Since 1975, when Governor Robert Roy facilitated the resettlement of thousands displaced by the Vietnam War, Iowa has been a welcoming new home for refugees. Today, the crisis in Afghanistan requires Iowa’s continued leadership to resettle 695 people from the war-torn Middle Eastern country. In partnership with agencies and nonprofits across the state, this effort will also require the support of individuals, organizations, and communities to receive these newest Iowans and to help them feel at home in their new neighborhoods. Today’s talk will explain the complex global process of refugee resettlement, offer historical context about immigration to the state, as well as provide an insider’s perspective on and an update about how the State of Iowa is responding to the Afghan crisis. Attendees will hopefully see the talk as a call to action, with insights offered about next steps and encouragement given to enlist others to get involved. Questions about how to welcome and support refugees from Afghanistan and countries around the world are most welcome, both during and after the presentation.
 
Mak Suceska serves as the Bureau Chief for the Iowa Bureau of Refugee Services alongside his role as the State of Iowa Refugee Coordinator through ORR (Office of Refugee Resettlement). Mak originates from Sarajevo, Bosnia and was transplanted to Des Moines, Iowa in 1993 as a refugee, fleeing from war-torn Yugoslavia with his family. Mak's professional career has been devoted to advocating and supporting refugees across the state in an effort to promote a more equitable community for all. With over 12 years of experience in non-profits and state government, it's Mak's life journey that has provided a unique and necessary perspective in guiding his work. Mak completed his political science undergraduate studies at the University of Iowa with a double minor in religion and history. He achieved his MPA degree through Drake University with an emphasis on public policy, and will pursue his doctorate degree in Educational Leadership at Drake University. In Mak's words, "Education, Accessibility and Opportunity are the keys to success".

Dr. Marcella David will talk about how the Black Lives Matter movement can be understood through the lens of international human rights, and how the global response shows how connected we are.
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Dr. Marcella David is senior vice president and provost and professor in the Business and Entrepreneurship Department at Columbia College Chicago. In her role as senior vice president and provost, David serves as the college's chief academic officer and provides leadership for all academic planning and review including academic diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, advancement of faculty scholarship, research, and creative work, global education, online learning, student retention and persistence initiatives, and the allocation of financial resources in accordance with academic priorities.
 
Before joining Columbia in 2019, David was a visiting professor of Law at Florida State University and previously served as the provost and vice president of academic affairs at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), one of the nation’s top historically black colleges and universities with almost 10,000 students across a broad range of disciplines. Prior to FAMU, David held administrative leadership roles at the University of Iowa, including associate dean of the College of Law and special assistant to the president for equal opportunity and diversity. Her research interests include the use of economic and other sanctions, international criminal law, and questions related to international organizations. David received her BS in Computer Science and Systems Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and her JD magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School.

​Journalist Sanam Maher spent several years investigating the murder of Pakistan’s first social media celebrity, Qandeel Baloch. Questions arising from Maher’s investigation—What kind of woman is the country’s culture willing to tolerate? And how did Qandeel encourage a generation of Pakistani women to inhabit the same online spaces she was viciously trolled in—broaden into larger questions of how sex is being talked about, and, as importantly, how it isn’t. To censor those discussions is to refuse to have a conversation about one’s own culture and society. If instead we invited those conversations, what is the worst that could happen?
 
Sanam Maher covers stories on Pakistan’s art and culture, business, politics, religious minorities, and women. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Caravan, Roads & Kingdoms, and The Times Literary Supplement, amongst others. Her first book, A Woman Like Her: The Short Life of Qandeel Baloch, appeared in 2018. She participates in the International Writing Program’s Fall Residency courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 
 

Each winter for the past 16 years, a Miles of Smiles team travels to conduct medical missions in the remote Western Highlands of Guatemala. In partnership with Rotary, Iowa MOST has been able to dramatically impact the health and quality of life of hundreds of families through cleft lip/palate and cataract surgeries.  Join Deb Dunkhase, Project Leader, to learn how Iowa MOST embodies Service Above Self to change the lives of some of the most vulnerable, poverty-stricken families in the world.
 
For over thirty years, Deb Dunkhase dedicated herself to education in the state of Iowa.  Her work has involved direct teaching with elementary level students and leadership roles working closely with parent and teacher groups to bridge the gap between formal and informal education.  In 2019, Deb retired from her role as the Executive Director for The Iowa Children’s Museum, a successful nonprofit organization in Coralville inspiring every child to imagine, create, discover, and explore through the power of play. Dunkhase is a strong advocate for the transformative power of play and it’s link to creativity and lifelong learning.
 
Since retirement, Deb created a new nonprofit called Open Heartland serving over 250 Central American and Mexican immigrant families in Johnson County as they navigate through poverty, lack of food, housing insecurity, and the daily threat of deportation and separation from their children – all compounded by Covid-19.  Dunkhase also leads the annual Rotary District 6000 Iowa MOST (Miles of Smiles) cleft palate and cataract medical mission to serve the indigenous Mayans of Guatemala.
 
