Ambassador Harry K. Thomas Jr: Ensuring America has a Diplomatic Corps that Reflects the Diversity of Our Country and is Trained for Diplomacy in a Time of Conflict and War

Ambassador Harry K. Thomas Jr. is a Senior Kissinger Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute and a Senior Strategic Advisor at Special Operations Command, a private business consultant and an international affairs lecturer.  Over his 34-year Foreign Service career, he represented the United States abroad as Ambassador three times and served in senior positions at the State Department and the White House. He retired in March 2018 with the rank of Career Minister.

He served as ambassador to Zimbabwe, the Philippines and Bangladesh. Ambassador Thomas also served as the State Department’s Executive Secretary and Special Assistant to Secretary Rice, Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources, Director for South Asia at the National Security Council and Director of the Operations Center. 

Ambassador Thomas speaks Spanish, Hindi, Bengali and conversational Tagalog.  He is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and holds a master’s from Columbia University.  Ambassador Thomas holds Honorary Doctorates from the College of the Holy Cross, Loyola University of Maryland and Angeles University Foundation of the Philippines and was the Commencement Speaker at these institutions.  

He is a member of the College of the Holy Cross, The Asia Foundation and Care for the Homeless Board of Trustees and Chairperson of the Winter4Kids Board of Trustees.  He is a Fellow of Yale University’s Berkeley College. Ambassador Thomas is the recipient of the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award; the Arnold L. Raphel Memorial Award for Mentoring; the Senior Foreign Service Presidential Award and several Superior Honor and Meritorious Honor Awards; the Order of Sikatuna of the Philippines for Exceptional Service and the In Hoc Signo Vinces Award from the College of the Holy Cross.  

He is married to Mithi Aquino-Thomas and has three adult children.  They reside in Tampa, Florida. He is a fervent fan of New York sports teams, enjoys snorkeling, golf and connecting with social media friends in the global community.

Special Earth Day Program Saving Sumatra’s Rainforests, Its Orangutans, and the Orangutan Haven

Dr. Ian Singleton will talk about his work to rescue and conserve orangutan and about conservation efforts of the forests in the face of deforestation for palm oil plantations. Moderated by Daniel J. Naumenko

Dr. Ian Singleton is Director of Conservation at PanEco Foundation and Scientific Director for the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme. He was formerly Senior orangutan keeper at Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust and Animal keeper at Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and Zoological Society of London. He studied at the University of Kent (PhD, Ecology; orangutan ranging behaviour, 1996 – 2000) and the University of Sunderland (BSc(hons), Environmental Science, 1984 – 1987).

He works to confiscate illegal pet orangutans and return them to a life in the wild and continues field research and monitoring of the remaining wild Sumatran orangutan population in an effort to protect their habitat.  He was bestowed the highly esteemed Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Britain's Queen Elizabeth for his notable contributions to environmental conservation throughout his career.  Singleton considered his 2017 discovery of a new orangutan species – the Pongo tapanuliensis, also known as the Tapanuli orangutan – alongside other scientists in North Sumatra -- to be one of his most memorable accomplishments.

Daniel J. Naumenko is a Ph.D Student who has worked with an international research team studying Bornean orangutans and their forest habitats for the past 7 years. His work focuses on the impacts of forest fire smoke emissions on orangutan health and behavior, and on environmental drivers of oxidative stress and decelerated aging.

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Special Event: Putin's War against Ukraine

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has impacted the lives of Ukrainians all over the world — including Colorado. Ukrainians of Colorado, a 501(c)3 formed in the wake of the Russian assault on Crimea and Donbas in 2014, has worked to galvanize community support for Ukraine, in particular by raising awareness and funds for humanitarian relief. Members Marina Dubrova, Irina Shatalova, Alexi Drozd and Lana Fenkanyn will offer their insights into the war’s impact. Joining them will be Mark Dillen and Anne Chermak Dillen. Mark and Anne were senior Foreign Service Officers with the U.S. State Department and have lectured and traveled extensively in Ukraine as Fulbright Scholars.

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About Our Panel

Irina Shatalov grew up in Ukraine and knew from a very early age that she wanted to work with and help people. She earned her master’s degree in Psychology in Poland. In 2003, she moved back to Ukraine where she became a member of the European Association of Psychotherapists and worked as a school counselor.  In 2010, Irina moved to the United States after marrying her husband. She is currently working as a supervisor for a company that provides services for the elderly and people with intellectual and/or cognitive disabilities. She is also involved with several volunteer projects and is a founder and a Board Member for Ukrainians of Colorado.

