KATHLEEN WETZEL APLTAUER
Kathleen Wetzel Apltauer is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Service. She also works as an Independent Research and Evaluation Consultant for domestic and international programs working at the intersection of poverty and health. Kathleen currently serves on the Executive Board of the New York Consortium of Evaluators (NYCE). In addition to a faculty appointment at Wagner, Kathleen is an Adjunct Instructor at NYU College of Dentistry in connection with her research to analyze and synthesize current science on prevention of diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia into simple, actionable messages using principles from both communication for behaviour change and behavioural economics theories. After more than 20 years with an international NGO in diverse roles that included supply management and strategic communications and advocacy, Kathleen completed her Bachelor of Arts in political science and human rights at Columbia University’s School of General Studies and her Master of Public Administration at NYU Wagner, where she focused on international health policy and research methods.
Kristin Barbato currently serves as Vice President of Customer Energy Solutions for the New York Power Authority. Previously, she was the Deputy Commissioner and Chief Energy Management Officer of New York City where she managed the city’s $1 Billion annual energy budget, impacting more than 4,000 buildings city-wide. An experienced leader in business development, strategic planning, engineering, IT, and operations across the energy sector, Kristin was named as one of New York’s Top 10 Women in Energy by Breaking Energy during New York Energy Week 2013.
Laura Bingham serves as Senior Managing Legal Officer for the equality and inclusion thematic area of the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), an operational program of Open Society Foundations (OSF). She leads OSJI’s projects on the right to citizenship and documentation of identity and equality and antidiscrimination. She also manages the team’s litigation work on the right to citizenship and statelessness, practicing primarily before regional and international fora (http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/about/programs/open-society-justice-initiative). Before joining OSJI in 2010, Bingham served as a law clerk in federal district court and worked in private practice in New York. She received a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.A. in human rights law from Central European University in Budapest.
Barbara Borst teaches courses on democratic transitions, news media and international affairs, children and youth in the global context, African affairs, and writing. She has led classes to Tanzania, South Africa and Ghana. She also teaches at NYU’s Journalism Institute.
At The Associated Press, she was as an editor on the international desk and frequently reported from the United Nations. While based abroad for a dozen years, in Nairobi, Johannesburg, Paris and Toronto, she reported for Newsday, The Boston Globe, The Dallas Morning News, The Los Angeles Times and Inter Press Service. Her recent articles appear on the Huffington Post and on her website, Civic Ideas. She holds a BA in English literature from Yale and an MA in international relations from Boston University.
Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is professor of international relations and Middle East studies, as well as a noted journalist and author with over 25 years of direct involvement in foreign affairs. In addition to his essays on global conflict-oriented issues, Dr. Ben-Meir writes a weekly article about current international policies and events. Ben-Meir is the author of numerous books, including: The Middle East: Imperative and Choices; Israel: The Challenge of the Fourth Decade; In Defiance of Time; Framework for Arab-Israeli Peace; and The Last Option and a War We Must Win. Most recently, he published Lost Perspectives (2009), which addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dr. Ben-Meir is fluent in Arabic and Hebrew and holds an M.Phil. and Ph.D. in international relations from Oxford University.
Mr. Carr possesses over fifteen years of experience, working in both the private sector and non-profit business organizations. He has been uniquely positioned to engage and assist multinational corporations, NGO’s and the diplomatic community. Currently Earl works as a Managing Director for Momentum Advisors where his mandate is to develop cross-border business development. Mr. Carr is also tasked to develop and implement the communications strategy. Earl joined Momentum Advisors from Morgan Stanley where he was a Vice President at the Institute for Sustainable Investing (ISI) at Morgan Stanley where he worked as a strategist and thought leader. The Institute for Sustainable Investing focuses on the nexus of capital markets, public policy and corporate strategy, to mobilize the power of capital markets to achieve sustainability-for clients, communities, and stakeholders.
Patty Chang holds a D. Phil. in International Relations from the University of Oxford, an M.I.A. in International Security Policy from Columbia University, and B.A. in European Studies from Barnard College. She has taught at the NYU Center for Global Affairs since 2009, offering courses on International Relations and Civil Wars in Africa. Currently, she is a consultant and researcher in international security. Her work focuses on conflict management and post-conflict peacebuilding, especially small arms and light weapons control, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants, and security sector reform. Her regional expertise is in the sub-region of West Africa and she has conducted extensive field work in Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, The Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau. Her recent research has focused on the micro-foundations of violence and small arms diffusion in civil wars. She has worked with a number of different organizations including the United Nations Development Programme, EuropeAid, the Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research, and the United Nations Department of Political Affairs.
Michael Cheah is Executive Vice President at Capital Position, a leading growth strategy and global marketing advisor to the financial services industry .He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at New York University teaching Global Finance and Macroeconomics.
Mr Cheah has more than 30 years of market experience and was most recently senior vice president and senior portfolio manager responsible for all investment-grade fixed income portfolios and member of the Asset Allocation Committee at AIG SunAmerica Asset Management Corp. Prior to joining SunAmerica in July 1999, Mr. Cheah spent 17 years at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). He was the head of the U.S. Bond Division, Markets and Investment Department, and chief representative of the New York Office where his responsibilities included the management of foreign exchange reserves and the overseeing of external relationships with financial and government institutions in the United States. Prior to heading the New York Office of MAS, Mr. Cheah served in various capacities, including the domestic open market and currency intervention desk of Local Money and Capital Markets, Foreign Exchange and Gold, and the Japan Bond division.
Mr. Cheah received a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the National University of Singapore, and a Master’s of Science degree in Management from the London Business School, where he was a Sloan Fellow. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst and Financial Risk Manager.
Kevin Chen is a founding partner and Chief Investment Officer of ACM Global Macro hedge fund. He was a Senior Portfolio Manager at Amundi alternative investment, which is a merged asset management entity of Credit Agricole and Societie Generale. He was responsible for constructing and managing multi-billion dollar hedge funds portfolios for institutional clients. Previously, he was a Director of asset allocation of Morgan Stanley and his responsibilities included designing and delivering comprehensive hedge funds advisory solutions to high-net-wealth and institutional clients of U.S. and International. Kevin joined Morgan Stanley after graduating with a Ph.D. in Finance from International Center for Financial Asset Management and Engineering (FAME), Geneva and University of Lausanne, Switzerland in 2004. Kevin also served as a consultant for several Swiss-based organizations, including Swiss Organization for Facilitating Investments, a joint initiative of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (seco) in cooperation with KPMG. Prior to that, Kevin did Master’s in Finance at CentER for Economic Research, Tilburg University, the Netherlands and Bachelor’s in Economics at Renmin University of China. Kevin spent two years with China Development Bank’s International Finance Department and Investment Banking Department. Kevin is a co-founder of CCC, a New York based charity that works on improving cultural understanding and mentors underprivileged teenagers. In addition, he is a founding council member of Absolute Return Investment Association of China and a member of Société Académique Vaudoise.