Deb strongly believes in Service Above Self and changing the world one small act of kindness at a time.

Jerald Schnoor is the Allen S. Henry Chair in Engineering, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Co-director of the Center for Global & Regional Environmental Research. Schnoor’s research interests include phytoremediation, groundwater, and water sustainability with special fields of knowledge in water quality modeling, aquatic chemistry, and climate change.  Dr. Schnoor is a registered Professional Engineer and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

​A new report, the sixth in a series since 1990, Climate Change 2021:The Physical Science Basis was released this fall by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).  U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called the report a “code red for humanity.”  Among its many findings, “It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.”  Widespread and rapid changes have occurred in the atmosphere, ocean, biosphere and glaciers.  Furthermore, greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are the highest concentration in at least 2 million years; methane and nitrous oxide are the most in more than 800,000 years; and our average temperature on earth is the warmest in at least 2,000 years.

Iowans face more frequent and severe storms, greater runoff and soil erosion, warmer nights, and more humidity, pollen and mold spores.  In California and the western US, climate change manifests as drought and wildfires; in the Northeast as flooding, and in Miami as blue-sky flooding.  If you live in coastal Louisiana, it means more intense hurricanes, power outages and floods.  Last year, thirty named storms set a US record, and 13 of those hurricanes made landfall, also a record.

A turning point could be the upcoming United Nations Glasgow Climate Conference, November 1-12, also known as COP26.  There, the world will try to agree on greater cuts in nationally-determined greenhouse gas emissions, more funding for the most vulnerable nations (The Green Climate Fund), ending oil exploration and production, constraints on international financial transactions, and limits on international travel.  Cuts in emissions of 50% by 2030 and net-zero by 2050 are deemed necessary to avoid catastrophic warming and dangerous interference with the climate system.

Global response to transitioning out of the fossil fuel age to renewable energy, electric vehicles, battery storage of wind and solar power, a smart grid, a rebuilt infrastructure, and a circular economy promises high quality jobs, resilience to climate change, and an engine for economic development in the 21st century.  In short, climate action promises healthier ecosystems and people, cleaner air, stable climate, a dynamic economy, and a sustainable future for our children.

This talk will provide an overview of the Intra-Afghan peace process from the comparative peace process point of view and the missed opportunities by key actors involved in the negotiation process. It offers challenges in protecting and promoting women's rights in Taliban's Afghanistan.


​Madhav Joshi is research professor and associate director of the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM) at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. He oversees the data coding on the implementation of peace agreements worldwide for the PAM project and leads the research initiatives on peace agreement design, implementation, and post-implementation political and economic developments.

Dr. Joshi earned his PhD in comparative politics and research methodology from the University of North Texas in 2010. His research and teaching focus on civil wars, mediation, post-civil war democratization and democratic survival, peace duration and peacebuilding, quality peace, and the Maoist insurgency in Nepal. He has published on these topics in Social Science Research, the British Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, the Journal of Peace Research, International Studies Quarterly, Democratization, Global Governance, and many other journals. Dr. Joshi has authored and co-authored over 70 policy briefings to facilitate ongoing negotiations on issues related to peace accord contents and implementation challenges for the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Philippines), Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nepal Transition to Peace, the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace (Colombia), the United Nations Development Programme, and many civil society organizations involved in peace processes around the world.

For the last three years, the energy world has been fixated on the fits and starts of the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, as changes in  EU regulations and regulatory competencies, as well as pressure from key stakeholders, have kept the project under a big question mark. A July 2021 agreement between the US and Germany seemed to give a green light to the project. In my presentation, I will discuss the following issues:

1. What makes Nord Stream so complex from a regulatory and governance perspective, and how is this related to the specific materiality characteristics of natural gas as related to other fossil fuels? 
2. What is the Russian context of the project, and how do Russian governance issues affect it? 
3. Up to which point do the July 2021 agreements really mean the pipeline will be put in use? 
4. What perspectives and challenges does the new “status quo” open for Ukraine? 

Margarita M. Balmaceda is a political scientist working at the intersection of international relations, the political economy of authoritarianism and democracy, and technology, with a special expertise in energy politics (oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear, renewables), and commodities -- especially steel and the metallurgical sector-- in Ukraine, the former USSR, and the EU. She has a PhD  in Politics from Princeton University and is Professor of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University. Concurrently, she heads the Study Group on “Energy materiality: Infrastructure, Spatiality and Power” at the Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg (Germany) and is an Associate at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard.  Capitalizing on her Ukrainian, Russian, Hungarian and German skills, in addition to her native Spanish, she has conducted extensive field research in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Moldova, Hungary, Germany and Finland. Her new book, Russian Energy Chains: the Remaking of  Technopolitics from Siberia to  Ukraine to the European Union (Columbia University Press, 2021) analyzes how differences in the material characteristics of different types of energy can affect how different types of energy may be “used” as sources of  foreign and domestic power. She is currently developing a project on metallurgy, conflict and political development and struggling through courses at the World Steel Association’s Steel University. ​

Dr. Marilyn Seiber will discuss what is happening today in Cuba, reviewing the “perfect storm” of the U.S. embargo, Cuban Government policies, and Covid 19.  She will describe U.S. policies toward Cuba through recent Administrations, as well as the actions of The Presbyterian Church (USA) and its ecumenical partners in Cuba to address the humanitarian crisis that Cubans are now suffering.
 
