Maddie Z

Honorary Advisory Board Member: Ambassador Christopher Hill

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Ambassador Christopher Robert Hill has been at the forefront of American diplomacy for more than three decades. He is an author, a news analyst, foreign policy expert, and a professor, in addition to being a highly distinguished career diplomat. 

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During his career in the foreign service Hill was nominated by three presidents to serve as U.S. Ambassador. His post included Iraq, South Korea, Poland, and Macedonia. Among his many positions as a Foreign Service officer, he has also served as the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Southeast European Affairs in the National Security Council.

A strong believer in the use of multi-party talks to bring about diplomatic change, he has helped negotiate several peace treaties and deals, particularly as Special Envoy to Kosovo, and the Head of the U.S. delegation to the Six-Party Talks on the North Korean nuclear program. Hill has received several State Department Awards, including the Department’s Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to the Bosnian Peace Settlement and the Robert S. Frasure Award for Peace Negotiations for his work during the Kosovo Crisis. He has also received honorary citizenship from Macedonia and was appointed to the New Zealand Order of Merit.

After retiring from the foreign service, Hill served as Dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, and then as the university’s Head of Global Engagement and Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy. Hill is currently the George W. Ball Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and serves as the Senior Advisor at Albright Stonebridge Group. 


Ambassador Hill published his highly regarded memoir, Outpost: Life on the Frontlines of American Diplomacy in 2014. He currently writes as a monthly columnist for Project Syndicate, and remains a sought-after voice in the media for his insights on international affairs. 

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Ambassador Hill graduated from Bowdoin College and received a Master’s degree from the Naval War College. He began his career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon. 

He previously spoke at The Common Good on February 3, 2015, and he currently serves as a member of The Common Good Honorary Advisory Board.

Read more:

What Does Washington Want From China? (Foreign Affairs Article)

Christopher R. Hill, Project Syndicate Column 

Christopher Hill, ‘China's own weaknesses and troubles are lurking behind its trade war with Trump’, The Hill

Book: Outpost: A Diplomat at Work

Twitter:@ambchrishill

(1) Material from the Albright Stonebridge Group website.

Dee Dee Myers

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Dee dee myers

Analyst, commentator, former White House press secretary

Dee Dee Myers joined Vanity Fair as the Washington editor in July 1995 and was made a contributing editor in June 1997. Prior to that, she was the White House press secretary for President Clinton, the first woman to hold that position. She also served as press secretary for Clinton's first presidential campaign. Based in Washington, Myers is a political analyst and commentator, and from 1998 to 2005 she was a consultant on the television series The West Wing. She has held a number of political positions, among them press assistant for the presidential campaigns of Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis, and deputy press secretary and campaign press secretary for Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley. She was also a co-host on the CNBC political talk program Equal Time. (1)

Myers spoke at The Common Good as part of the 2008 Democratic National Convention Panel.

Twitter: @deemyers

(1) Material from the Vanity Fair website.

Susan Fales-Hill

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Susan Fales-Hill

Television producer

Susan Fales-Hill began her writing career as an apprentice on The Cosby Show. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines and an article for Vogue—“My Life in Black and White,” about growing up bi-racial—has been incorporated into several university courses. Always Wear Joy, her 2003 memoir about her mother, the late actress Josephine Premice, was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award. She published her debut novel, One Flight Up, in 2010 and her second novel, Imperfect Bliss, two years later. Fales-Hill helped launch the American Ballet Theatre’s diversity effort, Project Plié. (1)

She introduced Gwen Ifill at The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama event at The Common Good in 2009.

Twitter: @susanfaleshill

(1) Material from the TED website.

Mohamad Bazzi

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Mohamad Bazzi

Journalist

Mohamad Bazzi is adjunct senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is also an assistant professor of journalism at New York University, where he teaches international reporting. He was the 2007-2008 Edward R. Murrow press fellow at CFR. (1)

His articles and commentaries on the Middle East have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, Newsweek, Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Tribune, Salon, Washington Times, Newark Star- Ledger, and The National (Abu Dhabi). (1)

Bazzi spoke at a Special Screening of “Letters from Baghdad” and Panel Discussion alongside Sabine Krayenbühl and Zeva Oelbaum, moderated by Alex Witt, at The Common Good in 2018.

