| August 25, 2009
CONTACT: Ward Mullens
ward.mullens@emich.edu
734.487.4400
|
EMU to host forum to discuss critical issues facing the world
YPSILANTI — Climate change, global poverty, nuclear proliferation, human rights, international security and war.
These are just some of the critical issues facing the United States and the international community today.
| |  |
“America Engages the World: A Public Forum on the International Role of the United States,” is a free public forum scheduled Sept. 11 from 9 a.m. to 5:30 at the Eastern Michigan University Student Center.
“The event will bring together students, citizens and experts to discuss the issues and U. S. participation in the global community,” said Judy Kullberg, professor of political science at EMU, and organizer of the forum.
“The major focus is thinking globally, but acting locally,” Kullberg said. Representatives from the American Red Cross, Amnesty International, Michigan Peaceworks, the Arab American Center and many other community organizations will give presentations on global issues and discuss opportunities for involvement.
Speakers at the forum will include Ramu Damodaran, the deputy director of the Department of Public Information of the United Nations, and Ambassador Thomas Miller, president and CEO for the United Nations Association of the United States (UNA-USA)
Damodaran will present “Civil Society and the United Nations,” from 4:30-5:30 p.m. in the Student Center Auditorium.
Miller will discuss “The Foreign Policy Agenda of the Obama Administration.” He will speak at noon at the Student Center Ballroom.
Damodaran has extensive experience in the United Nations, with previous positions in the departments of Peacekeeping and Special Political Questions as well as the Executive Office of the Secretary-General. He is a member of the Indian Foreign Service. His last position in Indian government was that of private secretary to the Prime Minister of India from 1991-94. He also served in the Indian diplomatic mission in Moscow.
Most recently, Miller served as the chief executive of Plan International,
a $650 million, 72-year-old international agency that focuses on improving children’s lives in developing countries. As chief executive from January 2005 through January 2009, Miller was responsible for the coordination and management of the agency’s operations in 49 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
He spent 29 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, working on policy issues in the Balkans, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and worked in the State Department on Middle East and North African matters, including the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Event sponsors include the EMU College of Arts and Sciences, the International Affairs Program, Student Affairs, Office of the Provost, EMU Student Government, and the UNA-USA Michigan Division and Huron Valley Chapter.
For information, call EMU’s International Affairs Program at 734.487.3113.
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