Paul Rahe holds The Charles O. Lee and Louise K. Lee Chair in the Western Heritage at Hillsdale College, where he is professor of history. He is the author of Republics Ancient and Modern: Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution; Against Throne and Altar: Machiavelli and Political Theory under the English Republic; Montesquieu and the Logic of Liberty: War, Religion, Commerce, Climate, Terrain, Technology, Uneasiness of Mind, the Spirit of Political Vigilance, and the Foundations of the Modern Republic; Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect; The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy; and The Grand Strategy of Classical Sparta: The Persian Challenge. His new books Sparta’s First Attic War and Sparta’s Second Attic War will be released, respectively, in the Fall of 2019 and the Fall of 2020. He writes frequently on contemporary politics and culture for the website Ricochet. He was an ICWA fellow in Turkey (1984-1986).

Gregory Feifer has observed Russia for many years, including as an ICWA fellow in 2000 – 2002. A former institute board member, he was also NPR’s Moscow correspondent who reported on Russia’s resurgence under Vladimir Putin, observing the effects of the country’s vast new oil wealth on an increasingly nationalistic society as well as the Kremlin’s rekindling of a new Cold War-style opposition to the West. He has also reported from Ukraine and many other former Soviet republics. Later, as senior correspondent at Radio Free Europe in Prague, Feifer investigated Russian influence in Europe, including the Kremlin’s use of energy as an instrument of foreign policy. Feifer’s book Russians: The Power behind the People (Twelve, 2014) explores the seeming paradoxes of life in Russia by unraveling the nature of its people and what it is in their history, desires and conception of themselves that makes them baffling to the West. His other books include The Great Gamble (HarperCollins, 2009), a history of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, and Spy Handler (Basic Books, 2005) co-written with former KGB colonel Victor Cherkashin. He has written for numerous other outlets, including The New York Times, Foreign Affairs and The Washington Post. Educated at Harvard University and currently an associate of Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian Studies, he lives in Washington with his wife Elizabeth, son Sebastian and daughter Vanessa. Follow him on Twitter at @gfeifer.

Bruce Teeter has provided operational support for small and medium-sized organizations for several years. Earlier he managed bookstores serving local college students, developing strong interpersonal and management skills and a passion for being involved with the community. Bruce has extensive experience working with diverse and international groups. He earned a B.S. in Engineering and Business Administration at East Carolina University, and later Nonprofit Management at Drexel University. Bruce works with youth groups as a certified basketball official. He also helps small and startup organizations in the DC area and serves on the Board of Tech Turn Up, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching STEAM subjects to underserved communities.

Paul Rahe holds The Charles O. Lee and Louise K. Lee Chair in the Western Heritage at Hillsdale College, where he is professor of history. He is the author of Republics Ancient and Modern: Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution; Against Throne and Altar: Machiavelli and Political Theory under the English Republic; Montesquieu and the Logic of Liberty: War, Religion, Commerce, Climate, Terrain, Technology, Uneasiness of Mind, the Spirit of Political Vigilance, and the Foundations of the Modern Republic; Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect; The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy; and The Grand Strategy of Classical Sparta: The Persian Challenge. His new books Sparta’s First Attic War and Sparta’s Second Attic War will be released, respectively, in the Fall of 2019 and the Fall of 2020. He writes frequently on contemporary politics and culture for the website Ricochet. He was an ICWA fellow in Turkey (1984-1986).

