Mayor Kenneth T. Welch

Kenneth T. Welch was sworn in as the 54th mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida on January 6, 2022. Growing up in the Gas Plant area, Ken worked summers and after school on his grandfather’s woodyard that sat on property later displaced by the interstate. His father was a city council member who helped lay the foundation for St. Petersburg’s resurgence. Ken saw first-hand the uprooting of hundreds of businesses, homes and churches for what eventually became Tropicana Field. He also saw the unfulfilled promises of jobs and economic development in return for that sacrifice. After receiving his BA from USFSP and MBA from Florida A&M, Ken returned to St. Petersburg as an accountant for Florida Power Corporation. He also served as Technology Manager for his father’s small accounting firm. After years of community service, Ken became the first Commissioner elected to represent County Commission District 7 in St. Petersburg, only the second African American commissioner in the history of Pinellas County. Ken proudly served on the County Commission for 20 years, where he brought a focus to the issues of economic development, transportation, equity, housing, criminal justice reform and fighting poverty. A third generation St. Pete resident, Ken lives in St. Petersburg today with his wife of 30 years, Donna, and their two daughters.

Mark Aeling

Sculptor Mark Aeling earned his Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture at Washington University, St Louis in 1993. Mark opened MGA Sculpture Studio, LLC in St Louis, MO in 1996 and relocated to St. Petersburg, FL in 2005. MGA has focused on Public Art and Private Development Commissions that are located throughout the united states. Mark’s sculpture is inspired by object and focuses on the deeper conceptualization of form. He works in a variety of materials and uses many techniques for his creative process. Mark is also an arts advocate and the Board Chair for the Warehouse Arts District Association, a not for profit organization in St Petersburg, FL. www.mgasculpture.com

Peter Kageyama

Peter Kageyama is the author of For the Love of Cities: The Love Affair Between People and Their Places, the follow ups, Love Where You Live: Creating Emotionally Engaging Places and, The Emotional Infrastructure of Places. In 2021, he released For the Love of Cities REVISITED, a revised and updated version of the award winning book. Peter is a Senior Fellow with the Alliance for Innovation, a national network of city leaders and a special advisor to America In Bloom. He is the former President of Creative Tampa Bay, a grassroots community change organization and the co-founder of the Creative Cities Summit, an interdisciplinary conference that brings citizens and practitioners together around the big idea of ‘the city.’ He is an internationally sought-after community development consultant and grassroots engagement strategist who speaks all over the world about bottom-up community development and the amazing people who are making change happen.

Peter Schorsch

Peter Schorsch is the President of Extensive Enterprises Media and the publisher and executive editor of FloridaPolitics.com, INFLUENCE Magazine, and a suite of email newsletters, including “Sunburn,” the morning must-read of what’s hot in Florida politics. For several years, The Washington Post ranked Peter's original website as the best state-based blog in Florida. In addition to his publishing work, Peter is a political consultant to numerous elected officials, as well as some of the state’s largest companies, governmental affairs and public relations firms. Peter lives in St. Petersburg with his wife, Michelle, and their daughter, Ella.

Rick Kriseman

Rick Kriseman was sworn in as the 53rd mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida on January 2, 2014, ushering in a new era for the Sunshine City. He was re-elected in November 2017. As mayor, he leads an organization of 3,500 employees and a city of approximately 270,000 residents. Under his leadership, St. Pete has been ranked as Florida’s best-managed and fiscally strongest city and has received numerous accolades, including being named one of the top places to visit in the world by the New York Times and one of the 20 best places to live by Southern Living. In his first term, Mayor Kriseman delivered on his promise to build a new pier and police station, establish community-oriented policing, implement curbside recycling, and elevate St. Pete’s profile in the world. His work to prepare St. Pete for a changing climate, transition the city to 100 percent clean energy, and expand and preserve green space has continued into his second term. In 2019, the global network ‘Apolitical’ named Mayor Kriseman one of the world’s 100 most influential climate policy leaders. He was subsequently asked to lead the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Environment Standing Committee. A proponent of alternative transportation, Mayor Kriseman spearheaded the Cross Bay Ferry and worked with the St. Petersburg City Council to adopt a Complete Streets policy, implement the city’s bike share program, and introduce Bus Rapid Transit to the Sunshine City. Mayor Kriseman’s top priority – to provide more opportunity for residents through training, employment, higher wages, grants, and second chances – helped to reduce St. Pete’s African-American poverty to an all-time low. And, inspired by former President Barack Obama’s ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ initiative, Mayor Kriseman launched ‘My Brother’s and Sister’s Keeper’ to address persistent opportunity gaps faced by young men and women of color and to ensure that all young people can reach their full potential. Programs under the MBSK umbrella, such as the Cohort of Champions and the anti-gun violence ‘Not My Son’ campaign, have made St. Pete a better and safer place. A pro-growth progressive, Mayor Kriseman has been a champion for small business owners, entrepreneurs, artists, and our main streets, while ensuring the continued success for our largest employers. Prior to becoming mayor, Rick Kriseman served for six years in the Florida House of Representatives and as his caucus's policy chairman from 2011-2012. From 2000-2006, he represented District 1 on the St. Petersburg City Council and served as the council chairman in 2005. Mayor Kriseman earned a B.S. in broadcasting from the University of Florida and a J.D. from the Stetson University College of Law. He is married to Kerry, a St. Petersburg native, and they have two children, Jordan and Samuel.

Ambassador Kevin McGuire

Kevin McGuire joined the Foreign Service in 1966. He served as Ambassador to Namibia; Economic Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission in Korea; Economic Minister in Italy; in economic positions in our embassies in Greece and Ireland as well as in the Economics and Business and International Organizations Bureaus in Washington. Other assignments included Director of Senior Assignments; and tours in Gabon as Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge d’Affaires; and in Adelaide, Australia as Consul. McGuire spent many years in trade diplomacy. He was a member of the US team involved in negotiating the Free Trade Agreement with Canada, the precursor of the North American Free Trade Agreement. He was also involved in the Tokyo and Uruguay Round negotiations, which addressed tariff levels and non tariff barriers, provided dispute mechanisms and protection for intellectual property rights and in general fostered an exponential growth in international trade and investment. He was Deputy Head of Delegation at UNCTAD IX, where great progress was made on promoting the adoption of market based principles by developing countries. In Korea he played a leading and successful role in fighting unfair trade practices. As Chief of Mission in Namibia, he was part of the US effort to initiate PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which has had such a great impact in Namibia and other participating nations in confronting the threat of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. After retirement in 2004 he was a senior inspector in the Office of the Inspector General. Also in retirement, as the Director of the Rangel International Affairs Program in its formative years, he made a significant contribution to improving diversity in the foreign affairs community. He did graduate level studies at Indiana University, Harvard University and the National War College. He was the recipient of many performance based awards at State, and a CIGIE Award from the interagency Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency. He is married to Kay Cuddy McGuire, who accompanied him on all his tours and contributed greatly to his efforts to defend US interests

Catherine Herndon

Catherine Hill Herndon joined the U.S. State Department as an economic officer in 1985, retiring in 2019 as a Minister Counselor, having served in eight countries overseas in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. She also worked in Washington DC, and, in her last assignment, was the Policy Advisor (POLAD) to the Commander of US Central Command in Tampa, Florida. Now a resident of Tampa, Catherine speaks to student groups, volunteers in Hillsborough County, and serves on the board of the Foreign Service Retirees of FL. A graduate of Colgate University, Catherine received a Master of Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College (USAWC), and was a member of the USAWC faculty 2016-2017. She is married to Roger Herndon, who is also a retired State Department officer. Their son, James, is on active duty with the U.S. Space Force.