Twitter: @BazziNYU

(1) Material from the Council on Foreign Relations website.

Zeva Oelbaum

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Zeva Oelbaum

Film producer

Zeva Oelbaum is an award winning producer and photographer. She recently produced Ahead of Time, a feature documentary about centenarian journalist Ruth Gruber which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival before garnering six Best Documentary awards. Oelbaum was also executive producer of the feature documentary, Rene and I. She comes to film from a career as a still photographer and her work has been extensively published in periodicals such as The New York Times Magazine. Her photographs are in international public collections including the Bibliothèque nationale de France and The Brooklyn Museum and two monographs of her work have been published by Rizzoli Int’l Publishers. (1)

Oelbaum spoke at a Special Screening of “Letters from Baghdad” and Panel Discussion alongside Sabine Krayenbühl and Mohamad Bazzi, with moderator Alex Witt,

Twitter: @ZJJD

(1) Material from the Letters from Baghdad website.

Sabine Krayenbühl

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Sabine Krayenbühl

Film editor

Sabine Krayenbühl is an award winning editor with over 20 theatrical documentaries and narrative features to her credit, many of which have premiered at prestigious festivals around the world. Her work includes Oscar and Independent Spirit Award nominated My Architect for which she received an American Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddie Award nomination. Other credits include Mad Hot Ballroom, one of the top twenty highest grossing documentaries, The Bridge produced by IFC, Picasso and Braque go to the Movies, produced by Martin Scorsese, Virgin Tales, Ahead of Time, Jennifer Fox’s Emmy nominated My Reincarnation, Salinger on which she consulted and most recently Eric Steel’s Kiss the Water, co-produced by BBC Films. (1)

Krayenbühl spoke at The Common Good at a Special Screening of “Letters from Baghdad” and Panel Discussion alongside Zeva Oelbaum and Mohamad Bazzi, moderated by Alex Witt.

Twitter: @Sakrayen

(1) Material from the Letters from Baghdad website.

Ai Weiwei

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Ai Weiwei

Artist

Ai Weiwei is a Chinese artist and activist. His activity as a dissident has gone hand in hand with his artistic career and he has continued to produce work testifying to his political beliefs while at the same time making plenty of room for creativity and experimentation. (1)

After returning to China from his studies abroad, Ai contributed to the establishment of Beijing’s East Village, a community of avant-garde artists. In 1997, he co-founded the China Art Archives & Warehouse (CAAW), one of the first independent art spaces in China. In 2003, Ai started his own architecture practice, FAKE Design. In 2007, as a participant of documenta 12, Ai brought 1001 Chinese citizens to Kassel as part of his Fairytale project. In 2008, Ai and the Swiss architecture team of Herzog and de Meuron designed the Beijing National Stadium. Recently, Ai Weiwei’s film Human Flow participed in the 74th Venice International Film Festival. (1)

In 2012, Ai Weiwei was awarded the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent by the Human Rights Foundation and in 2015, was awarded the Ambassador of Conscience Award by Amnesty International for his actions in support of the defense of human rights.
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Weiwei was hosted by The Common Good for a discussion on Art and Activism in Amsterdam with Ai Weiwei.

Twitter: @aiww

(1) Material from the Galleria Continua website.

Alexandria Villasenor

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Alexandria Villaseñor

Climate activist

Alexandria Villaseñor is a climate activist and New York City resident. She co-founded the United States Youth Climate Strike, is the founder of Earth Uprising, and is a proud participant of Fridays for Future, a movement started by fellow activist Greta Thunberg. (1)

After inhaling smoke from the Camp Fire in California in November of 2018, Villaseñor became ill due to her asthma. She spent her recovery investigating climate change, which had exacerbated the fire. Villaseñor soon joined the organization Zero Hour, which works to promote young voices in the climate conversation. (1)

Villaseñor spoke at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, May 10th, 2019, and received the Changemaker Scholarship.

Twitter: @AlexandriaV2005

(1) Information from Wikipedia.