Gregory Feifer has observed Russia for many years, including as an ICWA fellow in 2000 – 2002. A former institute board member, he was also NPR’s Moscow correspondent who reported on Russia’s resurgence under Vladimir Putin, observing the effects of the country’s vast new oil wealth on an increasingly nationalistic society as well as the Kremlin’s rekindling of a new Cold War-style opposition to the West. He has also reported from Ukraine and many other former Soviet republics. Later, as senior correspondent at Radio Free Europe in Prague, Feifer investigated Russian influence in Europe, including the Kremlin’s use of energy as an instrument of foreign policy. Feifer’s book Russians: The Power behind the People (Twelve, 2014) explores the seeming paradoxes of life in Russia by unraveling the nature of its people and what it is in their history, desires and conception of themselves that makes them baffling to the West. His other books include The Great Gamble (HarperCollins, 2009), a history of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, and Spy Handler (Basic Books, 2005) co-written with former KGB colonel Victor Cherkashin. He has written for numerous other outlets, including The New York Times, Foreign Affairs and The Washington Post. Educated at Harvard University and currently an associate of Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian Studies, he lives in Washington with his wife Elizabeth, son Sebastian and daughter Vanessa. Follow him on Twitter at @gfeifer.

Bruce Teeter has provided operational support for small and medium-sized organizations for several years. Earlier he managed bookstores serving local college students, developing strong interpersonal and management skills and a passion for being involved with the community. Bruce has extensive experience working with diverse and international groups. He earned a B.S. in Engineering and Business Administration at East Carolina University, and later Nonprofit Management at Drexel University. Bruce works with youth groups as a certified basketball official. He also helps small and startup organizations in the DC area and serves on the Board of Tech Turn Up, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching STEAM subjects to underserved communities.

Naoko Aoki is a foreign policy professional, researcher and educator with expertise in East Asian politics and security policy. She currently conducts research at the University of Maryland and teaches at both the University of Maryland and American University. Her professional experience includes fellowships at the RAND Corporation and the House of Representatives. She was formerly a journalist based in China for five years and in Japan for nine years, covering politics, economics and foreign policy.

Joseph Battat is a senior lecturer at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He works with graduate students—Masters, Sloan Fellows and Executive MBAs, in subject areas covering international business and management, doing business in/with China, and operations management. For twenty six years, Joe worked for the World Bank Group as a staff member [1989-2008] or as a Senior Consultant [2008-2015]. He held a number of positions, including the head of the Foreign Investment Advisory Services (FIAS) and its program manager for the Middle East, North Africa, Central/East Europe, the Former Soviet Union, China and Mongolia. FIAS advises governments of developing and emerging economies on ways to improve their investment climate to stimulate domestic and foreign investment conducive to their economic and social development. In the course of this work, he had the opportunity to work or supervise work in over 95 countries. Mr. Battat received a Master of Science in Electronics Physics from Université de Grenoble [France] in 1968, a Diploma in Political Philosophy from Beijing University [China] in 1978, and Doctorate of Philosophy in International Business and Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984.

Bacete Bwogo is a physician specializing in geriatrics and internal medicine in the United Kingdom. He is the clinical lead for the acute frailty services unit, which he helped establish in 2017, at Maidstone Hospital in West Kent. Bwogo began his medical training with a bachelor’s degree in medicine from Alexandria University in Egypt in 1985. He completed a two-year internship at Khartoum North Teaching Hospital in Sudan and began work for Sudanaid, a local non-governmental agency providing medical services to refugees on the Red Sea coast. The British Council in Khartoum awarded him a fellowship in 1990 to study at the London School of Economics for a master’s degree. Bwogo then spent two terms at Oxford University in the Refugee Studies Programme. While at Oxford, he was selected for an ICWA fellowship to do a comparative study of primary health care systems in Cuba, Costa Rica, Kerala State in India and the Bronx in New York from 1992 to 1995. He then spent five years working as a general practitioner at St. Jude Hospital in Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia, where he was also the director of the outpatient clinic. Bwogo is a member of the British Medical Association, British Geriatric Society and the Royal College Physicians of the United Kingdom. He obtained the diploma of the Royal College of Physicians, MRCP(UK) in 2006. He also holds diplomas in tropical medicine and geriatric medicine and is on the specialist register on the General Medical Council in the UK.

