Global LA Summit 2019

Bonnie Abaunza

Founder

The Abaunza Group

Bonnie Abaunza has dedicated her life to humanitarian work, human rights and social justice advocacy. Through the Abaunza Group she works closely with filmmakers, artists, production companies, distributors and non-governmental organizations to develop and execute social impact campaigns for films and documentaries. Bonnie’s work has addressed myriad human rights and civil rights issues as she has brought hard-hitting campaigns and major celebrity engagement to issues as diverse as child slavery, campus sexual assault, human trafficking, genocide, environmental justice, girls education, food safety and animal rights.

Her campaigns have moved the needle on critical issues including genocide awareness with the Hotel Rwanda campaign, conflict diamonds with Blood Diamond, abuses by the food industry with Food, Inc., campus sexual assault with The Hunting Ground, online sex trafficking with I Am Jane Doe, animal rescue with Harry and Snowman, the plight of refugees with Cries From Syria and girls’ education with The Breadwinner. Bonnie designed and executed the social impact campaigns for the feature film The Promise by Oscar winner Terry George, and thedocumentary Intent to Destroy, both about the Armenian genocide. Presently, she is running the impact campaigns for The Heart of Nuba, Birthright: A War Story, River of Gold about illegal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon, and the upcoming documentary Cracked Up. She is a consultant to National Women’s Law Center. She has worked on over 30 campaigns, with 14 of the films being nominated for numerous awards, including Oscar and Emmy Awards.

Bonnie spearheaded the campaign on Diane Warren and Lady Gaga’s song Til it Happens to You from The Hunting Ground’s soundtrack. The song was nominated for an Oscar and won an Emmy. Lady Gaga performed the song at the 2016 Oscars. The music video has been viewed over 42 million times and has been embraced as the anthem for the movement to end sexual assault on college campuses.
As a consultant for the United Nations agency, the International Labour Organization, she assisted with outreach to the entertainment community. She launched the ILO’s artist engagement program, Artworks (http://www.iloartworks.org) and spearheaded their End Slavery Now , 50 for Freedom, and Red Card to Child Labour campaigns.

From 2009-2014, Bonnie led the Special Projects & Philanthropy division for Academy Award winning composer, Hans Zimmer. Her initiatives included raising humanitarian aid for Haiti, Pakistan and Japan for International Medical Corps, and working with Madeleine Albright and the National Democratic Institute to advocate for the disenfranchised Romani people in Europe. She launched a successful online advocacy effort with Elizabeth Warren for passage of the Dodd-Frank Bill and the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Prior to joining Hans Zimmer’s company in 2009, Bonnie served as Vice President, Social Action and Advocacy at Participant Media, where she developed social action campaigns to promote the documentaries and feature films produced by Participant Media. From 2001 to 2007 she served as Director of the Artists for Amnesty program for Amnesty International from 2001 to 2007, raising Amnesty’s profile in the entertainment industry and the visibility of human rights campaigns with the public. She co-produced four film festivals, four Academy Awards viewing parties to benefit Amnesty, produced quarterly entertainment industry salons and more than 50 feature and documentary screening events, fundraisers and art exhibits. She worked on numerous high profile campaigns including human trafficking and slavery, ending rape as a tool of war, rehabilitation of child soldiers, justice for the murdered women of Juarez, ending small arms trafficking, protecting the rights of indigenous peoples, and other global issues.

Artists for Amnesty ambassadors and supporters included: Salma Hayek, Jennifer Lopez, Nicolas Cage, Halle Berry, Mira Sorvino, Patrick Stewart, Benicio del Toro, Don Cheadle, Leonardo diCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, Djimon Hounsou, Ryan Gosling, Oliver Stone, Hans Zimmer, Paul Greengrass, America Ferrera, Charlize Theron, Tom Morello, Gregory Nava, Patricia Arquette, Yoko Ono, Geoffrey Rush, Phillip Noyce, Martin Sheen, Antonio Banderas, Emma Thompson and others.

Her Artists for Amnesty events were covered by the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, London Telegraph, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, TIME, People Magazine, US weekly, Variety, Billboard, Hollywood Reporter and international publications and news networks.

Bonnie has received commendations for her human rights work from the United States Congress and from the City of Los Angeles. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the organization, Unlikely Heroes, Women in Leadership Award from the City of West Hollywood, Global Champion Award from the International Medical Corps., KCET’s Local Hero/Hispanic Heritage Award, and was named Goodwill Ambassador to the Government of East Timor (appointed by President and Nobel Peace Laureate, Jose Ramos-Horta). She is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow for Enough Project, Board member of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, Chairman of the Advisory Board of thecommunity.com’s Human Rights Campaign, Board member, Not On Our Watch and Board member of the Mgrublian Human Rights Center.

