YPS Speakers 2018

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Abderrahmane Amajou, (Italy) City Council Member; Director, Youth and Integration Policies, City of Bra

Abderrahmane Amajou was elected Director of Youth and Integration Policies at the City Council of his hometown Bra in the region of Piedmont in 2014. In this political role, he mainly handled topics of political participation of the youth and second generations, the activation of local migrant communities as well as the integration of refugees.He also works at Slow Food International, a non-profit organization that engages to save biodiversity and support small-scale farmers and food communities around the world. With a background in political sciences and international relations from the University of Turin, he coordinates projects where food is used as a tool for integration and other international development projects for migrant communities. Born in Morocco and raised in Italy since the age of seven, Abderrahmane is a trained cultural mediator who creates connections and knowledge exchanges between people. In this capacity, Abderrahmane supports diversity to enrich a multicultural society rather than to trigger conflict. The most important part of his work takes place in schools, prisons,and hospitals where he conducts workshops with people who have to manage cultural conflicts everyday such as teachers, nurses or policemen

Madeleine Albright, Chair, Albright Stonebridge Group

Madeleine K. Albright is Chair of Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm, and Chair of Albright Capital Management LLC, an investment advisory firm focused on emerging markets. She was the 64th Secretary of State of the United States. Dr. Albright received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, from President Obama on May 29, 2012. In 1997, Dr. Albright was named the first female Secretary of State and became, at that time, the highest ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government. As Secretary of State, Dr. Albright reinforced America’s alliances, advocated for democracy and human rights, and promoted American trade, business, labor, and environmental standards abroad. From 1993 to 1997, Dr. Albright served as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations and was a member of the President’s Cabinet. From 1989 to 1992, she served as President of the Center for National Policy. Previously, she was a member of President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Council and White House staff and served as Chief Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Edmund S. Muskie.

Jonathan Capehart, Journalist and Editorial Board Member, The Washington Post

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Capehart is a member of The Washington Post editorial board and writes about politics and social issues for the PostPartisan blog and is the host of the "Cape Up" podcast. He is an MSNBC contributor and has served as a substitute anchor on "AM Joy" and other programs. He has also served as a guest host of the New York Public Radio program"Midday on WNYC."Capehart was the deputy editorial page editor of New York Daily News from 2002 to 2004, and served on that newspaper’s editorial board from 1993 to 2000. In 1999, his 16-month editorial campaign to save the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem earned him and the board the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing.

Chrissie Castro, Consultant, Independent

Chrissie Castro (United States), Vice Chairperson of the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission Chrissie, (Diné and Chicana) , is an advocate working toward the increased social and political empowerment of the Los Angeles American Indian/Alaska Native community. She is the vice chairperson of the Los Ange les City/County Native American Indian Commission, and has represented urban American Indian issues in national and international arenas, including Canada, Bolivia, New Zealand, Japan, and with the United Nations. In addition, Ms. Castro is a senior consultant with the Center for the Study of Social Policy, providing consultation to a number of community and systems change initiatives in Los Angeles, including work with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, the Los Angeles Count y Chief Executive Office, First 5 Los Angeles, and Casey Family Programs.

Karen Chong, Director of Audience & influencer Engagement, AARP

Karen Chong the director of audience and influencer engagement, enterprise initiatives, at AARP,where she is responsible for identifying and developing strategic partnerships that leverage integrated content marketing across channels including social media and live activations. One of her main areas of focus is #DisruptAging, a nation initiative that is changing the conversation around age and aging by challenging the industries, systems, and culture that promote stereotypes. Leveraging the innovative solutions and disruptive conversations sparked by change agents, #DisruptAging celebrates those who strive to enable everyone to choose how they live as they age.Prior to AARP, she held a positions leading partnership and content marketing teams as the senior director of corporate sponsorship at PBS as well as marketing director roles for the tech publishing divisions of The Washington Post Company and Pearson.