Jeffrey Gedmin is co-founder and editor-in-chief of American Purpose magazine and media venture. From 2015 to 2018, he was senior adviser at Blue Star Strategies. From 2011 to 2014, Gedmin was President and CEO of the London-based Legatum Institute. Prior to joining the Legatum Institute in early 2011, Gedmin served for four years as President and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) headquartered in Prague. Before RFE/RL, Gedmin served as President and CEO of the Aspen Institute in Berlin. Before that, he was Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, D.C and Executive Director of the New Atlantic Initiative. He is the author/editor of several books, including The Hidden Hand: Gorbachev and the Collapse of East Germany (1992). Gedmin also served as co-executive producer for two major PBS documentaries: “The Germans, Portrait of a New Nation” (1995), and “Spain’s 9/11 and the Challenge of Radical Islam in Europe” (2007). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on several advisory boards, including: Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service Masters Program, the Institute for State Effectiveness, the Kleptocracy Initiative, the International Republican Institute’s Beacon Project, the Justice for Journalists Foundation, and the Tocqueville Conversations. Together with former U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic Norm Eisen, Gedmin is co-chair of the Transatlantic Democracy Working Group.

Fabrice Houdart is Managing Director for Global Equality Initiatives at Out Leadership, the oldest and largest global coalition of companies working towards LGBTI equality. He was formerly a human rights officer at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in New York, and worked on the UN Free & Equal campaign, an unprecedented United Nations global public education campaign for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) equality. In addition, he leads a project on global corporate standards for tackling LGBTI discrimination and data collection tools for Human Rights violations against LGBTI people. Previously, Fabrice was Senior Country Officer for the Maghreb at the World Bank where he worked from 2001 to 2016 and was President (2011 – 2015) of its LGBT Employee Resource Group, GLOBE. At the World Bank, Fabrice managed a “Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Development” grant that initiated the sexual minorities in development agenda. The grant, launched in 2012, provided a first estimate of the economic cost of homophobia using India as a case study, carried out a socio-economic survey of LGBTI populations in India and funded a short film on the interconnection between discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and poverty. During his career at the World Bank, Fabrice worked in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, first as a human development specialist and later as a strategy officer. He has authored analyses on Yemen, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Tunisia and provided contributions to the 2012 Gender World Development Report (WDR) and the 2011 Conflict, Security, and Development WDR. He holds a B.A. in economics and management from Dauphine University in Paris and an MBA from American University in Washington, D.C. Fabrice is on the Board of Alturi, a non-profit organization devoted to elevating the LGBTI community globally. He lives in New York City with his twin sons Maxime and Eitan. Twitter: HoudartUN, Instagram: fhoudart

Susan Brind Morrow has written extensively on the origins of written language in metaphor drawn from the natural world. She is the author of The Names of Things: A Passage in the Egyptian Desert, Wolves and Honey: A Hidden History of the Natural World, and The Dawning Moon of the Mind: Unlocking Pyramid Texts. Her work has appeared in Harper’s, The New York Times, The Nation, The Seneca Review, and Lapham’s Quarterly. Morrow is currently at work on a book on the religious meaning of darkness for Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Morrow is a former fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation and was an ICWA fellow in Egypt and Sudan from 1988-1990.

Bill Rielly is a seasoned executive with experience at some of the world’s most valuable technology companies. Bill’s career included executive marketing roles with teams on five continents for Apple, Microsoft and Intel. Most recently, Bill led global marketing for the payments and commerce businesses at Apple. Bill hired and led one of the most diverse teams at Apple because he believed that the best ideas and work would come from people from all walks of life and all corners of the globe. Prior to Apple, Bill held executive roles at Microsoft, Intel, JP Morgan Chase and PRT Group, a high growth software start-up. After graduation from the United States Military Academy at West Point, Bill served as a field artillery officer in the US Army in Germany. Most recently, Bill retired from the corporate world to work on improvements in the criminal legal system. His interest in this area was sparked by several years of volunteer work in California state prisons. He is enrolled at Syracuse University College of Law (JD candidate, class of 2024). Bill and his wife Heidi have two kids and live in Santa Cruz, CA where they enjoy the ocean, the community, and involvement in a local improv comedy group.

