On May 14, 2012, the Institute for Education hosted the Emerging Markets Roundtable at the Residence of the Liechtenstein Ambassador to the U.S., Her Excellency Ms. Claudia Fritsche. After an intimate cocktail gathering, Ambassador Fritsche welcomed guests to her elegant dining room. The roundtable discussion was initiated with welcoming remarks given by Her Excellency and Coach Kemper, followed by the introduction of the honored guest, Heather Conley, Senior Fellow and Director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Ms. Conley initiated the discussion and spoke of the current crisis in Europe and its implications on the U.S. economy. The group discussed the concurrent seismic events occuring across Europe: the French and Greek elections as well as the collapse of the Dutch and Romanian governments. Conley also shed light on the four political earthquakes that have contributed to the current global crisis and explained how the nature of this crisis is ultimately political, not economic. The group discussed the economic impact of recent events and decisions on the developing nations of Eastern Europe. Other topics covered by the group included transatlantic relations, the role of the European Central Bank and the future of the common European currency.Guests remarked on the exquisite setting and excellent menu Ambassador Fritsche graciously provided. Guests in attendance included EMR Founders John Paul Farmer, Andrew Mitchell, and Aaron Sokasian, IFE Grand Slam members Greg Farmer and David Fenstermaker, Raj Shah, Jason Tepperman, Seraina Sartor as well as IFE Fellows Pascale Dumit, Laura Gerhardt, Nick Seaver and Paul Selker.

Click here to view the IFE Flickr album

Senator Jon Kyl, Republican Whip

IFE will host the Honorable Jon Kyl, Republican Whip at the U.S. Capitol in early June 2012.

The Arizona Senator is serving his third and final term in the U.S. Senate after previously serving for eight years in the U.S. House of  Representatives. Kyl was elected unanimously by his colleagues in 2008 to serve as Republican Whip, the second-highest position in Senate Republican leadership. By invitation only.

Another perfectly timed INFO! The livestreaming of Vladimir Putin’s inaugural ceremony on Monday morning, May 7^th, at the Russian Ambassador’s Residence was capped by a talk and lively Q&A with the Ambassador of the Russian Federation, H.E. Sergey I. Kislyak.  Ina Ginsburg, IFE International Diplomacy Award recipient, introduced the Ambassador as part of the Institute for Education’s Global Connection Series.

However, he asked for patience, as the new Russia is 20 years young, and structural changes still need to be made towards privatization and moving the country towards new stages of democratization.   He likened this mission to Moses leading his people towards the promised land and living the desert for 40 years, implying it will take two generations for real change to set in. Ambassador Kislyak commented on his personal encounters of the negative stereotypes that Americans have of Russians and visa versa, hoping that they will be erased over time.  He raised another goal towards building a better U.S. –Russian relationship:  the United States and Russia should work on developing a more economically interdependent relationship, which he believes is completely possible.

By IFE Interns Skyla Lilly and Jenny Shore, Next Gen Founder.

Click here to review event photos. 

Click here to review entire list of IFE INFO Speakers.

Click here to view PDF Of Roundup.

Among the over 600 guests at the Gala and Havana After Party were Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Dorothy Kosinki, Director, Phillips Collection, Chris Kubasik, President and COO, Lockheed Martin, Bruce Tanner, Executive Vice President and CFO, Lockheed Martin, Larry Duncan, Vice President, Federal and State Government Relations and PAC Affairs, Lockheed Martin, Rep Doris Matsui (D-CA), Rep Dale Kildee (D-MI), Rep Jim Moran (D-VA), Michael Chertoff, former Secretary of Homeland Security, General Michael Hayden, former Director, National Security Agency, Ambassador John Negroponte, former Deputy Secretary of State,  Washington DC Mayor Vincent Gray, Ambassadors from 11 countries and many leading philanthropists.

View event photos on IFE Flickr

Media coverage on Revamped.com Diplomats, Politicos & Philanthropists Fete Annual Phillips Collection Gala! Click here to see Coach, Moshira Soliman and Justice Ginsburg.

Last week, I attended a high-level CEO dialogue at the U.S.-India Energy Partnership Summit, organized by Yale and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)-North America. The dialogue, held in Washington, D.C., explored how businesses can accelerate the development and adoption of green technology and how the United States and India are at the forefront of collaboration to promote clean energy.