Belinda Cooper is a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute in New York and a co-founder of its Program on Citizenship and Security. She writes and lectures on human rights and international law and is the editor of “War Crimes: The Legacy of Nuremberg,” which explores the interconnections between the Nuremberg tribunal and today’s international criminal tribunals. She has taught human rights, international law, transitional justice and gender and law at Humboldt University in Berlin, the New School, Seton Hall Law School and Ohio Northern University Law School.
Cooper lived in Berlin, Germany from 1987-1994, working closely with members of the East German opposition in 1988-89 and following developments in the region after the fall of the Berlin Wall. She returned to Berlin in 2002 as a fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. She has written for a wide variety of publications, including The New York Times, Newsweek, World Policy Journal, and the Christian Science Monitor. A fluent German speaker, Cooper has also contributed to German-language print media, radio and TV, appeared as a guest on German radio, and taken part in numerous panel discussions in Germany. She is also a translator of German scholarly books and articles, including many texts on the Holocaust and Nazi Germany and, most recently, a textbook on international criminal law, and has worked as a translator on the case of Turkish-German Guantanamo detainee Murat Kurnaz. Cooper has also taken part in human rights fact-finding missions and has coauthored reports on domestic violence in Armenia, Uzbekistan, and Tanzania. Cooper graduated summa cum laude with her B.A. in History from Yale College and received her J.D. from Yale Law School.
Chloe Demrovsky is the Executive Director of Disaster Recovery Institute International, a nonprofit training institute in disaster preparedness for Fortune 500 companies and government bodies, where she designs and implements the international market development strategy and manages a global partnership network in 50 countries. She has appeared on Bloomberg TV, MSNBC and Fox and has served as an expert source on natural disaster preparedness for The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, and many more. She has has served as a consulting expert to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and the European Commission. She has participated in on-site briefings for the United States Congress, the IMF, the Federal Reserve, and the New York Stock Exchange as well as for visiting groups including the Moscow Mechanical Institute of Munitions, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East, and the Sino-Canadian Tech Exchange. She manages The International Glossary for Resiliency, acts as International Editor for Thrive Magazine and Revista Thrive Iberoamerica, and has been published in several respected industry publications. She has presented at events on four continents, most recently on a public-private partnerships panel at the Global Risk Forum in Davos, Switzerland and an impact investing panel at the University of San Diego’s Leadership for Peace and Prosperity Conference.
Her independent work focuses on private sector solutions for poverty alleviation and social inclusion. She conducted research on economic liberalization policy in India, designed a market research survey for a non-governmental organization in Kenya, and was a member of a climate change think tank for the United Nations. She holds a M.S. from NYU’s Center for Global Affairs and a B.A. from Bard College at Simon’s Rock. She speaks French, Spanish, and conversational Serbian.
Slobodan Đinović is an innovator in democracy and technology, founding Serbia’s first wireless internet company and a founder of the Resistance! movement that ended the Milosevic era. He has since become a leader exponent of sharing strategic non-violence training for democracy movements and peaceful opposition groups in the world’s remaining dictatorships.
David Donat Cattin (Ph.D Law, Italy) is the Senior Director of the International Law and Human Rights Programme at Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA). Over the last thirteen years, Dr. Donat Cattin worked to promote the universality and effectiveness of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Statute in approximately 100 countries. With his assistance, PGA Members contributed to the ratification process of 76 out the current 122 States Parties to the Rome Statute, including the ratifications/accessions by Japan (2007); The Philippines, The Maldives, Cape Verde and Vanuatu (2011); Guatemala (2012) and Cote d’Ivoire (2013).
Dr. Donat Cattin holds a Ph.D in Public International Law (2000) from the University of Teramo (Italy), Faculty of Law, and a ‘magna cum laude’ law degree (1994) from the LUISS-Guido Carli University (Rome, Italy). His writings on international criminal law appeared on well-known scholarly works, such as Triffterer’s “Commentary on the Rome Statute of the ICC” (I ed. 1999; II ed. 2008; upcoming III ed. 2013) and Lattanzi/Schabas “Essays on the Rome Statute of the ICC” (vol. I, 1999; vol. II, 2004). Since August 1999, he is a lecturer at the Salzburg Law School on Int. Criminal Law, Faculty of Law, University of Salzburg (Austria), which takes place every summer and hosts some of the most prominent International Criminal Law practitioners and academics. Among the academic institutions in which he gave presentations and lectures, it is noteworthy to mention the University of Botswana in Gaborone, the Brazilian Institute of Criminal Sciences (IBCCRIM) in Sao Paulo, Frei Univ. and Humboldt Univ. in Berlin (Germany), the Italian Society of International Organisation (SIOI), the TMC Asser Institute for International Law in The Hague and the Hague Academy of International Law (The Netherlands), the Faculty of Law of Cambridge University (UK), the City University of New York and NYU School of Law (USA). He has been heard as expert-witness on the ICC and its impact on conflicts in Africa by the German Bundestag, Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs (Sept. 2007) and on the situation in Darfur by the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Sub-Committee on Human Rights (Dec. 2008 and Feb. 2009). He also intervened on international legal issues in the Council of Europe Meeting of Legal Advisors (March 2013), the European Parliament, Sub-Committee on Human Rights (April 2010) and Africa-Caribbean-Pacific—European Union Joint Parliamentary Assembly’s plenary session (March 2008). Dr. Donat Cattin has been interviewed or cited by a number of international media, including: BBC World Service, Reuters, Al-Jazeera (Eng), Deutche Welle, Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW), Sky TG 24 (Italy), Radio Rai 2 (Italy), Radiotelevisione Svizzera Italiana (RSI, Switzerland), Inter-Press Service, Institute for War and Peace Reporting.
Yaël has spent 17 years working at the intersection of political, security and social issues, as a CIA analyst, a national security advisor to Vice President Biden, a diplomat, the senior intelligence officer at the National Counterterrorism Center, a corporate social responsibility strategist for a Fortune 5 company, and the head of a global political risk firm. During her 13 years in government, she focused largely on national security issues, with assignments including: two years in Kenya as the counterterrorism and political-military officer, an embedded analyst on the Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York, and a global counterterrorism advisor at the White House. Yaël provides context and analysis on national security, political and foreign affairs in the media, as a speaker, and through workshops and seminars. She has been published in the New York Times, TIME and The Huffington Post, has appeared on CNN, CBS News and C-SPAN, in policy forums, and on a number of podcasts. She is the founder of Kilele Global, providing intelligence-based advice to help companies and start-ups operating in emerging markets do so smartly and with purpose. Yaël has an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. in international relations from the University of California, Davis.