10 May

The Hollywood Model: Soft Power & Foreign Entertainment

02:00 PM 03:15 PM Hershey/Crocker Room

Maytha Alhassen

Journalist

Maytha Alhassen, PhD is a journalist, poet, and scholar. Her work bridges the worlds of social justice, academic research, media engagement, and artistic expression. In Fall 2017, she was awarded a Pop Culture Collaborative Senior Fellowship to lead a project to create and popularize authentic narratives for Muslims in popular culture. Alhassen wrote for and performed in the internationally touring play Hijabi Monologues (composed of experiences by Muslim women) and worked with the arts-based social justice organization Blackout Arts Collective facilitating creative literacy workshops with incarcerated youth at Rikers Island in New York City, assisting in organizing a Hip Hop Film Festival in the prison’s high school, and writing an introduction for an anthology of the youth’s poetry and visual art. As a poet, actress, and speaker, Alhassen has performed at the Kennedy Center, Shrine Auditorium, on the TED stage, at South by Southwest in 2010 and 2012, and at many universities. In 2015, Alhassen established and designed the Social Justice Institute, in collaboration with the Office of Student Affairs at Occidental College, to train fellows in social justice practice. Previously, she served as a 2014 core steering committee member of Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative (MuslimARC). In 2018, she began leading a campaign with three other Muslim women scholars to mobilize the Muslim community around ending mass incarceration and money bail called Believers Bail Out; the initiative was profiled by Chicago Tribune and Teen Vogue. For the last four years, Alhassen has worked with refugee populations from Turkey to Greece as a journalist, translator, and healer. In October 2017, she piloted “Yoga to the Displaced People,” a trauma-informed yoga intervention, with a population of refugee women in Greece. In June 2017, she completed a TED residency that culminated in a performance of a poem she wrote for her ancestral homeland of Syria out of a desire to refute popular conceptions of Syria as a “geography of violence.” Alhassen has written for CNN, Boston Review, The Huffington Post, Mic, The Baffler, La Vanguardia, Feminist.com, and Counterpunch. As a commentator, she has been featured on CNN, BET, Al-Jazeera, Fusion, HuffPost Live, The Young Turks, NPR, CBC, Pivot, ATTN, WNYC's “The Brian Lehrer Show,” Power106’s “Knowledge Is Power,” Splinter, and KPFK. She appears regularly as a guest co- 4 host and digital producer for Al-Jazeera English’s current-events program “The Stream,” and guest co-hosting The Young Turks’ main hour. Previously, she cohosted an Arab-American TV variety show on ART called “What’s Happening.” Her work has been profiled by The Nation, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Miami Herald, Vox, The Intercept, and Social Text, and featured in a number of academic articles and books. She is a co-editor of Demanding Dignity: Young Voices from the Front Lines of the Arab Revolutions (2012). She serves as a member of the editorial board of the electronic version of the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. Alhassen also consults on the depiction of Arabs and Muslims for documentaries, major studio films, and TV shows. She lectures nationally on college campuses on Hollywood's portrayal of Arabs and Muslims, tying popculture representations of these communities to prevailing political narratives and U.S. foreign policy. Maytha Alhassen received her PhD in American Studies and Ethnicity from the University of Southern California in December 2017. While a doctoral student at USC, she assisted in the launch of the Middle East Studies Program (now a department). She received a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Arabic and Islamic studies from UCLA in 2004 and a master's in Anthropology from Columbia University in 2008.

10 May

The Hollywood Model: Soft Power & Foreign Entertainment

02:00 PM 03:15 PM Hershey/Crocker Room

Frances Anderton

Host/Producer, DnA: Design and Architecture

KCRW

Frances Anderton is host of DnA: Design and Architecture, a weekly radio show broadcast on KCRW NPR station in Los Angeles.

For many years she produced KCRW's acclaimed current affairs shows, To The Point, and Which Way, LA?, hosted by Warren Olney.

With producer Avishay Artsy she created Bridges and Walls, a series about the barriers and connections--both metaphorical and physical--shaping life in California today; it was supported by the California Arts Council. This led to a new series, airing summer 2018, called This is Home in LA: From the Tent to the Gigamansion (and Everything In Between.)

Anderton also curates events and exhibitions; these include the architecture section of the 2010 California Design Biennial, Action/Reaction, at the Pasadena Museum of California Art; and Sink Or Swim: Designing For a Sea Change, a critically received exhibition about resilient architecture, shown from December 2014 to May 2015 at the Annenberg Space for Photography.

She has served as correspondent for the New York Times and Dwell magazine. Her books include Grand Illusion: A Story of Ambition, and its Limits, on LA’s Bunker Hill, based on a studio she co-taught with Frank Gehry and partners at USC School of Architecture.

Honors include the Esther McCoy 2010 Award for her work in educating the public about architecture and urbanism from USC School of Architecture’s Architectural Guild; she was SCI-Arc’s "Honored Guest" at its 2018 Main Event.

Anderton was raised in Bath, England, and studied architecture at the Bartlett at University College London. She subsequently became associate editor of the Architectural Review. Her first assignment was life-changing: to produce a special report on new architecture in Los Angeles.

Published in December 1987, this issue put a spotlight on the experimental design of Frank Gehry, Morphosis, Eric Owen Moss, Hodgetts & Fung and other West Coast talents.

Anderton fell in love with LA, and moved there in 1991, becoming editor-in-chief of AIA/LA’s monthly publication L.A. Architect.

After the 1992 Rodney King riots, KCRW radio station launched Which Way, LA?, hosted by Warren Olney, and Anderton determined to work on that show, setting her on a road that lead to DnA: Design and Architecture, which brings design alive with stories of how it shapes lives, in LA and beyond.

10 May

Developing a Global City: 2028 & Beyond

10:30 AM 11:45 AM Museum B

Kern Beare

Founder and Facilitator

Pop the Bubble

Kern Beare is a former vice president of communications for a large technology firm in Silicon Valley, CA. After leaving the corporate world in 2005, he co-founded Global Mindshift, a non-profit offering online facilitated workshops on the essential skills we need to survive and thrive in today’s interconnected and interdependent world.