Charles Alvarado

Vice President of Int’l. Sales, AOCUSA/AMALIE Oil Company Charles has a BA in Business Administration with a mayor in Management from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico and is a fully bi-lingual (English & Spanish), Certified Marketing Executive (CME® – Syracuse University), from the Sales & Marketing Executives International Association. He handles multiple continents and oversees more than 150 countries in the sales and distribution of various high-quality motor oils brands and industrial lubricants. After a successful twenty-year career as Marketing & Public Relations Director in an OEM auto manufacturer and distributor, Mr. Alvarado decided to switch careers and move into the “recycling” world, were he became for more than 7 years, General Manager of a hydro-processing used motor oil re-refinery, on the Caribbean Island of Puerto Rico. During that time, Mr. Alvarado graduated and is a licensed Certified ISO Lead Auditor in the following categories; ISO 9001 Quality Management, ISO 14001 Environmental Management and OSHAS 18001 Occupational Safety & Health Administration Systems Management. That opportunity opened a new world for him and his new found countries, and he has been able to successfully maintain continuous export business ties with many commercial partners, especially in the Middle East. He has traveled extensively within, Europe, Middle East, Western Asia, Africa and India, among many other countries worldwide.

Madison Lawson

Joining Enterprise Florida in August of 2021, Madison Lawson is the senior manager for foreign direct investment for the state-designated economic development organization. Madison manages all foreign direct investment inquiries into the state of Florida and oversees lead generation from 19 overseas international representatives in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa. In her role, she runs the project management of foreign investment leads from initial inquiries to established Florida businesses through a statewide RFI process. In her previous position at Enterprise Florida, Madison served as the regional trade manager for the Tampa Bay area, providing export counseling to companies in 10 Florida counties. Her responsibilities included managing trade grants, promoting international trade shows and missions, and coordinating educational programs and events for Florida businesses interested or engaged in international trade. Madison’s background in international economic development began at the Tampa Bay EDC as the international business manager for the local organization as well as the manager for the regional trade and investment promotion partnership known as Global Tampa Bay. In this role she executed several trade missions to Latin America and foreign investment missions to Europe. She was also responsible for marketing and social media for the partnership as well as managing international project leads. With a master’s degree in International Development and Emerging Economies from King’s College London and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Tampa, Madison has a depth of knowledge in international business and a personal connection to the Gulf Coast of Florida. While receiving her graduate degree, Madison worked at Catholic Relief Services to promote the use of innovative technology in international development projects. At the University of Tampa, Madison spent time conducting research on the informal economy in Cusco, Peru in addition to founding a social enterprise project in northern Ghana. In addition to her expertise in international economic development, Madison is a resident of Saint Petersburg, Florida, where she enjoys fishing, paddle boarding, and spending time at the beach.

Sandra Campbell

Sandra Campbell is the Director of the U.S. Commercial Service Tampa Bay, the local office for the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce located in Clearwater, Florida. Since 1998, Sandra has counseled and developed export strategies for small and medium-sized companies with U.S. products and services throughout the Tampa Bay and Southwest Florida regions. International projects have included Brazil, China, Germany, Italy, Panama, Poland, and Spain, as well as brief assignments at the U.S. Embassy in Prague, Czech Republic and the U.S. Consulates in Vancouver, Canada and Milan, Italy. In 2016, Sandra did a rotation at the U.S. Department of State's Office of Commercial and Business Affairs (CBA) in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs in Washington, D.C. She is also a member of the U.S. Commercial Service's Global Healthcare Technology and Global Education Teams. Sandra is a cum laude, honors program graduate from the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Marketing and International Business, and minor in Italian. She has also attended Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, England and the Università per Stranieri di Perugia in Perugia, Italy. Sandra is a member of the Tampa Bay Area Committee on Foreign Relations and alumna of the FBI Tampa Citizens Academy.

Robert Bruce Adolph

Robert Bruce Adolph is a successful international speaker, author, and commentator, who is a retired senior US Army Special Forces officer and United Nations security chief. He holds graduate degrees in both international affairs & national security studies and is a qualified Military Strategist. In and out of uniform, Robert lived and worked in 16 different countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. He possesses the ultimately tragic trifecta of having supported counterterrorism activities in the military, conducted antiterrorism mitigation measures in the United Nations, and became an actual victim and survivor of terrorism in a jihadist suicide bombing attack in Baghdad, Iraq that killed twenty-two and wounded another more than one-hundred and fifty. He also has the unusual distinction of being twice fired and twice promoted during his nearly 15 years of UN civil service. Robert is a former Chief of the Middle East and North Africa at UN Headquarters in New York City. Per the publisher, his book entitled, “Surviving the United Nations,” is their number one best-seller. He has been a frequent guest columnist for the Tampa Bay Times, Holland’s Atlantic Perspectives Magazine, the US Military Times and many more. In 2022, he served as the mission leader of a multi-national team in support of war crimes investigators for the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Ukraine. Discover more at http://robertbruceadolph.com/

William Jordan

Retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer, Independent Analyst William Jordan served for 30 years (1981-2011) as a political officer in the U.S. Foreign Service specializing in the Arab world and France.  His overseas assignments included Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; Tunis, Tunisia; Damascus, Syria; Amman, Jordan; Paris, France; and Algiers, Algeria, where he served in his final posting as Deputy Chief of Mission. Mr. Jordan’s responsibilities in the Arab world included reporting and analyzing foreign policy trends, especially as they related to the United States, as well as internal politics, human rights conditions, and the rise of radical Islam as a political force.  From 1997-2001, Mr. Jordan was the reporting officer in Paris for labor issues and internal politics.  He returned to Paris in 2007-2009 to work on the Near East and North Africa as well as Russia (including during and after the 2008 Georgia crisis).  From 2002-2007, Mr. Jordan focused his attention on North Africa, notably as Director of the Office of Maghreb Affairs. Since retiring from the Foreign Service, Mr. Jordan has lived in Paris, where, in addition to his work as an independent analyst and consultant, he occasionally comments on the Arab world, northwest Africa, France, and U.S. national security policy for France24, RFI, and the BBC.  He is a board member of and has participated in the annual Saint Petersburg, FL, Conference on World Affairs in addition to lecturing frequently to numerous audiences, including the French Ecole militaire and at the Paris campus of New York University. From May 2020-December 2021, Mr. Jordan served as president of the Association of Americans Resident Overseas (AARO).  

David E. Hoffman

David E. Hoffman is a contributing editor and member of the editorial board of The Washington Post. He was previously assistant managing editor, foreign editor, Jerusalem correspondent, Moscow bureau chief, and White House correspondent for the newspaper. He is the author of Give Me Liberty: The True Story of Oswaldo Payá and His Daring Quest for a Free Cuba (2022.) His other books are: The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy (2009), which won the Pulitzer Prize, The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal (2015), a New York Times bestseller, and The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia (2002.) He has also been a correspondent for the PBS investigative series FRONTLINE. He attended the University of Delaware and St. Antony's Collegte, Oxford. He lives with his wife in Maryland.