ANGELINA FISHER, L.L.M, L.L.B, M.A.
Angelina Fisher is Adjunct Professor of Law and Program Director at the Institute for International Law and Justice. In the Fall 2012, she is co-teaching International Organizations Clinic and Seminar. She holds an LL.B from Osgoode Hall Law School and an LLM in International Legal Studies from New York University School of Law. Her current research examines the effect of global and national initiatives to rank quality of primary education on education governance. She is particularly interested in the use of indicators for community mobilization. Prior to joining the Institute for International Law and Justice, she was a Helton Fellow at Human Rights First, focusing on U.S. and international law related to counterterrorism operations and national security policy and practice. In 2004-2005, she was a Research Scholar at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at New York University School of Law. She has also worked was an associate at the New York law firm Shearman & Sterling, LLP.
At the United Nations Dr. Jacques Fomerand followed economic and social questions in the Office of the Under-Secretary General of the former Department for International Economic and Social Affairs (DIESA). He was Chief of the Inter-Organizational Co-operation Section of DIESA when he joined the United Nations University in 1992.From 1992 to June 2003 when he retired from United Nations service, he was Director of the United Nations University Office in North America. In this capacity, he endeavored to strengthen the University’s links with the Member States of the United Nations, the United Nations and its system of organizations and the international North American scholarly community. He participated actively in the creation of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) and played a leading role in the creation of its journal, Global Governance, which is co-sponsored by the United Nations University and Lynne Rienner Publishers. Dr. Fomerand studied law and graduated in political science from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Aix en Provence. He completed his graduate studies at the City University of New York where he earned a Ph.D degree in political science with a specialization in comparative government and international organization. Prior to his joining the United Nations in 1977, Dr. Fomerand taught at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Aix-en-Provence, Brooklyn College, City College and Queens College of the City University of New York and the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Fomerand has widely published on matters related to multilateralism and the United Nations, human rights and North-South issues,. His latest work is a Dictionary of the United Nations published by Scarecrow Publishers in 2007. He is currently completing a study of the Practice of Human Rights.
Grant received a BS in Finance from California State University Sacramento and an MS in Energy and Environment Policy from New York University. He is also a veteran of the US Navy, having deployed to Kosovo and Iraq. Grant hails from northern California though now calls New York City his home.
Chris Gadomski joined the faculty at New York University’s Center For Global Affairs in September 2005 where he teaches graduate courses on Energy and the Environment, and the Economics and Financing of Energy. Current research interests include financial, social, technological and institutional obstacles to renewable and nuclear energy technology development.
As a business development consultant in the energy sector, Gadomski has advised leading multinational firms and institutions including the United Nations Development Program, World Bank, U.S. Department of Energy, and UNDP/Global Environment Facility. Current assignments include solar thermal power project development, and energy efficiency and conservation consulting in California. Chris Gadomski also directs the nuclear energy research team at New Energy Finance, a leading provider of financial information, analysis and services to investors in renewable energy and low carbon technologies. There he is developing a robust methodology for forecasting global nuclear investment in new build and innovative technologies and tracking expenditures in O&M, fuel cycle and decommissioning activities. Gadomski has published on energy and power generation topics in: Modern Power Systems, EuroMoney/ Institutional Investor’s Project Finance Magazine, Nuclear Engineering International, World-Generation, The China Business Review, and Independent Energy Magazine. Gadomski is a member of the United States Energy Association and the American Nuclear Society.
Cornelius Graubner is Senior Product Manager with Verisk Maplecroft, a leader in global risk analytics. In his role, he leads the risk management solutions team, which builds data-driven tools to manage exposure to social, environmental, political, and governance risk within global operations and supply chains. Prior to his current role, he co-founded a social risk data startup, where he developed data acquisition frameworks and digital products that measure the social license to operate oil, gas, and mining companies. Before that, he managed a portfolio of social investments in Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and Mongolia at the Open Society Foundations, one of the largest global private social impact foundations. Cornelius holds a graduate degree in political sciences from the Freie Universität Berlin, a M.A. in Russian studies from the European University in St. Petersburg, and an Advanced Diploma in energy finance from New York University. He is certified in sustainability accounting by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).
Edward Goldberg is president of the Annisa Group, a consulting firm that advises clients on strategic and tactical issues involving globalization, trade development and trade finance.
Mr. Goldberg, an expert in Global Business Studies and the complexities of Globalization, teaches at Zicklin Graduate School of Business, Baruch College, City University of New York. He also teaches international trade as visiting faculty of University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.
He has twice been nominated for the prestigious Presidential Excellence Award for Distinguished Teaching at Baruch College. He has also been twice awarded a grant from Mitsui USA for curriculum development in global business studies.
At Annisa Group , Mr. Goldberg has worked on global issues with such major companies as Goldman Sachs, Rockefeller Brother’s Fund, and Raiffeisen Zentralbank.
He is a much-quoted author and essayist on globalization, U.S. economics, European-American relations, International trade and U.S.-Russian relations. Among others, he has been cited by Thomas Friedman in The New York Times and in his book Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Roubini Global Economics, Yale Global on Line, and American Foreign Policy Interests. He is a regular contributor to the HuffingtonPost and the Globalist. He has been interviewed by CNBC Television, Public Radio, CBS radio, the Associated Press Radio as well as Russian State Television. He is currently writing a book on how globalization has changed American politics.
Mr. Goldberg represented the United States Department of State at the International Conference on International Relations and Problems of Globalization in St. Petersburg, Russia where he delivered the opening address. He was a member of President Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy Network Team for the 2008 Presidential election.
Alan Gross has mediated and trained for 20 years at many venues in the Northeast US and New York City where he is currently serving as the Special Projects Coordinator for the Safe Horizon Mediation Program. He has previously acted as Senior Director, Training Coordinator, and 9/11 Family Mediation Coordinator for Safe Horizon. That work with 9/11 victims was recognized with a US Department of Justice Volunteer for Victims Award. He has also acted as ombudsman for the American Psychological Association and the New York Mayor’s Action Center, as an arbitrator for AAA, FINRA, and attorney-client fee disputes, and as mediator for the Post Office and the US Army.
Gross holds MBA and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University and was formerly Psychology Professor and Department Chair at the University of Maryland, a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and the author of a textbook and more than 50 chapters, articles and papers related to conflict resolution and social psychology. He has served as a business consultant, radio talk show host, and as founder of an innovative company trading in benefits from class action settlements. As a Founding Member and Board Member of Mediators Beyond Borders, he has, with other ADR professionals, developed and delivered trainings and other means of assisting refugees and former child soldiers in West Africa. During the past two years he has trained Liberian refugees, Ghanaian attorneys and land settlement officers, UN Special Court staff in Sierra Leone and a diverse country-wide Peace Network in Iraq. He is currently involved in peace-building projects in Colombia, Sierra Leone, and the US Gulf Coast.