Julia De Clerck-Sachsse, Advisor, Strategic Planning, European External Action Service

Dr. Julia De Clerck-Sachsse is an EU diplomat, strategic communications expert,and regular commentator on foreign and security policy. As advisor for strategic planningin the European External Action Service,she worked closely on the EU's strategy for foreign and security policy, the EU Global Strategy. Her current work focuses on security and defense, transatlantic relations, and foresight for global governance and diplomacy. Previously Julia was the speechwriter and public diplomacy advisor to the High Representative for EU Foreign and Security Policy, serving the current High Representative, Federica Mogherini and her predecessor, Lady Catherine Ashton. Before joining the European External Action Service, Julia worked on the EU's Foreign and Security Policy at the German Federal Foreign Office as well as in theEuropean Commission. From 2005 to 2009, Julia was research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, focusing on EU institutions and the EU Foreign Policy. She was also a lecturer on EU Politics at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Paris. Julia holds an MPhil and a DPhil in international relations from Oxford University. She is a member of the Council of the European Council on Foreign Relations as well as the board of the Global Diplomacy Program at the Free University Brussels where she is also adjunct professor.

Elisabeth Denison, Chief Strategy and Talent Officer, Deloitte

Dr. Elisabeth Denison is chief strategy and talent officer of Deloitte Germany and the talent leader for the EMEA region at Deloitte. She is a member of the Global Executive Talent Council and Chief Strategy Officer Council and leads the EMEA Talent Agenda with particular focus on innovation and diversity against the background of globalization and digitalization. Originally from Austria, Elisabeth has gained wide-ranging global experience in finance and professional services over the past 20 years, living for several years in Hong Kong, Singapore, and New York. Elisabeth is a trained software engineer with master’s degrees in business administration and economics from Austria and London and holds a PhD in economics. She is married with two sons aged 12 and 13 and lives with her family near Munich, Germany. She enjoys the closeness to Bavarian lakes and Alps for skiing in winter and triathlons in summer.

Karen Donfried, President, The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Dr. Karen Donfried is president of The German Marshall Fund of the United States. Before assuming her current role in April 2014, Donfried was the special assistant to the president and senior director for European affairs on the National Security Council at the White House. Prior to that, Donfried served as the national intelligence officer (NIO) for Europe on the National Intelligence Council. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Wesleyan University and serves as a senior fellow at the Center for European States at Harvard University. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Council on Germany. Donfried has a PhD and MALD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a Magister from the University of Munich, Germany. She received the Cross of the Order of Merit from the German Government of 2011, become an officer of the Order of the Crown of Belgium in 2010, and received a Superior Honor Award from the U.S. Department of State in 2005 for her contribution to revitalizing the transatlantic partnership.

Kim Dozier, Executive Editor, The Cipher Brief

Kim Dozier is the executive editor of The Cipher Brief and a global affairs analyst at CNN. She has covered intelligence and national security for The Associated Press and The Daily Beast, after 17 years as an award-winning CBS News foreign and national security correspondent. She held the 2014–2015 General Omar Bradley Chair at the United States Army War College. A graduate of Wellesley College and the University of Virginia, she is a recipient of the Peabody Award, Edward R. Murrow Awards, and she was the first woman journalist recognized by the National Medal of Honor Society for her coverage of Iraq. She authored Breathing the Fire, about a devastating car bomb that hit a U.S. Army patrol and her CBS News team in Baghdad, Iraq in 2006.

John Frank, Vice President for EU Government Affairs, Microsoft

John Frank is Microsoft's vice president for EU government affairs. In this role, John leads Microsoft’s government affairs teams in Brussels and European national capitals on EU issues. John was previously vice president, deputy general counsel, and chief of staff for Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith based at Microsoft’s corporate headquarters in Redmond Washington. In this role, he managed several teams including the Law Enforcement and National Security team, the Industry Affairs group, Corporate, Competition Law and Privacy Compliance teams,and the department’s technology and business operations team. Prior to joining Microsoft, John Frank practiced law in San Francisco with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Frank received his AB degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and his JD from Columbia Law School.