Jamie Margolin

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Jamie Margolin

Climate activist

Jamie Margolin is a Colombian-American writer, community organizer, activist, and public speaker living in Seattle, Washington. Margolin is the founder of Zero Hour, an international youth climate justice movement. Zero Hour led the very first Youth Climate March in Washington DC and 25 other cities all around the world during the summer of 2018. Margolin’s writing has appeared on CNN, Refinery29, The Seattle Times, TeenInk, Writer’s Digest, The Guardian, and Huffington Post. Youth To Power, her debut book, is the ultimate guide to being a young activist and will hit bookstores worldwide in 2020. (1)

Margolin attended The Common Good Forum and American Spirit Awards, May 1oth, 2019, and received the Changemaker Scholarship.

Twitter: @Jamie_Margolin

(1) Material from The International Congress of Youth Voices website.

Haley Barbour

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Governor Haley Barbour

Former governor of Mississippi

Haley Barbour, Founding Partner of BGR Group, returned to BGR in January 2012 after serving two consecutive terms as Governor of Mississippi, including two years as the Chairman of the Republican Governors Association. (1)

Governor Haley Barbour began his political career in 1968, dropping out of college to work on Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign. Gov. Barbour later served as Political Director of the Reagan White House. From 1993 to 1997, Gov. Barbour served as Chairman of the Republican National Committee, managing the 1994 Republican surge that led to GOP control of both Houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years. (1)

In 2003, he was elected Governor of Mississippi, assuming office in January 2004. After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, he received the Thomas Jefferson Freedom Award for his efforts to rebuild the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Other awards during his tenure as Governor included being named Governor of the Year by Governing Magazine, receiving the Gulf Guardian Award by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and receiving the Adam Smith Award from BIPAC. (1)

Gov. Barbour participated at The Common Good "On the Fault Lines: Decision 2018" Midterm Elections Power Panel on October 25th, 2018, along with Gerald Seib, David Gergen, Nate Silver, and Ann Lewis, moderated by Gloria Borger.

Twitter: @HaleyBarbour

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(1) Material from the BGR Group website.

Gloria Borger

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Gloria Borger

Political analyst, correspondent, pundit

Gloria Borger is CNN's chief political analyst, appearing regularly on The Situation Room. Borger plays an instrumental role in the network's daily coverage while reporting on a variety of political and breaking news stories. (1)

Before joining CNN in September 2007, Borger was CBS News' national political correspondent and a contributor to CBS's Face the Nation, 60 Minutes II and the network's special events coverage. From 2002 to 2004, she was the co-anchor of CNBC's Capital Report. Borger began her professional career as a reporter at The Washington Star where she covered politics and co-authored a daily serial. Borger was a political columnist for U.S. News & World Report and chief congressional correspondent for Newsweek. (1)

Borger moderated the "On the Fault Lines: Decision 2018" Midterm Elections Power Panel at The Common Good on October 25th, 2018, with speakers Gerald Seib, David Gergen, Nate Silver, Ann Lewis, and Governor Haley Barbour.

Twitter: @GloriaBorger

(1) Material from the CNN website.

Ann Lewis

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Ann Lewis

Democratic Party strategist

Ann Lewis is a Democratic political veteran, serving as the White House Director of Communications for President Bill Clinton from 1997-2000 and Senior Advisor to the campaigns of Hilary Rodham Clinton for Senate in 2000 and 2006, and for President in 2008. In 2016, she was Co-Chair of Jewish Women for Hillary. Lewis was the first female Political Director of the Democratic National Committee (1981-1985), the Vice President for Public Policy of Planned Parenthood (1994-1995) and the Former Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Barbara Mikulski. (1)

Lewis participated at The Common Good "On the Fault Lines: Decision 2018" Midterm Elections Power Panel on October 25th, 2018, along with Gerald Seib, Nate Silver, David Gergen and Governor Haley Barbour, moderated by Gloria Borger.

(1) Material from the Democratic Majority for Israel website.