11 May

Difficult Conversations: The Art and Science of Living Together

10:00 AM 02:30 PM

Sewell Chan

Deputy Managing Editor, News

LA Times

Sewell Chan joined the Los Angeles Times in September 2018. As the deputy managing editor for news, he oversees the news desk (previously known as the digital hub), the multiplatform copy desks, audience engagement, newsletters and the Data Desk. He also works across departments to lift the quality and timeliness of the daily news report.

He previously worked for 14 years at the New York Times, where he was a metro reporter, Washington correspondent, deputy Op-Ed editor and international news editor. He was part of a team of journalists awarded the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of a scandal that brought down Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York.

Chan began his career in 2000 as a reporter at the Washington Post, reporting on local government, education and social services.

A native New Yorker, Chan grew up in an immigrant family and was the first in his family to finish college. He graduated from Harvard with a degree in social studies and received a master’s degree in politics from Oxford, where he studied on a British Marshall scholarship.

Chan is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the Board of Incorporators of Harvard Magazine.

10 May

Safeguarding the Press: A Freedom Under Assault

10:30 AM 11:45 AM Museum A

Philip Ethington

Professor of History, Political Science, and Spatial Sciences

University of Southern California

Philip J. Ethington is Professor of History, Political Science, and Spatial Sciences in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Chair of the History Department, and Faculty Master of New North Residential College, at the University of Southern California. An interdisciplinary historian, Ethington is completing a multigenre global history to be published in 2017 by University of California Press in online and print formats: Ghost Metropolis: Los Angeles from Clovis to Nixon. Ethington, in collaboration with Tara McPherson, et al, and the Alliance for Networking Visual Culture, has been a lead developer of the Mellon- and NEH-funded scholarly publishing platform, Scalar. He was previously a lead developer with Todd Presner et al of the MacArthur- and NEH-funded HyperCities geohistorical narrative platform. Ethington wrote the award-winning documentary Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman, narrated by Dustin Hoffman (Arthouse Films, 2008). Ethington’s cartography and photography have been exhibited in museum exhibits internationally. He is the author of numerous essays on the theory and methods of the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Ethington is the former Multimedia Editor of the journal Urban History (Cambridge University Press), and a former member of the Board of Editors of the American Historical Review (Oxford University Press). At USC he has previously served as the Chair of the University Research Committee, and President of the Dornsife College Faculty Council, where he helped to develop new standards for the evaluation of interdisciplinary, collaborative, and digital scholarship.

10 May

Unknown Stories: How We Shape Los Angeles

10:30 AM 11:45 AM Hershey/Crocker Room

Carlos García de Alba

Consul General in Los Angeles

Mexico

Carlos García de Alba is originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco, born on June 14, 1958. He has a degree in Economics from the Autonomous Metropolitan University, Xochimilco Unit . He obtained a Master's degree in Political Science and a Doctorate in Sociology from the University of Rome, Italy.

He has been a career diplomat in Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1987, reaching the rank of Ambassador in 2006. He was ratified by the Mexican Senate as Consul General of Mexico in Los Angeles in April 2016.

He served as Executive Director of the Institute of Mexicans Abroad (2009-2011), which is in charge of coordinating the various programs that the Government of Mexico has for Mexican citizens residing abroad.

He has also served as Ambassador of Mexico in Ireland from 2011 to 2016. He was Charge d'Affaires ai de México before the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), based in Paris, France (2006-2007). He was Consul General of Mexico in Dallas, Texas (2004-2006), and served as Commercial Counselor of the Embassy of Mexico in Italy (1989-1993).

In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs he served as General Director of Delegations (1998-2000); Regional Director of the Central-West Zone with headquarters in Guadalajara (1995-1998); Director of Multilateral Affairs of the General Directorate for the Pacific Basin (1993-1995); Head of the Nordic Countries Department of the General Directorate for Western Europe (1988-1989); Analyst of the General Directorate of Protection and Consular Services (1988); and Advisor to the Permanent Representative of Mexico to FAO, in Rome, Italy (1983-1986).

10 May

Global LA: The North American Perspective

12:45 PM 01:45 PM Bunker Hill Ballroom

Jerry Green

President & CEO

Pacific Council on International Policy

Dr. Jerrold D. Green is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles. He is also a Research Professor of Communications at the University of Southern California. Prior to this he served as a Partner at Best Associates in Dallas, Texas, a privately held merchant banking firm with global operations. He also served as the Director of International Programs and Development at the RAND Corporation where he oversaw the activities of the Center for Asia-Pacific Policy as well as the Center for Russia and Eurasia. At the same time he directed RAND’s Center for Middle East Public Policy. Green has a B.A. (summa cum laude) from the University of Massachusetts/Boston, as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. His academic career began at the University of Michigan where he was a professor in the Department of Political Science and the Center for Near Eastern and North African Studies. He subsequently joined the University of Arizona where he became a Professor of Political Science and Sociology as well as Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Green has written widely on Middle East themes focusing on American Middle East policy, the role of religion in the region, inter-Arab relations, Iranian politics, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. His work has appeared in such publications as World Politics, Comparative Politics, Ethics and International Affairs, Survival, Middle East Insight, Politique Etrangere, The World Today, The RAND Review, The Harvard Journal of World Affairs, The Iranian Journal of International Relations, and The Huffington Post.

