January 28th, 2008
George Scharffenberger
Executive Director, Blum Center for Developing Economics

George Scharffenberger is the founding Executive Director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies. Scharffenberger has 35 years of experience in the design, implementation, management and evaluation of international economic and social development programs and projects. Prior to coming to Berkeley,he was Executive Director of the international NGO World Links. Previously, he was President and CEO of Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA) and Director of New Initiatives for PACT. Scharffenberger has served in multiple international technical assistance roles including long-term assignments in Madagascar, Senegal, The Gambia, and Morocco. Over the past decade his interest and work have had a particular focus on the use of information and communication technologies in organizational capacity building strategies and on information-based networks. He received a BS in international economic affairs from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and an MPhil in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex (UK).

February 4th, 2008
Aaron David Miller
Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Int'l Center

Aaron David Miller is currently a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC, where he is writing a book about America and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Between 2003 and 2006 he served as president of Seeds of Peace, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering young leaders from regions of conflict with the leadership skills required to advance coexistence and reconciliation.

Mr. Miller received his Ph.D. in American Diplomatic and Middle East History from the University of Michigan in 1977 and joined the State Department the following year. During 1982 and 1983, he was a Council on Foreign Relations fellow and a resident scholar at the Georgetown Center for Strategic and International Studies. In 1984 he served a temporary tour at the American Embassy in Amman, Jordan. Between 1998 and 2000, Mr. Miller served on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. He has written three books on the Middle East and lectured widely at universities and Middle East symposia across the country. His articles have appeared in newspapers including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and The International Herald Tribune.

February 11th, 2008
J. Scott Leurquin
FINCA International

February 18th, 2008
Karim Sadjadpour
Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Karim Sadjadpour is an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Sadjadpour joined Carnegie after four years as the chief Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group based in Tehran and Washington, D.C. A leading researcher on Iran, Sadjadpour has conducted dozens of interviews with senior Iranian officials, and hundreds with Iranian intellectuals, clerics, dissidents, paramilitaries, businessmen, students, activists, and youth, among others.

Frequently called upon to brief U.S. and EU officials about Middle Eastern affairs, he has testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, given lectures at Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford Universities, and spoken before the Council on Foreign Relations and Asia Society.

Sadjadpour was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and has been the recipient of numerous academic awards, including a Fulbright scholarship. He has lived in Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East.

March 3rd, 2008
Christine Pelosi
Author, Campaign Boot Camp

Attorney, author, and activist Christine Pelosi has a lifetime of grassroots experience in politics and public policy. She has engaged in extensive voter contact, education, and mobilization efforts at the local, state, and federal levels. Her new book, Campaign Boot Camp: Basic Training for Future Leaders, emerged from her years of grassroots activism and the Trail Mix blog she wrote as director of the AFSCME PEOPLE/New House PAC Congressional Candidates Boot Camp, which worked with over 40 challengers in 2006, 12 of whom were elected to Congress.

Christine has served as executive director of the CA Democratic Party, deputy city attorney and assistant district attorney for the City of San Francisco, HUD special counsel in the Clinton-Gore administration, and chief of staff to U.S. Congressman John F. Tierney (MA-06). Since 1996, she has chaired the CA Democratic Party Platform Committee and served as an elected member of the DNC, where she co-founded the DNC Veterans and Military Families Council.

She holds a J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of the Law and a B.S.F.S. from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

March 10th, 2008
Vic Fazio
Former member, U.S. House of Representatives

Vic Fazio, a member of the board of advisors of the New Democrat Network, is a former Member of Congress who served as Chairman of the Democratic Caucus, the third ranking position in the House of Representatives, and on the Appropriations, Armed Services, Budget, Ethics, and Administration Committees. Mr. Fazio was also Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and a Partner at the firm of Clark & Weinstock.