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.

Cristina “Cris” Duschek, Chief Communications Officer, Paradise Advertising and Marketing, Inc. based in St. Petersburg, Florida, oversees a blend of innovative strategic communications, including external and internal communications and employee engagement.

A former ICWA fellow in Romania (2004 – 2006), Cris has created and executed communication, branding and marketing campaigns for a variety of industries and clients for more than two decades. Her experience spans an impressive clientele such as Bvlgari Jewelry, PricewaterhouseCoopers (Almaty and Toronto), Gabriel Resources, Visit St. Pete/Clearwater, The Dali Museum, and JW Marco Island Beach Resort.

Cris originally worked with Paradise from 2013 to 2015. Before rejoining Paradise in early 2020, she managed internal and external communications for the University of Arizona Foundation and also oversaw National Media Relations for Visit Tampa Bay. A former journalist, she has written and reported for a wide range of publications, including The Economist, Adweek, American Banker and The Washington Post. Born in Bucharest, Romania, Cris grew up in New York City and spent much of her professional career working in New York, as well as all over the globe.

Cris is a graduate of Harvard University, where she played top singles and captained her Division I tennis team. She also holds a master’s degree in Journalism from New York University. Cris has been appointed to serve on Destinations International’s Public Relations and International Global Leadership committees.

Onyinye (Own-Yin-Yay) Edeh (Eh-deh) is a Sexual and Reproductive Health Specialist and innovative Social Entrepreneur with over ten years of domestic and international health work experience and a contagious commitment to advancing adolescent and women’s sexual and reproductive health, girls’ education, and youth empowerment. She obtained her Master of Public Health and Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology & Anthropology from the University of Washington-Seattle and Agnes Scott College (Decatur, GA, USA), respectively. She holds graduate-level certificates in the Global Health of Women, Adolescents, and Children and in Sexual and Reproductive Health Research from the Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research (GFMER). Onyinye is the Founder and Chief Empowerment Officer (CEO) of Strong Enough Girls’ Empowerment Initiative (SEGEI), a youth and female-led non-profit organization that empowers adolescent girls and young women through education (formal & informal), mentorship, and life skills development, including Comprehensive Sexuality Education.

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.

Peter Leon is a partner and global Africa chair at international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills. During the last decade, the international who’s who directories of mining lawyers, Best Lawyers, The Legal 500 (EMEA), Chambers and Partners and other peer-reviewed global legal directories, have consistently identified him as one of the world’s pre-eminent mining lawyers. In 2021, he was named “one of the top mining lawyers in the world” and recently, Chambers Global Guide: Energy & Natural Resources: Mining 2022 ranked Peter in Band 1, with sources stating that, “He brings solutions to issues you wouldn’t think of, bringing to bear relevant experience from right across Africa.”

Peter excels in helping resolve contentious issues arising from mining projects and related developments in Africa. His areas of expertise include crisis management, resource nationalism, mineral and petroleum regulation in developing countries (including international best practice), black economic empowerment and indigenization law, international investment law, and investment protection. Owing to Peter’s expertise, he has significant experience in resource regulatory issues across Anglophone Africa.

Consequently, he regularly advises clients on an array of contentious matters involving states in sub-Saharan Africa, including disputes arising from the negotiation and implementation of major mine development agreements. He is also well versed in the sub-Saharan African geopolitical climate and accordingly provides strategic advice not only on issues related to the mineral regulatory framework, but also on how to navigate the framework within the prevailing economic and political conditions in key African mining jurisdictions. He is particularly skilled in crisis management and has provided expert advice on an urgent basis to clients to assist them in managing and mitigating significant country risks.

Peter’s experience also includes the Middle East, where he has recently represented the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as international legal counsel on the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources’ mineral law reform project. Peter is an accomplished speaker and a regular presenter and panelist at conferences, courses and parliamentary hearings in South Africa and internationally. He has also written extensively on the topics of mining, resource nationalism, the regulation of foreign direct investment, and black economic empowerment and indigenization law. He was a council member of the Legal Practice Division of the International Bar Association responsible for the Africa Regional Forum, the chair of the International Bar Association’s mining law committee advisory board and is an honorary lecturer at the University of Dundee in Scotland’s Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy.

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.

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.

Caroline Vagneron is Special Assistant to the Vice-President for Human Development at the World Bank. Caroline previously worked in the Fragility, Conflict and Violence Group, where she managed the Fragility Forum, one of the largest global events bringing together humanitarian, development, peace and security communities to exchange innovative ideas and knowledge to improve development approaches in conflict and violence-affected environments.

Having joined the Bank in 2000, she has worked mostly in operations in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and the Caribbean. Caroline is passionate about workplace diversity issues and led World Bank Group’s LGBT+ Employee Resource Group (GLOBE) for three years. Caroline holds a Masters in Political Science and Masters in Contemporary History from La Sorbonne University in Paris. In her spare time, Caroline curates a collection of vernacular photographs from Europe, Africa and the United States of America, spanning over one hundred and fifty years.

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.

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.