U.S. leaders present included Yale’s president, Dr. Richard C. Levin, the Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan B. Poneman, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology Dr. John P. Holden, and Senator Tom Udall (D-NM). Leaders from India included the president of TERI-North America, Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri; the Indian Ambassador to the U.S., Her Excellency Ms. Nirupama Rao; the Indian government’s principal scientific advisor, Dr. Rajagopala Chidambaram; and the chair and director of PTC India Ltd., Mr. Tantra Narayan Thakur.

The U.S.-India partnership offers a paradigm for how advanced countries can help developing countries surmount the financial constraints standing in the way of green research and development and the production and distribution of green energy technology. Deputy Secretary of Energy Poneman characterized the U.S.-India relationship on energy and environmental issues as a vibrant and even breathtaking one. The two countries share values and interests, he noted. They also happen to be the first and third largest emitters of carbon dioxide; therefore, they have a common responsibility to serve as stewards for the planet.

Yale has played a key role in mobilizing intellectual capital at universities in the service of exploring alternative energy sources, including wind, solar, biomass, shale gas, and nuclear, as well as cleaner and more efficient methods of extracting and using energy — from carbon capture and sequestration to a smarter grid.

TERI in Delhi is, meanwhile, challenging assumptions about what kind of progress is possible in the developing world through its Lighting a Billion Lives campaign, helping rural Indians gain access to clean and reliable energy. 1.4 billion people, 400 million of whom live in India, lack access to electricity and rely on older technologies, like kerosene lamps, to cook, work, and study when night falls. These lamps are not only inefficient, they also produce smoke that contributes to indoor air pollution and present a fire hazard.

TERI is working to enable Indians to use lamps powered by solar energy. These lamps are safer, more reliable, and more efficient. The introduction of this new technology has also helped more women to become entrepreneurs by enabling them to work at solar lamp-charging stations and rent solar lamps out.

Academia and NGOs are, clearly, doing their part. But both the private sector and the government also have critical and indispensable roles to play in the development of clean energy technology. The private sector has the knowledge needed to develop the most appropriate technology for addressing a given problem. It is also driven by the profit motive, which helps ensure that new technology is as efficient as possible. The government, on the other hand, must fund basic research, which is critical to innovation, but which the private sector chronically under-invests in because gains from basic research generally cannot be captured by one firm and instead are distributed industry-wide. The government should also design the policy environment with an eye towards promoting innovation. If policy space places a premium on energy efficiency, innovation will develop in a direction that favors clean technology.

There are many areas in which government needs to step up to the plate. There are still barriers to sharing technology and ideas, including the difficulty that foreign scientists can have in securing visas as well as inadequate funding for basic research. Government should also create a level playing field for all types of energy: alternative energy sources must be priced so that they can compete with traditionally cheaper fossil fuels.

It is impressive and inspiring to see the two largest democracies in the world take the lead on clean energy innovation and climate change science. Hopefully, the U.S.-India partnership can serve as the cornerstone of a coordinated, global effort to address the most important energy and environmental challenges that the world faces.

During spring break, the Finance and Investment Club (FIC) at the American University in Cairo organized a trip for about 20 Egyptian students to visit New York and experience in person the capital of global finance. The Institute for Education (IFE) has always promoted and supported leadership and intercultural exchange. FIC’s president is an IFE intern and LearnServe Egypt 2011 alumnus. He and IFE arranged for the group to get unique and unforgettable experiences.

Finance and Investment Club with Gerard Baker, Deputy Editor, Wall Street Journal and IFE Board of Stewards

First, the group visited the Wall Street Journal, where Deputy Editor (and IFE Steward) Gerard Baker hosted the group, inviting them to see up close one of the top examples of global journalism. IFE always acts as one family, and IFE Emerging Markets Roundtable co-founders Aaron Sokasian and Andrew Mitchell were happy to support the group as well.  Andrew, the founder and CEO of ZIG Capital, invited them to his rising private equity and venture capitalism firm to learn investment 101. Finally, Aaron arranged a visit for the group to the famous New York Stock Exchange, including a visit to its trading floor and a great reception in its private board rooms.

By Quenton Horton, IFE Intern Director, LearnServe China, LearnServe Egypt

Institute for Education’s strategic partner Learn Serve International, http://learn-serve.org/, held their annual Venture Fair in early April. The LearnServe Fellows Program brings together high school students from across the Washington, DC, area to learn how to bring sustainable social change to their communities.  Over an academic year, students design and launch their own social “ventures” — action projects to benefit their schools and communities. The students hopefully will become social entrepreneurs.

