Dr Vigjilenca Abazi is Fellow at NYU School of Law and Assistant Professor of law at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. She obtained her PhD degree at University of Amsterdam and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia Law School (2014). Her research on issues of democratic accountability and official secrets resulted in a monograph (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2018). Vigjilenca has extensive experience in community projects with Red Cross and non-profit work in interethnic dialogue in Macedonia. She recently founded STELLA – Education Mentorship Network focused on improving education and job access for girls and women. On issues of whistleblower and privacy protection, Vigjilenca has advised European Union institutions and the Council of Europe. She is also an external Advisor to the Speaker of the Parliament in Macedonia on international relations.

Jared Licina attended NYU for a Masters Degree in Economics on a Fulbright, and is from Cape Town, South Africa. In 2009, Jared founded Nascenta, which is a nonprofit organization running diversity workshops based on a lesson structure developed by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) to address challenges in post-Apartheid South Africa. Inspired by the program methodology and effectiveness, he ran a program in South Africa for high school students with support from the Goldman Sachs Foundation, and subsequently brought a similar style of training and engagement to New York and the US through Nascenta. He currently works in Dubai in private equity, and has spent time in the US and EU in asset management. He is the current NYC Chapter Fulbright Alumnus-in-Residence.

Aynur Jafar works as a Senior Paralegal for I.S. Law Firm located in Washington DC Metropolitan Area. She received her bachelor’s degree in law and first master’s degree in law from Baku State University in Azerbaijan. She also received LL.M degree in Public International Law from the University of Oslo in Norway. In 2015, Aynur received her LL.M. degree from the University of California Berkeley School of Law. She worked as a human rights lawyer over eight years in Azerbaijan and USA. Currently, her main working area is immigration law and she also keeps her human rights work on Azerbaijan on a volunteer basis. Recently she did fundraising and gathered more than $4,000 for the families of Azerbaijani political prisoners who are in urgent material need.

Dario Čepo is assistant professor at the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Law. He teaches introductory courses in sociology and political science. He got his PhD in comparative politics in 2010 at the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Political Science. In 2013-2014 he was a Fulbright visiting scholar at the Columbia University in New York City. His major research interests are parliaments, diaspora, and the European Union. He is the author of several scientific articles, a handbook Introduction to Political Science (co-authored with Slaven Ravlić), as well as one book, Political Institutions of the European Union.

Mina A. Trudeau, Esq.

Malkhaz Nakashidze

Anita L. Parlow, Esq. MSt., a Fulbright Scholar 2016–1-17, was Team Lead for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Polar Code Roundtable and, scholar-advisor, Harvard–MIT Arctic Fisheries Project. Parlow, has authored numerous op-eds and two book. She has advised corporate, tribal and international organization on social and environmental risk, corporate responsibility and due diligence issues. Parlow, a member of the Bar of the United States Supreme Court, earned an advanced degree in law at Oxford University.

Muruganandam Muthiah

Johanna Gusman

Jerry Cooper, Darin Cook

Christopher Hays started Hays Design Studio in 2004 out of a desire to focus on modern ecological design in the Southeastern region. In 2006, the firm reformed as Hays + Ewing Design Studio with Partner, Allison Ewing. Mr. Hays has led projects around the US, Spain, The Netherlands and Japan and includes a wide variety of scales of commercial, institutional, residential and planning projects. Mr. Hays has a deep interest in the correspondence of natural systems and building systems. By drawing liberally from primary elements found in the outdoors, his projects incorporate an abundance of daylight, fresh air, and views.

From 1994-2005, Mr. Hays was Design Partner at William McDonough + Partners. His work experience also includes the well-renowned firms of Renzo Piano (Italy), GK Sekkei (Japan) and Cesar Pelli & Associates. Mr. Hays has also taught design studios at the University of Virginia School of Architecture. He has also served as a panelist and lecturer before a wide variety of audiences, including groups like the U.S. Green Building Conference, the American Institute of Architects’ National Convention, Auburn University, and the PG&E Energy Center. Mr. Hays received his graduate degree from the Yale University Graduate School of Architecture. He is a Fulbright Scholar with research on the bridges of Venice.