Alexi Drozd is a first-generation immigrant born in the capital city of Kyiv. Most of his family is in Ukraine - either fighting on front lines, defending their homesteads, or have had to flee to western border. Alexi migrated to US when he was 12 and has lived in US for 18 years. During his time in US he has become a mechanical engineer, owner of a small business, and an active member of local societies and non-profit organizations. Since the start of Putin's war in Ukraine, Alexi has been actively working to rally people, raise funds, and advocate for Ukrainians. 

Lana Anastasya Fenkanyn grew up involved in the Chicago Ukrainian community and continues to be involved here in Denver as the Social Media Manager for Ukrainians of Colorado. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education and is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counseling. Her cousins, aunts, uncles and great aunts are in Kharkiv, living in the same cellar where her grandmother lived during WWII.

Marina Dubrova moved to the United States in 1994 to live with her
grandfather. She currently owns a real estate brokerage. She co-founded Ukrainians of Colorado (UofC) with her coworkers in 2014 when the Russian invasion of Ukraine first began. Since the war started this year, UofC has grown exponentially and is aiming to make a meaningful impact in critical areas through fundraising and to help in the areas of critical necessity--currently with providing medicines/medical supplies, organizing, and working with the government.

Dr. Fiona Hill

The Colorado Foothills World Affairs Council is thrilled to confirm our next program with Dr. Fiona Hill, widely considered one of the US’s top Russian experts outside government. She will be with us IN PERSON on the evening of March 16, 2022 at Mount Vernon Canyon Club. The program will take place in the downstairs Canyon Room and NOT in the dining room. There will be reserved seating for patrons.

Dr. Hill became a household name following her riveting 9-hour testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on Russian interference in the US election. This may be one of the most timely and anticipated events in the 34-year history of our organization.

The Biden Doctrine: One Year Later

The Joe Biden administration faces major global challenges, from great power competition with China and Russia, to the aftermath of the Taliban victory in Afghanistan, to climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, American politics continues to be deeply divided with fears of political violence at home. One year into his presidency, what is the emerging Biden doctrine? At a defining moment in U.S. history, can Biden rally Americans around a foreign policy to protect the nation's interests and values? WorldDenver, the Foothills World Affairs Council, and the Colorado Springs World Affairs Council welcome Dr. Dominic Tierney and Dr. Marie Berry to revisit the Biden Doctrine a year into Biden's presidency.

Bruce Jones: The Brookings Institution

Are we in a new Cold War? To be sure, tensions are rapidly rising in Asia, and we are well launched into a new, global naval arms race. The US has agreed to transfer to Australia the most closely guarded technology in the US arsenal, nuclear submarines, and is deepening collaboration with allies and partners from Japan to India. China has launched nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles, is engaged in a huge naval build up, and has flown its flying its largest ever air sorties through Taiwan’s airspace; and the world’s navies are engaged in massive war games in the Western Pacific. All while global trade is entangled in supply chain problems. Will these tensions take us to war in Asia? Or is it still possible to keep the peace? Will climate change be a zone of cooperation; or will changing weather patterns actually intensify competition? Bruce Jones will address these and related questions, drawing on his new book “To Rule the Waves: How control of the world’s oceans shapes the fate of the superpowers”.

Bruce Jones is director and a senior fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy of the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution; he also works with the Center for East Asia Policy Studies. He is also a non-resident senior fellow at Yale University. Jones previously served as the vice president and director for the Brookings Foreign Policy program for five years.

Jones’ research expertise and policy experience is in international security. His current research focus is on U.S. strategy, international order, and great power relations. His most recent book on the topic is the bestselling “To Rule the Waves: How Control of the World’s Oceans Shapes the Fate of the Superpowers” (Scribner, 2021). Earlier works include “The Marshall Plan and the Shaping of American Strategy,” (Brookings Institution Press, 2017); and “Still Ours to Lead: America, Rising Powers, and the Tension between Rivalry and Restraint” (Brookings Institution Press, 2014). He is also co-author with Carlos Pascual and Stephen Stedman of “Power and Responsibility: Building International Order in an Era of Transnational Threats” (Brookings Institution Press, 2009). 