Ruchira Gupta is the Founder and President of Apne Aap Women Worldwide – a grassroots organization in India working to end sex trafficking by increasing choices for at-risk girls and women. She has strived over her 25 year career to highlight the link between trafficking and prostitution laws, and to lobby policy makers to shift the blame from victims to perpetrators. She testified in the United States Senate before the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000, and she lobbied with other activists at the United Nations during the formulations for the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons — resulting in the first UN instrument to address demand for trafficking in Article 9. In 2009 Gupta won the Clinton Global Citizen Award, in 2007 the Abolitionist Award at the UK House of Lords. In 2009 and 2008, Gupta has addressed the UN General Assembly on human trafficking. She won an Emmy in 1997 for her work on the documentary “The Selling of Innocents,” which inspired the creation of Apne Aap. Her work has been featured in 11 books including Half the Sky by Sheryl WuDunn and Nicholas Kristof. Prior to founding Apne Aap, Gupta worked in the United Nations in various capacities in 12 countries for over ten years. She is on the board of Coalition against Trafficking in Women and the advisory councils of the Polaris Project, Vital Voices, Ricky Martin Foundation, Asia Society, Nomi Network and Cents for Relief.
Lukas Haynes is vice president of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation in New York, where he manages grantmaking programs to promote solutions to climate change, defend human rights, and invest in under-served New York City communities. From 2002-06, Haynes was program officer for international peace and security at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, where he made grants to support U.S. foreign policy institutes and a major initiative to strengthen university research at the intersection of science, technology, and security studies. From 2000-01, he served on the U.S. Department of State’s Policy Planning Staff and as a speechwriter for Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. After leaving government, Haynes was a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Haynes has taught courses in international relations at Occidental College and the University of Massachusetts in Boston. He has also given lectures on military intervention, nuclear nonproliferation, and international grantmaking at Harvard, West Point, and Princeton, respectively. From 1996-1997, Haynes served as regional representative for OXFAM in the former Yugoslavia and as OXFAM’s regional strategy adviser in Sierra Leone and Liberia. In both capacities he helped humanitarian relief operations transition to post-conflict rehabilitation programs. Prior to that, he conducted policy research at the Salzburg Global Seminar, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the International Crisis Group. Haynes is a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He earned a master’s degree in international relations from Oxford University. He is also a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of Independent Diplomat.
Brad Heckman is CEO of New York Peace Institute, one of the nation’s largest mediation services. He is also an Adjunct Professor at New York University, where he received the Excellence in Teaching Award. He served on the boards of the National Association for Community Mediation, the New York State Dispute Resolution Association, and the NYC Peace Museum. Brad has trained labor unions, the NYPD, NASA, United Nations programs, and community organizations worldwide. His interest in peaceful dialogue began as university lecturer Poland in 1989, witnessing the country’s transition to democracy. Brad served as Vice President of Safe Horizon, a leading victims services agency. He was also International Director of Partners for Democratic Change, where he helped introduce mediation to Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the former Soviet Union and beyond. Brad received a Master of Arts in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
Bill Hewitt has been an environmental professional and activist for nearly 30 years. He is a writer and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs, teaching graduate and continuing education classes on energy and the environment, global climate change, and clean tech. He was the Director of Public Affairs for the NYC regional office of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for 11 years. He was the blogger on climate change and sustainability for the Foreign Policy Association for five years and now has his own blog, “A Newer World.” Hewitt has been involved with two Presidential campaigns (Bruce Babbitt and Bill Bradley) and two NYC Mayoral races (David Dinkins and Mark Green), working primarily on environmental issues. He was an activist leader with the Sierra Club in New York working on urban issues and acid rain.
His book, A Newer World – Politics, Money, Technology, and What’s Really Being Done to Solve the Climate Crisis, published by the University Press of New England late in 2012, has been endorsed by Bill McKibben and Elizabeth Kolbert, and has had several very favorable reviews. He has written articles and book reviews, as well as op-ed pieces and letters, on subjects relating to sustainability and international relations for DeSmogBlog, the American Planning Association, the Foreign Policy Association, Nature Reports Climate Change, Grist, the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, the New Yorker, the NY Times, and Financial Times, among others. His book has been excerpted at Salon.com, Scientific American, GreenBiz.com, and elsewhere.
Burdin Hickok is an adjunct instructor at New York University within the Division of Programs in Business and The Center for Global Affairs where he teaches Corporate Finance, Macroeconomics, and International Business Management. He has over25 years of global financial markets experience in client facing positions with top tier New York investment banks including Lehman Brothers, Swiss Bank and Bankers Trust. Mr. Hickok was the Chief Economist for Tigress Financial Partners, an emerging minority owned investment bank.
Following his career on Wall Street, Mr. Hickok served for three years in Iraq as an economic advisor to the U.S. Department of State and the Government of Iraq. While serving in Iraq he received the State Department’s Superior Honor Award and the Expeditionary Diplomacy Award. Mr. Hickok continues as an occasional guest contributor on CNBC and World Finance Magazine where he discusses the ongoing crisis in Iraq and Syria as well as developments in the volatile global oil markets.
Mr. Hickok earned his Bachelor’s degree from Denison University and conducted graduate work in international economics and politics at the University of Virginia and Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Regina Joseph is the founder of Sibylink (http://www.sibylink.com), an international consultancy based in The Hague and New York devoted to providing strategic foresight on global issues through futures forecasting, scenario-building and training coursework. Joseph is also a Senior Consultant and Superforecaster on the IARPA-funded Good Judgment Project (www.goodjudgmentproject.com). She has worked as a Senior Research Fellow, Future Security Foresight for the Clingendael Institute, a think tank based in The Hague, The Netherlands and continues to produce futures-based assessments for both the public and private sector. The organizations she has advised and trained include Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands Ministry of Defense, the OSCE, NATO and the UN, among others. In her career, Joseph has been recognized as both a pioneer and thought leader in both the analog and digital world: she was the founder and editor-in-chief of Blender, the world’s first digital magazine (delivered on CD-ROM disc), and has held numerous positions for traditional media companies ranging from Forbes, to Hearst to Time Warner. She continues to contribute to a variety of publications and media outlets, including the International Relations & Security Network at ETH-Zurich, Foreign Policy, Reuters and many others. She lectures frequently and began teaching futures-related coursework as an adjunct instructor at the NYU SPS Center for Global Affairs’ Masters program starting in Spring 2015.