Salem Sate University Professors – Joe Buttner, Greg Carroll and Allan Shwedel have been collaborating with Liberian colleagues on ways to strengthen and sustain peace efforts in the country since 2011. Other than the hiatus during the Ebola crisis Drs. Buttner and Carroll have been working with the United Methodist University on a range of Fulbright projects while Dr. Shwedel has been working in Ukraine on an allied Fulbright project with the Petro Mohyla Black Sea State University. Between us we have a long history of individual and interdisciplinary research and scholarship, in the fields of aquaculture, peace and conflict, education, technology and capacity building in research and assessment. Utilizing our years of collaboration our current projects revolve around developing a sustainable aquaculture program and mapping “youth resiliency”.

Melda N. Yildiz, Ed.D. is the chair of the Instructional Technology program and associate professor in the School for Interdisciplinary Studies and Education at NYIT. Melda served as a Fulbright Scholar in Turkmenistan (2009) and Azerbaijan (2016) teaching and conducting research integrating new media and technologies in P16 classrooms.

Melda teaches at Global and Comparative Education PhD. Program as a contributing faculty at Walden University. She co-authored, published, and presented featuring Media and Information Literacy, Instructional Technology, Multicultural and Global Education.

She received Ed.D. from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, on Math & Science and Instructional Technology; M.S. from Southern Connecticut State University on Instructional Technology. She majored in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at Bogazici University, in Turkey.

Dr. Kevin Merges is the Executive Director of Global Education Programs at Rutgers Preparatory School.  He has presented at conferences around the United States; as well as Canada, China, Jamaica, and Turkey, on the topic of communication through online environments.

Through Dr. Merges’ work with the United Nations, Rutgers Preparatory School became the first high school in the world affiliated as an NGO with the United Nations through the Department of Public Information (UNDPI).  He currently serves as the Treasurer of Study New Jersey and the K-12 Representative for NAFSA Region X (New Jersey and New York) with a focus on connecting international students in K-12 with higher education admissions officers.

Judith Michelle Hill is a Computer Graphics instructor at Parsons/NewSchool, teaching Digital Stoytelling, Animator/Master Theater Dyer Textile Artist and Digital Fabric Printer. BFA_Rhode Island School of Design ’77 and an MFA Howard University ‘82. JMichelle works in textile design led her from Consulting work, in women’s development in African working in rural and commercial projects. She was invited to work for Disney Theatrical Productions becoming the only African-American working on the production team, for the costume fabrics for “The Lion King”. Michelle’s interest in keeping up with technology trends moved her to develop computer skills thus becoming a pioneer and innovator in digital printing on cloth and joining Parsons Fashion CAD Faculty providing her with the opportunity to teach in class and online.

Dr. Nabil Marshood is a Fulbright Scholar, an author, and a professor of sociology at Hudson County Community College. He earned his BA and MA from the Hebrew University in Jerusalen, and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. His research interest centers on the study of power structures and the social construction of knowledge. He is the author of Voices from the Camps: People’s History of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, 2006 (2010), and Palestinian Teenage Refugees and Immigrants Speak Out (1997). He has also written a number of articles and contributed to book reviews, and coauthored Everyday Sociology (a textbook) for numerous editions that lasted 17 years.

Professor Robert George

Mary Stanton chairs the Fulbright Alumni Travel Task Force, having discovered the new travel initiative as a memorable and rewarding way to promote the Fulbright mission.  She signed up twice to deliver eye glasses through Envision Fulbright: in Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.  After participating in the first Service Corps Project, with our partners, Cultural Heritage without Borders, in 2015, she volunteered to join the Task Force and stood for election to the board of the Minnesota Chapter of FA.  She returned to the Balkans for the Service Corps Project in Serbia.  A Fulbright alumna of the Teacher Exchange Program in New Delhi in 2010-11, she has developed the India Insight Tours. She led the first in 2016, and is the Fulbright Association Representative for the planned tour leaving right after the national conference this November.

Dr. Kathy Parkison is currently serving as the Faculty Representative on the Indiana Commission for Higher Education as well as a Professor of Economics.  She has served as Interim Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, as well as Associate and Assistant Vice Chancellors at Indiana University Kokomo.  She has also served in administrative roles as Dean of the School of General Education at Kazakhstan Institute for Management, Economics and Strategic Research (KIMEPn Almaty, Kazakhstan and MBA Director at Indiana University Kokomo.

