Board of Directors and Staff :: the Hollings Center

Board of Directors Hollings Center Staff

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The Honorable Ernest F. Hollings, Founding Chair

Ernest F. Hollings, a Democrat, represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1966 until his retirement in 2005. He served as chairman of the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Senator Hollings was born in Charleston, South Carolina and graduated from The Citadel in 1942 and from the University of South Carolina Law School in 1947. Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, he served in the South Carolina general assembly, including as speaker pro tem; as the lieutenant governor and then governor of South Carolina; and as a presidential appointee to several federal commissions. As a senior member of the Committee on Appropriations, Senator Hollings played a key role in the creation of the Hollings Center. Senator Hollings’s abiding interest in U.S. relations with the Middle East began with his military service in North Africa during World War II.

Ambassador Nicholas A. Veliotes, ret., Chair

During his diplomatic career, Ambassador Veliotes served in Naples, Rome, New Delhi, Vientiane and Tel Aviv. He was ambassador to Egypt and Jordan and Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East and South Asia. After service in the U.S. Army, he received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and while a Foreign Service officer he was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. After retirement from the Foreign Service, he served as president of the Association of American Publishers until 1997. Ambassador Veliotes is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Middle East Institute, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Association of Berkeley Fellows. He also serves on the boards of the American Academy of Diplomacy, AMIDEAST, ANERA and the Foundation for Middle East Peace.

Mary Ellen Lane, Vice Chair

Dr. Mary Ellen Lane is the Executive Director of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, which currently has 22 members in the Near and Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, Europe, West Africa and the New World. Dr. Lane has helped to secure support for existing centers and worked to establish centers in areas of the world where infrastructure was lacking to support research exchange. She has worked with American and host-country scholars and officials to establish and make viable the West African Research Association, the Hong Kong-America Center, the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies, Mexico-North Research Network, the Center for Khmer Studies, the Center for South Asia Libraries, the Palestinian American Research Center, the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq and the American Institute for Afghanistan Studies. Along with the doctorate in Egyptology she received from the University of Paris IV Sorbonne, Dr. Lane has also earned degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Katherine H. Gronberg, Treasurer

Since January 2006, Katherine H. Gronberg has served as Vice President of Morhard & Associates, L.L.C., a government affairs consulting firm. Previously, Katherine served as the clerk of the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, where she was responsible for appropriations for the Department of State, the Department of Commerce, portions of the Department of Justice, U.S. trade agencies and several independent agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Small Business Administration. Prior to her position in the Senate, Katherine worked on the New Hampshire primary campaign of then-Governor George W. Bush. She graduated from Yale University and was a Fulbright Scholar in Bologna, Italy, in 1998-1999.

Amy Hawthorne, Secretary (ex officio)

Amy Hawthorne, a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs, was appointed as the first Executive Director of the Hollings Center in January 2006. Previously, Ms. Hawthorne was an international consultant on Middle East politics based in Washington, D.C. and Cairo and an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she focused on the issue of democracy in the Arab world and was the founding editor of the Endowment’s noted Arab Reform Bulletin. She has written and spoken widely about Arab politics and has testified before the U.S. Congress. She also previously served as senior program officer for the Middle East and North Africa at IFES, a Washington-based NGO, where she managed programs to promote democracy in the region. Beginning as a college student, Ms. Hawthorne has spent extensive time in the Middle East. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in History, with honors, from Yale University and a Master’s degree in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan, and reads and speaks Arabic. As a graduate student, she received a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, a Rackham Fellowship, an International Institute grant and an award for her thesis on Islamic law. She was a Fulbright Scholar at Al Azhar University in Egypt, one of the Islamic world’s oldest and most important seats of learning. Ms. Hawthorne was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and served on the Council’s Task Force on U.S. Policy toward Arab Reform.

Ambassador Wendy J. Chamberlin, ret.