Amrita Kapur is the Senior Associate in the Gender Justice Program at the International Center for Transitional Justice, specializes in the gender dimensions of criminal justice and broader legal initiatives within transitional justice contexts. Prior to joining ICTJ, Amrita was a lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales in Australia, where she is completing a field research-based PhD on the potential of International Criminal Court preliminary examinations in Colombia and Guinea to catalyze national prosecutions of sexual and gender-based international crimes. As an academic,Amrita taught International Humanitarian Law and Criminal Law, coached the ICC Moot Competition and Jean Pictet IHL Competition teams at international final rounds and supervised interns, including at international NGOs. She has also served as a judge for the Jean Pictet IHL Competition three times in the last four years.
Previously, Amrita worked as the international legal adviser for the Women’s Justice Unit (WJU) with the Judicial System Monitoring Programme (JSMP) in Timor-Leste, and managing field research in Mozambique and Tanzania on women’s access to justice. Amrita also practiced domestic criminal law in Australian courts as a legal aid criminal defense lawyer and prosecution officer, before working with the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, and the Criminal Justice Program at ICTJ. Amrita holds psychology and law undergraduate degrees, in addition to an LL.M in International Legal Studies from New York University. Her academic publications focus on the ICC’s complementarity regime, women’s rights in post-conflict contexts and international criminal law.
Stephen L. Kass is a partner and founder/co-director of the Environmental Practice Group at Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP in New York. Prior to joining Carter Ledyard & Milburn, he was a founding partner of Berle, Kass & Case, a firm specializing in environmental law from the field’s inception in the 1970s. He received his B.A. magna cum laude from Yale in 1961 and his L.L.B. cum laude from Harvard in 1964. In addition to his role at the Center for Global Affairs, Mr. Kass is an Adjunct Professor at Brooklyn Law School, where he teaches courses on “International Environmental Law” and “Climate Change, Economic Development and Human Rights.” Mr. Kass has published numerous articles in the environmental field and has written regular columns on “Environmental Law” and “International Environmental Law” for the New York Law Journal since 1986. Mr. Kass served on the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch from 1985-2005 (Chair, Policy Committee; Chair, Americas Advisory Committee) and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; the Americas Society; the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (former Vice President and past Chair of the Association’s Committees on International Environmental Law, Inter-American Affairs, Council on International Affairs, Consumer Affairs, Social Welfare Law and its Special Task Force on Downtown Redevelopment; and current Chair, Committee on International Human Rights). He is a member of the New York State Bar Association and the American Bar Association and since 1986 has served on, and for 10 years chaired, the Board of Directors of the National Center for Law and Economic Justice.
Rick Levitt, currently at Macquarie Capital, he has spent the last 16 years managing global financial research for investment banks in the US and Great Britain. Prior to that he was with the Centre for European Security Studies (Groningen, The Netherlands) and what is now the EastWest Institute (New York), two think tanks specializing in the political and economic development of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union after the fall of communism. Additionally, Professor Levitt was a US Foreign Service Officer, serving in Washington DC, Mexico City and London. He holds a master’s degree in international relations from Columbia University, where he specialized in Western European studies, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California (Berkeley), where he specialized in diplomatic history.
Professor Levitt has taught International Relations Since World War Two at the Center for Global Affairs for two years.
Sam Lissner is a Vice President at the Ridgewood Companies, where he is primarily focused on upstream energy and infrastructure investing. Before joining Ridgewood in 2013, he was involved in developing and managing distributed power and real estate projects in the United States, MENA, and Europe. During his graduate studies, Sam worked in the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Office of Oil & Gas and on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Mobile Sources Team. Sam received an A.B. from Harvard University, where he concentrated in Near Eastern Studies and Government. He also received a M.S. with distinction from the NYU Center for Global Affairs, where he concentrated in energy and environmental policy.
COLETTE MAZZUCELLI, Ph.D., M.A.L.D.
Colette Mazzucelli teaches on graduate faculty and offers core as well as elective courses in the Distance Learning Program at the Center for Global Affairs (CGA), New York University SPS. She is also Graduate Faculty Adviser, Fulbright Scholarship and White House Internship Programs. Professor Mazzucelli is a recipient of the NYU SPS Excellence in Teaching Award 2013. Her courses have been profiled by the Council on Foreign Relations in Foreign Affairs as well as the CFR Educators Bulletin. Her biography appears in Marquis Who’s Who in the World 2014. She is a member of the CFR-Lumina Foundation Global Literacy Advisory Group. Professor Mazzucelli was invited to develop a technology session in Canada’s first training program on the prevention of mass atrocities and genocide by the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Concordia University. She has spoken on panels commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Élysée Treaty of Friendship between France and Germany (1963-2013) by the French and German Embassies in Washington and the French and German Consulates General in Boston. She is authoring chapters in as well as editing, with Dr. Ronald J. Bee, an eVolume, Mapping Transatlantic Futures, at the invitation of the Bosch Foundation to commemorate 30 years of transatlantic fellowship. Professor Mazzucelli has an extensive background in technology-mediated learning. She is a former Director, International Programs, at the Budapest Institute for Graduate International and Diplomatic Studies within the Budapest University of Economic Sciences. Professor Mazzucelli was also responsible to direct and teach the first distance learning seminar for the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) Paris analyzing conflict in the former Yugoslavia. A former Bosch Foundation Fellow, she assisted with the ratification of the Treaty on European Union (“Maastricht”) in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Zachary Metz is the Director of Peace Building practice at Consensus, a consulting firm specializing in negotiation, conflict resolution and peace building. He has worked in the field of mediation, conflict resolution and peace building for more than fifteen years. His areas of expertise include training and large-group facilitation, mediation, conflict assessment, conflict-sensitive development, and program design and evaluation.
He was previously the founding Director of Education & Training for Columbia University’s Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR). At CICR he was responsible for envisioning, designing, and implementing the education elements of CICR’s programming. He served as the senior trainer and facilitator for CICR’s interventions in Iraq, Lebanon, Timor-Leste, Myanmar, Northern Ireland and elsewhere.
He has provided expertise to headquarters and field-programs of the United Nations Development Programme, UNICEF, and other UN agencies. He has trained senior staff of the Iraq Property Claims Commission, the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the International Organization for Migration, and Search for Common Ground.
Zach began his career with a focus in domestic conflict resolution, working as a mediator, trainer, and program director with the Northwest Institute for Restorative Justice and the Dispute Resolution Center. He has mediated hundreds of disputes in the private sector, in communities and within families, and directed mediation programs for inmates inside a maximum security prison and juvenile detention facility.