Dr. Parkison graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, received a Master’s in Business Administration (Marketing major) from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and earned her Ph.D. in economics from Purdue University in 1994.  Her current research is along two lines:  in economic education it spans practical and applied economic and financial education issues; and in administration, it focuses on issues of diversity and faculty response to diversity initiatives.

Kathleen Mulligan is an Associate Professor of Voice and Speech at Ithaca College. In 2010 she was a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar to Kerala, India with her project “Finding Women’s Voices”, focusing on the empowerment of women through voice. “On Common Ground” is her second collaboration with Islamabad’s Theatre Wallay. She spent the spring of 2015 in Pakistan as a Fulbright Specialist working on the project “Voices of Partition”. The resulting play, Dagh Dagh Ujala (This Stained Dawn), based on interviews with survivors of the Partition of 1947, toured to the U.S. in October 2015.

David Studwell has been a professional actor, director, and teacher for the past 30 years. As a Fulbright Specialist to Pakistan in 2013 and 2015, Mr. Studwell taught master classes to theatre artists at the Ajoka Theatre Company in Lahore and directed the original devised theatre piece Dagh Dagh Ujala in 2015, which was performed by the Theatre Wallay company in Islamabad and Lahore before touring to the United States with stops in Boston, MA, Ithaca College, and the U.S. Department of State in Washington D.C. In 2016 he returned to Pakistan to direct the Theatre Wallay company in the new devised play On Common Ground, funded by a U.S. Embassy-Islamabad grant.

Imran Iftikhar has been teaching history at the middle school level in Islamabad for several years. For the past year he has also been working with “The History Project”, an organization that conducts workshops for middle school children, teaching them how to study history, fostering an air of empathy and critical thinking, and teaching them that there are multiple narratives to each story. Imran has been associated with Theatre Wallay as an actor, writer, and artistic leader since 2016. Most recently, he co-wrote and acted in On Common Ground, which toured Portland and Ashland, Oregon this past summer.

Rabia Pasha has been a core member of Theatre Wallay as an actor and a writer since its inception in 2005. She last visited Washington D.C. with the tour of the international collaboration Dagh Dagh Ujala (This Stained Dawn) in 2015. She is a lawyer by profession and earned her master’s in commercial and corporate law from University of London through a distance learning program. She’s worked in the telecom sector as an in-house counsel, but found her true calling in a classroom teaching law students. In 2016, Rabia worked with African Prisons Project, teaching inmates and prison officers in maximum prisons of Kenya studying the UoL program on scholarship.

Linda Alper is a Resident Artist at Artists Repertory Theatre, where she has appears as an actress and is under commission as a playwright. She has also played leading roles at Portland Center Stage, Portland Shakespeare Project, Off Broadway, Seattle Rep and others, including 23 seasons with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Linda has co-written adaptations produced by OSF, ACT in San Francisco, Denver Theatre Center, Virginia Rep; Santa Cruz, Colorado and other Shakespeare festivals. She was the script deviser/producer for On Common Ground, a Pakistani/American collaboration.
Linda has won critics’ awards for Best Actress, Fulbright Specialist Grant (Pakistan,) Grant for Visiting Artist to Taiwan and an Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship. A graduate of The Juilliard School, she is a Fulbright Senior Scholar (Taiwan.)

Nada Glick

Rob Lively serves as the Program Program Chair for the 2017 National Conference. He is the President of the Maine Chapter of the Fulbright Association and Dean Emeritus at the University of Maine at Farmington. He served his Fulbright in Germany in 2000.

Dr. Bob George is presently Research Director of Center of Excellence for Remote Sensing Education and Research (CERSER) at Elizabeth City State University. Dr. George was a tenured full professor of Marine Biology at UNCW for three decades (1972-2003). Dr. George is President & CEO of George Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainabilty – a Non-Profit organization (www.GIBSconservation.org) Dr. George is a specialist on Antarctic Krill Euphausia superba and has led 5 expdeitions to Antarcitca. Dr. George specializes on “Threats from Climate Change and pCO2 shifts (ocean acidification) in marine ecosystems.” Dr. George is founding president of North Carolina Fulbright Chapter and he was Fulbright Professor in India twice,1984 and 1988.