You can read more about Dr. Jerrold Green here.

10 May

CEO's Welcome & Lunch

12:00 PM 12:45 PM Bunker Hill Ballroom

Nina Hachigian

Deputy Mayor for International Affairs

City of Los Angeles

Mayor Eric Garcetti appointed Ambassador Nina Hachigian to be the first Deputy Mayor of International Affairs. Her office seeks to use and expand Los Angeles’ global ties to help bring jobs, economic opportunity, culture, visitors and a great Olympics to the city.

From 2014 to 2017, Ambassador Hachigian served as the second U.S. Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). During her tenure, the United States established a strategic partnership with ASEAN, held the first Leaders’ Summit in the United States, launched a Presidential initiative on economic cooperation, established the U.S.-ASEAN Women’s Leadership Academy and grew the youth program to over 100,000 members. She was awarded the State Department’s Superior Honor Award for her service. She is also a founder of WASA, Women Ambassadors Serving America, a group of some 200 current and former Ambassadors.

Earlier, Ambassador Hachigian was a Senior Fellow and a Senior Vice President at the Center for American Progress focused on Asia policy and U.S.-China relations. In 2012, she was the co-director of Asia policy for the Obama campaign. Prior to that, Ambassador Hachigian was the director of the RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy for four years. Ambassador Hachigian served on the staff of the National Security Council in the Clinton White House from 1998-1999. She is the editor of Debating China: The U.S.-China Relationship in Ten Conversations (Oxford University Press, 2014) and co-author of The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise (Simon & Schuster, 2008).

She is a Board Member of the Pacific Council on International Policy and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Hachigian received her B.S. from Yale University, magna cum laude, and her J.D. from Stanford Law School, with distinction. She lives in the great City of Los Angeles with her husband and children.

10 May

Global LA: The North American Perspective

12:45 PM 01:45 PM Bunker Hill Ballroom

Yo-ichiro Hakomori

Principal & Owner

StudioHau

Yo-ichiro Hakomori is principal and owner at StudioHAU, and Associate Professor of Practice at the USC School of Architecture. Prior to his current positions, Hakomori was founding partner and principal at wHY Architecture. He received his Master of Architecture from the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of California Los Angeles, and a Doctor of Engineering in Architecture from the University of Tokyo.

Along with his former partner, Kulapat Yantrasast, he completed the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the first LEED gold certified museum in the world in 2007. With their knowledge and passion for “invisible green” and art, they received numerous commissions for other art related projects throughout the country including the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky; the Tyler Museum of Art in Tyler, Texas; gallery/exhibit design at the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts and at the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois; L&M Arts in Venice, California; Royal T Gallery and Café in Culver City, California; and the Perry Rubenstein Gallery in West Hollywood, California. Hakomori was also principal architect for the Pomona College Studio Art Hall, the Interpretive Green Bridge (Art Bridge) at the Great Wall of Los Angeles, and a number of single-family residences in Los Angeles and Thailand. Currently at StudioHAU, Hakomori is architect for an ecologically sustainable development near Placentia, Belize, the A4 Art Museum in Chengdu, China, and several homes throughout the United States.
At USC, he teaches undergraduate and graduate design studios. He is also the Director of the Asian Architecture Landscape and Urbanism, Global Initiative program, where he has led several joint urban design workshops with several partnering Universities, including the University of Tokyo in Japan, Hong Kong University in Hong Kong, Peking University/Turenscape Academy in China, and ETH Zurich Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore.

10 May

Developing a Global City: 2028 & Beyond

10:30 AM 11:45 AM Museum B

Karen Ishizuka

Chief Curator

Japanese American National Museum

Karen Ishizuka is Chief Curator of the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), and was previously on staff at the museum as media producer, curator, and director of the Frank H. Watase Media Arts Center. During that time she curated JANM’s influential America’s Concentration Camps: Remembering the Japanese American Experience exhibition, established the museum’s Photographic and Moving Image Archive, and wrote and produced Toyo Miyatake: Infinite Shades of Gray, which was an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival. Together with her husband and partner Robert A. Nakamura, Ishizuka received the inaugural JANM Legacy Award at the museum’s 2016 Gala Dinner for their lasting contributions to the museum’s institutional legacy and helping distinguish the museum as a unique, vital, and valuable community resource.

Ishizuka received a master’s degree in social work from San Diego State University and her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition to many articles, she is the author of Serve the People: Making Asian America in the Long Sixties and Lost & Found: Reclaiming the Japanese American Incarceration and co-editor of Mining the Home Movie: Excavations into Histories and Memories. She also serves as the president of the Okura Mental Health Leadership Foundation.

10 May

Unknown Stories: How We Shape Los Angeles

10:30 AM 11:45 AM Hershey/Crocker Room

Chris Lawson

Executive

Creative Artists Agency

Chris Lawson is an executive at Creative Artists Agency, which represents many of Hollywood’s most prestigious entertainment companies, producers, directors, writers, actors, athletes and other artists. Choosing to explore a new and unique niche at CAA years ago, Chris launched a special office dealing with research and development of client projects across all platforms. Ten years later, this group has expanded to serve clients across the Agency’s many divisions. Known as CAA’s Creative Group/Project Group, this department provides the agency’s clients with intensive research, knowledge of unique intellectual property, non-entertainment industry professional contacts for advisement and consulting, and other resources that inspire and develop feature film, television and web-based projects. In this capacity, Chris has had the honor of working with organizations that include the Air Force, Army, Navy, Coast Guard, C.I.A., F.B.I., N.S.A, United Nations, Department Of Homeland Security, U.S. Secret Service, Library of Congress, N.A.S.A., National Archives, and the National Academy of Sciences, among many others. Chris fills much of his time outside the office volunteering with organizations that serve to further the cause of great American institutions, and international diplomacy. With these groups, Chris has had the opportunity to travel and meet with leaders in important U.S. Government and Military locations in Washington D.C., Colorado Springs, New York and San Diego. More recently, he has had the honor of taking this work abroad, with visits to North Korea, China and Indonesia in 2015, as well as being selected to the U.S. Secretary of Defense Senior Leader Engagement Program.

