executives from the fields of banking, finance, insurance and politics. Ms. Schaekel served as a panelist in a dynamic discussion in which she drew on her experience building the ACE Women’s Forum – a company-supported networking initiative - to help attendees learn more about the challenges women face in the U.S. and the positive benefits to their careers and ultimately, their businesses, through effective networking.

“I was amazed to learn that the challenges women face in the Latin America are the same in the U.S.,” Ms. Schaekel noted. “I think ACE benefited from supporting the Eisenhower Fellowships, and specifically the Latin America Women’s Forum, through our participation in the leadership development of these talented and successful women,” she added.

Evan G. Greenberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ACE Limited, serves as a member of EF's board of trustees.

Item Posted: March 10, 2009

Left to right: Jenni Owen, Ellen Reckhow, and Ran Coble (Photo by Steve Exum)

RTNC Fellows Gather for 24th Annual Emerging Issues Forum

The Eisenhower Fellows of the Research Triangle International Leadership Initiative collectively and actively supported a critical conversation on the future of the State of North Carolina during the 2009 Institute for Emerging Issues (IEI) Forum, “Changing Landscapes: Building the Good Growth State." Anita Brown-Graham, '05, USA, is director of the IEI. The forum, held on February 9 and 10, boasted more than 1,100 attendees.

Left to right: Anita Brown-Graham, John Hodges-Copple, and Raj Narayan opposite David Brooks of the New York Times (Photo by Steve Exum)

At the Forum, Tony Habit, '00; Nina Szlosberg, '03; John Hodges-Copple, '00; and Wendell McCain, '05, led conversations on important infrastructure issues facing the state. Kathy Higgins, '05, of Blue Cross Blue Shield and Beau Mills, '06, of Fountainworks generously served as sponsors for the event. Daniel Douglas, '07, volunteered to work with speakers. Jim Johnson, '00, and Michael Williamson, '99, offered able assistance in securing speakers. Other fellows attending included Jean Davis, '04; Raj Narayan, '08; Don Hobart, '06; Doug Miskew, '99; and Ellen Reckhow, '01.

During the Forum, 12 Fellows met with David Brooks of the New York Times for a stimulating conversation on current foreign and domestic affairs.

Item Posted: March 10, 2009

Fellow Appointed as Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research

Walid Maani, '83, Jordan, was appointed to the position of Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research of the Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The Royal Decree was issued on February 23, 2009. Maani was previously a professor and chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery, Jordan University Hospital and Medical School.

Item Posted: March 5, 2009

Standing: Camilla Sebastiani, '09; Professor Bonazzi; Antonio Colombo, '88; Maurizio Meschino, '79; Giuseppe Noia, '96; A. Benedetta Craveri, '81; Professor Nuti; Professor Bloom; Antonio Maccanico, '65; Alberto Bernardini, '03; Giuseppe Cassano, '67; Cristina Acidini, '97; Marco Frey, '00; Sergio Passeggieri, '64; David Mees, US Embassy; and Mario Visco, '93. Kneeling: Anne Callaghan and Federica Menichelli, both of the US Embassy.

Eisenhower Fellows of Italy Hold EF Day Event

On February 25, the Italian Eisenhower Fellowships Association celebrated their Eisenhower Day of Fellowship 2009 with a conference on “The Eisenhower Period: Lessons for Today." The event was planned in conjunction with the U.S. Embassy of Rome Public Affairs Office and the Centro Studi Americani.

Remarks praising General Eisenhower for the great contributions he gave to shape a new cultural trend both in the U.S. and in Europe were made by former Italian Prime Minister and president of the CSA Giuliano Amato; former Italian Minister and Senator Antonio Maccanico, '65; Professor Alexander Bloom, Wheaton College; Professor Tiziano Bonazzi, University of Bologna; and Professor Leopoldo Nuti, 3rd University Rome. A large and distinguished audience attended the conference, including all of the Italian Eisenhower Fellows shown at right. Also attending but not pictured were Luigi Ferrari-Bravo, '69; Pia Marconi, '98; and Mario Morcone, '90.

Item Posted: Feburary 20, 2009

2009 Multi Nation Program and USA Fellows Announced

Click here to view the Fellows of the 2009 Multi Nation Program, who will arrive in Philadelphia for their Opening Seminar week in early April.

Click here to view the 2009 USA Fellows, who will travel on individual fellowships all over the world starting in April.

Item Posted: Feburary 20, 2009

Join the Eisenhower Fellowships Facebook Group

If you are on Facebook, please join the Eisenhower Fellowships group. To find the group, type "Eisenhower Fellowships" in the search box in the top right-hand corner of your Facebook page, and request to join the group. Current items on the page include advice from alumni Fellows for the 2009 MNP Fellows; photos from various events; and information about the October 2009 conference in Paris. Join the group to reconnect with your fellow Fellows!

Click here to read Fellow News from February 2009.