DR. Isaiah “Ike” Wilson III

Dr. Isaiah (Ike) Wilson III (Colonel, U.S. Army, retired) has earned a reputation as a versatile and innovative soldier-scholar. A decorated combat veteran with multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and extensive operational experience across the greater middle east, Dr. Wilson is a nationally and internationally-recognized leading advocate for change in how America understands and deals with matters of security affairs and uses of force, in times of peace and war, at a time when disruptive change continues to outpace organizations and organizational leadership ability to think and act fast and effectively. Wilson's military career has spanned troop-leading, staff-planning, strategic advisory and teaching and research assignments, and he has published extensively on organizational politics, civil-military relations, national security (defense) policy, and grand strategy. His 2007 book, Thinking beyond War: Civil-Military Relations and Why America Fails to Win the Peace, along with his service on the 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom Study Group, helped to increase public attention to the problems and errors in U.S. post-war planning for the Iraq War and sparked governmental movement toward policy reforms. He has been at the center of innovative planning in the future of U.S. intervention policy. His most recent military assignment was serving as chief, commander’s initiatives group (CIG) for the Commanding General, United States Central Command (2013-2016). Working in one of the most challenging combatant commands, Colonel Wilson played a leading role in the Command’s overall efforts relating to three major named operational campaigns, Operation ENDURING FREEDOM/FREEDOM’S SENTINEL, INHERENT RESOLVE, and SPARTAN SHIELD and numerous related supporting operations, to include U.S. Central Command’s 2013 Operation NIMBLE WARNING, as well as United States Central Command’s support for the Operation RESTORATION OF HOPE Gulf Cooperative Council Coalition in Yemen, among others. Previously, Colonel (Ret.) Wilson served as a strategic planning advisor to GEN Stanley McChrystal, COMISAF, and the ISAF combined-joint planning staff in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF) in 2009, and as chief of plans for the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and resident strategist to the commanding general, David Petraeus, Mosul, Iraq during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM-1 (OIF, 2003-04). Dr. Wilson holds a B.S. in International Relations from the United States Military Academy at West Point, master's degrees in Public Policy and Government from Cornell University, master's degrees in Military Arts and Sciences from the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College, School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS), and the National War College, as well as a Ph.D. in political science (Government) from Cornell University. Prior to his arrival at JSOU and U.S. Special Operations Command, Dr. Wilson served as Director of the U.S. Army’s Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) and U.S. Army War College Press, as well as a senior lecturer with the Yale Jackson Institute of Global Affairs at Yale University. He served as professor of political science and the Director of the American Politics, Policy, and Strategy program at West Point from 2005 to 2013 and was the architect and founding director of the West Point Grand Strategy Program. He has taught at the National War College, Yale University, Columbia University, and The George Washington University. Dr. Wilson is a nonresident Fellow with the D.C. think tank, New America, and a nonresident scholar with The Modern War Institute at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Dr. Wilson is also a life member with the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the Council’s International Affairs Fellowship program selection committee.

Dr. R. Michael Bracy

Dr. Bracy earned his PhD from the University of Arkansas as part of the King Fahd Center for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. After working as a Fulbright Fellow in 2003, Michael became a Professor of History at Oklahoma State University. Dr. Bracy currently serves as the Sr. Social Scientist and Research Director for USCENTCOM CCJ39-Assessment Team.

Lynne Platt

Lynne Platt’s career of U.S. Government service spanned 31 years, 24 of them in the U.S. Foreign Service. She retired in 2018 with the rank of Minister-Counselor, having worked overseas in Cairo (1995-1997), Casablanca (1995-1997) USNATO (2001-2004), Paris (2004-2008), Baghdad (2008-2009), Port-au-Prince (2009-2011), London (2011-2014), and Vancouver (2014-2017) as Consul General. Domestically, she served in the State Department’s Near East Asia Bureau (1999-2000) and at the non-partisan Wilson Center as senior State Department Fellow at the Canada Institute (2017-2018). Lynne received her BA (Phi Beta Kappa) and MA in Political Science from the University of Washington. She and her husband recently relocated to Saint Petersburg, Florida.

Thomas W. Smith PhD

Thomas W. Smith (Board Member and Co-Founder of the St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs) is Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean of the Judy Genshaft Honors College at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. He holds a B.A. in Anthropology from the College of William & Mary and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. He has taught at USF since 2000. From 1997-2000 Dr. Smith was an assistant professor of International Relations at Koç University in Istanbul. During the summer of 1999 he was a visiting scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. He spent the 2007-2008 academic year at Stanford University.

A.J. Hartley

A.J. Hartley (AKA Andrew Hart) is the New York Times bestselling author of 24 novels in a variety of genres including mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, paranormal, children’s and young adult. He has written adaptations of Macbeth and Hamlet with David Hewson (the latter winning Audible’s book of the year for 2014), and UFO mystery/thrillers with Tom DeLonge of Blink 182. The first book of his Steeplejack trilogy won International Thriller Writers’ YA book of the year for 2017. His most recent book is a playful, time-traveling fantasy adventure called Burning Shakespeare about someone who sells his soul to the devil so he can go back in time and wipe the Bard from history. As Andrew James Hartley he is UNC Charlotte’s Robinson Professor of Shakespeare studies where he specializes in performance issues. He is the author of scholarly books on dramaturgy, political theatre and performance history, and has edited collections about Shakespeare on the university stage, Shakespeare in millennial fiction, and (with Peter Holland) Shakespeare and geek culture. He was editor of Shakespeare Bulletin for a decade, and is currently editing Julius Caesar for Arden. AJ was born and raised in northwest England before living in Japan after his undergraduate degree and eventually moving to the United States for his MA and Ph.D from Boston University. He has a YouTube channel focused mainly on Japanese rock music. You can learn more about him at www.ajhartley.net

Ann Morrison

Ann Morrison is a former editor for Time Inc. magazines in New York (Fortune), Hong Kong (Asiasweek) and London (Time). She has also taught journalism in the Global Business Journalism Program at Tsinghua University in Beijing and at Sciences-Po in Paris. She is an advisory board member of the American Library in Paris and continues to freelance for various publications.

Abdul H. “Zi” Azizi

Real Estate Advisor, Premier Sotheby’s International Realty Born and raised in Kabul, Afghanistan, Abdul H. “Zi” Azizi’s early life was marked by extreme hardship. In 1994 during the Jihadist war to seize Afghanistan, four-year old Zi was wounded when a bullet grazed his head during a firefight. His father also was wounded and their house burned in a rocket attack. As a young boy, Zi helped support his family by selling cooking oil on the streets of Kabul. The Taliban era brought greater hardships for the family when Zi’s mother was forced to quit the job she had held for 20 years at a bank and his father was briefly jailed. During this time, Zi began to learn English by watching American movies broadcast from a black-market satellite dish installed at night and removed before dawn to avoid punishment by the Taliban. U.S. Special Operations Forces liberated Afghanistan from the Taliban in 2001 and Zi and his family became engaged in supporting coalition efforts. At age17, FEDEX hired Zi to deliver packages to the U.S. military and he soon become manager of the FEDEX operation serving coalition military and defense contractors. Graduating from the Swiss University for Management, Economics and Finance in Kabul with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration in 2013, Zi began working for an Orlando-based U.S. defense contractor that handled programs teaching literacy to the Afghan military. In 2013, Zi was accepted at St. Petersburg College, and in 2015, he became a licensed real estate professional. An ambassador to the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce, Zi brings a cross-cultural outlook to clients from around the world. He gives back to his adopted community as an active and proud member of Rotary International.

Ann Morrison

Ann Morrison is a former editor for Time Inc. magazines in New York (Fortune), Hong Kong (Asiasweek) and London (Time). She has also taught journalism in the Global Business Journalism Program at Tsinghua University in Beijing and at Sciences-Po in Paris. She is an advisory board member of the American Library in Paris and continues to freelance for various publications.

Dr. William Felice

William F. Felice is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Eckerd College. Dr. Felice is the author of six books on human rights and international relations: Human Rights and Public Goods (2021) with Diana Fuguitt; Introduction to International Politics: Global Challenges and Policy Responses (2019) with Glenn Hastedt; The Ethics of Interdependence: Global Human Rights and Duties (2016); How Do I Save My Honor: War, Moral Integrity and Principled Resignation (2009); The Global New Deal: Economic and Social Human Rights in World Politics (2010; 2003); and Taking Suffering Seriously: The Importance of Collective Human Rights (1996). He has also published numerous articles on the theory and practice of human rights in a variety of journals including, the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Ethics and International Affairs, Human Rights Quarterly, International Affairs, and Social Justice. Dr. Felice was named the 2006 Florida Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In addition, Felice has received Eckerd College’s John Satterfield Outstanding Mentor Award (2021), Grover Wren Award for Leadership and Service to General Education (2017), the Lloyd W. Chapin Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Art (2011), the John M. Bevan Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award (2005), and has been recognized by the students as Professor of the Year (2003) and by the faculty as the Robert A. Staub Distinguished Teacher of the Year (1999). Felice received his Ph.D. from the Department of Politics at New York University. He has served as a trustee on the board of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Relations. He was also the past president of the International Ethics Section of the International Studies Association.