He is an adjunct lecturer at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), teaching the graduate course, Applied International Peace Building and Negotiation and Conflict Resolution in the UN Security Council, a specialized course for UN diplomats. He also teaches at Universidad Externado De Colombia, and has lectured at Sabanci University, the United States Military Academy at West Point and Lebanese American University.
He completed his undergraduate degree in political science at Earlham College. He received a Master of International Affairs degree from Columbia University and an MA in Sociology from the New School for Social Research, where he is currently completing his PhD studies with a focus on intractable identity-based conflicts.
Michelle D. Miranda has a PhD in criminal justice, forensic science concentration, an MPhil in criminal justice, an M.S. in forensic science, and a B.S. in biology. She is a Diplomate with the American Board of Criminalistics and a Member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. Dr. Miranda is the author of the book Forensic Analysis of Tattoos and Tattoo Inks (2015).
Catherine Murphy is a sociologist and documentary filmmaker who has spent much of the last 20 years working in Latin America. She has written and directed films about two of Cuba’s most seminal campaigns: the Literacy Campaign of the 1960s and the conversion to organic agriculture in the 1990s. Catherine received her Masters degree at the Facultad Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) program at the University of Havana, writing a thesis that was later published, entitled: “Cultivating Havana: Urban Agriculture and Food Security in the Years of Crisis.” This thesis became the subject of her first film in 1993, “The Greening of Cuba.” She is a consultant at the Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First). Murphy is also the founder & director of The Literacy Project, a multi-media documentation project on adult literacy in the Americas, which is currently focused on “MAESTRA”, a documentary film about the women volunteer teachers from the Cuban Literacy Campaign of 1961. Catherine Murphy has organized dozens of academic and cultural exchange programs for US Universities, non-profits, cultural institutions, and for independent artists. She was a key advisor to the Cuba Residency for Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in 2011.
Patricio Navia is a Master Teacher in the Liberal Studies Program and an adjunct assistant professor at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University. He is also a professor of political science at the Instituto de Ciencias Sociales of the Universidad Diego Portales and the director of the Observatorio Electoral at the same school. Before obtaining his Ph.D. (May 2003), he was a graduate student in the Department of Politics at New York University. Previously (April 1995-August 1997), he served as Assistant Director of Student Development Services at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 1992, he graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology and obtained a Master of Arts in Political Science at the University of Chicago in 1994.
Erin Lynn Nephew has been a practitioner in the field of global economics for more than 15 years, with on-the- ground experience in 20+ developed, emerging, and frontier markets across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Erin is currently Senior Vice President, Global Country Risk Management at Citigroup, Inc., where she identifies and assesses political and economic risks to inform Citigroup’s exposure limits, capital allocation decisions, and corporate strategy. Erin previously served as an International Economist at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where she advised senior U.S. Government officials on the design and implementation of U.S. macroeconomic, financial, and development policy toward the rest of the world during and after the global financial crisis. Earlier in her career, Erin consulted for multinational corporations as a Senior Associate at KPMG LLP, and served as an Economist at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where she measured and analyzed U.S. international trade and financial flows. Erin holds a Master’s degree in Economics from The George Washington University and a Bachelor’s degree with a double major in Economic Theory and International Studies from The American University.
Alex Pascal is a Senior Policy Advisor at the United States Permanent Mission to the United Nations. He previously served on the National Security Staff (NSS) at the White House as the Executive Assistant to National Security Advisor and as a Director for Middle East Affairs, at the State Department as Special Assistant to the Special Envoy for Middle East Regional Security, and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He has also worked at the U.S. Embassy in Syria, at the West Bank & Gaza office of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and at a local NGO in South Africa. He was an NSEP Boren Graduate Fellow in Yemen and an Anna Sobel Levy Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Alex holds a master’s degree in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a bachelor’s degree in English from Stanford University.
Renzo Pomi is a human rights lawyer with a Law degree from the University of the Republic in his native Uruguay and a LLM from Harvard Law School. He currently represents Amnesty International at the United Nations in New York focusing mostly on issues around human rights and peace and security. Mr. Pomi also leads on the organization’s work regarding the institutional strengthening of the inter-American human rights system. He has conducted field investigations on human rights violations and abuses in several countries in the Americas and Africa. Prior to joining Amnesty International, he worked with the United Nations in two peacekeeping operations (ONUSAL in El Salvador and MINUGUA in Guatemala), with the inter-American System of Human Rights (as Deputy Secretary of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights) and with the Uruguayan government as a diplomat.
A native of Belgrade, Popovic was raised in a political environment with both parents working in the media. His father was a prominent television reporter and his mother a popular news anchor on state television. A founding member of Otpor, Popovic’s main responsibility was human resources and training Otporactivists in nonviolent action. In a sarcastic reference to Yugoslavia’s communist past, Popovic was sometimes called Otpor’s ideological commissar, an appropriate label as he studied and translated the literature of nonviolent strategy, including books by the American scholar Gene Sharp. Popovic worked as a behind the scenes strategist, drafting speeches and writing training manuals. He was elected to the Parliament of the Serb Republic in late 2000 where he also served as environmental affairs advisor to the Serbian Prime Minister, Zoran Djindjic until Djindjic’s assassination in March 2003. He left the Parliament in late 2003 and co-founded the Center for Applied Non-Violent Actions and Strategies (CANVAS), a group that supports nonviolent democratic movements through the transfer of knowledge on strategies and tactics of nonviolent struggle.
William Powers is a Senior Fellow at the New York City-based think tank World Policy Institute, where he focuses on international development, environmental policy, and sustainable consumption. His award-winning winning book, Twelve by Twelve (New World Library, 2010), a national green-living bestseller currently in its fourth printing, will appear in Chinese this fall. He also is the author of two books from Bloomsbury/Macmillan: Blue Clay People: Seasons on Africa’s Fragile Edge, an on-the-ground account of Powers’ two years as an aid worker in Charles Taylor’s civil war Liberia, was a Publisher’s Weekly notable book of 2005. Whispering in the Giant’s Ear: A Frontline Chronicle from Bolivia’s War on Globalization (2006) has been featured on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross and in Newsweek.
For over a decade Powers led development aid and conservation initiatives in Latin America, Africa, and Washington, D.C. From 2002 to 2004 he managed the socio-economic components of a project in the Bolivian Amazon that won the Roy Family Award for environmental partnership from Harvard’s JFK School of Government. His essays on global issues have appeared in the Atlantic, New York Times, Washington Post, and the International Herald Tribune, and have been syndicated to three hundred newspapers around the world and translated into a dozen languages. He has been keynote speaker, lecturer, and panelist at over a hundred university-sponsored and other events in the U.S. and abroad. Powers has worked as a Fellow at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.; Head of Programs for Catholic Relief Services in Liberia; Chief of Party of a USAID / Conservation International rainforest conservation program in Bolivia; and Facilitator of the DFID / IUCN-World Conservation Union forest law-enforcement, governance, and trade dialogues project in Liberia. He holds international affairs degrees from Brown University and Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
PATRICK REED, Ph.D., J.D., M.A.L.D.