Jones has appeared in The Wall Street Journal; the Washington Post; the New York Times; Foreign Affairs; Foreign Policy; Survival; CNN; BBC World Service; Los Angeles Times; NPR; The Huffington Post; Nikkei Asian Review; Project Syndicate; Noema; “The Tavis Smiley Show”; Al Jazeera English; Reuters; Voice of America; CCTV; and Sky News.

Jones has extensive experience and expertise on peacemaking and crisis management. He served in the United Nations’ operation in Kosovo, and was special assistant to the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process. He is co-editor with Shepard Forman and Richard Gowan of “Cooperating for Peace and Security” (Cambridge University Press, 2009); and author of “Peacemaking in Rwanda: The Dynamics of Failures” (Lynne Reinner, 2001). He has also served in advisory positions for the U.S. State Department and the World Bank on fragile states, including as senior external advisor to the World Bank’s “2011 World Development Report on Conflict, Security and Development.”

He holds a doctorate from the London School of Economics, and he was the Hamburg fellow in conflict prevention at Stanford University.

Sarah Chayes: Afghanistan: The Peril of Neglecting Democracy and the Rule of Law

Internationally recognized for her innovative thinking on corruption and its implications, Sarah Chayes has uncovered the unrecognized reality that severe and structured corruption often prompts international crises -- including violent religious insurgency. From covering the fall of the Taliban in 2001, to living in their former heartland for a decade and advising the highest ranks of the U.S. military, Chayes will speak from her remarkable perspective to help us draw crucial lessons from the Taliban's triumphant return to power.

Former special advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Author, NPR correspondent, and former senior associate in the Democracy and Rule of Law program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Sarah Chayes's remarkable trajectory has led her from reporting from Paris for National Public Radio and covering the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan to running a soap factory in downtown Kandahar in the midst of a reigniting insurgency. She went on to advise the topmost levels of the U.S. military, serving as special adviser to two commanders of the international forces in Kabul and then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen. She left the Pentagon for a five-year stint at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she extracted the broadly relevant core from those experiences.

Internationally recognized for her innovative thinking on corruption and its implications, she has uncovered the unrecognized reality that severe and structured corruption can prompt international crises, such as revolutions and other uprisings, violent insurgency, and environmental devastation. Corruption of this sort is the operating system of sophisticated networks, which weave together government officials, business magnates and private charities, and out and out criminals, and represents, in Sarah's view, the primary threat to democracy in our lifetimes.

She is the author of On Corruption In America: And What Is at Stake, Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security (winner of the LA Times Book Prize), and The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban.

She lives in Paris and Paw Paw, West Virginia.

Virtual Event in collaboration with World Denver. Register at https://secure.worlddenver.org/np/clients/worlddenver/eventRegistration.jsp?event=197

Trita Parsi: US-Iranian Relations: After the Election, Will There be War or Peace?

"The rise of Iranian ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi is the latest example of how the economic hardship imposed on civilian populations through sanctions tends to favor the very political entities the United States views as most problematic." ~ Trita Parsi

On June 18th, Iran elected new leaders. What does this mean for US/Iran relations? 

Trita Parsi is the co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, as well as the founder and former president of the National Iranian American Council. He is an award-winning author and the 2010 recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. 

His first book, Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States (Yale University Press 2007), won the silver medal winner of the 2008 Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations. His second book, A Single Roll of the Dice – Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran (Yale University Press) was released in early 2012 and was selected by Foreign Affairs journal as the Best Book of 2012 on the Middle East.

Parsi’s latest book – Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy (Yale University Press, 2017) – reveals the behind the scenes story to the historic nuclear deal with Iran.

Parsi was born in Iran but moved with his family at the age of four to Sweden in order to escape political repression in Iran. His father was an outspoken academic who was jailed by the Shah and then by the Ayatollah. He moved to the United States as an adult and studied foreign policy at Johns Hopkins’ School for Advanced International Studies where he received his Ph.D. under Francis Fukuyama and Zbigniew Brzezinski.