Catherine Rielly is President and Executive Director of Rubia, an NGO that creates economic opportunities for women in Afghanistan, Mali and the United States through business training, education and the sale of heritage textiles. A political economist, she has conducted research, training, and technical assistance for the past 35 years on women’s empowerment, public policy, economics, democratization and governance for the following organizations: the Harvard Institute for International Development, UNIFEM, UNFPA, UNDP, the Asian Development Bank, USAID, the Governments of Mali, Zambia, and Uganda and the Harvard Kennedy School. As a Fulbright Scholar in Cameroon, she studied RoSCAs (rotating savings and credit organizations)and the gender-specific division of income, planting the seed for her research on fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS through women’s financial independence. Rielly taught food and agricultural policy at the Harvard Kennedy School in the 1990s and international community economic development for eight years at Southern New Hampshire University’s School of Community Economic Development where she was Professor and Academic Program Chair. She received her doctorate in Political Economy and Government Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School; and her BA in History from Stanford University. Rielly has done comparative research and written journal articles on policy processes in over 20 countries.

Chandler “Chad” Rosenberger is Associate Professor of Sociology and International and Global Studies at Brandeis University, where he also serves as chair of the International and Global Studies program. Chad studied history and philosophy at Dartmouth College and the University of Oxford. From 1992 to 1994 he held a John O. Crane Memorial Fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs, which allowed him to write about post-Communist nationalism across Central Europe. He then earned a doctorate in comparative and historical sociology from Boston University. At Brandeis Chad teaches classes on the cultural foundations of modern politics and society. Having written about nationalism in Europe and the Middle East, Chad is now writing primarily about China and Hong Kong.

Mary Rusinow has been connected in one way or another for most of her life with Eastern Europe, particularly the countries of former Yugoslavia. Her first job was secretary to F.W (later Sir William) Deakin, the first British liaison officer sent to Tito in 1943 and Warden of St. Antony’s College Oxford. After a year as au pair in the house of Paul Reynaud, former Prime Minister of France, she returned to the College until she married Dennison Rusinow, Rhodes Scholar, former Fellow, and briefly Executive Director of ICWA. They lived in Zagreb, Belgrade and then Vienna where she became a Social Affairs Officer in the Branch for the Advancement of Women at the United Nations until Denny’s job took him back to Pittsburgh. Mary was able to attend the UN World Conference on Women in 1995, travelling there on the Peace Train which took 23 days from Helsinki to Beijing.

Shannon Sims is a journalist committed to uncovering thought-provoking stories in overlooked places, from the Amazon to Zanzibar. She has been published by The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Guardian, The Washington Post and others, and has been showcased on MSNBC, NPR, O Globo, and PBS. Her longform work has been featured on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek and the front page of the New York Times repeatedly. My writing is included in The Best American Travel Writing 2019.

Shannon was born in Turkey and raised on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Texas. Before becoming a journalist, she taught elementary school in Harlem and ran a hotel in Italy, and currently spends most of her time in Houston, New Orleans, and Rio de Janeiro. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in international politics and women’s studies from Pomona College and a Juris Doctor from The University of Texas School of Law, specializing in international environmental law with a focus on coastal environments. Shannon is fluent in English, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish and is obsessed with music (especially samba) and sports (especially the ’93-’95 Rockets).

Constance Whiteside is a Cultural & International Relations Specialist in Washington DC with extensive experience involving the European Union and its member countries, Embassies, Cultural Institutes and U.S. institutions.  As Senior Outreach Officer at the European Union Delegation to the United States she advised senior officials and created directives for the Delegation’s cultural policy and U.S. relations. She brought together leaders of the Delegation, the Embassies and Washington cultural and educational institutions to create the European Month of Culture, an annual program of more 100 diverse events reaching over 100,000 people.  Building upon these relationships she developed programming using culture to create dialogue on global issues.  As tenured Associate Clinical Professor Of Medicine at the University Of California Davis School Of Medicine, she was Director of Internal Medicine clinics. She helped students and young physicians develop effective skills with diverse international and immigrant populations.  She was visiting Faculty and Guest Lecturer at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford University, where she researched effective health promotion and is the author of multiple publications.  She is also an historical harpist who created a decade of early music Festivals in Washington D.C. and is Director of the early music ensemble Armonia Nova.   She holds a B.S. with Honors in Biology, Stanford University; Doctorate of Medicine, The Medical College of Pennsylvania (Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society); and a graduate of Stanford Faculty Development Program, Stanford University School of Medicine.  Follow her on Twitter @CWCulture