Geraldine Ide Gardner, Director of Urban and Regional Policy, The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Geraldine Ide Gardner is the director of the Urban and Regional Policy (URP) Program. In this capacity, she leads the program’s transatlantic initiatives that convene policymakers and practitioners from U.S. and European cities to explore key issues in the transatlantic urban agenda. Gardner’s expertise lies in the integrated policies and cross-sector partnerships needed to build sustainable and inclusive cities, while increasing the economic competitiveness of city-regions in the global arena. Under her leadership, the five member URP team actively stewards an transatlantic network of urban leaders in over 25 cities and manages signature initiatives including: BUILD, Dialogues for Change, Transatlantic Cities Network, and the URP Policy Fellowship. Through a recognized model of peer to peer learning, Gardner facilitates the exploration of key urban policy issues and thoughtful transfer of new ideas to the unique context of each city.

Kelsey Glover, Public Relations Manager, The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Kelsey Glover is GMF’s public relations manager, where she oversees the organization’s press portfolio and public relations efforts based in Washington, DC. Prior to GMF, she did independent communications consulting and was the media and public affairs officer for the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, DC. She also currently serves as the spokesperson and a global board member for the Digital Diplomacy Coalition, a volunteer organization focused on bringing together the diplomatic, international affairs, and tech communities to share ideas and best practices in order to use digital technologies for diplomacy. She graduated from Elon University with a degree in strategic communications and international affairs and volunteers on the board of the Manifetz Foundation, a STEM education non-profit.

Corinna Hörst, Deputy Director, Brussels Office, The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Corinna Hörst is senior fellow and deputy director of GMF’s Brussels office. She supports the executive director in all aspects of strategic planning, operations, personnel, management, and communication. In this capacity, she plays a central role in program planning, networking, and relationship building with the EU institutions, NATO and stakeholders from governments, media, business, as well as nongovernmental and think tank communities. She monitors and frequently comments on transatlantic relations and European affairs and is engaged in various women leadership development and diversity activities. She is president of the Brussels chapter of Women in International Security (WIIS) and and co-founder of The Brussels Binder, an online database of female policy experts. Her recent book “Women Leading The Way in Brussels,” co-authored with Claudia de Castro Caldeirinha (John Harper Publishing, 2017) looks at women leadership in Europe and Brussels, including vignettes of women who exercise leadership across different sectors in Brussels. Before coming to GMF in 1999, she was a teaching associate at Miami University, teaching American and world history and worked as assistant project manager at a publishing company in Germany. Hörst has a PhD and master’s degree in history and studied at Miami University in Ohio, United States, the University of Heidelberg in Germany, and St. Andrews University in Scotland.

Karlijn Jans, Strategic Analyst, The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies

Karlijn Jans is a strategic analyst at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS). She holds a master’s degree in European Studies specializing in German politics from King’s College London and a master’s degree in European and International Law from Maastricht University. Her geographical expertise includes Europe and the transatlantic sphere. Jans further specialized in defense and security policies while studying as a visiting student at the Netherlands Defense Academy. Prior to her position at HCSS she worked as a policy advisor at the TNO’s EU office in Brussels. Karlijn frequently publishes on transatlantic security issues and European defense policies in the media, including in The Huffington Post, Euractiv, and Charged Affairs. Aside from her work at HCSS she is a member of the youth think tank The West Wing of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she focuses on European defense cooperation specifically.

Wesley Jomont Bellamy, (United States) City Councilor of Charlottesville, Virginia Councilor

Councilor Wesley Bellamy is the youngest person to ever be elected to the Charlottesville City Council. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, he moved to Charlottesville in September 2009 after graduating from South Carolina State. He has spent the last six years teaching and sponsoring several clubs at Albemarle High School. Wes earned his master’s degree in education administration in 2014 and his doctoral degree at Virginia State University in 2017. He was appointed to the Commonwealth of Virginia State Board of Education in 2016, a post in which he served for nearly a year.His primary focus is on improving the lives of those who lack resources and positive role models. He currently serves as the president of the national award winning 100 Black Men of Central Virginia, is an advisor for the Collegiate 100 Black Men of Central VA (UVA Chapter), serves as co-chair of the Charlottesville Alliance for Black Male Achievement (CABMA), and is an African American Teaching Fellow. Wes also has served on the Charlottesville Housing Advisory Committee and currently serves on the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board and the Charlottesville Police Citizens Advisory Panel.