Dr. Patrick Reed has taught the politics of international economic relations and related subjects in the international relations program at NYU-SPS since 1995. He is an international trade lawyer with the law firm of Simons & Wiskin. His law practice concentrates on U.S. international trade, customs, and import-export law, including international trade agreements such as the World Trade Organization agreements and the North American Free Trade Agreement. He regularly represents business clients in administrative proceedings before federal agencies responsible for international trade matters and in litigation in the U.S. Court of International Trade and other federal courts. Mr. Reed graduated from Indiana University. He received his law degree from Columbia University School of Law. He received a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in international relations from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, with concentrations in international law and international economic relations. He is the author of a treatise on judicial review in international trade matters, The Role of Federal Courts in US Customs & International Trade Law (Oceana 1997). His most recent publication is “Relationship of WTO Obligations to U.S. International Trade Law: Internationalist Vision Meets Domestic Reality,” 38 Georgetown Journal of International law 209-249 (2006).
Roger Scher is the Head of Country Risk for the Americas at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ. He has had a long career as a Country Risk specialist in the private sector, government service and academia. He was a professor of international political economy and international relations at the Whitehead School of Diplomacy at Seton Hall University (2009-2012) and lectured in Country Risk at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) (2001-2009). He was Managing Director and Head of Latin American Sovereign Ratings at Fitch Ratings, overseeing this department from 2000-2007. He won the Fitch Credit Award for Coverage of Brazil, 2003. Mr. Scher was also Group Vice President and Head of Asian Sovereign Ratings at Duff & Phelps Credit Ratings Company during the Asian crisis (1997-2000), and an Associate Director for Sovereign and Bank ratings at Standard & Poor’s. He was the Head of Latin American Economic Research and Bank Analysis at S.G. Warburg. Mr. Scher is a General Securities Representative (FINRA’s Series 7 Examination).
Mr. Scher was a Foreign Service Officer and Vice Consul based at the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela. He was a Senior Market Analyst covering the German economy in the Foreign Exchange Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Mr. Scher was also an aide to Senator Al Gore during his 1987-88 presidential bid.
He has written a column on the Rising Powers for Foreign Policy Blogs of the Foreign Policy Association. He was a member of the Board of Advisors of the Inter-American Dialogue’s Latin America Advisor and a frequent contributor to the newsletter. He is also the author of three novels.
He holds the following academic degrees: Master of Arts in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), with concentrations in American Foreign Policy and International Economics; Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, with a concentration in Finance; and, Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Summa Cum Laude, from Tufts University. He also attended the London School of Economics.
Allison Schrager is an economist and risk expert. She has a PhD in economics from Columbia University where her research focused on pension and labor market risk. After graduate school she worked in the finance industry developing new retirement investment strategies. Allison has consulted to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on pension risk and to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on entrepreneurship. Allison is also a widely published author; her writing on economics and finance has appeared in the Economist, BusinessWeek, The Atlantic, Wired, and Playboy. She currently writes a regular column on the future of retirement for Quartz.
Michael Shank, Ph.D., is Head of Communications for the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network in New York City, where he handles communications for Professor Jeffrey Sachs and SDSN’s work on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Michael’s recent positions include serving as Director of Media Strategy at Climate Nexus, Associate Director for Legislative Affairs at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, and US Congressman Michael Honda’s Senior Policy Advisor and Communications Director. Michael’s Ph.D. from George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution is on Climate Conflict.
JOSEPH STEPHANIDES, L.L.B., L.L.M.
Mr. Stephanides served with the United Nations Secretariat for 28 years. Before his retirement, he served as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Georgia. He was based in Sukhumi where the United Nations Observer Mission(UNOMIG) maintained its operational headquarters. Prior to the above appointment, he served as Head of the Addis Ababa Office of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).
Mr. Stephanides` broad experience in UN Peacekeeping Missions includes service as Head of the Office of the UN Secretary-General in Iran(UNOSGI), in connection with the implementation of Security Council resolution 598(1987) on ending the war between Iraq and Iran and regional security issues. He also served as Head of the Kamanjab and Sesfontein Political Office of the United Nations Transition Assistance Group(UNTAG).The latter prepared the ground for Namibia`s independence by stabilizing the situation and supervising free and fair elections.
At the UN Headquarters in New York, Mr. Stephanides served as Director of the Security Council Affairs Division, Department of Political Affairs, as Deputy Director of the same Division and Chief of the Sanctions Branch, as well as Chief of the Security Council Practices and Charter Research Branch. During his tenure, he actively encouraged improvements to the working methods and practices of the Security Council. He was instrumental in launching the Interlaken, Bonn-Berlin and Stockholm processes which greatly assisted the work of the members of the Security Council in applying better targeted and less injurious to civilian populations sanctions measures. He also encouraged members of the Security Council to favorably consider the appointment of panels of independent experts, who could be counted upon to expose patterns of violations of sanctions regimes.
Before his assignment to the Security Council Affairs Division, he served as Deputy Director of the West Asia Regional Division in the Department of Political Affairs. Other United Nations positions held by Mr. Stephanides, include the position of Senior Officer at the UN Centre for Science and Technology for Development, as well as Deputy Chief of the New York Liaison Office of the United Nations Human Rights Division.
As an Adjunct Professor of United Nations studies, he teaches Modern Diplomacy at the Long Island University, Graduate UN Certificate Programme. He is a member of the International Law Association (ILA) and a former member of the ILA Human Rights Sub- Committee. He is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Sanctions and Security Research Program of the Fourth Freedom Forum and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
Before joining the United Nations in September 1980, Mr. Stephanides held diplomatic postings with the Cypriot Foreign Service in Bonn, Washington D.C. and New York, including that of Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
Mr. Stephanides holds an L.L.B degree from Athens University, School of Law and an L.L.M degree in International Legal Studies from New York University, School of Law. He pursued further postgraduate studies at Georgetown University, School of Law and at Bonn University, School of Law.