Pierre Guerlain

Pierre GUERLAIN is Professor emeritus of American Studies formerly at Université Paris Ouest Nanterre, France. His fields of research are US foreign policy and US politics. He has done a lot of work on "anti-Americanism" and the image of the US abroad. He published a book about the mutual perceptions of the Americans and the French Miroirs transatlantiques; la France et les Etats-Unis entre passions et indifférences, and articles in various scholarly journals and online publications.

Andreas T. Siegel

Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Miami/Florida (USA) Andreas Siegel is a career diplomat with a broad range of international experience in strategic, political, economic and cultural affairs. He holds both a (postgraduate) diploma of the College of Europe, Bruges/Belgium and a Master degree of French, English and American literature/linguistics of the University of Freiburg/ Germany. Andreas has had a long-time connection and affinity with the United States: he was an AFS exchange student in Michigan in the 1970ies. And his first foreign assignment as a diplomat was to serve as a Vice-Consul at the German Consulate General in Boston, Mass. Before coming to Florida in July 2019, Andreas headed the German Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Previously, he had been working at the German Permanent Representation to NATO in Brussels, focusing on arms control, counter-terrorism and NATO-Russia working groups. Prior to that, he had been working for six years in Strasbourg/France: initially as Deputy Chief of Mission at the German Permanent Representation to the Council of Europe (CoE), and then – on leave from the Foreign Service – as Director of Strategic Planning of the CoE. During this period, Andreas negotiated several Cooperation Programs on Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law with Russia and Ukraine. His professional experience also includes: working as a spokesperson of the German Delegation to the European Cultural Policy Committee in Brussels and heading a cross-border cooperation unit at the Foreign Ministry. He also worked as Deputy Head of Mission at the German Embassy in Lilongwe/Malawi (South-Eastern Africa) and spent three years at the Federal Chancellery (Desk for strategic and security issues) , followed by a “double-hatted posting” in Morocco as Head of the economic section of the Embassy (in Rabat) and as Consul General in Casablanca.

Dr. Golfo Alexopoulos

Professor and Director of the USF Institute for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies I teach a variety of courses on topics related to contemporary Russian politics and society, modern Europe and the Soviet Union. My undergraduate and graduate courses tend to focus on conflict in the world, comparative dictatorship and authoritarianism, the problems of war and revolution, as well as genocide and human rights. When possible, I try to engage student interest by incorporating a variety of media (art, film, music) and assigning diverse readings (primary sources, literature, memoirs, poetry). In particular, I enjoy showing students my slides from when I lived in the Soviet Union and Russia under Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin. Over the years, I have advised many bright USF students, both graduate and undergraduate. Some of them have been accepted into first-rate doctoral programs in Russian/Soviet history, others have joined the Peace Corps or pursued careers in international law and business, the military, diplomacy, teaching, and journalism. Research My current work examines the threads that connect twentieth-century Soviet and twenty-first-century Russian authoritarianism, especially in the dis/information space. My most recent book, Illness and Inhumanity in Stalin’s Gulag, was published by Yale University Press in 2017. The work examines the system of violent human exploitation in the Stalinist forced labor camps, 1929-1953. It draws upon recently declassified archival materials from the Gulag health department to reveal how prisoners were fundamentally dehumanized and managed as commodities. Mortality was much greater than the official Soviet records indicate, as prisoners were routinely released on the verge of death. The book argues that human exploitation in the Stalinist camps was deliberately destructive and that the regime concealed the Gulag’s destructive capacity. My first book, Stalin’s Outcasts: Aliens, Citizens, and the Soviet State, 1926-1936 (Cornell, 2003), examines Stalin’s disenfranchisement policy, and the lives and voices of those deprived of rights (lishentsy). At the center of the work is an analysis of over five hundred petitions to Soviet officials for the reinstatement of rights. I discovered these handwritten letters from social outcasts in a closed archive in western Siberia just months after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The book demonstrates how, from Kremlin leaders to marked aliens, many engaged in identifying citizens and non-citizens and challenging the terms of social membership in the Stalinist state. Specialty Areas Russia and the Soviet Union, Stalinism and authoritarianism, medicine/health and society, political violence and human rights, disinformation and security

Neal Walker

Neal Walker is an alumni of Eckerd College. He started his professional career doing a year of independent research on renewable energy solutions in Costa Rica. That led to 6 years with the Organization of American States and then 28 years with the United Nations. At the UN, Walker led work in sustainable development, conflict prevention and response, governance, humanitarian action and in defense of human rights. Walker was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General as head of United Nations in Kyrgyzstan (2006), in Bangladesh (2011) and in Ukraine (2014 – 2018). Before then he held senior field positions in Sudan, Equatorial Guinea and Guatemala. In 2018 Walker accepted the post of Diplomat-in-Residence at Eckerd College in the USA. Prior to his professional career, Neal Walker worked in a steel mill, on the fishing docks, as a carpenter, as a fast food cook and in a roof truss factory.

Pierre Guerlain

Pierre GUERLAIN is Professor emeritus of American Studies formerly at Université Paris Ouest Nanterre, France. His fields of research are US foreign policy and US politics. He has done a lot of work on "anti-Americanism" and the image of the US abroad. He published a book about the mutual perceptions of the Americans and the French Miroirs transatlantiques; la France et les Etats-Unis entre passions et indifférences, and articles in various scholarly journals and online publications.

Ambassador John Feeley

John Feeley, US Ambassador (ret’d) The Executive Director for the Center for Media Integrity of the Americas (CMIA), John Feeley is a former U.S. ambassador dedicated to promoting greater mutual understanding between the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean. The CMIA is a not-for-profit entity affiliated with the Organization of American States (OAS) that fosters and incentivizes high quality journalism and public interest media in the Western Hemisphere. A skilled negotiator, organizational leader and cross-cultural communicator, Ambassador Feeley collaborates with private sector, media, and not-for-profit partners who seek to understand and solve problems found at the intersection of government, business, and culture. His military and diplomatic experience afford insight into U.S security and rule of law policy implementation, the resolution of commercial disputes, and human rights, media, and democracy issues. During a 28-year State Department career, he served as Ambassador to Panama, Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires in Mexico City, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. As a Deputy Executive Secretary, he worked on the staffs of Secretaries of State, Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, in addition to serving in other Latin American assignments both in Washington and at embassies throughout the region. He was formerly a principal at Gotham Lights LLC, and a political consultant for the Spanish-language media, Univision, providing on-air analysis and publishing opinion columns. He has appeared on CNN, BBC, CBC, NPR, PBS, MSNBC and in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The New Yorker, among other Spanish and English-language media, as a forceful advocate for a respectful, alliance-based approach to U.S. relationships with Latin American governments and societies. Ambassador Feeley serves on the Board of Directors of EnvoyGlobal ( ), a technology enabled immigration services company. He also works with ANDE Rapid DNA ( ), an emerging technology firm that seeks to harness the power of expedited DNA testing for law enforcement, forensic, and humanitarian purposes. Prior to his Foreign Service career, he served as a United States Marine officer and helicopter pilot. He is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a Distinguished Graduate of the National War College.