Josh Levs, Independent, U.N. Global Gender Champion, Consultant, Independent

Josh Levs is an entrepreneur, former CNN and NPR journalist, and the leading global expert on issues facing modern fathers in the workplace. He is the author of the award-winning book All In: How Our Work-First Culture Fails Dads, Families, and Businesses–And How We Can Fix It Together (HarperOne 2015). Levs spent 20 years reporting for NPR and CNN, where he developed unique expertise on nonpartisan fact checking. He also created a role covering modern families and developed unprecedented expertise in assessing the realities of today’s dads. Levs then stepped into a global spotlight by taking legal action against Time Warner (CNN’s parent company) for fair parental leave so he could care for his preemie daughter and sick wife. The company ultimately embraced his call, revolutionizing its policy to make it better for moms and dads. He now works with corporations, organizations, universities and more to build policies that support men as equal caregivers, a crucial step toward ensuring equal career opportunities to women. The United Nations named Levs a Global Champion of Gender Equality. As a journalist, he received many of the highest honors in his field, including six Peabody Awards, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, and awards from the AP, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists, and more. A scholarship was awarded in his name at his alma mater, Yale University. Levs lives in Atlanta with his wife and their three children.

Reta Jo Lewis, Esq., Senior Fellow and Director of Congressional Affairs, The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Reta Jo Lewis is GMF’s director of congressional affairs. Lewis draws on her immense experience and GMF’s resources and European networks to connect Congress and GMF. Lewis joined GMF in January 2015 as a senior fellow with Transatlantic Leadership Initiatives (TLI), where she focuses on leadership development, outreach, programming, and thought pieces on global engagement strategies to strengthen the next generation of transatlantic leaders. Since beginning her tenure, GMF has been very active in engaging Congress through its Transatlantic Congressional Staff Salon Series, briefings on Capitol Hill, study tours, testimony from GMF experts, and engagement with European parliamentarians. Lewis has also worked with TLI to develop the Transatlantic Subnational Diplomacy Initiative (TSDI) to enhance diplomacy at the state and local levels. Previously, she served as the State Department’s first-ever special representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs, under secretaries of state Hillary Clinton and John Kerry from 2010-13. Lewis led the office charged with building strategic peer-to-peer relationships between the U.S. Department of State, U.S. state and local officials, and their foreign counterparts. In her post, she served as the State Department’s lead interlocutor in negotiating and executing the first historic agreements to solidify subnational cooperation and engagement efforts with BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries and with targeted countries in the European Union. She was the principal architect that led the global engagement of U.S. state and local government leaders’ integration into and strategy regarding sustainability and climate change to RIO+20, COP-16, COP-17 and COP-18. In 2013, she was awarded the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award.

Richard Lui, Anchor, MSNBC; Visiting Senior Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Richard Lui has more than 30 years of experience in television, technology, and business —often addressing Fortune 500 and Silicon Valley firms as a thought leader in media, marketing, and storytelling. Currently, Luiis a visiting senior fellow with The German Marshall Fund of the United States and a news anchor for MSNBC and NBC News, reporting on the ground for stories from terror attacks in France to slavery in Africa. Previously, he was at CNN Worldwide, where he became the first Asian male in U.S. history to anchor a daily national cable news program. He is a team Emmy and Peabody recipient. With over 20 years in the tech industry, Lui co-patented and founded a global bank-centric payments carve-out with Citibank.He currently serves as advisory board chair for a Silicon Valley artificial intelligence firm, and sits on four boards of directors and advisors. Business Insider named him one of 21 careers to watch and Twitter Counter ranks him top 1 percent. Lui has received civil rights awards from the National Education Association, Advancing Justice, and Asian American Journalists Association.