I was able to see IFE’s intern and LSI fellow, Henry Altman. Here you can see Henry on the right with his blazer and with one of his cohorts. Henry did a great job mastering his nerves and explaining his venture.

Another IFE intern and LSI fellow, Celia Ringland in the picture to the right is explaining her venture to many people who came to view and help these young minds mature into game changers Amongst that crowd was Nicholas Seaver an IFE Fellow and great supporter of other interns.

Below from left to right are, Henry Atlman, Nicholas Roberts and Celia Ringland. Nicholas Roberts, IFE American University intern and LSI Jamaica counselor arrived early to help setup the event, demonstrating leadership and support. Nick will travel to Jamaica this summer for LSI’s community service trip.

Congratulation’s to LSI fellows!

By Mary Bird |     April 4th, 2012

Mayor Vincent Gray recently spoke at a breakfast program of the INFO Public Policy Roundtable series hosted by IFE Diplomatic Steward Jan Matthysen, Ambassador of Belgium.  The mayor outlined his plan to bring vitality back to the city and its budget.  Along with full democracy, including voting rights in Congress, housing and education remain central to the mayor’s agenda.  Many ambassadors, Judge William Webster and a diverse group of IFE interns and fellows attended.

Click here to read posting online.

With the economy on a shaky road to recovery, it has become clear that the Great Recession triggered a fundamental change in the way Americans are forced to operate in the globalized economy. Everyone is feeling the strains. The archetype of the “company man” is fast going extinct, schools and other public services are facing record budget cuts, our infrastructure is antiquated and deteriorating every day, and access to global labor markets has created a flat line in wage increases for the poorest Americans.

But it’s not all gloom and doom. America has long been the global destination for the planet’s most daring and innovative minds, and globalization has only fueled our ability to tap into the global intellectual fountain. Think of the recent slump as growing pains. With the sheer amount of change in the last generation it is inevitable that there will need to be an adjustment period where we as a nation reinvent how we operate our economy and start to implement long-term solutions that will ensure a 21st century of unimaginable progress for all Americans.

A recent event in Washington, the Yale CEO Caucus, featured a panel of influential business leaders who believe passionately that infrastructure and big public spending projects are not only recommended, they are sorely needed. The participants were asked to rank the needed infrastructure programs in order of importance. First was the electric grid, where new innovations in smart grid technology that have already been adopted in nations like Italy need to be implemented here on a larger scale. Following the grid was highways and bridges, airports, mass transit and mobile broadband. Everyone agreed that every part of our infrastructure needs a significant capital infusion. The issue, they said, was Congress. Congress has become reactionary and only concerned with short-term solutions, like a doctor who treats symptoms while ignoring the actual disease. Even universally accepted programs like the R&D tax credit still have to be periodically renewed rather than permanently adopted into the tax code due to short-term political interests that ignore the actual needs of communities. Earmarks, now poisonous on the Hill, are the foundation of infrastructure spending in this country. And rather than have a constructive dialogue the conversation has been relegated to glorified mud flinging.

While it is very important to invest time and money into infrastructure, the foundations of our economy, and fixing the tone of the political debate in Washington, there is another crucial program that needs restructuring and reinvestment. Education. People are America’s most valuable resource and if we want to get ahead in a competitive global economy we need to invest in our human capital.

On that critical topic I heard some remarkable advice from two great minds, Aneesh Chopra, former CTO of the United States and Vijay Vaitheeswaran of the Economist They agreed, part of the problem was the lack of innovation in the way we educate. Big Pharma, for example, invests 15% of its annual revenues into R&D, with amazing results for global health. Public education on the other hand invests just 0.5% into R&D. This is an unfortunate failure that needs to be rectified. Already we’ve seen examples of how using innovative teaching techniques can blow traditional methods out of the water. One example is the Education Domination program from DARPA that developed a four-month personalized course for a select group of future IT candidates. After completing the program the graduates outperformed professionals in their field who had seven years of on the job experience.

Innovation and investment are what made this country great and they are the key to a sustainable recovery.

To view Kathy  Kemper’s columns on the Hill’s political blog, click here.

Kathy Kemper’s articles can  also be viewed in The Huffington Post.

Click here to read or download PDF of the article.