U.S./China Relations: Challenges and Opportunities for the Biden Administration

Robert Daly directs the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Wilson Center. Before coming to the Wilson Center he was director of the University of Maryland China Initiative and American Director of the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing. He began work in U.S.-China relations as a diplomat, serving as Cultural Exchanges Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing in the late 80s and early 90s. After leaving the Foreign Service, he taught Chinese at Cornell, worked on television (北京人在纽约) and theater projects in China as a host, actor, and writer, and helped produce the Chinese-language version of Sesame Street. His views are regularly featured on NPR, C-Span, and the Voice of America. He has lived in China for 12 years and has interpreted for Chinese leaders, including Jiang Zemin, and American leaders, including Jimmy Carter.

Dr. Suisheng Zhao is Professor and Director of the Center for China-US Cooperation at Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. Zhao is the founding editor of the Journal of Contemporary China, one of the highest-ranked international scholarly journals on modern China. He received his Ph.D. degree in political science from the University of California-San Diego, M.A. degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri, and BA and M.A. degrees in economics from Peking University. He is the author and editor of more than ten books, including China and East Asian Regionalism: Economic and Security Cooperation and Institution-Dr.Suisheng Zhao is Professor and Director of the Center for China-US Cooperation at Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. Zhao is the founding editor of the Journal of Contemporary China, one of the highest-ranked international scholarly journals on modern China. He received his Ph.D. degree in political science from the University of California-San Diego, M.A. degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri, and BA and M.A. degrees in economics from Peking University. He is the author and editor of more than ten books.

This program will be moderated by Richard Mueller, former US Consul General to Hong Kong.

Registration information will be sent to members in May.

Lisa Curtis: Managing Great Power Competition in the Indo-Pacific

Lisa Curtis is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). She is a foreign policy and national security expert with over 20 years of service in the U.S. government, including at the NSC, CIA, State Department, and Capitol Hill. Her work has centered on U.S. policy toward the Indo-Pacific and South Asia, with a particular focus on U.S.- India strategic relations; Quad (U.S., Australia, India, and Japan) cooperation; counterterrorism strategy in South and Central Asia; and China’s role in the region.

Ms. Curtis served as Deputy Assistant to the President and NSC Senior Director for South and Central Asia from 2017-2021 under three successive National Security Advisors. During her tenure at the NSC, she coordinated U.S. policy development and implementation of the South Asia Strategy approved by the President in 2017 and was a key contributor to the Indo-Pacific Strategic Framework, which included expanding Quad security cooperation. She coordinated policies designed to strengthen the U.S.-India defense, diplomatic, and trade partnership, resulting in a widely recognized elevation of the relationship. Ms. Curtis also coordinated development of the U.S. Strategy toward Central Asia, to include facilitating new partnerships with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

From 2006–2017, Ms. Curtis was Senior Fellow on South Asia at The Heritage Foundation, where her responsibilities included research, writing, regular media appearances, and frequent Congressional testimony. She also served as Professional Staff Member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, handling the South Asia portfolio for former Chairman of the Committee, Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) from 2003–2006. Before that, she worked as a Senior Advisor in the South Asia Bureau at the State Department, where she developed and coordinated U.S. policy on India-Pakistan relations. In the late 1990s, she worked as a senior analyst on South Asia at the CIA, and from 1994–1998 served at the U.S. Embassies in Pakistan and India.

Ms. Curtis has published commentary in Foreign Policy, The National Interest, CNN.com, NPR.org, and other media outlets and made multiple appearances on CNN, Fox News, BBC, PBS, MSNBC, and C-SPAN.

Ms. Curtis received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Indiana University in December 1990.

Mark B. Taylor: Modern Slavery: Combating Trafficking in Persons

Tuesday, March 8, 2021 6 PM.

 Mark B. Taylor is an international expert on human trafficking  issues in Asia and the world, with over 22 years of experience working on the issue in a variety of roles including diplomacy, program design and management, research, and technical advice. As part of his 27 years in the U.S. Department of State, he was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India, where he helped start the first U.S. anti-trafficking in persons (TIP) projects in South Asia.

He went on to an assignment in Nigeria, where he did similar work – starting a large anti-crime assistance program that included addressing human trafficking. Subsequently and for ten years, Mark led the Reporting and Political Affairs Section of the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons office, coordinating the production of 10 annual Trafficking in Persons Reports and managing diplomatic   engagement efforts on human trafficking issues around the world. 

In 2013, he moved to Thailand to become the Team Leader of a $50 million Australian government-funded program to fight human trafficking in the ASEAN regional – the Australia-Asia Program to Combat Trafficking in Persons. Most recently, he served as the senior technical adviser to the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery, assisting this newly establish fund in designing and managing strategies and projects in the Philippines, Vietnam, Bangladesh and India. Mark lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand and is an independent consultant to anti-trafficking donors and programs.