Paula Stern

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The Honorable Paula Stern

Businesswoman, former Chairwoman of the ITC

Paula Stern founded The Stern Group in 1988 and leads its practice, serving national and multi-national companies and organizations on business, political, and tech policy issues that affect their competitiveness in a global economy. (1)

As chairwoman of the ITC, from 1984-1986, and a commissioner for a nine-year term, Dr. Stern analyzed and voted on over 1,000 trade cases involving a broad range of industries and issues. At the time, she was the second highest-ranking woman in the executive branch of the U.S. Government. As both a member and Senior Adviser of the Trade Policy Sub-council of the bipartisan Competitiveness Policy Council, Stern prepared the Council’s proposals for reforming U.S. international economic policy making, delivered to the U.S. Congress and President in 1993, which guided the trade and export policy of the Clinton Administration. Dr. Stern also served as a member of the U.S. President’s Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations; co-chaired the International Competition Policy Advisory Committee for the Attorney General and U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division; chaired the Advisory Committee of the U.S. Export-Import Bank; and served as a Senate confirmed Member of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation. (1)

The Common Good hosted Stern on October 4th, 2018, for a special discussion on “Trump & Global Trade (Dis)Order”, and at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards 2018.

(1) Material from The Stern Group website.

Michael Hayden

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General Michael Hayden

National security analyst for CNN

General Michael Hayden is a retired four-star general who served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. Hayden is currently a principal at the Chertoff Group and a distinguished visiting professor at the George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government. (1)

In addition to leading CIA and NSA, General Hayden was the country’s first principal deputy director of national intelligence and the highest-ranking military intelligence officer in the country. Hayden also served as commander of the Air Intelligence Agency and Director of the Joint Command and Control Warfare Center and served in senior staff positions at the Pentagon, at U.S. European Command, at the National Security Council, and the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria. He was also the deputy chief of staff for the United Nations Command and U.S. Forces in South Korea. (1)

General Hayden was hosted by The Common Good in 2018 to discuss his book The Assault on Intelligence: American National Security in an Age of Lies.

Twitter: @GenMhayden

(1) Material from The Chertoff Group website.

Honorary Advisory Board Member: Susan Del Percio

Susan Del Percio is a nationally recognized crisis communication expert and public affairs strategist. She is a political analyst for MSNBC, columnist for OZY media, and a consultant for the award-winning HBO show, The Newsroom. 

Del Percio has served as a media spokeswoman on many campaigns, both political and corporate. With nearly 30 years of experience in the political, government, nonprofit, and private sectors, she is a trusted advisor who helps leaders develop, execute, and win purposeful campaigns. Her unique insights on government procedure, regulatory environments and public policy are highly sought after, but her passion for problem solving sets her apart.

Appointed as a Special Advisor to Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2014, she initiated and implemented communication strategies, and advised and developed policy initiatives. Susan also served as Deputy Commissioner in the Giuliani Administration prior to founding her firm, Susan Del Percio Strategies, in 2001. Her client list includes private corporations, Fortune 50 executives, leading elected officials, political organizations and candidates, as well as non-profits.

Born and raised in Northeast politics, Del Percio received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Emerson College, where she has served as a distinguished lecturer.

Del Percio attended The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards on May 21st, 2018, and spoke on the panel “Political Landscape: Future of Elections, Campaigns, & Parties” alongside John Della Volpe, former Congressman David Jolly, and Bill Schneider, with moderator John Harwood. She returned to participate in the Post Vice Presidential Debate Panel on October 8, 2020 and was joined by nationally known strategists from both sides of the aisle: Tara Setmayer, Hilary Rosen, and Stan Greenberg to have an incredible conversation following the debate.

Del Percio with fellow NBC commentator, Democratic strategist Adrienne Elrod

Del Percio with fellow NBC commentator, Democratic strategist Adrienne Elrod

Del Percio currently serves as a member of The Common Good Honorary Advisory Board.

