Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 hurricane, has devastated the Texas Gulf Coast. With many evacuating or left stranded, particularly in Houston, we SPOTLIGHT Tamara Habib. Tamara is an entrepreneur focused on reengineering disaster recovery. She has 12 years of experience in emergency management and disaster response and recovery. Her career has spanned roles that include working as an Emergency Management Technician, responding to local and national disasters with the American Red Cross and consulting major cities on disaster planning and recovery. Through this work, she learned that people and communities impacted by disaster needed better resources to recover and, as a result, cofounded Firelily, a crowdfunding startup dedicated to empowering those impacted by disaster to take control of their recovery. Media includes: Forbes, Emergency Management Magazine, Chicago Tribune, NPR.
India has pulled troops back from the Doklam Plateau, an area along the China-Himalayan border, following a two-month border dispute. To discuss, we FEATURE Seema Gahlaut. Seema is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for International Trade & Security. She directs all CITS programs aimed at assisting government officials, legislators, industry and the academia on issues relating to implementation and enforcement of controls over WMD-relevant technologies. This includes the Security and Strategic Trade Management Academy, Asian Fellows Program, and Enterprise Outreach Workshops around the world. She is a member of the Export Control Experts Group in the WMD Working Group of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP). Media includes: BBC Radio (Hindi Service), VOA (Hindi and English), Bloomberg, NBC Universal, Center for Investigative Reporting.
With news that, during the 2016 presidential election, President Trump was seeking a business deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, we FEATURE Liz Kennedy. Liz is the Director of Democracy and Government Reform at American Progress. Previously, she served as counsel and campaign strategist at Demos, working on voting rights, money in politics, and corporate accountability. She worked to expand political participation by eliminating barriers to voting and empowering voters; to increase transparency and accountability for money in politics to fight corruption of democratic government; and to fulfill America’s promise of political equality. Media includes: MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, Al Jazeera, CBS Drivetime News Radio, RNN.
With President Trump's new plans for the conflict in Afghanistan, we FEATURE Shazia Z. Rafi. Shazia was, from 1996-2013, secretary-general of Parliamentarians for Global Action, an association of more than 1,350 individual legislators from 131 national parliaments. PGA programs promote peace, democracy, justice and sustainable development around the world. As a direct implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action, PGA became the first parliamentary organization to appoint a woman as secretary-general and to amend its constitution with a 60:40 gender rule for executive committee elections. Media includes: GEO TV, South-South TV, WMC Print and Radio, Rachel Maddow.
Labor Day is this coming weekend, but the fight to higher the minimum wage across the country has been hit with a new law in Missouri that would see the minimum wage lowered in St. Louis. To discuss this decision, we FEATURE Erica Smiley. Erica oversees the organizing department at Jobs With Justice, which includes local and national campaign work and a team dedicated to developing innovative strategies to expand collective bargaining power. In the past, she has organized with community groups such as Progressive Maryland, the Tenants and Workers Support Committee (now Tenants and Workers United) in Virginia, and SEIU Local 500 in Baltimore. Media includes: Chicaco Tribune, Bill Moyers, The Washington Free Beacon, MSNBC, Reuters.
Following Amazon's acquisition of grocery chain Whole Foods, the company plans to lower the prices of popular items in the store. To discuss, we FEATURE Michelle Tillis Lederman. Michelle is the CEO of Executive Essentials, a training company that provides customized communications and leadership training and coaching programs. She spent ten years in finance beginning her career as a CPA in Arthur Andersen's audit practice, later joining Primedia as a mergers & acquisitions analyst. Her experience ranges from venture capital to hedge funds and includes positions as a financial strategist with Deloitte Consulting, a hedge fund investment adviser for HypoVereins Bank, and a director of communications at Investor Analytics, a risk management firm. Media includes: CBS, NPR, FOX, Wall Street Journal, US News and World Report.
August 28th marks the anniversary of the March on Washington, the march in which Martin Luther King Jr. famously gave his "I Have A Dream" speech, and to commemorate this day we FEATURE Janet Dewart Bell. Janet is a communications and management consultant specializing in policy advocacy, strategic planning, executive and staff training, and education. Her multimedia background sets her apart as an outstanding media trainer and executive coach. She is also an effective and inspirational speaker. She was the Director of Communications at the National Urban League, where she redesigned, edited, and marketed the League’s signature annual publication, The State of Black America. Media includes: PolicyLink, National Urban League, National Public Radio, The Ed Show.
Liz Theran