Chi-Chi Zhang is the product experience lead at Google News, one of the world’s most popular news apps with over 100 million monthly active users in 127 countries. At Google, she founded the Google News Speaker Series in an effort to educate the tech community about the news industry and the work of journalists. Prior to Google, Chi-Chi was a Strategic Partnership Manager for edX.org, a Harvard-MIT founded educational technology platform. As a passionate educator, she developed edX’s go-to market strategy in China and led strategic partnership development with leading universities across China. In 2017, Chi-Chi received the President’s Volunteer Service for her teaching work with Citizen Schools in Boston. As a journalist, Chi-Chi spent seven years as a producer for CNN, reporter for the Associated Press and fellow for ICWA across four cities in China and Greater China. She is frequent speaker on technology and news including events hosted by the Asian American Journalists Association, Pulitzer Center, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Chi-Chi was an institute fellow in China in 2013 – 2015.

Chi-Chi Zhang is the product experience lead at Google News, one of the world’s most popular news apps with over 100 million monthly active users in 127 countries. At Google, she founded the Google News Speaker Series in an effort to educate the tech community about the news industry and the work of journalists. Prior to Google, Chi-Chi was a Strategic Partnership Manager for edX.org, a Harvard-MIT founded educational technology platform. As a passionate educator, she developed edX’s go-to market strategy in China and led strategic partnership development with leading universities across China. In 2017, Chi-Chi received the President’s Volunteer Service for her teaching work with Citizen Schools in Boston. As a journalist, Chi-Chi spent seven years as a producer for CNN, reporter for the Associated Press and fellow for ICWA across four cities in China and Greater China. She is frequent speaker on technology and news including events hosted by the Asian American Journalists Association, Pulitzer Center, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Chi-Chi was an institute fellow in China in 2013 – 2015.

Robert A. Levinson is chief executive officer, president and executive chairman of Levcor International Inc. He served as president, chief executive officer and Chairman of Carlyle Industries Inc., (formerly Belding Hemingway Inc.) from May 1998 to January 2003. From November 1979 to July 1986, he served as President of Dillon Yarn Corporation. From 1977 to December 1987, Mr. Levinson served as chairman of the Board of Directors of Sheldon Petroleum. Mr. Levinson was a Member of the Board of Directors of the Brooklyn Museum from 1968 to 1994, where he served as Chairman from 1972 to 1984. From 1979 to May 1, 1995, Mr. Levinson served as Chairman of the Board of Andrex Industries Corp. Mr. Levinson served as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of The National Committee of U.S.- China Relations Inc. Mr. Levinson served as Chairman and Member of the Advisory Board of The National Dance Institute. He serves as Chairman Emeritus and Member of the Board of The Harlem School of the Arts. Mr. Levinson was on the Board of Overseers of the Hood Museum and Hopkins Performing Arts Center at Dartmouth for 12 years, and a Member of the New York-Beijing Sister City Advisory Committee. He is on the Advisory Committee of the Center for U.S.-China Arts Exchange at Columbia University. Mr. Levinson graduated from Dartmouth with an A.B. degree in February of 1946 and received an MBA from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth in September of the same year. He attended the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he did additional graduate work.

Edmund Sutton is retired from JP Morgan & Co. From 1985 to 1999 he was president of JP Morgan Overseas Capital Corp. He is also a trustee of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the New York Council for the Humanities.