Wendy Chamberlin has served as President of the Middle East Institute since March 2007. She previously served as deputy high commissioner for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (2004-2006) where she helped provide vision and leadership for humanitarian operations. As assistant administrator in the Asia-Near East Bureau for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2002 to 2004, Ambassador Chamberlin promoted the expansion of civilian reconstruction programs in Iraq as well as development assistance programs in South Asia and the Middle East. Ambassador Chamberlin was in the U.S. diplomatic service from 1975 to 2004. She served as U.S. ambassador to Pakistan (2001-2002) and the Laos People’s Democratic Republic (1996-1999). Her assignments also included deputy in the Bureau of International Counter-Narcotics and Law Programs (1999-2001), deputy chief of mission in the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur (1993-1996), director of press and public affairs for the Near East Bureau (1991-1993), director of global affairs and counter-terrorism at the National Security Council (1991-1993) as well as other postings in Morocco, Pakistan, Malaysia and Zaire. A graduate of Northwestern University, Ambassador Chamberlin has a Master’s degree in Education from Boston University and participated in the Executive Program at Harvard University. She also holds an honorary Ph.D. from Northwestern University and meritorious awards from the U.S. State Department.

Richard Ekman

Richard Ekman has been President of the Council of Independent Colleges since 2000. He previously served as vice president for programs of Atlantic Philanthropies and, from 1991 to 1999, as secretary of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. From 1982 until 1991, he was a member of the staff of the National Endowment for the Humanities, first as director of the Division of Education Programs and subsequently as director of the Division of Research Programs. His previous experience includes service as vice president and dean of Hiram College, where he was also a tenured member of the Faculty of History. Earlier, he served as assistant to the provost at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and as associate director of the Department of Expository Writing at Harvard University. Dr. Ekman holds a Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization from Harvard University, the institution from which he also received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees (magna cum laude). Dr. Ekman also has been awarded honorary degrees by Marywood University and Bethany, Georgetown, Hastings, Otterbein, Alderson-Broaddus and Ursinus Colleges. He is co-author, with Richard E. Quandt, of Technology and Scholarly Communication (University of California Press, 1999).

Thomas A. Farrell (ex officio)

Thomas A. Farrell was appointed as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Academic Programs, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in May 2002. In this capacity, he is responsible for all academic programs sponsored by the Department of State, including the Fulbright Program, Teacher Exchange Programs, English Language Programs, Study of the United States Programs and Programs for Undergraduate Students. Mr. Farrell came to the Department of State with fourteen years of experience in the private, non-governmental arena that was concentrated on education, professional development, training and exchange. In 1987, he joined the Institute of International Education (IIE) as regional director in Houston, Texas, where he led the local Council of International Visitors office, international student services, a large active volunteer corps, and worked closely with an advisory board of corporate, civic and academic leaders in the South and South Central regions of the United States. He was promoted to vice president of IIE and transferred to New York in 1990. He was assigned to Washington, D.C. in 1992. Prior to joining IIE, Mr. Farrell worked in the U.S. Department of State; he served as a U.S. Foreign Service officer from 1978-1987 in Iran, Canada and Washington, D.C., where he worked in the Department of State’s Operations Center, the Secretariat and as a special assistant to Secretary of State George P. Shultz. In 1976, while a graduate student at the University of Michigan, Mr. Farrell was a Fulbright Fellow to Pakistan. In addition, Mr. Farrell worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in India.

The Honorable Robert L. Livingston

Robert L. Livingston was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in a special election in 1977 and was re-elected to eleven successive two-year terms. He served as a member of the House Appropriations Committee through most of his time in Congress - including as Chairman from 1995 to 1998 - and on the House Select Committee on Intelligence. He was chosen by his peers to serve as Speaker-designate for the 106th Congress. Following his departure from Congress in February 1999, Mr. Livingston established a successful lobbying firm known as The Livingston Group in both Washington, D.C. and New Orleans, LA. Mr. Livingston serves on a number of non-profit and corporate boards. Before his almost 22 years in Congress, Mr. Livingston practiced law in both public and private fields for nine years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree and a J.D. from Tulane University and is a graduate of the Loyola University Institute of Politics. In 1981, he received an Honorary Doctorate from Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans, LA, and in 1990, an Honorary Order of the Coif from Tulane Law School.