Nvard Margaryan, President, PINK Armenia

Nvard Margaryan is president of Public Information and Need of Knowledge (PINK), an organization in Armenia aimed at creating a safe space for LGBT people by promoting legal, psychological, social protection and well-being. Since 2007, Nvard has been actively involved in different civil society initiatives in Armenia. She has experiences working as a practical social worker with multiple groups such as women, people from different nationalities and with not-Armenian ethnic belongings, or children in special institutions (day care centers, night care centers, or prison for juveniles). Starting 2008, she became involved in the LGBT movement in Armenia with PINK until elected chairwoman of the organization in 2015. Currently, Nvard is also a board member of the Coalition to Stop Violence against Women and Non-Discrimination and for Equality Coalition. Nvard holds a bachlor’s degree in sociology and a master's degree in social work from the Yerevan State University. She has also participated in the Human Rights Advocates Program at Columbia University from September to December 2016.

Susan Ness, Senior Fellow, Center for Transatlantic Relations, Johns Hopkins University

Susan Ness is a former commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission and the founder of Susan Ness Strategies, a communications policy consulting firm. A senior fellow at the SAIS Center for Transatlantic Relations (Johns Hopkins University), she focuses on transatlantic digital issues, including regulation of hate speech, violent extremism, and malicious disinformation online; privacy and national security; the digital single market; innovation; data flows; and trade. She also convenes the SAIS Global Conference on Women in the Boardroom. Commissioner Ness served on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission from 1994 to 2001, where she played a leading role on spectrum policy,championed competition, implemented spectrum auctions,and fostered new technologies and often represented the FCC at international meetings.She serves on the board of TEGNA Inc, a NYSE-listed media company, and on the board of Vital Voices Global Partnership, a nongovernmental organization that invests in women’s leadership worldwide.

Antonio Missiroli, Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges

Dr. Antonio Missiroli is the Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges. Prior to joining NATO, Dr. Antonio Missiroli was the Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) in Paris (2012-17). Previously, he was Adviser at the Bureau of European Policy Advisers (BEPA) of the European Commission (2010-2012); Director of Studies at the European Policy Centre in Brussels (2005-2010), and Senior Research Fellow at the W/EU Institute for Security Studies in Paris (1998-2005). He was also Head of European Studies at CeSPI in Rome (1994-97) and a Visiting Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford (1996-97). As well as being a professional journalist, he has also taught at Bath and Trento as well as Boston University, SAIS/Johns Hopkins, at the College of Europe (Bruges) and Sciences Po (Paris). Dr. Missiroli holds a PhD degree in Contemporary History from the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa) and a Master’s degree in International Public Policy from SAIS/Johns Hopkins University.

Chris Murphy, Senator, United States Senate

Senator Chris Murphy was sworn into the U.S. Senate on January 3, 2013 and represents the state of Connecticut. Senator Murphy serves as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP), and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he is the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation. Senator Murphy has been an outspoken proponent of diplomacy, international human rights, and the need for clear-eyed American leadership abroad. Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, Murphy served Connecticut's Fifth Congressional District for three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Senator Murphy grew up in Wethersfield, Connecticut, and attended Williams College in Massachusetts. He graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Law and practiced real estate and banking law with firm of Ruben, Johnson & Morgan in Hartford, Connecticut.

Janka Oertel, Transatlantic Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Dr. Janka Oertel is a transatlantic fellow in the Asia Program. Based in GMF’s office in Berlin, she focuses on Chinese foreign policy and security in East Asia. Prior to joining GMF, she served as a program director at Körber Foundation’s Berlin office. She was responsible for the Berlin Foreign Policy Forum as well as the Asia activities of Körber Foundation’s International Affairs Department. She holds a PhD from the University of Jena focusing on Chinese policies within the United Nations. She was a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP Berlin) and worked at United Nations Headquarters, New York as a Carlo-Schmid-Fellow. She has published on topics related to security in Asia-Pacific, Chinese foreign policy, and United Nations peacekeeping, including “China and the United Nations. Chinese UN Policy in the Areas of Peace and Development under Hu Jintao,” Nomos, 2014.