10 May

The Hollywood Model: Soft Power & Foreign Entertainment

02:00 PM 03:15 PM Hershey/Crocker Room

Alexandra Lieben

Deputy Director

UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations

Alexandra Lieben serves as Deputy Director of the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations. UCLA’s premier center for the interdisciplinary exploration of international affairs, the Burkle Center advances understanding of complex global issues by fostering research and hosting leading scholars, writers, diplomats, officials, and experts ranging from Amb. Samantha Power, Melinda Gates, and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to economists Jason Furman, Jeffrey Sachs, and Joseph Stiglitz; from Senator George Mitchell, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO General Wesley Clark, and current Secretary of Defense, James Mattis. Responsible for managing the Center’s complex affairs, she oversees all events, programs, and special projects, as well as financial operations and media relations. In addition to her role at the UCLA Burkle Center, Alexandra Lieben is a recognized organizational and management consultant, specializing in systemic organizational development with emphasis on cultural diversity and inclusion. A certified mediator, she also teaches constructive communication and alternative dispute resolution techniques, international conflict resolution, as well as international community and economic development to undergraduate and graduate students at UCLA and to mid-and upper level managers at USC CREATE and USC Safe Communities Institute in their public safety leadership and counter-terrorism programs. Alexandra Lieben’s foray into international relations, her appreciation for cultural diversity and desire to align divergent interests and negotiate peaceful co-existence among people began early in life with her entry into the entertainment industry, exposure to different cultures, and years of successful film- and rock concert production (from Miles Davis to David Bowie and the Rolling Stones). Lieben holds a M.A. in Public Policy with a specialization in international conflict resolution from UCLA.

10 May

The Hollywood Model: Soft Power & Foreign Entertainment

02:00 PM 03:15 PM Hershey/Crocker Room

Karen Mack

Founder and Executive Director

LA Commons

Karen Mack is a passionate, visionary leader in Los Angeles focused on leveraging the power of arts and culture to empower individuals, develop communities and build connections. Fifteen years ago, she founded LA Commons, a South LA based nonprofit implementing artistic and cultural programs that reflect the unique character of diverse neighborhoods, telling local stories, with the goal of fostering interaction, dialogue and a better understanding of Los Angeles. Through grassroots art projects, festivals and tours in partnership with communities across Los Angeles, LA Commons plays a unique role as a facilitator of local engagement in arts and culture as well as in other important issues - health, transportation and education to name a few, giving residents and particularly young people, a voice and an on ramp to making positive change. Prior to work with LA Commons, she served as a Public Service Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where she researched the role of culture in community building, and as Vice President at Community Partners, responsible for Program Planning and Development. She holds an MPA from Harvard University and an MBA from the John Anderson School of Management at UCLA. She is currently a mayoral appointee to the City of Los Angeles Planning Commission.

10 May

Unknown Stories: How We Shape Los Angeles

10:30 AM 11:45 AM Hershey/Crocker Room

Manu Meel

CEO

Bridge USA

Manu studies at UC Berkeley and is the CEO of BridgeUSA, a national organization that aims to improve political culture on college campuses. An avid political entrepreneur, Manu has contributed to several news outlets, advanced pro-democracy efforts nationally, and is leading the policy operation for a Baltimore mayoral candidate. In the past, Manu has worked for AEI in Washington DC and has worked at the Department of State as a political analyst in counterterrorism. Manu is passionate about empowering young people and his work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other media platforms

10 May

Bridging the Digital Divide: The Relationship Between Tech & Society

02:00 PM 03:15 PM Museum A+B

Souad Mekhennet

National Security Correspondent

Washington Post

Souad Mekhennet is a correspondent for The Washington Post’s national security desk, and she has reported on terrorism for the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune and NPR. She was a 2012 Nieman fellow at Harvard University, and she is a visiting fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies as well as the Geneva Center for Security Policy. She was also named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Mekhennet first reported for The Post in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, delving into the backgrounds of the Hamburg cell and writing on the al-Qaeda threat in Europe, North Africa and the Gulf. She was part of The Post’s coverage of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. In 2004, she began a long interlude at the New York Times, where she produced some of the most distinguished reporting on the Bush administration’s war on terrorism.

Mekhennet returned to The Post as a contributor in 2014 and became a staff writer in 2017. With her colleagues, she helped unmask Jihadi John. She reported the death of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the leader of the group that staged the Paris attacks, 15 hours ahead of a government announcement and the rest of the media. And in a harrowing piece recently, she described the ordeal of rushing to cover a terrorist attack in Munich only to learn that one of the dead was a relative.