Phebe Marr

Phebe Marr is a prominent historian of modern Iraq. A retired professor, she was research professor at the National Defense University and a professor of history at the University of Tennessee and at Stanislaus State University in California. From October 2004 to July 2006, Dr. Marr was a senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace. In 1999 and 2000, Dr. Marr was a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She frequently contributes to media discussions about Iraq, is the author of the seminal volume The Modern History of Iraq as well as numerous articles on Iraq, and has testified before many congressional committees in recent years. She served as an expert advisor to the Iraq Study Group. Dr. Marr received a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern History from Harvard University and a Master’s degree in Middle East Studies from Radcliffe College.

Harold Saunders

Harold "Hal" Saunders is a veteran high-ranking U.S. diplomat who participated in the 1978 Camp David Peace Accords involving U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and later co-chaired the Dartmouth Conference Regional Conflicts Task Force. Currently, he is President of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue, which conducts dialogues designed to make constructive social change possible in international and domestic conflicts. The topics discussed range from the "Inter-Tajik Dialogue," addressing the Tajikistan civil war, to racial conflicts on U.S. college campuses.

The Honorable Stephen J. Solarz

For 24 years, Stephen Solarz served in public office both in the New York State Assembly and in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was elected as a Democrat from Brooklyn’s 13th Congressional District to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974 and re-elected eight times. He served in the New York State Assembly for six years prior to his election to Congress. Mr. Solarz served for 18 years on the U.S. House of Representatives International Affairs Committee, serving as chairman of the subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs and the subcommittee on Africa. He was also a member of the Budget Committee, the Intelligence Committee, the Joint Economic Committee, the Education and Labor Committee, and the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee. As a congressman, Mr. Solarz, who traveled widely and met with dozens of world leaders, emerged as a leading spokesman on behalf of democracy and human rights. He played a major role in Congressional efforts to restore democracy to the Philippines, abolish apartheid in South Africa and bring peace to Cambodia in 1993. Upon leaving Congress in 1993, Mr. Solarz served as a visiting professor of international relations at The George Washington University and a distinguished consultant at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In 1995, together with former Senator George Mitchell and Ambassador Morton Abramowitz, Mr. Solarz founded the International Crisis Group (ICG) where he serves as Vice Chair. The ICG is a private, nongovernmental organization, committed to strengthening the capacity and resolve of the international community to anticipate, understand and prevent man-made crises. At present, Mr. Solarz is President of Solarz Associates, an international consulting firm, and a Senior Counselor at APCO Worldwide.

STAFF

Amy Hawthorne, Executive Director

Sanem Güner, Istanbul Program Coordinator

Prior to joining the Hollings Center in September 2008 as its Istanbul-based Program Coordinator, Ms. Güner has served for several years as Program Officer at the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) in Istanbul, one of Turkey's leading civil society organizations. At TESEV, she has managed projects on EU-Turkey relations; democratization and international civil society networking; civil society-state dialogue in the Middle East and North Africa; women's empowerment and gender issues; and Turkey's foreign policy. She has organized and contributed to many international conferences and workshops in Istanbul and has a wide network of contacts in Turkey and throughout the Arab world. Ms. Güner previously taught English at Marmara University in Istanbul. A native of Turkey, she received her Master’s degree in International Relations from Bilgi University in Istanbul and her Bachelor’s degree from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, and studied at the London School of Economics.

Emily Weedon, Assistant to the Director

Emily Weedon is enrolled in the International Development Studies graduate program at The George Washington University's Elliott School for International Affairs. Prior to working with the Hollings Center, Ms. Weedon was a program coordinator in the Middle East and North Africa division at IFES, a Washington-based global democracy promotion organization, where she managed programs in Lebanon and Palestine. Ms. Weedon also interned with the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. She received her undergraduate degree, with honors, in International Relations from Colgate University.

CONTACT INFORMATION

In Washington, DC:

the Hollings Center
1200 17th Street, NW
4th Floor
Washington, DC 20036

Amy Hawthorne
Email: amy.hawthorne@hollingscenter.org
Telephone: +1 202.833.5090
Fax: +1 202.728.0657

Emily Weedon
Email: emily.weedon@hollingscenter.org
Telephone: +1 202.833.5091
Fax: +1 202.728.0657

In Istanbul, Turkey:

Sanem Güner
Email: sanem.guner@hollingscenter.org