The Presbyterian Church (USA) has been a partner with the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba since issuing a joint Mission Statement in 1986.  Since then, over 90 U.S. Presbyterian churches have joined with counterparts in Cuba forming strong, active bonds, working together in mission, sharing each other’s stories, becoming friends and family, participating in celebrations and holidays, learning of each other’s challenges and joys.  These U.S. church partners have been the eyes on the ground for 35 years, observing the impact of the U.S. embargo on Cuba and the results of Cuban Government policies that have affected how Cubans live and struggle daily—for food, medicines, toiletries, and equipment of everyday life.
 
Marilyn J. Seiber has been involved with Cuba since 2004, traveling there 21 times. She chairs the Cuba Partners Committee for The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.  that has a partnership with First Presbyterian-Reformed Church of Havana. Dr. Seiber has served on the Steering Committee of the Cuba Partners Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and currently is a member of the Network’s Advocacy Committee.  She has organized a similar Cuba network for National Capital Presbytery.
 
Dr. Seiber is an international economist retired from federal service on Capitol Hill and the Executive Branch.  Her expertise on international trade, finance, and monetary policy has enabled her to serve at the highest levels of government.  She was Senior Economist on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Financial Services and Chief Economist on the Committee on Small Business working for the Ranking Member and Chairman, respectively. In the Executive Branch, she served as Director of International Economics at the National Security Council; Special Assistant and Economic Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs and to the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade; advisor to the General Counsel at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; and Deputy Director of the Rent Advisory Board for the Cost of Living Council during federal wage and price controls.  She has served as an economic consultant to the World Environment Center, and has been an Adjunct Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Government and the University of Maryland University College.  She has written and published two books on developing-country debt. She received her Ph.D. in International Relations and International Economics from The American University in Washington, D.C.
 

Ambassador Ray will discuss the challenges of race, diplomacy and national security, including the challenges of being Black in the U.S. State Department.   
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Ambassador Ray has over 50 years of experience in international affairs, with 20 years in the U.S. Army, and 30+ years in the U.S. Foreign Service.  His military experience included assignments in Unconventional Warfare Planning, Psychological Operations, Intelligence and Public Affairs. During his Foreign Service career, he managed troubled organizations in Asia and Africa, and was instrumental in reestablishing a mil-to-mil relationship with Cambodia after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. As deputy chief of mission in Sierra Leone, he managed the military training program and oversaw USAID’s humanitarian assistance effort. He was also instrumental in brokering democratic elections in Sierra Leone, which saw a peaceful transfer of power from the military junta that had taken over the country the year before his assignment; this election took place during an externally-supported rebel war. He encouraged the government of Cambodia to take a more active role in combatting human trafficking, and implemented a successful Muslim outreach program in that country, which reversed the negative views the small Islamic community had about the United States.
 
He has served as deputy chief of mission in Sierra Leone, was the first post-war consul general in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, served as ambassador to Cambodia and Zimbabwe, and was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs and Director of the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO), during which time, he oversaw development of the US government interagency policy on personnel recovery, working with the Department of State, FBI, DEA, and USAID to develop a comprehensive plan to provide proactive and reactive support to USG personnel working abroad.
 
Since retiring from government service in 2012, Ambassador Ray has consulted with DOD, participating in the development of a training continuum for Defense Attaches in support to chiefs of mission during personnel recovery operations, and provided training support to the US Army as an SME on interagency matters, preparing army units for deployment abroad in noncombat operations. He also conducts a workshop on professional writing for Rangel foreign affairs scholars.
 
A prolific writer, he has published more than 60 books of fiction and nonfiction, including works on ethics, leadership, and diplomacy. He works with the Potomac Institute for Public Policy, developing a program on the use of diplomacy as a tool to combat terrorism and violent extremism.
 
He has a B.S. in business administration from Benedictine College, an M.S. in systems management from the University of Southern California, and an M.S. in national security management from the National War College of the National Defense University. He speaks Thai, Vietnamese, and Mandarin, and is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy and the Association of Black American Ambassadors. Ambassador Ray is chairman of the board of the Cold War Museum, at Vint Hill, VA, and chairs the board of advisors of the Institute of Science, Technology, and the Arts (ISSTA), an international boarding school, planned for construction in Orlando, Florida,