Josephine Dorado

Kim Eger

Jay Nathan

Fulbright Commission Directors

Pat Burr
Dr. Al Rubio

Paula

Samia I. Spencer: MODERATOR
A Professor Emerita of French at Auburn University, Spencer has focused her interdisciplinary research and extensive publications on the French Enlightenment, women and politics in France and Canada, and contemporary French society and institutions. In recognition of her efforts on behalf of French culture, she was appointed Honorary Consul of France in Alabama, and awarded the title of Of/icier dans l’Ordre des Pa/mes Academiques. She was also inducted in Quebec’s exclusive Ordre des Francophones d’Amerique. Her most recent an­thology, Dm1ghters of the Nile: Egyptian Women Changing their World (2016), is enjoying worldwide acclaim.

PANELISTS
Nimet Saba Habachy
Schehrazade spun tales for a Sultan for a mere 1001 nights, Habachy, a broadcaster with Classical WQXR known as “the night voice on New York radio,” has spun records, tapes and CDs for New York City insomniacs for over 8001 nights, and still counting. She also lectures at the Metropolitan Opera, the Metropolitan Museum, and other New York cultural venues. Stmting her professional career at the New York City Opera as Assistant to the Company Manager and language coach for French and Italian, she also worked at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, and the National Library in Florence. A passionate world traveler, she has contributed to the travel section of The New Yark Times. With her sister Suzan, Habachy sells in New York the products made by the garbage smters ofMokkatam Hills in Cairo.

Faiza Shereen
A Professor of English Literature, Shereen was the recipient of a Senior Fulbright Scholar Grant that changed the direction of her professional career. Impassioned by this first experience, she re­ceived a sequence of several Fulbright research grants that enhanced her commitment to international education and postcolonial theory within the scope of her literary scholarship. Most recently, she was awarded a Fulbright-Hayes grant to lead a number of educators to Morocco in summer 2017, for research and curriculum building. Her play, The Count,y Within, performed in various US venues, like most of her publications-both scholarly and creative-reflects her signature themes of border crossings and cultural hybridity.

Mona Risk
Starting her career as a pharmaceutical chemist, Risk later received the PhD in Chemistry and became an environmental company exec­utive. She was the first person ever to obtain a US Department of Defense contract for her employer to refurbish the equipment of military laboratories in Belarus. Exhausted by her hectic schedule, she took early retirement to write romance novels. With more than twenty volumes published, she reached the enviable status of New York Times and USA Today Best Selling Author, and received many honors and awards from various reviewers and readers polls. Sprin­kled with a good dose of humor, her stories are often set in the fas­cinating places she has visited.

Madiha El Mehelmy Kotb
An independent consultant and licensed mechanical engineer, Kotb spent most of her professional career with the Government of Quebec, where her responsibilities involved public safety and development of regulations. An active member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), she served in many capacities and received nu­merous honors. She broke several glass ceilings when she was elected President of that international professional organization of 130 000 mostly male members-the only non-US citizen ever to be elected ASME President. Fully committed to mentoring and knowledge trans­fer, Kotb is a Lead Volunteer Member of Engineering for Change
(E4C), a dynamic and growing community that seeks to improve the quality of life in various parts of the globe.

Panel Chair – Mark Grobmyer, Chairman Global Solutions Institute, Managing Director, P80 Group Foundation

Panelists: – William Fulbright Foote, Founder and CEO Root Capital (also Senator Fulbright’s Grandson).

– Michael Eckhart, Managing Director, Global Head of Environmental Finance and Sustainability at CitiBank

– Bert van der Vaart, CEO and Co-Founder SEAF Global Funds

– Dr. Al Watkins, Chairman Global Solutions Summit,formerly Director of Technology and Innovation the World Bank.

– Senator Mark Pryor, Member of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and Former Member US Senate.

– David Gill, Senior Director of Technology and Innovation at Heifer International