Mekhennet has written four books, most recently her critically acclaimed memoir, “I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad.” It was included in the 2017 longlist for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction and received the Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism. Her other books include: “Islam”; “The Eternal Nazi: From Mauthausen to Cairo, the Relentless Pursuit of SS Doctor Aribert Heim,” co-written with Nicholas Kulish; and “The Children of Jihad: The New Generation of Islamist Terror in Europe,” co-written with Claudia Sautter and Michael Hanfeld.

Honors & Awards:
Daniel Pearl Journalism Award, November 2017
Special Nannen award by STERN magazine editorial board, April 2018

Professional Affiliations:
Young Global Leader / World Economic Forum (Switzerland), New America Foundation (DC), Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (DC)

Education:
Diploma, Johann-Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt/M. Political Science (International Relations, Peace and Conflict Research), History, Psychology, Sociology; Henri-Nannen-Journalism school, Hamburg

Foreign Languages Spoken:
English, Arabic, German, French

Books by Souad Mekhennet:
I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad
Buy it from Amazon

The Eternal Nazi: From Mauthausen to Cairo, the Relentless Pursuit of SS Doctor Aribert Heim
Buy it from Amazon

10 May

Behind the Lines of Extremism: Culture, Politics, and History

04:00 PM 05:00 PM Bunker Hill Ballroom

David Noriega

Correspondent

VICE News Tonight, HBO

David Noriega is a correspondent for VICE News Tonight on HBO, where he covers Latin America, immigration in the U.S., and other subjects. He has recently reported on uprisings against authoritarian governments in Venezuela, Honduras, and Nicaragua; corruption and violence in Mexico; and the exodus of Central American migrants to the United States.

David is a dual citizen of Colombia and the United States. He has a background in print, most recently writing features for the National Desk at BuzzFeed News, and has a masters in investigative journalism from Columbia University.

10 May

Safeguarding the Press: A Freedom Under Assault

10:30 AM 11:45 AM Museum A

Karen North

Clinical Professor of Communication

University of Southern California

Karen North, Ph.D., a recognized expert in social media and in psychology, is a Clinical Professor in the School of Communication. Trained as a clinical and social psychologist and with considerable work experience in telecommunications policy and practice, Dr. North’s interests come together in the digital world where entrepreneurs and large companies seem most focused on using social and digital media to bring people together and form groups online. Dr. North teaches these skills and works with small and large companies in this sector. Prior to building USC’s online communities (social media) program, Dr. North was the Assistant Dean of the UCLA School of Public Policy. She previously worked in the Clinton Administration in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and before that she worked for Rep. Edward Markey, Chairman of the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance.

10 May

Bridging the Digital Divide: The Relationship Between Tech & Society

02:00 PM 03:15 PM Museum A+B

Vanessa Otero

Founder

Ad Fontes Media

Vanessa Otero is a practicing patent attorney in the Denver, Colorado area. She has a B.A. in English from UCLA and a J.D. from the University of Denver. She is the original creator of the Media Bias Chart, and founded Ad Fontes Media in February of 2018 to fulfill the need revealed by the popularity of the chart–namely, the need for a map to help people navigate the complex media landscape, and for comprehensive content analysis of media sources themselves.

10 May

Bridging the Digital Divide: The Relationship Between Tech & Society

02:00 PM 03:15 PM Museum A+B

Edward Park

Professor & Acting Chair of Asian and Asian American Studies

Loyola Marymount University

Edward J.W. Park is a professor at the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at Loyola Marymount University. He received his Ph.D. in ethnic studies and a master’s degree in city and regional planning, both at the University of California, Berkeley. His research topics include migration studies, race relations, urban studies, and economic sociology. His most recent publications examine the transformation of Koreatown since the Los Angeles Civil Unrest of 1992 (“From Ethnic Island to a Transnational Bubble: Koreatown from 1992 to 2012,” Amerasia Journal, 2012) and comparative migration policies in transpacific context (“Immigration and Belonging: Nation, Class, and Membership in New Migration Policies,” AAPI Nexus Journal, 2012).

10 May

Unknown Stories: How We Shape Los Angeles

10:30 AM 11:45 AM Hershey/Crocker Room

Kerry Paterson

Deputy Advocacy Director

Committee to Protect Journalists

Kerry Paterson is deputy director of advocacy at the Committee to Protect Journalists. She oversees the day-to-day operations of the Advocacy Department while working with the Director of Advocacy to set and guide CPJ's advocacy and communication efforts. She regularly represents the organization, speaking on global press freedom issues and traveling on missions. She joined CPJ in 2014, and has served as advocacy and communications manager, and as a senior research associate for the Africa program.

Prior to joining CPJ, Paterson worked with the Initiative for Conflict-Related Trauma, Médecins Sans Frontières, the Women's Media Center's Women Under Siege Project, and with Massachusetts General Hospital's Division of Global Health and Human Rights. She and has engaged in human rights-related work and research in East and Central Africa, and the Balkans. Paterson was an associate editor of the Journal for International Law and International Relations, and conducted research with the Global Justice Lab to examine the manipulation of law by perpetrators of violence against women. She holds a master's in global affairs from the University of Toronto, and a bachelor's degree with honors in peace and conflict studies. She is fluent in French.