Ambassador Michael Ranneberger

Ambassador Michael Ranneberger is a managing partner of Gainful Solutions, an international consulting company. During his distinguished diplomatic career, he represented the United States in Latin America, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Following his graduation from Towson University with a double major in history and social science, he earned a Masters Degree in history at the University of Virginia and pursued work toward a doctorate before entering the Foreign Service. He served as Ambassador to Mali, Kenya, and Somalia. He was the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, in which capacity he led policy development and implementation for the African region. Other postings included serving as Deputy Chief of Mission in Paraguay, Mozambique, and Somalia. During the 1980s he was part of the team which negotiated the independence of Namibia and the withdrawal of Cuban forces from Angola. As the Special Representative of the Secretary of State, he helped lead negotiations which resulted in the Sudan Peace Agreement of 2005. When crisis erupted in Kenya following the disputed presidential election at the end of 2007, Ambassador Ranneberger, working closely with African Union mediator Kofi Annan, was instrumental in ending the bloodshed and bringing about fundamental reforms through adoption of a new constitution in 2010. For those efforts, he was dubbed “Ambassador of Peace” by the Kenyan people. From 2011 until his retirement in 2016, he served as the State Department’s senior foreign policy adviser to three commanders of the U.S. Central Command, including James Mattis. He is the recipient of the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award, its highest, Presidential Meritorious Service Awards, the Department’s Anti-Slavery Award for his efforts to combat human trafficking, and numerous other recognitions. He is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Africa Nazarene University. As a Career Minister at the time of his retirement, he was one of the 35 highest ranked officers in the State Department.

Dr. Golfo Alexopoulos

Professor and Director of the USF Institute for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies I teach a variety of courses on topics related to contemporary Russian politics and society, modern Europe and the Soviet Union. My undergraduate and graduate courses tend to focus on conflict in the world, comparative dictatorship and authoritarianism, the problems of war and revolution, as well as genocide and human rights. When possible, I try to engage student interest by incorporating a variety of media (art, film, music) and assigning diverse readings (primary sources, literature, memoirs, poetry). In particular, I enjoy showing students my slides from when I lived in the Soviet Union and Russia under Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin. Over the years, I have advised many bright USF students, both graduate and undergraduate. Some of them have been accepted into first-rate doctoral programs in Russian/Soviet history, others have joined the Peace Corps or pursued careers in international law and business, the military, diplomacy, teaching, and journalism. Research My current work examines the threads that connect twentieth-century Soviet and twenty-first-century Russian authoritarianism, especially in the dis/information space. My most recent book, Illness and Inhumanity in Stalin’s Gulag, was published by Yale University Press in 2017. The work examines the system of violent human exploitation in the Stalinist forced labor camps, 1929-1953. It draws upon recently declassified archival materials from the Gulag health department to reveal how prisoners were fundamentally dehumanized and managed as commodities. Mortality was much greater than the official Soviet records indicate, as prisoners were routinely released on the verge of death. The book argues that human exploitation in the Stalinist camps was deliberately destructive and that the regime concealed the Gulag’s destructive capacity. My first book, Stalin’s Outcasts: Aliens, Citizens, and the Soviet State, 1926-1936 (Cornell, 2003), examines Stalin’s disenfranchisement policy, and the lives and voices of those deprived of rights (lishentsy). At the center of the work is an analysis of over five hundred petitions to Soviet officials for the reinstatement of rights. I discovered these handwritten letters from social outcasts in a closed archive in western Siberia just months after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The book demonstrates how, from Kremlin leaders to marked aliens, many engaged in identifying citizens and non-citizens and challenging the terms of social membership in the Stalinist state. Specialty Areas Russia and the Soviet Union, Stalinism and authoritarianism, medicine/health and society, political violence and human rights, disinformation and security

Michael Mandelbaum

Michael Mandelbaum is the Christian A. Herter Professor Emeritus of American Foreign Policy at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. He has also taught at Harvard and Columbia Universities and at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis and served as Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. A contributor to such publications as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, and The London Observer, Professor Mandelbaum served for 23 years as the associate director of the Aspen Institute Congressional Project on American Relations With the Former Communist World. He serves on the Board of Advisors of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Washington-based organization sponsoring research and public discussion on American policy toward the Middle East. Born in 1946, Professor Mandelbaum is a graduate of Yale College. He earned his Master’s degree at King’s College, Cambridge University and his doctorate at Harvard University. Professor Mandelbaum is the author or co-author of numerous articles and essays and of seventeen books: The Nuclear Question: The United States and Nuclear Weapons 1946-1976 (1979); The Nuclear Revolution: International Politics Before and After Hiroshima (1981); The Nuclear Future (1983); Reagan and Gorbachev (with Strobe Talbott, 1987); The Global Rivals (with Seweryn Bialer, 1988); The Fate of Nations: The Search For National Security in the 19th and 20th Centuries (1988); and The Dawn of Peace in Europe (1996); The Ideas That Conquered the World: Peace, Democracy and Free Markets in the Twenty-first Century (2002); The Meaning of Sports: Why Americans Watch Baseball, Football and Basketball and What They See When They Do (2004); The Case For Goliath: How America Acts As the World’s Government in the Twenty-first Century (2006); Democracy’s Good Name: The Rise and Risks of the World’s Most Popular Form of Government (2007); The Frugal Superpower: America’s Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped Era (2010) ; That Used To Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World We Invented and How We Can Come Back, (with Thomas L. Friedman, 2011); The Road to Global Prosperity ( 2014); Mission Failure: American and the World in the Post-Cold War Era (2016); The Rise and Fall of Peace on Earth (2019); and The Four Ages of American Foreign Policy: Weak Power, Great Power, Superpower, Hyperpower (2022). He is also the editor of twelve books.

Dr. Rajesh Reddy

Dr. Rajesh K. Reddy directs the Animal Law Program at the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School, where he teaches International Animal Law, Animal Legal Philosophy, and Emerging Topics in Animal Law, as well as oversees its advanced animal law degree programs for both lawyers and non-lawyers alike. Outside of Lewis & Clark, he chairs the International Animal Law Subcommittee of the Animal Law Section of the American Bar Association and serves on the boards of Minding Animals International and the International Coalition for Animal Protection (ICAP). Through ICAP, he is a co-drafter of the Convention on Animal Protection for Public Health, Animal Well-Being, and the Environment (CAP), which ICAP is advancing as a foundation for treaty negotiations to develop the world’s first comprehensive treaty to secure the interests of animals worldwide. A former Editor-in-Chief of the Animal Law Review, his work has appeared in the Global Journal of Animal Law, Animals and Race, International Juriste, and elsewhere.

Dr. Steven Tauber

Dr. Steven Tauber is a Professor of Political Science in the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies at the University of South Florida. He was the chair of the Department of Government & International Affairs from 2012 through 2016, and he was the founding Director of the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies, serving from 2016 through 2019. He teaches classes in American politics, American political thought, and judicial politics. He has published numerous journal articles and chapters in edited volumes on a variety of topics in political science, but his research mainly focuses on social justice politics, especially on the issue of the exploitation of nonhuman animals. His book Navigating the Jungle: Law, Politics, and the Animal Advocacy Movement (Routledge 2016) investigates the political constraints facing animal activists’ use of the judiciary to achieve justice for animals. His forthcoming article in Society & Animals provides sophisticated, comprehensive measures of how well nations treat nonhuman animals. In 2022 he received a grant from the Culture & Animals Foundation to build a database of nations’ high court decision that directly affect animals’ interests. In addition to his work in human-animal studies, his award-winning coauthored (with Paula McClain, Duke University) book American Government in Black and White (Oxford University Press, 6th edition, 2023) examines the essentials of American government through the lens of race and ethnicity.

Jake Davis

Jake Davis is a Colorado-licensed, Montana-based staff attorney for the NhRP. He is the lead attorney for the NhRP's California litigation. Previously, Jake worked in federal court (under the Honorable S. James Otero of the United States District Court for the Central District of California), for the U.S. government (at the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California), and in private practice (Squire Patton Boggs). Along with his work at the NhRP, Jake clerks part-time for Montana's 11th Judicial District Court. He holds a J.D. from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, and a B.A. from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He is a proud human to a rescued pitbull dog named Archie.