Gen. Wesley Clark and Gov. Larry Hogan: Rebuilding Civility in US Politics

Gen. Wesley Clark is founder and CEO of Renew America Together. Clark retired as a four star general after 38 years in the United States Army, having served in his last assignments as Commander of US Southern Command and then as Commander of US European Command/ Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. He graduated first in his class at West Point and completed degrees in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University (B.A. and M.A.) as a Rhodes Scholar. He also worked with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke in the Dayton Peace Process, where he helped write and negotiate significant portions of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement. His final NATO assignment was as Supreme Allied Commander Europe

His awards include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Defense Distinguished Service Medal (five awards), Silver star, bronze star, purple heart, honorary knighthoods from the British and Dutch governments, and numerous other awards from other governments, including award of Commander of the Legion of Honor (France). He has also been awarded the Department of State Distinguished Service Award and numerous honorary doctorates and civilian honors.

Governor Lawrence J. Hogan, Jr. was sworn in as the 62nd governor of the State of Maryland on January 21, 2015. In 2018, he was overwhelmingly re-elected to a second four-year term, receiving the most votes of any Maryland gubernatorial candidate and becoming only the second Republican governor to be re-elected in the 242-year history of the state.

In his first inaugural address, Governor Hogan reminded citizens of Maryland’s history as a state of middle temperament and pledged to advance the best ideas, regardless of which side of the political aisle they come from. He is recognized nationally as a strong, independent leader who consistently delivers real results and achieves common sense, bipartisan solutions. 

After being elected by his fellow governors, Governor Hogan recently completed a successful term as chairman of the National Governors Association, and he consistently maintains one of the highest job approval ratings in the country.

This virtual presentation, moderated by special guest KOAA news anchor Rob Quirk, is in cooperation with WorldDenver and the Colorado Springs World Affairs Council and is free to all Colorado Foothills World Affairs Council members.

To register, members will receive an email with link to click on and you will be asked enter to code “WACMEMBER” and it will be self-explanatory from there.

Jovan Jovanovic: DEMOCRACY VS GEOPOLITICS: WESTERN (UN)INTENTIONAL SUPPORT FOR AUTOCRACY

Jovan has been a pro-democracy activist since early 1990s, when he fought the autocratic regime of Slobodan Milosevic. After the regime change in 2000, he has participated in a democratic transformation of Serbia in different capacities. Jovan decided to enter politics after he was recalled early as Ambassador to Indonesia, as a result of the political retaliation by the new government, mostly comprised of the prominent figures of the Milosevic regime. 

He successfully ran for the parliamentary seat in 2016. In 2017, he became the President of the Civic Platform, a new political organization advocating for the establishment of a democratic and modern state with free market, anchored in the EU and the West, based on the rule of law and full respect of human and minority rights.

During the 2016-2020 legislature, for more than a year and a half, Jovan was the President of the Parliamentary Group of the Independent MPs. Both in that capacity, and in the capacity of the President of the Civic Platform, he has participated in all major Serbian opposition activities, including signing, along with other opposition leaders, three important opposition agreements related to free and fair election. Jovan was also a member of the Serbian Parliament’s Permanent Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the continent's leading international organization in the field of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. Due to his consequent struggle for democratic values, Jovan was frequently attacked and threatened by the ruling majority MPs, as well as their nationalist allies in the parliament. After finishing his MP term in August 2020, he and his Civic Platform continued their political struggle for democratization within the United Opposition of Serbia, a major opposition block comprised of the political forces that boycotted the June 2020 unfree and unfair election.

The worrisome trend of an increasing number and solidification of competitive autocracies has been particularly evident in Eastern Europe. In some countries, such as Poland and Hungary, although having a limited reach, European Union instruments prevented some of the worst consequences of government autocratic policies. In other countries, such as Serbia, these instruments are lacking and are mostly related to the EU-membership perspective, which seems ever-increasingly distant. 