Danielle Piatkiewicz, Program Coordinator, The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Danielle Piatkiewicz is a program coordinator for The German Marshall Fund of the United States’ (GMF) Asia program. In this role, she is responsible for managing and coordinating the Asia program’s portfolio on U.S. and EU relations with China, Japan and India on economic, trade, security and defense issues. She works on various leadership development projects at GMF including organizing the Young Professionals Summit at GMF’s flagship event, the Brussels Forum and the Emerging Leaders program at Atlantic Dialogues. She has worked on a range of topics including transatlantic relations, emerging economies, security, defense, and international affairs. Previously, she worked as a program assistant in GMF’s Wider Atlantic program in Brussels and program intern in Warsaw. Before joining GMF, she worked for the European Institute of Peace in Brussels (EIP) where she assisted with the logistical and operational set up of EIP as well as provided research and analysis on future peace mediation actors and regions.

Lilia Rizk, Junior Program Officer, OCP Policy Center

Lilia Rizk has worked at OCP Policy Center for three years and is currently a program officer, where she manages international partnerships in Sub-Saharan Africa, France, the U.K.,the United States, and contributes to designing and planning international relations programs and events. She also works on designing programs that focus on intergenerational dialogue in policymaking, such as the 2017 Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders program. Prior to her OCP Policy Center experience, she interned at the UCLA Berkeley Center for International Relations as an event coordinator. She obtained a dual degree in political science and international development from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and a master’s degree at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane in international relations and diplomacy.

Thomas Roca, Economist and Data Strategist, European and Government Affairs in Brussels, Microsoft

Thomas Roca is an economist and data strategist at Microsoft Brussels within the government affairs team. In partnership with LinkedIn, he conducts economic research on topics related to the future of work, the impact of artificial intelligence and automation on the labor market. Thomas’ favorite field of research is at the cross roads between data-science and socioeconomic analysis. In his previous roles, Thomas was researcher and statistician, later on data officer at the Agence Française de Développement (AFD)–France’s Bilateral Cooperation Bank, not the German party. Thomas lead a research program on alternative welfare indicators, Big Data for Development and data visualization, with MIT media lab, Orange and Data-Pop Alliance as partners. Thomas developed AFD’s data portal to help inform development practitioners about economic and social situation of developing countries.Thomas also spent time at the United Nations in New York contributing to the Human Development Reports.

Josh Rogin, Columnist, The Washington Post

Josh Rogin is a columnist for the Global Opinions section of The Washington Post, and a political analyst with CNN. Previously, he has covered foreign policy and national security for Bloomberg View, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, and Foreign Policy magazine,Congressional Quarterly, Federal Computer Week magazine, and Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. He was a 2011 finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists and the 2011 recipient of the Interaction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. Rogin holds a bachelor’s degree in international affairs from George Washington University and studied at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan.

Peter Sparding, Transatlantic Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Peter Sparding is a transatlantic fellow in GMF’s Europe Program in Washington, DC, where he works on foreign and economic policy developments in the United States and Europe. Sparding's work over the past years has focused on the consequences of political and economic crises in Europe on transatlantic relations, in particular the U.S.–German relationship. Currently, he is focused on the evolution of the U.S.–German relationship following elections in the U.S. and Germany, as well as the future of transatlantic economies in an age of automation, growing inequality, and increased socio-political challenges on both sides of the Atlantic. He has also worked on issues related to transatlantic and global trade, authoring several reports on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Transpacific Partnership (TPP). He is the chair of the Europe breakfast series in GMF’s Washington, DC, office, which brings together high-level stakeholders in the transatlantic relationship to discuss pressing political, economic, and foreign policy issues.

Amy Studdart, CEO and Founder, Villager; Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Amy Studdart is a fellow with The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) where she leads the organization’s programming on technology. She worked with the executive communications team at Facebook on a project interrogating the social, economic, and political implications of the company’s mission to connect the world. She was deputy director and fellow of the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC, where she ran a series of programs focused on 21st century economic statecraft and the evolution of the global economic order. She worked in Brussels from 2008-14, first at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she helped to establish their Europe office, and then at GMF, where she managed the Stockholm China Forum. She has published and spoken on technology’s impact on politics and economics, political economy, the liberal international order, China, and the European Union.