Laura Roe

Laura Roe currently serves as the Police Legal Counsel for the St. Petersburg Police Department. Prior to joining the SPPD, Mrs. Roe clerked for the Honorable Daniel H. Sleet at Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal and worked as an associate at Boyd & Jenerette P.A. in St. Petersburg. She has taught legal writing, appellate advocacy, and introduction to law courses at the University of Tampa and has given CLE presentations on the effective navigation of the digital appellate record, privacy concerns in electronic communication and social media, and expert discovery. Mrs. Roe earned her B.A. in English with a minor in History from the University of Florida in 2008. She received her J.D. from the University of Florida in 2011 with certificates in International Law and Intellectual Property Law. She is the immediate past chair of the Appellate Court Rules Committee of the Florida Bar. Mrs. Roe is also a co-chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the Florida Bar’s Appellate Practice Section and treasurer of the Florida Bar’s Animal Law Section. She is an active member of the American Bar Association. Mrs. Roe is married to Austin Roe. They enjoy spending time with their son and their dog, cats, fish and other animal family members.

Dr. Rony Brauman

Qualified as a medical doctor, Rony Brauman has worked in the field of international medical assistance since 1977. He was the President of the organization Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) from 1982 -1994. Dr Brauman's interests range from ethical issues at stake in the relationships between humanitarianism and politics, to humanitarian discourses and practices primarily in war and natural disaster settings. He authored several documentary films, essays and books on these matters.

Thomas W. Smith PhD

Thomas W. Smith (Board Member and Co-Founder of the St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs) is Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean of the Judy Genshaft Honors College at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. He holds a B.A. in Anthropology from the College of William & Mary and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. He has taught at USF since 2000. From 1997-2000 Dr. Smith was an assistant professor of International Relations at Koç University in Istanbul. During the summer of 1999 he was a visiting scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. He spent the 2007-2008 academic year at Stanford University.

David E. Hoffman

David E. Hoffman is a contributing editor and member of the editorial board of The Washington Post. He was previously assistant managing editor, foreign editor, Jerusalem correspondent, Moscow bureau chief, and White House correspondent for the newspaper. He is the author of Give Me Liberty: The True Story of Oswaldo Payá and His Daring Quest for a Free Cuba (2022.) His other books are: The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy (2009), which won the Pulitzer Prize, The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal (2015), a New York Times bestseller, and The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia (2002.) He has also been a correspondent for the PBS investigative series FRONTLINE. He attended the University of Delaware and St. Antony's Collegte, Oxford. He lives with his wife in Maryland.

Iryna Rubis

Iryna Rubis currently heads Pislyazavtra, a civil society organization founded in 2015 with a mission of moving business and society towards gender equality, overcoming the gender pay gap, and becoming a female-friendly and anti-sexist society through communication campaigns, peer-to-peer reeducation, media, events, digital activism, and educational projects. An established gender, diversity, and inclusion expert and social entrepreneur, some of her recent achievements include developing a personal stress-relieving Telegram chatbot for Ukrainian teenagers during wartime, with 2.2 million views in 2022; training over 3,000 business leaders on DE&I in 2021 from companies such as Vodafone, Henkel, Philip Morris International, and GSK; and creating the first human rights promotion video on Ukrainian TikTok, with 20 million views. Iryna serves as a board member for Fulcrum, an LGBTQ rights NGO based in Ukraine. She holds a master’s degree in Business Administration in General Management from the University of Sheffield, UK, and a master’s degree in Marketing from Kiev National Trade Economy University, Ukraine. Additionally, she has attended programs at the IE Business School in Madrid, Spain, and the Ukrainian Corporate Governance Academy. Words she uses to describe herself include entrepreneur, human rights promoter, connector, ex-reporter, LGBTQ ally, stereotype hater, energetic visionary, partner, and a mom of 3.

Lauren Anderson

LAUREN C ANDERSON, L.H.D.A distinguished former FBI Executive and the first U.S. Mission Geneva-sponsored Executive in Residence at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Lauren has unique national security, geopolitical, risk, and crisis management expertise, cross-pollinated with depth in international women’s issues, particularly in the space of women, peace, and security, including advising and mentoring women in areas of conflict. She has worked on six continents with governments, international organizations, NGOs, academic institutions, corporations, small businesses, and civil society. During an FBI career which encompassed many “firsts”, including being one of the first women on an FBI SWAT team, Lauren led FBI Legal Attaché offices in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and spearheaded the FBI’s participation in the US Government/African Union Trans-Sahel Counterterrorism Initiative in Africa. She led the FBI’s New York Counterterrorism Division/Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) and its Intelligence Division as the interim Special Agent in Charge. Lauren is an advisor to the U.S. Comptroller General at the Government Accountability Office on international security, intelligence, criminal justice, law enforcement, and women’s leadership; an advisor for Stellar Solutions Defense Support and Cyber Sector; and a subject matter expert, advisor, and special skilled role player for the U.S. Army in warfighter exercises. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Global Ambassador with Vital Voices, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Muhlenberg College.

Maryam Shojaei

Maryam Shojaei is a civil rights activist born and raised in Iran. She founded the #NoBan4Women movement which promotes women's rights to attend sports events in her country. She is the author of a forthcoming book, Azadi Means Freedom, on fighting for women's rights in Iran. She studies Women and Gender Studies, and received her Masters in Peace Operations form George Mason University.

Taoufik Djebali

Taoufik Djebali was born and raised in Tunisia, a former French possession in North Africa, known for its cohesion and religious tolerance. In the 1980s, like many North African students, he decided to move to Paris to pursue higher education after earning a degree in English. In Paris, he got a degree in sociology and a Ph.D. in American studies on race and public policy. Djebali then started a career in teaching at the University of Caen in the northwest of France. Since then, he has been dividing his time between the port city of Caen, Paris, and Tunisia where he teaches as a Visiting Professor. He has published articles on racial, ethnic and immigrant issues in the United States and Tunisia.

Vanessa Martinez

Vanessa Martinez is the Founder and Executive Director of Girl Reports, Inc., a community-based education program that empowers underserved girls through journalism. A graduate of the University of South Florida (USF), she holds bachelor’s degrees in French Literature and German Language, and a master’s degree in Applied Anthropology. Vanessa has extensive experience in cross-cultural collaboration and international education — including a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship, an internship with the German-American Chamber of Commerce, and grassroots international development projects. In addition to her work with Girl Reports, Inc., Vanessa is the Assistant Director of International Community Relations at USF World.

Zuhal Salim

Zuhal Salim has served as a Diplomat at the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the United Nations. She covered issues related to Women, Peace and Security, children and armed conflict, human rights, women advancement, and refugees. She’s currently working as Program Manager, Women’s Economic Power at Upwardly Global. Her work is focused on building economic inclusion and social power across class, industry and geography for immigrant and refugee women of color through movement building, skilling, and investing in networks. The work also seeks to shift the narrative on immigrant and refugee women’s power, influencing company culture to ensure corporate diversity/equity/inclusion initiatives are inclusive of and advance immigrant women of color. Zuhal has a Master’s in International Relations from New York University.

Adriana Novoa

Adriana Novoa received her BA in History from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She did graduate work at the Instituto Di Tella, and under the supervision of Torcuato di Tella, before going to the University of California, San Diego, where she completed her MA and PhD in Latin American History. She is a cultural historian whose specialty is science in Latin America, and with Alex Levine she has written two books about Darwinism in Argentina: From Man to Ape: Darwinism in Argentina, 1870 1920 (University of Chicago Press) and ¡Darwinistas! The Construction of Evolutionary Thought in Nineteenth-Century Argentina (Brill). She is currently completing another manuscript on this topic, which treats the politics of evolutionism and its relationship to gender and race: From Virile to Sterile: Masculinity and National Identity in Argentina, 1850-1910. Dr. Novoa’s articles have been published in Journal of Latin American Studies, Science in Context, The Latinoamericanist, Cuban Studies, and Revista Hispánica Moderna, among others. Her classes deal with cultural conflict and identity formation in post-independence Latin America.