This distant and growingly intangible perspective has created an opportunity for several global and regional geopolitical players with autocratic regimes, such as Russia, China, and Turkey, to try to fill in the widening void and increase their influence in the region. The space for such actors further widened due to the initial uncoordinated EU reaction to COVID-19. Such circumstances, paired with the Trump administration’s predominantly transactional foreign policy and tolerance for undemocratic practices around the globe, made some leaders in Eastern Europe, particularly in Serbia, believe that the winning formula for staying in power was strengthening an autocratic, Putin-like regime, along with trying to exert maximum benefit from playing major geopolitical actors (U.S., EU, Russia, and China) against each other. In such a way, Western countries have been frequently sacrificing democratic values for the sake of their geopolitical interests in the region.

Jim Loi: US-China relations in the Biden Administration

Jim Loi is Partner and Chief Operating Officer at The Asia Group and a member of the Executive Committee. Prior to joining The Asia Group, Jim spent 22 years in the Department of State as a career Foreign Service Officer and member of the Senior Foreign Service. Abroad he served in a range of economic, political, and security related policy and management positions at U.S. embassies in Singapore, Beijing, Pretoria, and Bucharest.

In Washington, Jim was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asian & Pacific Affairs, Director for East Asian Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC), Director for China & Japan at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), and visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) – Freeman Chair in China Studies.

Throughout his career, commercial diplomacy and trade policy have been central themes in Jim’s work. At USTR he worked closely with private sector stakeholders on insurance and agricultural trade issues and at the NSC he was responsible for APEC and played a leading role in the development of the Obama Administration’s U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue. In China, he led Embassy Beijing’s Trade Policy Office, served as Mission coordinator of the Treasury Secretary Paulson’s Strategic Economic Dialogue, and sat on AmCham Beijing’s trade policy committee. He and his staff played a critical role in the tracking and enforcement of China’s WTO accession commitments and were among the first to raise early alarm bells on, and analyze the trade policy challenges posed by China's then emerging indigenous innovation policies. In Singapore, Jim and his staff monitored and led enforcement of the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement and were instrumental in facilitating negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) FTA. Jim served as a non-voting board member of AmCham Singapore, supporting the interests of the over 3,700 U.S. companies resident there.

Jim is a former U.S. Navy enlisted sailor and surface warfare officer with over 15 years of active and reserve service, including active duty tours onboard a destroyer and frigate in the Pacific Fleet. He left Naval service with the rank of Commander and is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm. Jim received a Bachelor of Arts in international relations from Cornell University. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children and reside in Falls Church, VA.

Jim Loi is Partner and Chief Operating Officer at The Asia Group and a member of the Executive Committee. Prior to joining The Asia Group, Jim spent 22 years in the Department of State as a career Foreign Service Officer and member of the Senior Foreign Service. Abroad he served in a range of economic, political, and security related policy and management positions at U.S. embassies in Singapore, Beijing, Pretoria, and Bucharest.

In Washington, Jim was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asian & Pacific Affairs, Director for East Asian Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC), Director for China & Japan at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), and visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) – Freeman Chair in China Studies.

Throughout his career, commercial diplomacy and trade policy have been central themes in Jim’s work. At USTR he worked closely with private sector stakeholders on insurance and agricultural trade issues and at the NSC he was responsible for APEC and played a leading role in the development of the Obama Administration’s U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue. In China, he led Embassy Beijing’s Trade Policy Office, served as Mission coordinator of the Treasury Secretary Paulson’s Strategic Economic Dialogue, and sat on AmCham Beijing’s trade policy committee. He and his staff played a critical role in the tracking and enforcement of China’s WTO accession commitments and were among the first to raise early alarm bells on, and analyze the trade policy challenges posed by China's then emerging indigenous innovation policies. In Singapore, Jim and his staff monitored and led enforcement of the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement and were instrumental in facilitating negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) FTA. Jim served as a non-voting board member of AmCham Singapore, supporting the interests of the over 3,700 U.S. companies resident there.

Jim is a former U.S. Navy enlisted sailor and surface warfare officer with over 15 years of active and reserve service, including active duty tours onboard a destroyer and frigate in the Pacific Fleet. He left Naval service with the rank of Commander and is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm. Jim received a Bachelor of Arts in international relations from Cornell University. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children and reside in Falls Church, VA.

U.S.-China Relations: Beyond the 2020 Elections

Dave Rank retired from the US Foreign Service in 2017 as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy to China. In this capacity, Mr. Rank ran the Embassy’s day-to-day operations, worked closely with his counterparts in Washington and Beijing, and served as the Chargé d’Affaires for the six months prior to Ambassador Terry Branstad’s arrival in Beijing.

