Monthly luncheons are generally held on the second Monday of every month, unless advised to the contrary, at Chez Marcel restaurant in the Samoset Resort in Rockport, Maine.
Upcoming Speakers
Isobel Coleman, senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and director
Monday July 14, 2008
Topic: Paradise Beneath Her Feet: Women and Reform in the Middle East
Dr. Isobel Coleman is senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and director
of the Council’s Women and Foreign Policy program. Her areas of expertise include economic and political
development in the Middle East, regional gender issues, educational reform, and microfinance. She recently
coauthored Strategic Foreign Assistance: Civil Society in International Security (Hoover Institution Press,
2006). Her forthcoming book, Paradise Beneath Her Feet: Women and Reform in the Middle East (Random
House, 2008), examines how women are bringing about reform in the Middle East within an Islamic
framework.
Dr. Coleman’s work has appeared in publications such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Financial Times,
International Herald Tribune, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, Toronto Star, Dallas Morning News,
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, and Fletcher Forum of World Affairs. She is a frequent speaker
at academic, business, and policy conferences. Her media experience includes interviews on CNN, CNN
International, ABC, Good Morning America, BBC, PBS’s Frontline, al-Arabiya, Al Jazeera and NPR. She
has testified before Congress on Iraq and Afghanistan.
Prior to joining the Council, Dr. Coleman was CEO of a health-care services company and a partner with
McKinsey & Co. in New York. She was formerly a research fellow at the Brookings Institution and an
adjunct professor at American University, where she taught political economy. Dr. Coleman, a Marshall
Scholar, holds a DPhil and MPhil in international relations from Oxford University and a BA in public
policy and East Asian studies from Princeton University.
William Stebbins, Al-Jazeera Washington Bureau Chief
Monday September 8, 2008
Topic: “The opinion, and the Other Opinion.”
William Stebbins
Al Jazeera English Bureau Chief for the Americas
William Stebbins, Aljazeera English Bureau Chief for the Americas, began his career as a cameraman, which took him to the former Yugoslavia. From a base in Zagreb, he spent three years covering the wars both in Croatia and in Bosnia. In 1995 he was invited to join the staff of Worldwide Television News as a journalist at their London headquarters and from there he traveled regularly on assignment to the conflict in the Balkans. In 1997 he was named Worldwide Television News Cairo Bureau Chief and moved to Egypt. As well as covering the terrorist attacks in Luxor and Cairo, Will spent a lot of time in the Gulf for the various build ups against Saddam Hussein during the Clinton administration. This was also a busy period in West Africa, where Will witnessed the fall of long time president of Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko. While covering the Congolese civil war, Will contracted malaria.
One of his most exciting assignments began in 1998, when Fidel Castro invited the AP to return to Cuba after a 30 year absence. Stebbins was invited by the AP to join their operation in Cuba to set up the broadcast news gathering team. In 1999, he moved to Havana, and spent two years building the bureau. Stebbins was one of only two permanently based North American journalists covering Cuba at the time. He was there throughout the Elian Gonzalez affair and supplied the first television pictures of the boy’s return to Cuba.
In 2001 the AP asked Stebbins to take up a new challenge: to move to Miami as a Regional Executive to develop the AP’s broadcast news gathering operation throughout Latin America. He spent two years traveling the region, raising the AP’s profile, building alliances with local broadcasters, and directing the expansion of resources.
Always on the move, in 2003 Stebbins relocated once again to Washington DC to take charge of AP’s Latin America desk and direct all coverage of the region. It was in Washington DC in 2005 that he was approached by Al Jazeera and recruited to establish the Washington Broadcast Center and the news gathering operation for the Americas. As the first man on board for Al Jazeera English in the Americas, Will Stebbins built the journalistic team from scratch, leading it through the 2006 launch. In his present position, Stebbins continues to direct Al Jazeera’s expansion.
Stebbins is multi-lingual and embodies a wealth of broadcast experience from his wide-ranging international roles.
Shmuel Rosner, Ha'aretz Washington Bureau Chief
Monday October 27, 2008
Topic: To be announced
Shmuel Rosner is Chief U.S. Correspondent for the Israeli daily Haaretz, and is based in Washington.
In the years 1996-2005 Rosner was a senior editor for Haaretz, working as the head of the features department for 4 years (‘96-2000) and as the head of the news division for 5 years (2000-‘05).
Previously, Rosner worked in several other Israeli dailies and weeklies as a news editor, business editor, features editor and reporter. In 1993 Rosner wrote a three-times a week column for Haaretz, covering the implementation of the Oslo accords in Gaza and the West Bank. Rosner also served as a producer and editor in the IDF radio station.
For one year (1995) Rosner took a leave from journalism and has volunteered to work as an educator in the Jewish community of Kitchener, Canada (1995).
A long-time American history buff, in the last decade Rosner has written numerous pieces about U.S. policy and politics, and traveled across the United States covering the 2000, 2004 and 2006 elections for Haaretz. He has been a frequent guest on Israeli television and radio as an analyst of American policy, and has lectured in many institutions on Israeli journalism and politics. Since he came to the US Rosner has lectured in many Jewish gatherings and communities, and also in several Universities and Think Tanks. He was invited by the State Department to speak to American diplomats and was a guest speaker at several courses in the Army War College.
Apart from reporting for Haaretz and for writing a daily blog (www.rosnersdomain.com) Rosner is also a frequent contributor to the American magazine Slate (www.slate.com).
Rosner was raised and educated in Jerusalem, and before coming to the U.S. lived in Tel Aviv. He now lives with his wife and their four children in Maryland.