Foreign Relations Summer Series hosted by PCFR Young Professionals:

International Career Paths for Young Professionals

Tuesday, August 18, 2020 | 1:00 pm-2:00 pm

Cost: Free

Zoom Meeting

Now in its third year, the Foreign Relations Summer Series, hosted by PCFR Young Professionals, will keep you engaged with the global community in Phoenix. Our next panel will feature advice from experts on how to upgrade your international career goals. Learn about public service, private sector, and nonprofit opportunities to make your mark around the globe. Sign up today to stay connected from wherever you are.

The event is virtual, but the connections are real.

Join by Zoom. Cameras on or off--it’s up to you.

RSVP for this Free Event

MODERATOR

Luke Wenz

A native of Phoenix, Luke works for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC) – a broad-based influential network that supports strategic investments to elevate development and diplomacy alongside defense in order to build a better, safer world – where he serves as Western Regional Outreach Director. Prior in his career, he spent time living in Amman, Jordan researching religious philosophy and political identity amongst members of non-state actors, and in Beirut, Lebanon where he traveled daily to Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley to build schools in refugee camps for the displaced children of the Syrian Civil War. His career has also taken him to halls of Congress, to running a Member of Congress’ district office, andto running two successful congressional campaigns. Luke focusses his time creating the preconditions necessary for a new, entrepreneurial blueprint for effective 21st-Century diplomatic relations in an ever-changing, increasingly challenging world. Luke attended Nebraska Wesleyan University, where he studied Political Theory and the Philosophy of Religion.

PANELISTS

Yassamin Ansari

An Arizona native, Yassamin has dedicated her career to the fight against global climate change. She serves as Principal Advisor to Mission 2020, the global climate action campaign led by former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres. Yassamin is currently running for an open seat on the Phoenix City Council. Yassamin began her career as a John Gardner Public Service Fellow at the United Nations, where she served as the youngest member of the climate team that advised former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and helped to deliver the historic Paris Agreement. Later, she was appointed as the Director of the Climate Action 2016 Summit in Washington D.C., and worked with the Office of Governor Jerry Brown where she served as the Deputy Director of Policy for the Global Climate Action Summit, helping to deliver more than 500 new commitments from business, cities, states and regions. Most recently, Yassamin served as a senior advisor to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres where she led youth engagement and public mobilization for the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit. For her work in public policy, Yassamin was recently recognized by Forbes as 30 Under 30 in Law & Policy, and as a Grist 50 "Fixer"— "the people cooking up the boldest, most innovative solutions to fix the biggest challenges that face our globe.” Yassamin holds a bachelor's degree in international relations with honors from Stanford University, and a master's degree from the University of Cambridge. She has received many awards and accolades for her work, including the Stanford Award of Excellence, U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship, and the DNC Hope Fellowship.

Emily Bilbao

Emily Bilbao joined Skysong Innovations (SI) in January of 2019 as Chief of Staff. She spent ten years working in national security and foreign policy, including as a program examiner in the International Affairs Division at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). At OMB she directly oversaw more than $2B annually in budget proposals and congressional appropriations while coordinating complex bureaucratic processes to ensure proper resource allocation in support of U.S. trade policies, foreign investment security issues, U.S. government programming in the Asia/Indo-Pacific region, and U.S. contributions to Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), among others. She regularly represented OMB at interagency meetings, including at the National Security Council (NSC). While in government service Emily also served at the Department of State where she helped conduct international diplomacy aimed at countering violent extremism and at the Department of Defense where she worked in the office of South and Southeast Asia, focused on U.S.-India defense cooperation. Emily also worked in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution where she was a senior research assistant focused on democracy promotion, human rights, and the United Nations system.

Salvador Avila Bretts

As a Vice President Relationship Manager at MidFirst, Salvador is responsible for delivering the firm’s wealth management capabilities and resources that provide holistic solutions tailored to each client. For more than twelve years, Salvador has passionately developed his career through relationships and networks around the interface between investment analytics, financial technology, client partnerships, and the pursuit of successful financial advisory services. He spent 7 years at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, where he held various business development positions in both New York and Mexico City. He was the Vice President and founding member of their risk management solution (“ALADDIN”) business in Latin America responsible for relationship management and business development for their enterprise investment and risk management systems. He began his career in private wealth management for Latin America as a banking analyst in New York City at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. Salvador earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Foreign Service in International History with certificates in European and Latin American Studies from Georgetown University.

Tyler Gillespie

Tyler is a returned Peace Corps volunteer who served for two and a half years in Mozambique as an education volunteer. In his time there, Tyler lived and worked in his host community as a Biology teacher in the Portuguese speaking country. He also worked with the Education Ministry to coordinate a science fair at the local, state and national levels. The Science fair focused through the the scientific method students and educators, in addition to HIV/AIDS education and testing. During his time in Mozambique, Tyler also worked on projects that included an early grade literacy program in his host community, girls youth empowerment groups, and as an agriculture grant coordinator for some local chicken farmers. Tyler graduated from ASU with a degree in Sustainability.