Throughout his 27-year career in the US Foreign Service, Mr. Rank performed with excellence in various postings around the world. In addition to his final assignment in Beijing, Mr. Rank served in five other positions in the region: two prior posts at the US Embassy in Beijing, two at the America Institute in Taiwan, and one at the US Consulate General in Shanghai. He has also served at the US Embassies in Afghanistan, Greece, and Mauritius. Mr. Rank’s domestic assignments included Director of the State Department’s Office on Afghanistan Affairs, Senior Advisor to the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and the Desk Officer for the Republic of Korea.

From 2012 to 2013, Mr. Rank served as a Dean and Virginia Rusk Fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. In 2015, Mr. Rank was awarded the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award for his role in the release of the only American service member held by the enemy in Afghanistan. He is also the recipient of the American Foreign Service Association’s Sinclaire Award for the study of languages and cultures.

In addition to his role at The Cohen Group, Mr. Rank is a Senior Fellow at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. Mr. Rank speaks Mandarin, French, Dari, and Greek. A native of Chicago, Mr. Rank attended the University of Illinois. He is married with three children.

Inta Morris and Mark Hallett: “Foreign Student Contribution to Higher Education and the Impact of COVID-19”

International students are a crucial element in the quality of U.S. education and research, and for the pool of talent in U.S. industry. Foreign students contributed $45 billion to the U.S. economy in 2018 and 458,000 jobs. including $400 million and 6,000 jobs to the Colorado economy.

Columbia University estimates that 30-40% of the 1.1 million foreign students in the U.S. might not attend this year due to COVID-19, a loss of 400,000 students and $15 billion. Most foreign students pay the full cost of their education, in essence subsidizing the cost for local students.

Inta Morris joined the Department in 2007 and since then has served in several senior positions. In 2018, she took over the role of Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial officer. She also developed and continues to run StudyColorado, an initiative of the state, its institutions of higher education and the business community focused on promoting Colorado as a higher education destination to international students.

Mark Hallett is responsible for management of staff, budget, programs and services for international students and scholars. CSU had 2300 foreign students and over 225 foreign scholars from over 110 countries in 2019 at its Fort Collins campus, with a total of over 34,000 students enrolled last academic year.

Dr. Jody Olson: The Peace Corps: Today and in the Future during the Age of COVID

Dr. Josephine “Jody” Olsen began her Peace Corps career in 1966 as a volunteer in Tunisia. She has since served the agency in multiple leadership positions—as Acting Director in 2009, Deputy Director from 2002- 2009, Chief of Staff, and previously as Regional Director for North Africa, Near East, and Asia Pacific.

Prior to returning to the Peace Corps in 2018 Dr. Olsen was a Visiting Professor at the University of Maryland-Baltimore working on global education and global health projects in numerous areas.

It is a trying time for the Peace Corps. The global novel coronavirus pandemic has required volunteers to be recalled from the field and numerous other international challenges require fresh thinking about the most effective mission for the Peace Corps in the future.

Dr. Olsen will share her thoughts and ideas with the Colorado Foothills World Affairs Council members and guests via an interactive Zoom format and answer some of our questions.

BRAZIL TODAY AND IN THE FUTURE: A Conversation between two experts

Brazil, a country in the world’s top 10 in population and GDP, is in the midst of three destructivecrises: the country is second only to the US in infections and deaths from COVID-19, many observers see President Jair Bolsonaro as putting democracy at risk, and Brazil’s economy has been badly damaged by the pandemic, with consequences for the whole region. To analyze these crises, the Colorado Foothills World Affairs Council will sponsor a conversation between two prominent authorities on Brazil via Zoom.

Dr. Robert Muggah co-founded the Igarapé Institute, an internationally recognized independent and non-partisan think tank devoted to bringing attention to the challenges of violence and insecurity across Brazil and Latin America. Igarapé works with other Brazilian and international organizations such as the United Nations and the Inter-American Development Bank to encourage changes I government policy. Muggah has a PhD from Oxford University and has presented numerous “Ted T alks”.

Andrés Schipani is the Brazil correspondent for the Financial Times of London. He has graduate degrees both from Oxford University and the Columbia University School of Journalism and has long been a keen observer of Brazilian politics, economics and culture, including time as BBC correspondent for South America.