The World
Affairs Council of Central Illinois will host Assistant Professor, Dr. Brandon
Barclay Derman at 6 pm on April 26, 2023, at UIS Brookens Auditorium as he puts
the United States energy policy affects foreign relations and international
economic trends into perspective. The event will be live-streams and available for playback at https://mywacci.org/.
Noah
Barclay-Derman holds his Master of Public Health degree from the Global Health
Department at the University of Washington’s School of Public Health and an
International Development Graduate Certificate from the Evans School of Public
Affairs. Before joining the UVM faculty, Noah was the deputy director of
Development in Gardening (DIG), overseeing programs at the intersection of
agriculture and health in Senegal, Kenya, and Uganda. He has 15 years of experience working on
global health issues in the public and private sectors both domestically and
internationally. Noah’s areas of interest include food security and nutrition,
sustainable development, and monitoring and evaluation. Noah is also a returned
Peace Corps volunteer, for which he served communities impacted by HIV/AIDS in
northeast Thailand.
April 26,
2023
UIS
Brookens Auditorium
University
of Illinois Springfield
One University Plaza
Springfield, Illinois 62703-5407
Although the world's attention has been refocused on Russia's attack on Ukraine, there are many unanswered questions and issues concerning Afghanistan and the surrounding area. World Affairs Council of Central Illinois (WACCI) will be hosting Ambassador Ross Wilson on May 2, 2022. as he speaks about the remaining issues of the region. This free event will begin at 7 pm Central time on Zoom (https://mywacci.org/closing-chapter-in-afghanistan/)
Ross Wilson is an American diplomat who served five times as a US chief of mission abroad – as ambassador to Azerbaijan (2000-03) and to Turkey (2005-08) and as chargé d’affaires in Turkey (2014), Georgia (2018-19), and Afghanistan (January 2020 until the embassy’s suspension of operations on August 30, 2021). A career Foreign Service officer, Ambassador Wilson also had postings at the US embassies in Moscow (twice) and Prague and as consul general in Melbourne, Australia. Among Washington assignments, he was deputy executive secretary of the State Department; principal deputy to the ambassador-at-large and special advisor to the Secretary of State for the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union; chief US negotiator for the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick.
From 2010 to 2014, Ambassador Wilson was director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, where he led Council work on Turkey, the former Soviet states, and regional energy and economic issues. He has held positions as a visiting lecturer in international affairs at George Washington University, Bigelow teacher-in-residence at Carleton College, chair of the Board of Directors of Global Minnesota (a World Affairs Council affiliate based in Minneapolis), chair of the Board of Governors of the Institute of Turkish Studies, and on advisory councils for the Eurasia Foundation and American Voices.
Ambassador Wilson earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and two Masters’ Degrees from Columbia University and the US National War College. He has been recognized with the president’s Meritorious Service Award and numerous State Department awards and honors. He holds memberships in the American Academy of Diplomacy, the American Foreign Service Association, Diplomatic and Consular Officers Retired, and the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs. The descendant of Choctaw Indians, Ambassador Wilson is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Ambassador Wilson is married to Margo Squire, also an American Foreign Service officer, and lives near Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota.
The World Affairs Council of Central Illinois (WACCI) hosts recognized experts, who provide lectures on critical issues from a variety of viewpoints. It also sponsors an annual Great Decisions discussion forum, which provides the public with opportunities to actively engage each other in dialogue about the great foreign policy issues that confront our country. All of their programs are free and open to the public. Finally, WACCI partners with community groups, corporations, colleges, and universities to promote an interest in world affairs, especially among members of the next generation.
The World Affairs Council Central IL in partnership with NPR Illinois presents "From Russia With Love: Combating Human Trafficking from the Post- Soviet Region to Central Illinois" on Wednesday, May 23, 2018, 7:30 pm at the Hoogland Center for the Arts, 420 S. Sixth St, Springfield IL. Our featured speaker is Dr. Laura A. Dean of Millikin University.
When folks think of this sensitive topic they don't realize it's happening in their own backyard so to speak, as It's often thought of being prevalent in really big cities. Dr. Laura A. Dean researches gender and politics issues focusing on public policy, migration, and gender-based violence in the former Soviet Union and is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Millikin University. Her talk will focus on her current book project, which examines policy adoption and implementation in the Post-Soviet region and research based on fieldwork and interviews with policy-makers in Ukraine, Latvia, and Russia. Dr. Dean will also discuss the work of the Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force combating the issue in this region
More information on Dr. Dean can be found at http://www.lauraadean.com/. For more information on this event and the World Affairs Council Central IL please see http://mywacci.org/This program is open to the public.