Virtual Discussion

Globally Conscious Business Communication: Techniques, Tips, and Experience from a 20 Year Adventure Across 4 Continents

Jennifer Burge

WorldWise Consulting, LLC

Jennifer, a dual national of the US and Australia, repatriated to the United States in 2018. Her career in management consulting took her to Germany in 2001, The Netherlands in 2002, Singapore in 2007, and Australia in 2011. After seventeen years abroad, Jennifer returned to Phoenix to found her own consulting company, WorldWise Coaching LLC. Having lived on four continents, she has successfully executed projects in thirteen countries and traveled to over fifty. Jennifer uses her broad business experience and technology background to assist others to thrive in global business environments.

Her experience includes Fortune 100 companies, such as Honeywell and Fortune Global 500 companies—Accenture Consulting and EDS. She has also worked for smaller firms in The Netherlands and as an independent information technology consultant and trainer in Singapore.

In addition to her corporate career, Jennifer is a memoirist and travel writer. She began writing Asian destination pieces for Vietnam’s The Guide magazine in 2009. Her first nonfiction book about her professional life in Europe, The Devil Wears Clogs, was published in 2014. The second, Singapore Salvation, tells her Asian story and was published in 2015. She is currently at work on her Australian chapter.

In 2017, Jennifer lived in Madrid to complete her certification and training in teaching English as a Second Language with a specialization in Business English earned with distinction. Following that, she was a Fellow at the Institute for Intercultural Communication in Portland, Oregon in 2018 and in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2019. In August 2019, Jennifer was appointed to the Pacific Rim Advisory Council for the City of Phoenix by Mayor Kate Gallego. The Consular Corps of Arizona appointed Jennifer to its Board of Advisors in 2020 and she was also made of member of the US Global Leadership Coalition Advisory Committee for the state of Arizona. She currently splits her time between the US and Mexico.

Registration

FREE for PCFR Members

$10 for Non-Members

Schedule

Thursday, August 27, 2020

12:00 pm-1:15 pm

Venue

Zoom Meeting

Meeting link and instructions will be included in your registration confirmation email.

Many of you may be new to virtual calls.

If that is the case, please plan to join the call 10 minutes early to account for any technical troubleshooting. We use a tool called Zoom – you can take a look at how you join a meeting here: 

View step-by-step instructions for Joining a Zoom Meeting.

Talking Points

• Insight into Intercultural Communication Theory core concepts
• The Number One US Americanism You Should Overcome Today
• Top Five Tips for Doing Business Anywhere
• The Key to Effective Communication Worldwide

Virtual Discussion

The World: A Brief Introduction with Richard N. Haass

President, Council on Foreign Relations

Dr. Richard Haass is a veteran diplomat, a prominent voice on American foreign policy, and an established leader of nonprofit institutions. He is in his eighteenth year as president of the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, publisher, and educational institution dedicated to being a resource to help people better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries. View full bio

Moderated by

David A. Merkel

Registration

FREE for PCFR Members

$10 for Non-Members

Schedule

Thursday, September 10, 2020

12:00 pm-1:15 pm

Venue

Zoom Meeting

Meeting link and instructions will be included in your registration confirmation email.

Many of you may be new to virtual calls.

If that is the case, please plan to join the call 10 minutes early to account for any technical troubleshooting. We use a tool called Zoom – you can take a look at how you join a meeting here: 

View step-by-step instructions for Joining a Zoom Meeting.

Reviews of the Book

The World: A Brief Introduction by Richard N. Haass

Purchase the Book

The New York Times Review: The Challenges of a Threatening World : In “The World,” Richard Haass urges Americans to educate themselves about an increasingly dangerous planet.

The World is officially a New York Times Bestseller! Richard is ranked #10 on the nonfiction list and #15 on the combined print and ebook list.

New York Times Editors Choice; June 21

Virtual Event

Afghanistan from the ground up: A conversation about war, U.S. partnership and the future of Afghanistan

with

Jack McCain

Director for State and Local Government Affairs

American Airlines

Schedule

Wednesday, September 23, 2020 at 6 pm

Venue

Zoom Meeting

Meeting link and instructions will be included in your registration confirmation email.

Many of you may be new to virtual calls.

If that is the case, please plan to join the call 10 minutes early to account for any technical troubleshooting. We use a tool called Zoom – you can take a look at how you join a meeting here: 

View step-by-step instructions for Joining a Zoom Meeting.

Registration

FREE for PCFR Members

$10 for Non-Members

Speaker

Jack McCain

Director for State and Local Government Affairs

American Airlines

Jack McCain is a reserve Naval Aviator and graduate of the United States Naval Academy and Georgetown's School of Foreign Service. He has deployed four times in the Pacific, Persian Gulf, and recently returned from Afghanistan where, as an Afghan Hand, he flew alongside Afghan pilots in the Blackhawk. Prior to that was a leadership instructor at the Naval Academy and a Search and Rescue Pilot in Guam. He is currently working as American Airlines’ Director for State and Local Government Affairs out of their Phoenix hub.