Ambassador John Price
& Marcia Price World Affairs Lecture Series

The UCCD presents the 2009/2010 Ambassador John Price and Marcia Price World Affairs Lecture Series in partnership with Westminster College and the American Express Weldon J. Taylor Executive Lecture Series. This Lecture Series is designed to inform our citizens about key foreign policy issues and to create a globally savvy community. Our speakers come from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds and are nationally recognized authors, academics and foreign affairs experts.

All lectures are free and open to the public, and held at the Vieve Gore Concert Hall, Westminster College, 1840 South 1300 South.

The views and opinions expressed in any lecture are solely those of the speaker and do not represent the position or opinion of the Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy, Westminster College, or our Sponsors.

Tuesday, Sept 15, 2009, 7:30pm
The Global Financial Crisis: Toward Sustainable Recovery
Richard D. Erb
Research Professor,
Economics Dept.,
University of Montana

What caused the global financial crisis? Can leaders around the globe restructure financial systems to promote financial stability and sustainable economic growth? With extensive monetary and financial experience, Dr. Erb, former Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, will answer these questions by reviewing current economic and financial system developments.

Dr. Erb is a Research Professor at the University of Montana. His background includes public sector service at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the White House, the US Treasury Department and the International Monetary Fund. He also worked at Salomon Brothers on Wall Street earlier in his career. He has published and lectured on financial and economic policy issues around the world. He is a Senior Fellow at the World Affairs Council of Montana and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Tuesday, Oct 6, 2009, 7:30pm
The War on Drugs
Ted Galen Carpenter, PhD
Vice President for Defense &
Foreign Policy,
Cato Institute

From the coke wars in Colombia to opium crops in Afghanistan, the international drug trade has wide policy repercussions and extends around the globe. Dr. Carpenter will address topics as diverse as the impact of anti-narcotics efforts on local populations, the links between the drug trade and international terrorism, the impact of drug policies on Americans, and the US anti-drug effort in the multilateral context.

Dr. Carpenter is the author of eight books on international issues. He is also the author of a new Cato policy study, “Troubled Neighbor: Mexico’s Drug Violence Poses a Threat to the United States.” His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times, and in many other publications.

Thursday, Oct 15, 2009, 7:30pm
Egypt-U.S. Relations:
Challenges & Opportunities
His Excellency Sameh Shoukry,
Egyptian Ambassador to the U.S.

Please join us in welcoming his Excellency Sameh Shoukry, Egyptian Ambassador to the United States. Ambassador Shoukry will discuss existing challenges and opportunities for Egyptian-US relations amid the on-going developments in the Middle East.

Ambassador Shoukry was appointed Ambassador of Egypt to the United States on September 24, 2008. He previously served as Egypt’s permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva as well as Ambassador to Austria and permanent representative to the International Organizations in Vienna. As a career diplomat who joined the diplomatic corps in 1976, Ambassador Shoukry served in the Egyptian embassies in London and Buenos Aires as well as the Egyptian Permanent Mission in New York. Ambassador Shoukry holds a law degree from Ein Shams University.

Monday, Nov 2, 2009, 7:30pm
Himalayan Cataract Project -
Restoring Sight &
Economic Independence
Geoffrey Tabin, MD
Director of the Division of International Ophthalmology,
John A. Moran Eye Center,
University of Utah

The global distribution of visual impairment shows that 90% of the blind live in the developing world. While many public health problems cannot be prevented, one striking exception is cataracts. After summiting Mt. Everest, then coming across a Dutch team performing cataract surgery on a woman who had been needlessly blind for three years, social entrepreneur Dr. Tabin vowed to work to eliminate all preventable and treatable blindness from the Himalayan region, hoping to restore economic independence to millions.

In 1994, he co-founded, with Dr. Sanduk Ruit, the Himalayan Cataract Project, which strives to eradicate preventable and curable blindness in the Himalaya through high quality ophthalmic care, education, and establishment of a world-class eye care infrastructure. Dr. Tabin is the fourth person in the world to reach the tallest peak on each of the seven continents.

Tuesday, Jan 12, 2010, 7:30pm
Impact: From the Front Lines of Global Health
Karen Kasmauski
National Geographic

Photograph Courtesy of Karen Kasmauski

For the last 10 years, Karen Kasmauski has captured on film the personal side of numerous global health crises: AIDS, malnutrition, and immunization. In this sweeping view of the human condition, Ms. Kasmauski finds the personal stories behind the headlines, blending a warm human sensitivity with a photographer’s eye for detail to distill global issues into resonant images.

Karen Kasmauski has photographed more than 20 major stories for National Geographic, covering subjects as diverse as Appalachia, Japanese culture, and pandemics. In recent years, she has evolved as the National Geographic go-to photographer for sweeping global health stories, such as the worldwide struggle against disease, the search for an AIDS cure, the mysteries of aging, and female reproductive health. Kasmauski writes a column for Nikon World magazine and creates online features for AARP, a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that helps people 50 and over improve the quality of their lives.

Tuesday, Feb 9, 2010, 7:30pm
The Quest for Sustainability:
Climate Change &
Economic Growth
Bruce McKenzie Everett, PhD
Professor of Business,
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Georgetown's School of Foreign Service

In a world of accelerating technological and social change, we face unprecedented complexity regarding the global economy and the environmental challenges it poses. To what extent do we really understand the science of climate change? Can we address climate change through modest lifestyle changes or are the trade-offs between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions simply too severe? Can technology save us? With over three decades of experience in the energy business as a government official, oil industry executive, teacher and commentator on energy policy, Dr. Everett will interpret the relationship between economic growth and climate change.

Born and bred in the Boston area, and still a die-hard Red Sox fan, Dr. Everett graduated from Princeton University in 1969 and earned a Ph.D. in International Relations from The Fletcher School at Tufts University in 1980. Anxious to see the world outside the Beltway, he joined ExxonMobil Corporation in 1980, traveled the world and worked across the spectrum of the energy industry, including oil, coal, natural gas, electricity. He retired in 2002. Dr. Everett currently teaches oil market economics as Adjunct Professor of International Business at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service and Adjunct Associate Professor of International Business at the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Monday, March 8, 2010, 7:30pm
Africa Unchained:
The Blueprint for Africa's Future
George Ayittey, PhD
Distinguished Economist
in Residence,
American University,
and President,
Free Africa Foundation

Why haven't the poorest Africans been able to prosper in the twenty-first century? Celebrated and world-renowned economist Dr. George Ayittey thinks the answer is obvious: Africa is poor because it is not free. Because colonial legacies and globalization present a myriad of difficulties to the continent today, Dr. Ayittey boldly proposes a new path for Africa – to modernize indigenous traditions of free enterprise, free markets, and free trade.

Dr. Ayittey is the Distinguished Economist in Residence at American University in Washington, DC and founder of the Free Africa Foundation in Washington, DC, which serves as a catalyst for reform in Africa. Educated in Ghana and Canada, his publications focus on the relationship between economic development, security, and freedom in Africa. He has published five books on Africa, including Africa Betrayed, which won the 1993 H.L. Mencken Award for "Best Book for 1992." In 2008, he was listed among the “World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals” by the Foreign Policy magazine.