10 May

Safeguarding the Press: A Freedom Under Assault

10:30 AM 11:45 AM Museum A

Ana-Christina Ramón

Director of Research and Civic Engagement, Division of Social Sciences

UCLA

Dr. Ana-Christina Ramón is the Director of Research and Civic Engagement for the Division of Social Sciences at UCLA. Dr. Ramón is a social psychologist who has worked on social justice issues related to equity and access in higher education and the entertainment industry for over ten years. She is the co-principal investigator of the Hollywood Advancement Project and manages its graduate research team. She is the co-author (with Dr. Darnell Hunt) of the annual Hollywood Diversity Report series that the project produces. She is also the managing editor of LA Social Science, an e-forum that showcases the vibrant and cutting-edge knowledge generated within the Division of Social Sciences at UCLA. She co-edited a book (with Dr. Hunt) titled Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities (New York University Press, 2010). On behalf of California Social Science Researchers, she also co-authored (with Dr. Hunt) amicus briefs in support of affirmative action that were submitted to the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals and to the U.S. Supreme Court. She is a board member of the Latino Film Institute. Dr. Ramón has a B.A. in psychology from Stanford, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

10 May

Unknown Stories: How We Shape Los Angeles

10:30 AM 11:45 AM Hershey/Crocker Room

John Rossant

Founder and Chairman

NewCities Foundation

In 2010, John Rossant founded the NewCities Foundation. He believes it is imperative that different stakeholders work together to improve the quality of life and work in 21st century global cities. From the outset, NewCities mission has been to shape a better urban future for all by generating and scaling ideas and solutions through events, research and urban innovation projects.

John had previously been Executive Chairman of PublicisLive in Geneva, responsible for the production of some of the world’s most prestigious events, in particular the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos and other WEF events around the world. In 2010, the President of France asked him to organize the e-G8 Forum on the future of the Internet.

In addition, John has personally led the Foundation’s initiatives in urban mobility and transportation and is the CEO of CoMotion, the leading global event and media platform on new mobility and organizers of LA CoMotion — the annual gathering in Los Angeles of public and private sector leaders of the mobility revolution.

A former journalist, John held several senior editorial positions at Business Week, including Europe Editor, as well as Paris, Rome and Middle East correspondent. He has received a number of prestigious awards, including the Overseas Press Club Award and the German Marshall Fund’s Peter Weitz Award for Distinguished Reporting. John holds advanced degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the American University in Cairo. He is a member of the board of the Fondation Tocqueville in Paris, Humanity in Action, and is a member of the Advisory Board of NEOM.

10 May

Developing a Global City: 2028 & Beyond

10:30 AM 11:45 AM Museum B

Joshua Schank

Chief Innovation Officer

LA Metro

Joshua L. Schank is the first-ever Chief Innovation Officer for the Los Angeles County Metro and former President and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation a non-profit foundation with the mission of improving transportation policy and leadership. Dr. Schank, who is an urban planner, has worked on federal and state transportation policy over a decade.
Dr. Schank was Transportation Policy Advisor to Senator Hillary Clinton during the development of the last six year transportation authorization bill (SAFETEA-LU). He has also worked as a Consultant with PB Consult and Senior Associate at ICF International in Washington, D.C., as well as the Office of the Inspector General’s in the U.S. Department of Transportation, and with the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City.
Dr. Schank’s extensive work in transportation policy and planning is well documented in his publications, including “All Roads Lead to Congress: The $300 Billion Fight Over Highway Funding,” co-authored with Costas Panagopoulos and published by CQ Press in 2007. He holds a Ph.D. in urban planning from Columbia University, a Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.A. in urban studies from Columbia University.

10 May

Developing a Global City: 2028 & Beyond

10:30 AM 11:45 AM Museum B

Zaib Shaikh

Consul General in Los Angeles

Canada

Zaib Shaikh began his mandate as Consul General of Canada in Los Angeles in December 2018. He is the Government of Canada’s senior representative in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada.

He comes to the posting after an extensive career in the media and entertainment industries, having worked as an actor and producer in theatre, film and television. His work includes acting roles in Deepa Mehta’s film Midnight’s Children, as well as starring in the CBC comedy series Little Mosque on the Prairie, which has been seen in more than 80 countries. Mr. Shaikh co‐produced the special Long Story Short: CBC Turns 75 and co‐wrote, directed and co‐produced the film Othello: The Tragedy of the Moor. He also co-founded and served as an artistic producer of the Whistler Theatre Project in British Columbia.

From 2014 until his appointment in 2018, Mr. Shaikh was the Film Commissioner and Director of Entertainment Industries for the City of Toronto. In that role, he oversaw and grew the city’s screen, music, live festival, sporting event and tourism sectors, helping to double the value of film production in Canada’s largest city, which surpassed $2 billion in 2016.

Mr. Shaikh has served as a board member for the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion and, most recently on the board of AFC (formerly the Actors Fund of Canada). He has served on juries and committees for the Gemini Awards, ACTRA Awards, Ontario Arts Council, and Theatre Ontario Youth Program as well as an ambassador for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and for Amnesty International Canada.

Mr. Shaikh is married to Ms. Kirstine Stewart. They have two children.