Amy Bass

Amy Bass is a professor of sport studies, where her interests focus on sport, culture, and politics, and chair of the division of social science and communication. She received a PhD with distinction in history with a comparative in cultural studies from Stony Brook University and did her undergraduate work at Bates College. Her first book, Not the Triumph but the Struggle: The 1968 Olympic Games and the Making of the Black Athlete, is considered a standard-bearer for those interested in studying sport from a cultural perspective. Her followup, In the Game, solidified that reputation. Her third book, Those About Him Remained Silent: the Battle over W.E.B. Du Bois, received Honorable Mention from the National Council on Public History. Her most recent work, ONE GOAL: A Coach, A Team, and the Game That Brought a Divided Town Together, was named a best book of 2018 by the Boston Globe and Library Journal, and was featured on the Today Show, NPR’s “The Takeaway,” “Midday,” “Under the Radar,” and “Only a Game,” and in Sports Illustrated and ESPN’s The Undefeated, as well as other national media. It has been optioned by Netflix. In its starred review of the book, Kirkus called ONE GOAL “an edifying and adrenaline-charged tale,” while the Wall Street Journal declared it “the perfect parable for our time,” and the Globe & Mail dubbed it “magnificent and significant.”   Bass edits her own series, “Sporting,” for Temple University Press. In mainstream media, she has written for Slate, Salon, and The Christian Century, and is a frequent contributor for CNN, both in print and in studio, and worked across eight Olympic Games for NBC Sports, winning an Emmy Award for Live Event Turnaround at the London Olympic Games.

Bernhard Welten

Born in 1966, Mr. Welten is Attorney at law. He graduated from the University of Bern, Switzerland in 1995 and finished Duke Law School, Durham, NC, the USA in 1999. He is founder and partner of the law firm KanzleiWelten, Berne. He speaks German, English, Italian, French, and has a basic understanding of Spanish. Mr Welten is a Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) arbitrator in international sports law cases; he experienced over 120 cases as sole or party appointed arbitrator respectively president of the panel. In February 2018 he was a member of the CAS ad hoc Panel at the Winter Olympic Games in South Korea. In 2020 Mr. Welten was named as President of the Association of Internationale de Boxe Amateure (AIBA) Ethics Commission. He also serves on the License Commission for Swiss Football League and has served on the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique disciplinary commission, the Swiss Olympic Association Anti-doping Commission and the Swiss Cycling doping sanctioning commission. He is a member of the Bernese, Zurich, and Swiss Bar Association, Union International des Avocats, International Bar Association, Associations Suisse de l’Arbitrage (ASA), Court of Arbitration for Sport, and Rotary.

Robert Sattin

Robert Sattin, President of The Appleton Group, Lawyer - After over 33 years in the private practice of law in Hartford, CT, Bob came to St. Petersburg where he spent 8 years as the president of The Appleton Group, which developed and ran a network of over 270 law and accounting firms located in 100 countries. In that position, Bob not only interacted with member firms around the world, but also led semi-annual conferences in Europe, N. America, S. America and Asia.

Elizabeth Gelman

With a wide-ranging background in education, museums, performance, cultural arts, and economic development, Elizabeth Gelman holds a unique skillset and perspective which emphasizes the role that organizations play within their communities, primarily focusing on the intersection of social justice and the arts and humanities. Gelman spent decades as an artist and arts educator before transitioning into the museum world where she held leadership positions at Terra Museum of American Art, the Children’s Museum in Oak Lawn, Spertus Museum and, most recently, as the Executive Director of The Florida Holocaust Museum. She is currently serving as Curator and Senior Director of Arts and Cultural Programming for Creative Pinellas, Pinellas County's designated arts agency. Gelman is also the creator of the award-winning “Arts Attack” which connects visual art, music, and storytelling through interactive programs and workshops. Trained by MOMA’s Philip Yenawine in his groundbreaking inquiry-based Visual Thinking Strategies, Gelman remains passionate about using the arts to promote critical thinking and deeper understanding of challenging and sensitive topics.

Howard Spiegler

Howard has been involved in several of the best-known and most important litigations brought on behalf of foreign governments and heirs of Holocaust victims and others to recover stolen artwork or other cultural property including representing the Estate of Lea Bondi Jaray to recover a Schiele painting confiscated by a Nazi agent in Austria in the late 1930's, which settled for the full value of the painting; the recovery by the heir of the famous Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker of 200 Nazi-looted artworks from the Dutch Government; the recovery by the heirs of Kazimir Malevich, the world-renowned 20th Century Russian artist, of five important and valuable Malevich paintings, one of which later sold at auction for $60 million, and recoveries on behalf of the Republic of Turkey of numerous valuable antiquities. Howard also handles all types of art transactions. He has published widely on art law and related issues and has had numerous speaking engagements at various universities and law schools throughout the country, including Columbia, Harvard, New York University and Yale, and throughout the world for the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA), and other organizations and bar associations, art fairs, museums, auction houses and appraisers. His work has been widely recognized by legal and other professional organizations including a Band 1 ranking in Chambers High Net Worth for Art and Cultural Property Law – USA. Howard co-founded Kaye Spiegler, along with Managing Member Lawrence Kaye, to provide the highest level of service to clients in the art market in matters involving complex art litigation, dispute resolution, notable restitution issues and general commercial art law.

Tess Davis

Tess Davis, a lawyer and archaeologist by training, is Executive Director of the Antiquities Coalition. Davis oversees the organization’s work to fight cultural racketeering worldwide, as well as its award-winning think tank in Washington. She has been a legal consultant for the US and foreign governments and works with both the art world and law enforcement to keep looted antiquities off the market. She writes and speaks widely on these issues — having been published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Foreign Policy, and top scholarly journals — and featured in documentaries in America and Europe. She is admitted to the New York State Bar, teaches cultural heritage law at Johns Hopkins University, and is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2015, the Royal Government of Cambodia knighted Davis for her work to recover the country’s plundered treasures, awarding her the rank of Commander in the Royal Order of the Sahametrei.

Victoria Reed

Victoria S. Reed was named the Curator for Provenance at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), in July 2010. In this role, she is responsible for the research and documentation of the provenance of the MFA’s encyclopedic collection, the review of potential acquisitions and loans, and the development of due diligence policies and practice throughout the curatorial division. Previously, she was the Assistant Curator for Provenance (2008–2010) and Research Fellow for Provenance (2003–2008) in the MFA’s Art of Europe department. Reed has lectured widely and published extensively on matters related to provenance research, museum ethics, and restitution. Her work for the MFA has been featured in media outlets including The Boston Globe, New York Times, and Times of London. Reed received her MA and Ph.D. in art history at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and her BA in liberal arts at Sarah Lawrence College.

Eduardo Cue

Eduardo Cue is an experienced communications expert, media coach and international journalist who has trained professionals at the highest levels, including Heads of State, Cabinet ministers, French and American Ambassadors, high-level European business executives, and leading journalists. He has extensive experience working in Africa, Europe, the United States and Latin America. Totally fluent in English, French and Spanish, Mr. Cue served as a public information officer and spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Africa, Latin America and New York as well as for the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. He recently completed a long-range project to improve the external communications capabilities of the Nigerien military Eduardo is currently working as a European correspondent for the i24News network, for whom he covered the 2017 French presidential election and the secessionist movement in Catalonia in northeastern Spain. He brings to his training seminars experience as both a spokesperson and international journalist. His main topics include the art of the interview, how to get messages across to an audience, crisis communications, journalistic ethics, the relationship between the military and the media and the role of the media in a democracy. He has spoken before distinguished audiences including the AfriCorps summit that brings together African and US military leaders; the Senegalese Council of Ministers; and Parliamentary committees of the Moroccan Parliament. Eduardo carried out six missions as spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, serving in Geneva, New York, Chad, Colombia (where he was responsible for the public information operations of five countries), South Sudan and Mali. As an international journalist Eduardo has worked for the world’s leading media houses, including US News & World Report, United Press International, The Associated Press, The Washington Post, and The Times of London, where he served as Latin American correspondent. The mayor stories he covered include the Nicaraguan Civil War, human rights in Chile, military rebellions in Argentina, the Spanish ETA terrorist group, the creation of the Euro, the crises in Zimbabwe and Venezuela, and several French and US presidential elections as well as the US Congress and the White House. In the field of television Eduardo was a producer and correspondent for the Mexican television network Televisa in Paris and Washington as well as a correspondent for CNN in Spanish in Paris. More recently, Eduardo was an international affairs editor for the French 24 network, where he analyzed geopolitics for both the English and French networks. He appears frequently on numerous international radio and television channels to analyze events ranging from North Korea to the Middle East. Eduardo began his career in Spain covering the transition from the Franco dictatorship to democracy before joining the metropolitan staff of The Washington Post. He attended Georgetown University, where he received an AB Degree in political science and European history and received an MS in Journalism from Columbia University in New York.