Bruce A. Fowler Ph.D., Fellow A.T.S., has a B.S. degree in Fisheries (Marine Biology) from the University of Washington in 1968 and a Ph.D. in Pathology from the University of Oregon Medical School in 1972. He began his scientific career at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences prior to becoming Director of the University of Maryland System-wide Program in Toxicology and Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He then served as Associate Director for Science in the Division of Toxicology and Environmental Medicine at Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). He is currently a private consultant and Adjunct Professor, Emory School of Public Health and Presidents Professor of Biomedical Science and the University of Alaska- Fairbanks. Dr. Fowler, is an internationally recognized expert on the toxicology of metals and has served on a number of State, National and International Committees in his areas of expertise. These include various committees of the National Academy of Sciences / National Research Council (NAS/NRC), the USEPA Science Advisory Board and Fulbright Scholarship Review Committee for Scandinavia. He has also served as a temporary advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) for a number of issues. He is a current member of the FAO/WHO Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). Dr. Fowler has been honored as a Fellow of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), a Fulbright Scholar and Swedish Medical Research Council Visiting Professor at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden and elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences. His more recent awards include a U.S. Pharmacopea Award for an Innovative Response to Public Health Challenges (Group Award) and a Blue Cross/Blue Shield Federal Employee Program Distinguished Annuitant Award. He is a Rotary International Paul Harris Multiple Fellow and a member of the Fulbright 1946 Society. Dr. Fowler was elected to the Council of the Society of Toxicology, the Board of Directors of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences, and more recently, to the Council of the Society for Risk Analysis. Dr. Fowler is the author of over 260 research papers and book chapters and has authored or edited / co-edited of 8 books or monographs on metal toxicology, molecular biomarkers and mechanisms of chemical – induced cell injury.

Sudha K. Haley, Ph.D. currently serves as the Vice President of the Maryland Federation of National Active & Retired Federal Employees (NARFE) Association, the lead advocate on Capitol Hill to Maryland’s Senators and Congressmen regarding federal employee and retiree pay, pensions and benefits’ legislation. Dr. Haley was a Fulbright Scholar to Israel. She recently retired from the U.S. Department of Labor’s International Bureau as Senior Policy Advisor. At DOL she managed the Labor Rights Section of the State Department’s Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices; served on State’s Senior Promotions Board; led negotiations of Labor Chapters on International Trade Agreements; and was U.S. Delegate to the International Labor Organization, among other international labor rights administrative responsibilities. Prior, she served as Special Assistant to SECLAB Elizabeth H. Dole, assisting in her Task Force to shatter the Glass Ceiling, and was Assistant Associate Deputy Secretary of Labor to DEPSEC Delbert Spurlock. In this capacity she managed oversight of Programs, Personnel and Budget for 10 DOL Agencies, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Women’s Bureau. She also taught at George Washington University as Adjunct Associate Professor. Before joining the USG, Dr. Haley held positions as Assistant Superintendent for St. Mary’s County Board of Education; Board Member for Southern Maryland Community Colleges; and Maryland Governor’s State Chairman for Global Education, among other positions. She has co-authored books; published articles and Papers; lived and worked overseas; and speaks several languages. Dr. Haley has received numerous prestigious awards and commendation on the national and international fora as an Educator and Labor Rights Advocate. She performs Indian Classical Dance, Kathak, and has collaborated with cellist Yo Yo Ma on his Silk Road Project. She is married to Dr. Kenneth Haley and has three sons.

Donald Mooers serves as Adjunct Professor of Immigration Law at Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law. He is a practicing attorney who focuses solely on immigration and nationality law matters. He has achieved success in meeting the needs of clients on employment and family-related immigration law, as well as complex citizenship and naturalization cases. He counsels and represents clients before the Departments of Labor, Homeland Security and State.

Mr. Mooers has been invited to share his expertise at conferences and seminars sponsored by the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Federal Bar Association, InsideNGO, and numerous additional national and regional organizations. He is a popular speaker and has also been asked to comment and advise Congress, media outlets, and national organizations on immigration law and policy issues. During his career he has been the recipient of multiple awards for leadership and service.

Mr. Mooers brings to his work a unique combination of expertise in immigration law and firsthand experience in global affairs and U.S. Government operations. Prior to returning to Immigration Law, Mr. Mooers worked for nearly two decades in the fields of diplomacy and international development, primarily in Africa, Asia, and Eastern and Central Europe. He served as a key Congressional Aide and later as a Senior Adviser at the U.S. Department of State. At the Peace Corps he served as Regional Director for Europe, the Mediterranean and Asia. He has directed international development programs, negotiated international agreements, and advised government leaders and international organizations around the world. He started his international career as a Peace Corps Volunteer, where he served for two years in a small rural village in Sierra Leone.

He earned his Bachelor’s degree at Duke University (magna cum laude), and his Juris Doctorate degree at the George Washington University Law School. He studied at Oxford University, and spent a year in Mauritius as a Fulbright Fellow.