Rachel Tausendfreund, Editorial Director, The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Rachel Tausendfreund is editorial director at GMF, overseeing the organization’s research output and publication planning. Before joining GMF, Rachel was editorial director at the European Council on Foreign Relations and editor at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). At the DGAP, she was a member of the editorial team of the bimonthly foreign policy magazine Internationale Politik and ran IP-Journal, an online magazine covering German and European foreign policy. She has researched and published on issues relating to German, American, and transatlantic politics, as well as international trade policy and European foreign policy. Rachel earned her BA in her native state of Michigan before moving to Germany where she got her MA in European Studies and Politics and then did doctoral research and teaching on European trade policy. She is a native English speaker and speaks fluent German and basic French.

Robert Uribe, 31st Mayor of Douglas, Arizona

Robert Uribe is the 31st Mayor of Douglas, Arizona. He is the youngest elected official to serve the community, in addition to being the first Afro-Latino. He was born in the Dominican Republic on June 8, 1984 and immigrated to the United States in 1990. He was raised in New York City and worked as a youth educator in Manhattan until him and his family moved to Arizona in 2005. Mayor Uribe continued working with children as a coach at Phoenix Country Day School. In 2010, he met his wife, Jenea, a Douglas native who was completing her education at Arizona State University. The couple immediately began their entrepreneurial journey with the creation of an online boutique. In 2012, they moved to Douglas and opened Galiano's Cafeì, the only neighborhood coffee shop in town. From that point on, the duo has immersed themselves in the binational arts and cultural scene of Douglas and Agua Prieta, Mexico. Due to the his commitment to primarily focus on moving the city forward, Mayor Uribe and his wife are no longer operating the cafeì and have passed the baton to new owners. He loves spending time with his wife and three children and is excited to lead the City of Douglas community to a prosperous future.

Severine Wernert, Member of Cabinet, Commissioner Julian King, Security Union, European Commission

Yasmine Taeb is the legislative director of Human Rights and Civil Liberties at the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), a Quaker lobby in the public interest, where she directs projects on a number of civil liberties and human rights. She also serves as committeewoman of the Steering Committee under the Democratic Party of Virginia and a former candidate for the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) Vice Chair for Civic Engagement and Voter Participation. Yasmine has a track record of reaching across the aisle and working with Republicans on legislative proposals that matter to ordinary citizens. She helped develop a bi-partisan human trafficking bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that was adopted in the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA). Yasmine is the first Muslim woman and Iranian-American to be elected to the DNC. Her writings and commentaries have appeared in The Hill, Newsweek, The Washington Post, Miami Herald, The Huffington Post, and ThinkProgress. She holds a JD from the Penn State Dickinson School of Law, a graduate certificate in international human rights law from Oxford University, and aBA in political science from the University of Florida.

Guillaume Xavier-Bender, Non-Resident Transatlantic Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Guillaume Xavier-Bender joined Airlines for Europe (A4E) as policy director in April 2016. He joined A4E after close to a decade in international relations, policy analysis, and multi-stakeholder engagement across sectors. Prior to A4E hewas a transatlantic fellow at The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), leading the think tank’s initiatives in Brussels on the transatlantic economy, economic security, strategic industries, and innovation. Between 2010 and 2016, he played various roles within GMF by contributing to its convening activities, briefing policymakers and industry stakeholders, and commenting on transatlantic relations and European affairs. In addition to speaking engagements, his interventions have appeared on outlets such as Euronews, CCTV, MNI, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the Digital Post,and U.S. News. Before moving to Brussels he worked for the French Secretariat General for Defense and National Security (SGDSN) in Paris. A native of France, he has also lived in the United States, Austria, and the Czech Republic. Guillaume holds a master’s degree in international economic policy from Sciences Po in Paris, a master’s degree in diplomacy and strategic negotiations from the Université Paris-Sud XI, and a bachelor’s in international law from the Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas. He is a non-resident transatlantic fellow with GMF, and an active member of Women in International Security-Brussels.