URL https://www.france24.com/en/eduardo-cue-1

Michael Mandelbaum

Michael Mandelbaum is the Christian A. Herter Professor Emeritus of American Foreign Policy at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. He has also taught at Harvard and Columbia Universities and at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis and served as Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. A contributor to such publications as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, and The London Observer, Professor Mandelbaum served for 23 years as the associate director of the Aspen Institute Congressional Project on American Relations With the Former Communist World. He serves on the Board of Advisors of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Washington-based organization sponsoring research and public discussion on American policy toward the Middle East. Born in 1946, Professor Mandelbaum is a graduate of Yale College. He earned his Master’s degree at King’s College, Cambridge University and his doctorate at Harvard University. Professor Mandelbaum is the author or co-author of numerous articles and essays and of seventeen books: The Nuclear Question: The United States and Nuclear Weapons 1946-1976 (1979); The Nuclear Revolution: International Politics Before and After Hiroshima (1981); The Nuclear Future (1983); Reagan and Gorbachev (with Strobe Talbott, 1987); The Global Rivals (with Seweryn Bialer, 1988); The Fate of Nations: The Search For National Security in the 19th and 20th Centuries (1988); and The Dawn of Peace in Europe (1996); The Ideas That Conquered the World: Peace, Democracy and Free Markets in the Twenty-first Century (2002); The Meaning of Sports: Why Americans Watch Baseball, Football and Basketball and What They See When They Do (2004); The Case For Goliath: How America Acts As the World’s Government in the Twenty-first Century (2006); Democracy’s Good Name: The Rise and Risks of the World’s Most Popular Form of Government (2007); The Frugal Superpower: America’s Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped Era (2010) ; That Used To Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World We Invented and How We Can Come Back, (with Thomas L. Friedman, 2011); The Road to Global Prosperity ( 2014); Mission Failure: American and the World in the Post-Cold War Era (2016); The Rise and Fall of Peace on Earth (2019); and The Four Ages of American Foreign Policy: Weak Power, Great Power, Superpower, Hyperpower (2022). He is also the editor of twelve books.

Allison Quatrini

Allison Quatrini holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from The George Washington University. She is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations and Global Affairs in the Behavioral Sciences Collegium at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. Her research focuses on ethnic politics in China, with an emphasis on how ethnic minorities, particularly the Uyghurs, navigate their relationship with the Chinese party-state. Her current book project, relying on 26.5 months of fieldwork, focuses on Tibetan, Uyghur, and Mongolian holiday celebrations, considering both how the Chinese state has repurposed them to form its own cultural narrative and how minority groups use the celebrations to form counter-narratives that best represent their understandings of themselves. Allison’s published work has appeared in Nationalities Papers, Qualitative and Multi-Methods Research, The Diplomat, Responsible Statecraft, and The Tampa Bay Times. She has also written for the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University and the Rising Powers Project at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at The George Washington University. Recently, Dr. Quatrini was awarded a grant to complete research on nationalism and festivals in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Donald Morrison

Donald Morrison is an author, journalist, and educator. In a long career at TIME magazine, he served as editor of its World section in New York, its Asian edition in Hong Kong, and its European edition in London. He has taught at New York University's London Center, Tsinghua University in Beijing, and the Institut d'etudes politiques (Sciences Po) in Paris. Mr. Morrison is the author, co-author or editor of books on subjects as diverse as Chinese democracy, the Obama presidency and photojournalism. His "The Death of French Culture," a 2009 French best-seller, was published in the U.S. and the U.K. in 2010. He is currently Europe Editor of the London-based magazine PORT, as well as a columnist and advisory board member at The Berkshire Eagle. His weekly podcast commentary is featured on NPR's Robin Hood Radio, Podcasts.com and other news outlets. He has written for The New York Times, The Financial Times, Le Monde, Le Point, The New Republic, Smithsonian, and Quartz. Mr. Morrison holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the London School of Economics. He is married to Ann Morrison, former Executive Editor of Fortune magazine and Editor of Asiaweek.

John Maguire

John Maguire, who retired last July, was Director of International Relations and Cooperation of France Medias Monde, a French public service media organization, from September 2013. From March 2012 to September 2013, he was Director of International Development, Audiovisuel Exterieur de la France; from May 2010 to March 2012 he served as Director of International Affairs, Radio France Internationale and from 2004 to 2010 he was head of RFI's International Training Department. Before that he spent six years as Managing Editor of RFI's English service. He has forty years experience in the media world and has contributed work to journalistic outlets in France, Ireland and the United States.

Luis Felipe Mantilla

Luis Felipe Mantilla is Associate Professor and Associate Chair for Political Science, St. Petersburg campus. He earned his Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University. His research focuses on comparative political party development, religion and politics, and natural resource politics, with a regional emphasis on Latin America and the Middle East. His forthcoming book, How Political Parties Mobilize Religion: Lessons from Mexico and Turkey (Temple University Press) compares patterns of religious political engagement across Catholic and Sunni Muslim majority countries, tracing its evolution across regions and traditions. His research has been published in journals including Party Politics, Democratization, Politics and Religion, and the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, among others.

Taoufik Djebali

Taoufik Djebali was born and raised in Tunisia, a former French possession in North Africa, known for its cohesion and religious tolerance. In the 1980s, like many North African students, he decided to move to Paris to pursue higher education after earning a degree in English. In Paris, he got a degree in sociology and a Ph.D. in American studies on race and public policy. Djebali then started a career in teaching at the University of Caen in the northwest of France. Since then, he has been dividing his time between the port city of Caen, Paris, and Tunisia where he teaches as a Visiting Professor. He has published articles on racial, ethnic and immigrant issues in the United States and Tunisia.

Diane Seligsohn

Diane Seligsohn is an American journalist and university lecturer who has lived in Paris for over 3 decades and now divides her time between France and St Petersburg, Florida. Diane received her BA from McGill University in Montreal, Canada and her MA from NYU. She began her career in journalism at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s New York office, where she worked for 5 years before moving to France.

Nicholas Reynolds

Nicholas Reynolds, author of the New York Times bestseller Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy, has worked in the fields of modern intelligence and military history off and on for forty years, with some unusual detours. Freshly minted PhD from Oxford University in hand, he joined the United States Marine Corps in the 1970s, serving as an infantry officer and then as a historian. As a colonel in the reserves, he eventually became officer in charge of field history, deploying historians around the world to capture history as it was being made. For many years, he served as a CIA officer at home and abroad, immersing himself in the very human business of espionage and ultimately becoming a member of the senior executive service. More recently, he was the historian for the CIA Museum, responsible for developing its strategic plan and helping to turn remarkable artifacts into compelling stories. He has taught at the Naval War College, the DC campus of Johns Hopkins University, and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. With his wife, Becky, he cares for rescue pugs. He has a website at www.nicholasreynoldsauthor.com.