10 May

Global LA: The North American Perspective

12:45 PM 01:45 PM Bunker Hill Ballroom

10 May

The Hollywood Model: Soft Power & Foreign Entertainment

02:00 PM 03:15 PM Hershey/Crocker Room

Jorge Luis Sierra Guzman

President

Border Center for Journalists and Bloggers

Jorge Luis Sierra is a co-founder and CEO of the Border Center for Journalists and Bloggers, a non-profit organization based in Edinburg Texas. He is leading the Investigative Reporting Border Hub project to produce data-driven stories on corruption issues at both sides of the U.S. – Mexico border. As an investigative reporter and editor, Jorge Luis focuses at the intersection of technology, investigative journalism, and cybersecurity. He directed the Mike O’Connor Fellowship Program, a project dedicated to develop new generations of Mexican investigative reporters to conduct in-depth investigations about corruption, torture, human trafficking and abuse to Mexican private soldiers. As a Knight Fellow of the International Center for Journalists, he created digital maps to track crime, corruption, and attacks to journalists in Panama, Mexico, and Iraq.He developed the Salama web application for journalists and human rights defenders to conduct a risk assessment and improve their security posture. He is the author on a dozen of books and chapters on counterinsurgency and armed conflicts.

10 May

Safeguarding the Press: A Freedom Under Assault

10:30 AM 11:45 AM Museum A

Erroll Southers

Professor of the Practice in National and Homeland Security, Director of the Safe Communities Institute (SCI), and Director of Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies in the Sol Price School of Public Policy

University of Southern California

Dr. Erroll Southers is a Professor of the Practice in National and Homeland Security, Director of the Safe Communities Institute (SCI), and Director of Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies in the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California.

He is a former FBI Special Agent, who has served in counterterrorism and public safety positions at every level of government. Dr. Southers was President Barack Obama’s first nominee for Transportation Security Administration Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s appointee as Deputy Director for Critical Infrastructure of the California Office of Homeland Security, where he led the identification, prioritization and protection of the state’s potential terror targets, the nation’s largest such dataset. He served as Assistant Chief of Homeland Security and Intelligence at the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department, police officer and gang investigator with the Santa Monica Police Department and enjoyed the distinction of being a member of FBI SWAT.

Dr. Southers arrived at USC in 2003, where he began as an adjunct professor in the University of Southern California’s School of Policy Planning and Development. His work spans many fields including counterterrorism, homegrown violent extremism, terrorist recruitment and radicalization, critical infrastructure protection and community resistance to terrorism. He was instrumental in the development of the game theoretic, randomized security system ARMOR (Assistant for Randomized Motoring Over Routes) implemented at Los Angeles International Airport, and now being utilized in a variety of infrastructure systems across the country. Dr. Southers has served in roles as the Associate Director of Research Transition and Associate Director of Special Projects at the DHS National Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE) at USC. Currently, he is the CREATE Director of International Programs, actively engaged in teaching and research roles in France and Israel. He is also the founder of the CREATE Executive Program in Counterterrorism.

Dr. Southers has testified before the full Congressional Committee on Homeland Security as a subject matter expert on several occasions, including the Boston Marathon Bombings. He is a noted counterterrorism expert and security analyst to a variety of media networks, documentary films, lectures and consults around the world. Dr. Southers earned his undergraduate degree from Brown University, and he holds masters and doctoral degrees in public policy from USC.

10 May

Behind the Lines of Extremism: Culture, Politics, and History

04:00 PM 05:00 PM Bunker Hill Ballroom

Global LA Summit 2019

Schedule

Registration Open & Continental Breakfast

Safeguarding the Press: A Freedom Under Assault

Developing a Global City: 2028 & Beyond

Unknown Stories: How We Shape Los Angeles

CEO's Welcome & Lunch

Global LA: The North American Perspective

Bridging the Digital Divide: The Relationship Between Tech & Society

The Hollywood Model: Soft Power & Foreign Entertainment

Coffee Break

Behind the Lines of Extremism: Culture, Politics, and History

Closing Reception

Difficult Conversations: The Art and Science of Living Together

Sponsors

Newsroom

Speakers

Bonnie Abaunza

10 May

The Hollywood Model: Soft Power & Foreign Entertainment

Maytha Alhassen

10 May

The Hollywood Model: Soft Power & Foreign Entertainment

Frances Anderton

10 May

Developing a Global City: 2028 & Beyond

Kern Beare

11 May

Difficult Conversations: The Art and Science of Living Together

Sewell Chan

10 May

Safeguarding the Press: A Freedom Under Assault

Philip Ethington

10 May

Unknown Stories: How We Shape Los Angeles

Carlos García de Alba

10 May

Global LA: The North American Perspective

Jerry Green

10 May

CEO's Welcome & Lunch

Nina Hachigian

10 May

Global LA: The North American Perspective

Yo-ichiro Hakomori

10 May

Developing a Global City: 2028 & Beyond

Karen Ishizuka

10 May

Unknown Stories: How We Shape Los Angeles

Chris Lawson

10 May

The Hollywood Model: Soft Power & Foreign Entertainment

Alexandra Lieben

10 May

The Hollywood Model: Soft Power & Foreign Entertainment

Karen Mack

10 May

Unknown Stories: How We Shape Los Angeles

Manu Meel

10 May

Bridging the Digital Divide: The Relationship Between Tech & Society

Souad Mekhennet

10 May

Behind the Lines of Extremism: Culture, Politics, and History

David Noriega

10 May

Safeguarding the Press: A Freedom Under Assault

Karen North

10 May

Bridging the Digital Divide: The Relationship Between Tech & Society

Vanessa Otero

10 May

Bridging the Digital Divide: The Relationship Between Tech & Society

Edward Park

10 May

Unknown Stories: How We Shape Los Angeles

Kerry Paterson

10 May

Safeguarding the Press: A Freedom Under Assault