Twitter: @DelPercioS

Selected Media:

Joanna Coles

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Joanna Coles

Author, producer, editor

Joanna Coles is the Executive Producer of ABC Freeform’s The Bold Type. She is the Former Creative Advisor to CBS News, and Former Chief Content Officer of Hearst Magazines where she oversaw the editorial and brand development for 300 global magazines. She sits on the Board of Directors of Snap, Inc!, Density, Blue Mistrel (Frederic Fekkai’s holding company), and Women Entrepreneurs New York City, an initiative to expand female entrepreneurship, with a focus on underserved women and communities. (1)

The British-born editor moved to the U.S. in 1997 as the New York Bureau Chief for The Guardian, before becoming the New York columnist forThe Times of London. Coles joined Hearst in 2006 as editor-in-chief of Marie Claire, where she co-produced the Style Network’s unscripted show Running in Heels. She was named editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, the world’s largest women’s media brand, in 2012. She was the executive producer of the unscripted series So Cosmo on E! in 2017. (1)

Coles participated in The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards on May 21st, 2018, presenting the American Spirit Award for Though Leadership to Fareed Zakaria.

Twitter: @JoannaColes

(1) Material from the Women’s Global Leadership Summit website.

Ana Cabrera

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Ana Cabrera

Broadcast journalist, anchor

Ana Cabrera anchors the weekend primetime edition of CNN Newsroom based in New York. Throughout her tenure at CNN, Cabrera has extensively reported on everything from politics, to natural disasters, to mass shootings and more. Cabrera joined CNN as a correspondent in 2013, based in Denver. In 2019 Cabrera was awarded with the National Hispanic Media Coalition Impact Award. Previously she has served on the Board of Directors of Mi Casa Resource Center and on the board of the American Cancer Society. (1)

Cabrera participated at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards on May 21st, 2018, hosting the morning session.

Twitter: @AnaCabrera

(1) Material from the CNN website.

Alec Baldwin

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Alec Baldwin

Actor, comedian

Alec Baldwin has appeared in numerous productions on stage, in films and on television. He has received a Tony nomination (A Streetcar Named Desire, 1992) an Oscar nomination (The Cooler, 2004) and has won three Emmy awards, three Golden Globes and seven consecutive Screen Actors Guild Awards as Best Actor in a Comedy Series for his role on NBC-TV’s 30 Rock. He has been a regular host and guest star on Saturday Night Live. (For his performance on SNL parodying Donald Trump, Baldwin received his third Emmy award in 2017). (1)

Baldwin attended The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards on May 21st, 2018, and presented the American Spirit Award for Citizen Activism in tribute to Robert F. Kennedy to Kerry Kennedy.

Twitter: @AlecBaldwin

(1) Material from Alec Baldwin’s website.

Charles Armstrong

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Dr. Charles Armstrong

Professor, academic, historian

Charles Armstrong is The Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies in the Social Sciences in the Department of History at Columbia University. He is the former Director of Columbia’s Center for Korean Research and former Acting Director of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute. (1)

Professor Armstrong is the author, editor or co-editor of five books, including most recently Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World, 1950 – 1992 (Cornell University Press, 2013) and The Koreas (Routledge: second edition, 2014). (1)

Dr. Armstrong participated in The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards – May 21, 2018, speaking on foreign affairs and national security with his talk “New Day, New Deal for North Korea?”.

(1) Material from the SOAS University of London website.

Mike Espy

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the honorable Mike Espy

Politician, former Secretary of Agriculture, former Congressman

Mike Espy was the Secretary of Agriculture under President Bill Clinton and served as a U.S. Representative of Mississippi. (1)

Espy began his political career working in several state government positions. He served as the first black Assistant Secretary of State, managing the Mississippi central legal services division from 1978 to 1980. For the next four years, Espy served as Assistant Secretary of State for the public lands division. From 1984 to 1985, Espy was Assistant State Attorney General for the consumer protection division. Espy also drew national attention within the Democratic Party when he served on the rules committee for the 1984 National Convention. He became a U.S. Representative in 1987 and was re–elected three times. After he won a fourth term in Congress, he was promoted to head the U.S. Department of Agriculture by President Clinton. (1)

Espy spoke at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, May 21st, 2018, and gave a brief welcome alongside Patricia Duff and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney.

Twitter: @MikeEspyMS

(1) Material from the History, Art, & Archives website for the United States House of Representatives.