With more than 14 years’ experience in the corporate sustainability space, Celine directs client relationships at Context America. She leads engagements with companies across many sectors, including hospitality, airline, transportation, and financial services. As part of the management team, she also is responsible for developing and implementing operational processes internally and managing staff. Prior to joining Context, Celine worked at BSR for nearly four years as a consultant in their New York office. There she led the organization’s work with companies in the travel and tourism industry, and advised companies in a variety of other sectors including retail, financial services, and food and beverage. Celine helped develop BSR’s sustainability strategy and reporting service offerings, and has led a wide range of consulting projects including materiality, strategy integration, stakeholder engagement, CSR reporting, and supply chain strategy. She also developed and managed BSR’s Center for Sustainable Procurement, a multi-year multi-company collaborative initiative focused on incorporating sustainability considerations into corporate purchasing decisions. Prior to her work as a consultant, Celine worked for nine years as an analyst integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into investment decisions at a number of leading socially responsible investment firms, including Domini Social Investments and Citigroup. Celine holds a master’s degree in Urban Environmental Systems Management from the Pratt Institute, and a bachelor’s degree in Earth System Science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Simon recently joined the Global Futures Group as the Director of Research and Strategy. GFG is a new consultancy and investment fund aimed at helping innovative companies excel in making the world and its cities smarter, safer and healthier. GFG is based in NYC with offices in Shanghai, New Delhi and Barcelona.Previously Simon worked at the Urban Future Lab, focusing on driving cleantech startup development and innovation. Simon was the O’Mara Energy Fellow and completed an MS in Energy and Environmental Policy at NYU’s Center of Global Affairs. While at the CGA, Simon did extensive fieldwork in China and the Middle East. Prior to New York, Simon received a BS Hons in Economics and Philosophy at the University of Sussex and an MSc in International Business Economics at the Westminster Business School, both in the UK.In 2014 Simon Co-Founded the NYC Smart City + Energy Data Meetup and was also a key catalyst for Clean.Data and presented at the White House Datapalooza. Simon was a Shell New Energy Fellow and has been featured multiple times on various publications such as The Energy Collective and Breaking Energy. Simon currently serves on the Board of Directors for Energy Vision and NYU CGA Alumni. In 2015, Simon was named to Breaking Energy’s Top 10 Young Energy Leaders in NY.
Jay wears many hats between being an entrepreneur, finance practitioner, and academic spanning over 24 years. He founded Sanskar Global Wealth Advisors in 2000 where he current advises over 600 clients in portfolio management, tax preparation, and financial planning. The firm has made a total of 5 acquisitions since 2004 adding both advisors and clients nationwide. He has been a Lecturer of Finance spanning 10 years and teaching over 50 classes on a variety of finance courses, ranging from business finance, investments, international finance. He is also a Retained Speaker for the CFA Institute on his topics of How Companies Manipulate Financial Statements and A Global Forecast: What The World Has Learned… and Still Learning. He has given these lectures in over 24 countries, 40 U.S. states, and most of Canada. He is also the author of Financial Statements: A Journalists’ Guide, published to his business journalist audience and press associations. Prior to his entrepreneurial endeavors, he worked for Chase Bank under the name the First National Bank of Chicago in banking, derivatives, emerging market credit analysis, and finally as senior portfolio manager for private clients. He received his MS in Development and Humanitarian Assistance as NYU’s Center of Global Affairs in 2012. He received his CFA Designation in 1998, his MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management in 1996, and finally, his BBA in Finance and Accounting from Southern Methodist University in 1990.
Todd Walters is the founder and Executive Director of International Peace Park Expeditions, which applies experiential learning within transboundary protected areas to foster an interdisciplinary approach to leadership and collaboration, to build a network dedicated to the advancement of cross-border environmental collaboration, and to support community driven development. Walters is the first Fellow at the Policy Center for Environment and Peace at Conservation International where he provides strategic guidance and technical input on environmental peacebuilding strategy development. Walters is also a Fellow at the Institute for Environmental Diplomacy and Security where he publishes Peace & Conflict Impact Assessments and produces micro-documentary films in the “Transcending Boundaries” series.Walters is a founding member of the Environmental Peacebuilding Academy and instructs courses at the University of Vermont, Ohio University and the Monterey Institute for International Studies; and has guest lectured at numerous universities and presented at numerous conferences.
Gus Xhudo received his Ph.D. from the University of St. Andrews, Center for Terrorism and Political Violence, Scotland UK in 1995. Since then, he’s served as a private consultant for several think tanks in Washington, including SAIC, The Scowcroft Group and Brookings as well as law enforcement agencies in this area. He has contributed to journals such as Jane’s Intelligence Review; Studies in Conflict and Terrorism; and NJ COPS Magazine. Gus began his career with State Department in 1997 as an intelligence analyst before becoming a federal agent in 1999. First he served as the Anti-Fraud Coordinator-US Consulate in Lagos Nigeria before taking an assignment in 2002 at the New York Joint Terrorist Task Force. He has trained a variety of local, state, federal and foreign law enforcement personnel including the: New York State Police; CT State Police; NJ-NY Marshals Fugitive Task Force; NYPD Intel; NYPD Recruitment; MAGLOCLEN; CA Bureau of Investigation; US Secret Service; FBI; Dutch Border Police; British Immigration and Customs; The Irish Garda; and the Bergen County Police Academy. Gus transferred to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-New York in 2011. He has also been an adjunct instructor for Fairleigh Dickinson University’s graduate program in Homeland Security Studies since 2008 and Director of Mercy College’s undergraduate program in Corporate and Homeland Security, NY since 2013. He is presently detailed to the NYPD-Intelligence Bureau, Terrorist Interdiction Unit.
John Zindar is a partner with American Business Organization, Inc., a transatlantic business development consultancy, and also with Strategic Ventures & Research Inc., a venture capital advisory group. He is also an advisory board member for Turtlesnap Ventures, Inc., a Baltimore-based technology transfer consultancy.
Zindar served ten years as a U.S. Army Intelligence officer with Meritorious Service, and acquired a very real-world foundation in training, psychological warfare and international negotiation & diplomacy. As a liaison officer with the British Military Intelligence Corps, he developed a special expertise in terrorism counter-action and low intensity conflict operations. Working in politics in Washington, D.C., he contributed to the conclusion of the 1993 peace treaty in El Salvador, lobbied for free trade initiatives, produced award-winning, PBS-broadcasted programs on third world conflict, and initiated a reforestation project in Guatemala. In addition to work as a free-lance journalist in Central America, Professor Zindar has spent nearly 20 years in business and economic development and international risk analysis under various consulting engagements in Europe, North America and Latin America. He has served as an advisor to the Minister of Economics of Germany, as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Panama. He has also given expert testimony on the teaching of torture at the School of Americas before the U.S. Congress, and on the Western Sahara for the United Nations.
Professor Zindar has been published. in American Defense Monitor, Doing Business with Germany, Economist, International Herald Tribune, London First Magazine, Military Intelligence Review, The Times of London, Wall Street Journal Europe, and the Washington Business Journal. Zindar holds an MA in international economics and Latin American studies from The Johns Hopkins University, an MBA from the Edinburgh Business School, and a triple-major BA from Ripon College (Wisconsin) where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa.