10th Anniversary Belfast Event Reunites Northern Ireland Peace

2008
2800 Clarendon Boulevard
Suite 502
Arlington, Virginia 22201
Phone 703.841.5843
Web www.us-irelandalliance.org
Year in Review
10th Anniversary Belfast Event Reunites
Northern Ireland Peace Negotiators
More than 300 guests gathered in Belfast in April to
hear the negotiators of the Belfast Agreement discuss
the historic negotiations, which brought about an end
to the decades-long conflict and ushered in an era of
peace, culminating in the restoration of the Northern
Ireland Assembly in 2007. The US-Ireland Alliance
hosted this event which, for the first time, brought toTrina Vargo
President
vargo@us-irelandalliance.org
gether on the same stage, fourteen of the negotiators for
the 10th anniversary of the Agreement.
The world’s press descended on the event which included Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, former US Senator George Mitchell, General John de Chastelain, John
Hume, Gerry Adams, Mark Durkan, Sir Reg Empey,
David Andrews, Liz O’Donnell, Secretary of State for
Mary Lou Hartman
Director of Mitchell Scholarship Program
hartman@us-irelandalliance.org
Paul Hayes
Irish Liaison
paul.hayes@beachhutpr.com
2008
Year in Review
Wales Paul Murphy, Monica McWilliams, Lord
Alderdice, Dawn Purvis, and David Adams.
Video tributes of former Secretary of State
for Northern Ireland Mo Mowlam and David
Ervine were shown.
It was generally agreed by the panel that ‘trust’
might not have been achieved but ‘understanding’ was and that that was crucial to a positive
outcome. It was also noted that the process is
still a work in progress. The event was moderated by BBC presenter, Noel Thompson.
The majority of the audience consisted of the
nearly 100 alumni of the US-Ireland Alliance’s
George J. Mitchell Scholarship program and
their peers (young leaders between the ages of
22 and 35) from Northern Ireland and Ireland.
Other guests included former US Ambassador
to Ireland, Jean Kennedy Smith, Academy
Award winner Jim Sheridan, Academy Award
nominee Terry George, Baroness May Blood,
Geraldine Hughes, Sharon Corr, Sir George and
Lady Quigley, US Consul General to Belfast,
Susan Elliot, Sir Hugh Orde, and several of the
island’s university presidents.
A dinner at the Europa followed and included
performances by Duke Special and Maura
Photos by:
Arthur Allison,
Pacemaker Press International
Lord Alderdice, Sir Reg Empey, General John de Chastelain
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Dawn Purvis, Gerry Adams
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Anne Marie and Noel Smyth
Duke Special, Sharon Corr, Senator Mitchell
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Year in Review
the negotiators
Senator Mitchell and Hope Patterson
Senator Mitchell and Noel Smyth
Liz O’Donnell, Senator Mitchell, Dawn Purvis
Geraldine Hughes, Maura O’Connell, Emily Jeffers
Liz O’Donnell, Jean Kennedy Smith, John Hume
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Senator Mitchell, Liz O’Donnell, Paul Murphy
Mary Lou Hartman, Michael Longley, Lucy Caldwell
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Year in Review
O’Connell, as well as a reading by Michael
Longley. Mitchell Scholarship program Director
Mary Lou Hartman introduced the graduating
class of Mitchell Scholars and Senator Mitchell presented them with their class rings, a gift
from Cross Atlantic Capital Partners.
Tyrone Productions recorded the symposium
Michael Longley
and the event may be viewed in its entirety on
the US-Ireland Alliance website (www.us-irelandalliance.org)
Major supporters of the event were Alburn, the
US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, The Atlantic Philanthropies, and Quinlan Private.
Senator Mitchell and Class of 2008
Monica McWillims and Senator Mitchell
Michael Murphy, Art Chan, Ahadi Bugg-Levine, Colin McCrea
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Secretary of State Paul Murphy and David Andrews
Jim Brooks, Fiona Shaw and Colm Meaney
Honored at Third Annual “Oscar Wilde:
Honoring The Irish In Film
We honored producer James L. Brooks, and
actors Fiona Shaw and Colm Meaney at our
third annual “Oscar Wilde: Honoring The
Irish in Film” pre-Academy Awards party in
February at the Wilshire Ebell, Los Angeles.
Charlie Koones, CEO of Rockmore Media and
former President and Publisher of The Variety
Group, served as emcee. Belfast musician Duke
Special wowed the audience with his perfor-
2008
Year in Review
mance. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
(who would win an Oscar three nights later)
also sang for the intimate crowd of 350 people
and Glen joined Duke on stage to conclude
a magical evening. (Since our event, Jim has
filmed an episode of The Simpson’s which will
be about an Irish pub closing and it includes a
performance by Glen and Marketa.)
Jim Brooks brought the audience to their feet
Photos by:
Alberto Rodriguez,
Getty Images
Glen Hansard and Duke Special
Charlie Koones and Jim Brooks
Jim Brooks and Hans Zimmer
Colm Meaney, Fiona Shaw, Trina Vargo
Colm Meaney and Jim Brooks
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2008
Year in Review
with the tale of his confused upbringing – his
father always told him he was Irish and so
naturally he was bewildered when he learned
his grandfather’s name was Bernstein. But he
was thrilled to be made an honorary Irishman,
thus making his father an honest man. Colm
talked about his transatlantic career and his
pride of having a foot in both the Irish and US
film worlds. Fiona spoke of being in town at
the time of the Oscars and eloquently quoted
the Yeats poem, Sailing to Byzantium, which
begins with the line ‘that is no country for old
men.” She brought laughs with a joke that she
said had been told to her by Brenda Fricker
when they filmed My Left Foot and said she
was glad her mother wasn’t in the audience to
hear her tell that joke.
The event was created to honor the Irish in film
and bring together people in the entertainment
industries in the US and Ireland. The Alliance
hosted a long list of Irish and “honorary Irish”
at the event, including JJ Abrams, Jeff Berg,
Eric Stoltz, Doug Wick, Lucy Fisher, Hans Zimmer, Kirsten Sheridan, Michelle Burke Winter,
Richard Sakai, Donal Logue, Janet Hirshenson,
Jane Jenkins, John Carney, Geoffrey Gilmore,
Orian Williams, and Mike Hagerty. Previous
honorees include Van Morrison, Terry George,
Bill Monahan, Neil Jordan, Jim Sheridan and
David Holmes.
Glen Hansard
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JJ Abrams and Donal Logue
Orian Williams, Bernadette Moley, Eric Stoltz
Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard
Colm Meaney, Fiona Shaw and Jim Brooks
Three-time Academy Award-winner and 12time Emmy Award-winner, James L. Brooks
began his television career as a writer and later
produced television hits such as Taxi, The Mary
Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, Lou Grant, Room
222, The Tracey Ullman Show, and The Simpsons. He began working in film in 1979 when
he wrote the screenplay for Starting Over,
which he co-produced with Alan J. Pakula. In
1983, he earned three Academy Awards for
Terms of Endearment, which he wrote, produced and directed. Also on his long list of
writing, directing and producing credits are
War of the Roses, Say Anything, Big, I’ll Do
Anything, Bottle Rocket, Jerry Maguire, and As
Good as It Gets.
Cork-born Fiona Shaw is a veteran of both
stage and film, seen most recently as Harry Potter’s nasty aunt, Petunia Dursley in the series
of Harry Potter movies. Her career extends
well beyond that, dating back to her first major
role as Dr. Eileen Cole in Jim Sheridan’s 1989
Oscar Award winning film, My Left Foot. She
went on to roles in 3 Men and a Little Lady,
Persuasion, Jane Eyre, The Butcher Boy, and
The Black Dahlia, among others. Last year she
played opposite Anthony Hopkins and Ryan
Duke Special and Glen Hansard
Gosling in Fracture. Onstage, she received
a Tony nomination for her performance as
Medea in 2003. She recently was nominated
for another Olivier for her role as Winnie in
Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days. She recently
directed, to rave reviews, her first opera -Vaughan Williams’ Riders to the Sea (based on
the Synge play) for the English National Opera
at the London Coliseum.
2008
Year in Review
Born in Dublin, Colm Meaney left school at the
age of 17 to apprentice as a fisherman, but his
love of acting led him to enroll in drama classes
at The Abbey, Dublin’s national theater. In
1982 he made his Broadway debut in “Breaking The Code,” opposite Derek Jacobi. Colm is
perhaps best known for his role as Chief Operating Officer Miles O’Brien on the television
series, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Star
Trek: The Next Generation.” He also appeared
in Kings, The Commitments, The Dead, Con
Air, Under Siege, Far and Away, Layer Cake,
Intermission, This Is My Father, The Englishman That Went Up A Hill But Came Down A
Mountain, and Into The West.
Major event sponsors included The Variety
Group, Quinlan Private and American Airlines. Kirsten Sheridan
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Year in Review
Mike Hagerty and Colm Meaney
Fiona Shaw
Doug Wick, Barbara Mandel, Jim Brooks, Jeff Berg
The Ebell of Los Angeles
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Neil Jordan
Michelle Burke Winter
Tim Murphy
10th Class of Mitchell Scholars Selected
The US-Ireland Alliance announced the 20092010 George J. Mitchell Scholars on Saturday,
22 November, after a day-long finalist selection
process in Washington D.C.
The Scholars were selected after a rigorous
application process that drew 300 applications
from over 150 colleges and universities across
the country. The process culminated in a final
interview before a selection committee composed of eminent leaders in many fields. This
year’s committee included: David Simon, creator
of several celebrated television shows including
The Wire and winner of Emmy and Peabody
Awards; Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the eldest
child of Robert F. Kennedy and the former
Lieutenant Governor of Maryland; Eileen Marie
Collins, a former NASA astronaut and the first
woman pilot of the space shuttle; Ireland’s Ambassador to the United States, Michael Collins;
Jane Mayer, a well-known writer for The New
Yorker whose work includes path-breaking journalism on American policy on torture (she was
a 2008 finalist for the National Book Award for
her book The Dark Side); Matt Flannery, CEO
of Kiva.org, the pioneering social entrepreneurship site; Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the former
Commissioner of Health for New York City
and a Senior Scientist with the Nuclear Threat
Initiative; Rachel Rebouche, a former Mitchell
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Year in Review
Photos by:
Carol Clayton
Aidan Cassidy, Jeff Kendall, Sarah Wappett
Amanda Wetzel, Arsalan Suleman, Michael Solis, Lisa Yu
Breeana Detwiler, Rebekah Emanuel, Christina Faust,
Neil Ferron, Alec Schierenbeck, Sarang Shan
Jonathan Benton, Dean Pittman, Tom Murray
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Rebecca Aslakson, Eileen Collins, Trina Vargo
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Maureen O’Connell, Cliff Sloan,
Judge Merrick Garland, Mary Lou Hartman
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Year in Review
Scholar and a leader at the National Partnership for Women & Families; and Christopher
Schroeder, an award-winning internet pioneer
who is CEO of an influential network of health
web sites.
The Mitchell Scholarship selection committee
has long attracted prominent national figures
such as Former National Security Advisor Tony
Lake, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Samantha
Power, and President-elect Obama’s foreign policy advisor Jim Steinberg. Author Alice McDer-
Carolina Chavez, Stanton Jones, Dawn Hewett
mott and poet Paul Muldoon have also served
on the Mitchell selection committee.
“This is the tenth anniversary of the George
Mitchell Scholarships and the tenth anniversary of the historic Good Friday Agreement.
These twelve young men and women represent
exactly the kind of courage and optimism that
perfectly commemorates and builds on the incredible legacy of Senator Mitchell,” said Mary
Lou Hartman, Director of the George Mitchell
Scholarship program.
Chris Schroeder, David Buckley, Adam Harbison
Christina Faust, Neil Ferron
John Velasco, Mary Lou Hartman
Joanne McGlinchey, Mary Lou Hartman, Jim McGlinchey
Michael Adamsky, Breanna Detwiler, Leah Gates
Shane Colvin
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Year in Review
Mary Lou Hartman, Sharon Waxman, Margaret Hamburg
Matthew Baum
Michael Collins, Norman Houston
Nate Wright, Bernadette McFadden
Orla O’Hanrahan, Jane Mayer
Rebekah Emanuel, Matt Flannery, Dean Pittman, Trina Vargo
Jonathan Brestoff
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Sara Cormeny, Laura Taylor
Tom and Carol Wheeler
2008
Year in Review
Matthew Baum will graduate from Yale with bachelor’s
and master’s degrees in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. Matt is particularly
passionate about the treatment
of mental health and bipolar
disorder and is dedicated to alleviating suffering among those who suffer from psychiatric
illness. Research he initiated in a Belgian lab led
to an important discovery in the field of Fragile
X syndrome and the transformation of shortterm memories into long-term memories. Matt
is also an artist and athlete. He won a grant to
create a bronze sculpture that will be installed
at Yale when he graduates. He is president
of the Yale wrestling team and a member of
the Yale rugby club. In addition, he helps to
coordinate a community-based organization
that works to address the needs of high-risk
communities in New Haven. Matt will pursue
a master’s in neuroscience at Trinity College
Dublin.
A 2008 summa cum laude
graduate of Skidmore College
with a double major in Chemistry and Exercise Science,
Jonathan Brestoff is currently in his first year of a joint
MD/PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania in Genetics and Gene
Regulation. Jonathan is particularly focused
on research that will lead to the prevention
of metabolic diseases, such as type-2 diabetes
and obesity. His cutting-edge research led him
to the discovery of an anti-obesity compound,
which he has submitted for a patent. As an
undergraduate, Jon was elected to a number of
leadership roles on campus, including student
body president. He created and became the
president of the Skidmore Nutritional Action
Council (SNAC), an educational program that
teaches proper nutrition and healthy eating. He
is a competitive ice hockey player and an avid
runner. He will study global health at University College Cork.
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Shane Colvin will graduate
from Montana State University
summa cum laude with three
majors – Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Chemistry/Biochemistry, and Music. Shane has a
passion for music that he seeks
to incorporate into his chosen field of medicine.
Like Oliver Sacks, Shane is deeply committed
to the idea that music therapy has the power
to heal. He led a program to educate middle
school students about the value of higher
education to help reduce teen dropout rates.
He presently serves as student body president
of more than 12,000 students, helped create a
campus and community sustainability movement, and has been active in Big Brother for
four years. Shane performs with a number of
musical groups at MSU, including a barbershop
quartet and a six-man a cappella group. Shane
will study music therapy at the University of
Limerick.
A 2008 Truman Scholar, as
well as a Udall Scholar,
Breanna Detwiler will
graduate from Elon University
in North Carolina with a major
in Environmental Science.
Bre’s passion for environmental justice led her to found Elon’s Community
Garden, a project that has attracted over 70
volunteers and has produced enough to service
a community organization that provides meals
to the homeless. In addition, Bre is the student
coordinator at Elon Academy, a 3-year college
access program for first-generation, underrepresented, low-income high-school students.
Her vision and activism has led to greater ties
between the university, local families, and
community organizations. Bre has assumed a
number of leadership roles on campus, including co-founding and organizing the Campus
Climate Coalition, created to help move the
university towards clean energy. Breanna will
study environmental management at Queen’s.
Upon graduating magna cum
laude from Yale in 2007,
Rebekah Emanuel was
honored with two of its highest
awards – the Haas Prize for
Fundamental Humanity and
the Sewell Cup Prize, awarded
to a senior for “outstanding scholarly achievement and creative promise.” Since then she has
worked with the Ugandan Parliament focusing attention on gender-based crimes, lived in
Israel for a year studying narratives of death
and their impact on politics and civil society,
and, as the recipient of a Simon Fellowship for
Noble Purpose, will work in New Delhi, seeking to improve care for the terminally ill. She
created a “Bulldogs in Yale” Ugandan project
that enables Yale students to do internships in
that country. Rebekah is a talented artist who
has received a number of grants to pursue her
sculpting. She will pursue a master’s in a cross
border human rights law program at Queen’s
University Belfast and NUI Galway.
Christina Faust is a Foundation Fellow at the University
of Georgia, the university’s
most prestigious academic
scholarship, awarded to only
86 undergraduates out of
25,000. She is enrolled in a
joint bachelor’s/master’s program in ecology.
Christina explores the nexus where the health
of humans, animals, and ecosystems meet. Her
research on the role of bivalve mollusks in
filtering pathogenic viral particles from streams
has been called “revolutionary,” and she has
presented her findings at multiple scientific conferences. Christina helped organize a national
campus-based effort to raise awareness of climate change on college campuses, founded the
Go Green Alliance, a campus and community
organization focused on sustainability issues, is
co-president of Habitat for Humanity, and has
played on the nationally ranked UGA rugby
team for four years. She will study immunology
and global health next year at NUI Maynooth.
Neil Ferron is an awardwinning poet, author, and
playwright and 2005 graduate of Santa Clara University.
He is the founder and artistic director of 12th Avenue
Drama, a small Seattle-based
theater company. His play, “Sweet, the Breath
of Children,” was awarded a Seattle Times
Critic’s Pick. As an undergraduate, Neil traveled to Calcutta to work for six months in an
orphanage run by the Missionaries of Charity.
His experience there, as well as his work with
homeless teenagers at a shelter in California,
has shaped much of his writing, which attempts
to balance grace with a social justice message.
He won a Canterbury Fellowship to work on a
series of short stories that focused on his time
in India. He was also awarded a first place
prize by the Academy of American Poets for his
poem, “In its proper place,” and a Santa Clara
Review Editor’s Choice for one of his short
stories. Neil will study playwriting at Trinity.
Adam Harbison is a 2008
graduate from the University
of Alabama. He is presently a
Truman-Albright Fellow with
the Appalachian Regional
Commission, a federal-state
partnership that fosters economic and social development of the region, to
which Adam. His passion to address the health
needs of the rural poor have led him to forge a
new $500,000 oral health initiative to provide
dental care to children across rural West Virginia. While an undergraduate, Adam served as
founder and president of UA’s Colleges Against
Cancer chapter. He created the Tobacco Toolkit, a tool designed to assist campuses in the
adoption and enforcement of smoke-free policies. Adam served as national advocacy chair
for the organization, overseeing the work of
more than 350 chapters. He was named to the
USA Today All-USA College Academic Team.
Adam will study rural development at Queen’s
University Belfast.
2008
Year in Review
A 2007 graduate of Northwestern, Lauren Parnell
Marino now lives in Uganda,
working with a fair trade
organization. She received
several grants to research
fair trade in Guatemala and
Uganda. Lauren’s activism and commitment
to social justice led her to start the Northwestern University Public Interest Program, which
recruits and places 15-20 graduating seniors in
non-profit organizations throughout Chicago.
She founded the Global Engagement Summit,
a week-long summit that focuses on international volunteerism and helps to fund social
entrepreneurs. Lauren also co-chaired The
Northwestern Community Development Corps,
which promotes community action and advocacy and sends over 500 students to community
service projects. Lauren spent a year as a Public
Interest Fellow with the Interfaith Youth Core
before returning to Uganda. She will study
Gender, Globalization and Development at NUI
Galway.
Alec Schierenbeck is
a senior at Grinnell College
and a Truman Scholar. He
won national attention for
his leadership in fighting for
students’ rights to vote and for
getting students to exercise that
right. Alec served as president of the Campus
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2008
Year in Review
Democrats at Grinnell. His leadership attracted
attention and he was elected to run the statewide College and Young Democrats of Iowa.
As president during a caucus year, Alec worked
to turn out the youth vote. As a result of his
efforts, 52,000 young Democrats caucused in
Iowa, representing an increase of 30,000 from
the last presidential caucus in 2004. His success
as a state leader led Alec to be elected as VicePresident of the College Democrats of America
at the Democratic Convention in Denver. He
will study Equality Studies at University College Dublin.
Sarang Shah will graduate
from Georgia Tech with a major in Physics and Public Policy.
Sarang founded a number of
student initiatives geared towards environmental activism
and political dialogue, including a campus-wide recycling program, a water
conservation campaign, and a Yellow Jacket
Round Table to bring together student leaders
to discuss and help solve campus issues. When
Sarang learned of a State bill that he considered
would inhibit free speech on campus, he fought
passionately against it, testifying before the
State House Committee on Higher Education,
raising awareness on campus, and authoring a
resolution opposing the bill. Sarang was credited for his role in the defeat of the bill. Sarang
has also conducted research in the field of
theoretical neuroscience and developed textual
analysis software to help map data. Sarang will
pursue a master’s in mathematical physics at
University College Dublin.
Michael Solis is a Princeton
in Latin America Fellow and
Researcher, working for Human
Rights Watch and the Latin
American Faculty of Social Sciences in Santiago, Chile. He is
conducting research on human
rights, political discrimination in Venezuela,
global security, arms control, and conflict resolution. He graduated from Princeton in 2008.
He was named a Luce Scholar and worked for
a year in South Korea for the National Human
Rights Commission of Korea. While there he
wrote extensively about human rights-based
issues, such as former Korean sex slaves, immigrant rights, and discrimination against those
suffering from HIV/AIDS. He co-founded and
runs the Hmong Action Network, which is dedicated to halting the repatriation of the Laotian
Hmong from Thai encampments. Michael is
fluent in four languages. He will study international human rights law at NUI Galway.
Class of ’08 Graduates
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In May, the end-of-year retreat for
the Scholars began and ended in
the west of Ireland. The Scholars
took their annual trek to Glenstal
Abbey, where they enjoyed afternoon tea with the Benedictine
monks who run the Abbey. They
toured the grounds of the priory
and learned about the indigenous
plants and trees and the history of
how they came to be growing on
Irish soil. They visited the private underground chapel, learned
about the rare Russian icons
stored there and attended Vespers.
Later, the Scholars went to the
O’Suilleabhain’s family farmhouse, Jimmy Soni, Samantha Power, Art Chan at UCC graduation
where they spent the night listening
to Irish music. Micheal O’Suilleabhain, the evening’s host, is the head of Culture Ireland and runs
the Irish World Music Centre at the University of Limerick. His sons, Eoin and Moley, are equally
musical, as were the faculty members invited to the dinner. Jeff Benedict, a Mitchell Scholar from
Appalachia, played the piano and the guitar and serenaded the crowd with an old Appalachian tune.
Sarah David, Morgan
O’Sullivan, Art Chan,
Erin Stevens
Trina & Scholars at
Glenstal Abbey
2008
Year in Review
The next day, the Scholars took off for Dingle, where they climbed Mt. Brandon with Trina
and Mary Lou, the second highest mountain in Ireland; toured the peninsula; and took a
cooking class in traditional Irish cooking.
And some of the Scholars completed the year by being the guests of producer Morgan
O’Sullivan at Ardmore Studios where The Tudors was filming. A description of the day on the
set, written by Scholar Art Chan, may be found on the Alliance’s website.
Bipartisan Support Continues
Bipartisan support for the George J. Mitchell
Scholarship remained strong as Capitol Hill
voted to provide $500,000 in continued funding for the scholarship program. President Bush
signed the bill into law.
Under the strong leadership and backing of
Congressman Peter King (R-NY) and Joseph
Crowley (D-NY), a letter of support was initiated to Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY),
Chairwoman of the subcommittee responsible
for State Department appropriations. The
House members who supported the successful educational initiative were: Thomas H.
Allen (D-ME), Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Henry
E. Brown (R-SC), Michael Capuano (D-MA),
William Lacy Clay (D-MO), William Delahunt
(D-MA), Brian Higgins (D-NY), Sander Levin
(D-MI), Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA), Carolyn
McCarthy (D-NY), Jim McDermott (D-WA),
James McGovern (D-MA), Michael McNulty
(D-NY), Michael Michaud (D-ME), George
Miller (D-CA), Richard Neal (D-MA), Frank
Pallone (D-NJ), and Donald Payne (D-NJ).
In the Senate, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
chairs the relevant subcommittee and Senator
Judd Gregg) is the Ranking Member. Senator
Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Senator Susan
Collins (R-ME) annually lead the Senate effort.
They were joined by Democratic Senators Max
Baucus (MT), Sherrod Brown (OH), Joe Biden
(DE), Maria Cantwell (WA), Benjamin Cardin
(MD), Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY), Chris
Dodd (CT), John Kerry (MA), Robert Menendez (NJ), Barbara Mikulski (MD), Barack
Obama (IL), Jack Reed (RI), Charles E. Schumer (NY), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Republican
Olympia Snowe (MN) and Independent Democrat Joseph Lieberman.
The Mitchell Scholarship program was created
in 1998 with an endowment from the Irish
Government at the initiative of Prime Minister Bertie Ahern. In February 2007 the Irish
Government announced that it would match
whatever the Alliance raises, up to 20 million
euros, to establish a permanent endowment
for the program. Derek Quinlan, the founder
and head of Quinlan Private, is spearheading
the initiative to help raise funds in the private
sector. Nearly $6 million has already been committed to the endowment with million dollar
commitments being made by Derek & Siobhan
Quinlan, Bernard & Moira McNamara, Pat
and Teresa Mooney, Garrett & Maeve Kelleher
and an anonymous donor.
Other significant financial support is provided
by John & Cearuil Morrissey, Anglo Irish
Bank, the Northern Ireland Department for
Employment and Learning, BD (Becton, Dickinson & Company), Bombardier Aerospace
(NI) Foundation, and Cross Atlantic Capital
Partners. Universities in Ireland and Northern
Ireland contribute housing and tuition to the
Mitchell Scholars.
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2008
Year in Review
Irish Retain The Cup In The US-Ireland Alliance
Golf Challenge
Class of ‘09 Mitchell Scholars Arrive in Ireland
The Irish summer arrived just in time for the September US-Ireland Alliance Golf Challenge, which
was played at Doonbeg Golf Club. But the weather didn’t help the Americans as the Irish retained
the cup 7 points to 5 points. After the first day’s play of four balls, the US and Ireland were all
squared. In the second day’s play of singles, the Irish won 5-3 and it came down to the final matches.
The US-Ireland Alliance hosts this golf challenge to introduce American executives to leaders in
Ireland. Alliance president Trina Vargo said, “we had hoped the American win at the Ryder Cup
would propel us to victory. We had the inspiration, but unfortunately, not the putts.”
Catherine Fontana and Travis Green
Mark Byrne, Chris Rosson, Ryan McCartney, Jose Canto
Laurence Crowley and Tony Condon
John Dewberry
Liam Donohoe
Ryan McCartney, Chris Rosson, Tyler Dillard, Adam Tart
John Bresnan
Photos by:
John Kelly
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2008
Year in Review
Laurence Crowley, Trina Vargo, Buddy Darby
Buddy Darby
Charlie Koones
Laurence Flavin
Adam, Erin, Ryan, Lara
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Mary Ann O’Brien and Nick Pappas
Joe O’Malley
2008
Year in Review
Laurence Crowley, former Governor of the
Bank of Ireland, captained the Irish team while
Buddy Darby, Doonbeg owner and founder and
CEO of Kiawah Resort Associates, captained
the US team.
In addition to Buddy and Trina, the US team
included: Jack Shafer, former CEO of Allied
Domecq; John Dewberry, Chairman and CEO
of Dewberry Capital; Mark Byrne, Chairman of
Flagstone Reinsurance Holdings; John Bresnan,
Managing Director and Group Head, Global
Markets Capital Management, Wachovia;
Charlie Koones, former publisher of Variety
and CEO Rockmore Media, and Nick Pappas,
Managing Director, Eastdil Secured.
In addition to Laurence, the Irish team included
Mary Ann O’Brien, CEO, Lily O’Brien’s chocolates; Tom Byrne, VP of Finance with British
Tyler Dillard, Travis Green, Chris Rosson, Adam Tart, Jose Cantos
Telecom; Laurence Flavin, head of business development for Quinlan Private; Liam Donohoe,
Country Manager for Apple in Ireland; Andrew
O’Rourke, partner at Hayes Solicitors; Tony
Condon, UCD’s Director of Development; and
Joe O’Malley, a partner at Hayes Solicitors.
The ninth class of George J. Mitchell Scholars
and Scholarship Director Mary Lou Hartman
arrived in Ireland in time to attend the final
night’s dinner of the golf tournament. They
then headed to Galway where they were guests
of honor at a reception at NUIG, visited the
Aran Islands, attended a Druid performance of
Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan,
and learned about Irish history from Gearoid
O Tuathaigh; Irish stereotypes in film from Rod
Stoneman; the Irish language from Dr. Louis de
Paor; and enjoyed an Irish music performance
by Mary McPartland.
Lara Janson, Erin Rhoda, Catherine Fontana, Katie Boyle,
Victoria Moore, Andrea Laidman
Page 18
Andrew O’Rorke, Catherine, Katie, Erin
Jack Shafer and Buddy Darby
Scholars Meet President McAleese
Ulster Bank Hosts Reception
2008
Year in Review
Thanksgiving in Dublin
In November, the Mitchell Scholars visited Aras an Uachtarain to have tea with President Mary
McAleese. The President spent an hour talking with the Mitchells about Northern Ireland, the
US-Ireland relationship, the Lisbon Treaty, her upcoming trip to the US and the recent election of
Barack Obama. Tim O’Connor, the President’s Adviser and Ireland’s former Consul General to New
York, also met the Scholars. That evening Ulster Bank Chairman Sean Dorgan hosted a reception
for the Scholars and guests at Ulster Bank headquarters on Georges Quay. The following day, Trina
and Paul Hayes cooked Thanksgiving dinner for the Mitchells.
Brendan Tuohy and Oisin Hanrahan
Eoin O Suillebhain, Lara Janson, Paddy Cosgrave
President McAleese and Mitchell Scholars
Sean MacCarthaigh and Erin Rhoda
Page 19
Thanksgiving dinner at Paul Hayes’
Sean Dorgan and John Morrissey
2008
Year in Review
Catherine Fontana and John Hegarty
President McAleese and Mitchells
Photos by:
Patrick Bolger
Page 20
President McAleese and Trina
Equal Justice Works
In October, Equal Justice Works, the leading public interest law organization, awarded Senator
George Mitchell its prestigious annual award. The honor pays tribute to a leader whose life exemplifies a passion for public service. Senator Mitchell’s role as a peacemaker in Northern Ireland was
a central theme of the award ceremony. Equal Justice Works invited the George Mitchell Scholars to
attend the event and gave them special recognition during the ceremony.
2008
Year in Review
Photos by:
Jay Mallin
Courtesy of:
Equal Justice Works
L-R: Sarah Wappett, Cynthia Romero, Amanda Wetzel, Nate Wright, Melissa Boteach, John Velasco, Senator George Mitchell, Dawn Hewett,
Kathleen Romig-Krepps
WHERE ARE THEY NOW
Class of ‘01
•Ned Augenblick (Mathematical Science/
UCD) finished his fourth year of the PhD
program in Economics at Stanford. He is
writing his dissertation on political economy
and behavioral economics.
•Rebecca Blustein (Old and Middle Irish/
Maynooth) is an Editor for admissions
consultants Accepted.com. In February, she
married Aaron Larks-Stanford. They live in
Los Angeles.
•Erin Breeze (Peace and Development
Studies/UL) is the Associate Director of
Seeking Common Ground, a nonprofit
organization that works with young adults
from conflict regions and throughout the
United States to transform conflict. Erin, her
husband Daniel Junge, and daughter Harper
live in Denver.
•Traci Donovan (Human Rights & Law/
NUIG) is working as an attorney for Jones
Day in New York.
•Mikela French (Irish Studies/Queen’s) is
clerking for Justice Joel Horton on the Idaho
Supreme Court. She also continues to work
closely with the University of Idaho Legal
Aid Immigration Clinic and as a volunteer
English teacher for the Boise office of the
International Rescue Committee.
•Desha Girod (International Peace Studies/
Page 21
2008
Year in Review
Trinity) is a postdoctoral fellow at the
Center on Democracy, Development and
Rule of Law at Stanford University where
she manages the program Evaluating
International Influences on Democratic
Development. Her research focuses on the
influence of external actors on political
and economic development. In 2009, she
will join the faculty of the Department of
Government at Georgetown University.
•Winnie Li (English/UCC) is currently
raising finance for her next film, CURFEW,
to begin shooting in Northern Ireland in
Spring/Summer 2009. She recently associate
produced FLASHBACKS OF A FOOL,
starring Daniel Craig and THE BROKEN, a
horror film starring Lena Headley, which will
be released in the US and UK in January. She
is hoping to complete a novel in 2009.
•Gabe Paquette (Culture and Colonialism/
NUIG) is a Lecturer in the History
Department at Harvard University.
Alexander Thomas Aslakson
Page 22
•Rachel Rebouche (Human Rights and
Law/Queen’s) is an associate director of
adolescent health programs of the National
Partnership for Women & Families in
Washington, DC. Rachel works primarily
on issues relating to adolescents’ access to
reproductive health services. She also teaches
family law and comparative family law as
an adjunct professor at American University,
Washington College of Law.
•Rebecca Reichert Aslakson
(Biomedicine/UU) is an assistant professor of
anesthesiology and critical care medicine at
The Johns Hopkins Hospital. She divides her
time between clinical work and research. Her
research involves improving communication
between health providers and intensive care
unit patients/patient families, end-of-life
care for surgical intensive care patients, and
improved characterization of catheter-related
blood stream infection rates for hospitals. In
the fall, she started her PhD studies at Johns
Hopkins. She and her husband, Erin, had
their first child, Alexander, in November.
•Laela Sturdy (Multimedia Studies/Trinity)
works as a Group Manager for Google/You
Tube in New York City where she directs
marketing and sales strategy for Google’s
Media and Entertainment team. She leads
the team’s industry outreach efforts, as well
as working directly with clients in the TV,
movie, gaming, music and web publishing
industries to develop integrated marketing
solutions.
•Tommy Vitolo (Applied Mathematics/
DCU) continues his PhD work in Systems
Engineering at Boston University, juggling a
thesis and journal article submissions.
Class of ’02
•Peter Frosch (International Relations/
DCU) works in Washington, D.C. as an
appropriations and foreign policy aide
to Congresswoman Betty McCollum of
Minnesota. He lives in Baltimore with his
wife Anne, who is a third year medical resident
at the University of Maryland hospital.
•Dawn Hewett (Ethnic & Racial Studies/
Trinity) graduated from Yale Law School,
moved to DC, passed the Oregon Bar Exam,
visited New Zealand with her mom, then
started a new job at Arnold & Porter, LLP. She is a litigation associate working primarily
in the field of international arbitration
representing sovereign governments in
investor-state arbitrations.
•Bree Hocking (Peace & Development/UL)
lives in Oregon where she is a contributing
writer for Eugene Magazine and is at work
on a collection of short stories. She also
volunteers at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum
of Art and the Friendship Foundation of
International Students.
•Matt Huenerfauth (Computer Science/
UCD) is an assistant professor of computer
science at The City University of New York
and is teaching courses on computational
linguistics and assistive technology for people
with disabilities. In 2008, the National
Science Foundation awarded him a fiveyear Faculty Early Career Development
(CAREER) Award, which is given to faculty
members at the beginning of their careers
and is one of the NSF’s most prestigious
and competitive awards. The $580,000
award will support his research on computer
animations of American Sign Language for
people who are deaf.
•Ehrin (Johnson) Armstrong
(Biotechnology/UU) completed internal
medicine residency at Massachusetts
General Hospital and has started a
cardiology fellowship at University of
California, San Francisco. •Jennifer Lambert (Politics/UCD) is
teaching at Furman. She conducted research
about Islamist groups in Morocco this past
summer. She hopes to join the Foreign
Service.
•Kathleen Long (Government/UCC)
became engaged to Kevin Acton, a native of
Downpatrick, Co. Down, Northern Ireland. They met during her last trip to Ireland as
a staff member of the US-Ireland Alliance
in 2005, so she in essence thanks Trina for
serving as matchmaker in her spare time. Kathy and Kevin recently moved to Paterson,
New Jersey and will wed in September 2009. Kathy serves as Director of Development
for New Jersey Community Development
Corporation, a non-profit based in Paterson
that focuses on neighborhood revitalization,
positive youth development, education,
affordable and supportive housing, the
preservation of the Great Falls Historic
District, and direct public-policy innovation. •Michelle Miles (Anglo-Irish Lit/Trinity)
continues to work towards her PhD in
English at Emory University with a focus
on modern and contemporary Irish poetry
and postcolonial studies. She is currently
writing a dissertation entitled, All the Dead
Voices: Communicating Across the Grave in
Contemporary Northern Irish Poetry, which
focuses on the translation and adaptation
of classical Greek and Roman epics into
Northern Irish lyric.
•Kathleen Romig Krepps (Applied Social
Sciences/UCC) continues her work as a
Social Security analyst at the Congressional
Research Service. She and Andrew welcomed
a new addition to their family, Daniel
Donnelly Krepps, who was a huge hit at the
Mitchell Scholar Summer Party.
criminal law and environmental law. He lives
in New York with his wife, Joanna, who is
a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind,
Wharton & Garrison LLP. This year Ben
served as a reader of Mitchell Scholarship
applications.
2008
Year in Review
•Lisa Yu (Comparative Ethnic Conflict/
Queen’s) graduated from Notre Dame Law
School and is a Presidential Management
Fellow working in the Asylum Division of the
Department of Homeland Security.
Class of ’03
•Matt Alexander (Peace and Conflict
Studies/UU) continues to serve as President
of Fusion International, a non-profit
organization that he founded in 2004.
Fusion´s mission is to alleviate poverty,
mitigate conflict and promote dignity in
marginalized communities across the world.
In the past four years, Fusion has served
nearly 2200 people in Colombia, South
America, including internally displaced
persons, ex-child soldiers, disabled persons,
single mothers and ethnic minorities.
Matt has given guest lectures this year at a
variety of universities in Colombia on social
entrepreneurship, comparative peace processes
and forced displacement. Matt also serves on
the advisory board of Atlas Corps and is an
honorary member of the Rotary Club.
Daniel Donnelly Krepps
Matt Alexander at work in Colombia
•Mariyam Cementwala (International
Human Rights Law/NUIG) graduated with
her J.D. from UC Berkeley and was sworn
into the California Bar last year. She is a
lawyer at the Washington, D.C. law firm of
Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr.
•Hal Frampton (Geography/Maynooth)
is an associate at Parker Poe Adams &
Bernstein in Charleston, South Carolina.
He primarily represents parties in real estate
development transactions.
•Julia Rosenbloom (Classics/Queen’s) is a
third-year medical student at the University
of Pennsylvania, planning to become a
surgeon. She is still reading Greek and
keeping up with friends made in Belfast.
•Jeannie Huh (Community Health/Trinity)
graduated from Vanderbilt Medical School
and is a a resident in orthopaedic surgery at
Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio,
Texas. A West Point grad, she is a Captain in
the US Army.
•Ben Trachtenberg (International Studies,
UL) is a visiting assistant professor at
Brooklyn Law School, where he teaches
•Emily Mark (Art History/Trinity) was
awarded her PhD in Art History from
University College Dublin in 2008. In
Page 23
2008
Year in Review
Cataline Chirinos O’Rourke
September she began her new position as
permanent Lecturer in Art History and
Cultural Policy at UCD, where she teaches
and researches across both subjects. Emily
is currently finishing a book about the
commemoration of the Irish Famine, and
pursuing research on the global development
of migration museums and related artworks.
She and her husband Des FitzGerald live in
Dublin.
•Georgia Mjartan (Political
Communications/UU) has served as Executive
Director of Our House for the last 3 years.
Our House is a comprehensive program for
working homeless families and individuals
that provides housing, education, childcare
and after-school and summer programs.
Georgia is helping found a free medical,
dental and pharmaceutical clinic for the
uninsured. The clinic opened in December.
Georgia is a finalist for the 2008 Nonprofit
Executive of the Year award, a state-wide
honor. She is married to Dominik Mjartan,
who is Vice President at Southern Bancorp,
the nation’s largest rural development bank.
•Joanna Pearson (Anglo-Irish Lit/UCD)
is currently in her second year of the MFA
program in creative writing at the Johns
Hopkins University Writing Seminars.
She will return to complete her final year
of medical school at the Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine, and graduate
in 2010.
•Seena Perumal Carrington
(International Human Rights Law/NUIG)
serves as Chief of Staff of the Massachusetts
Division of Health Care Finance and Policy
– a state agency critical to implementing and
ensuring the success of the Commonwealth’s
historic health care reform legislation. As
CoS, Seena seeks to improve the effectiveness
of the agency’s programs, communications,
and operations.
Page 24
•Davin Quinn (Creative Writing/Queen’s)
is currently a fellow in psychosomatic
medicine and consultation psychiatry at the
Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
He is also a second-year candidate in the
MGH Center for Psychoanalytic Studies. He
recently returned from a trip to Buenos Aires,
where he learned to dance the Argentine
tango.
•Mark Tosso (Political Communications/
DCU) runs a high school retreat program
for a group of Catholic parishes in New
Jersey. The program is expanding due to
growing demand, and will be adding retreats
for college students as well. Mark also
coordinates rebuilding outreach to New
Orleans. In January, he will be leading 60
volunteers on the group’s seventh work trip.
•Sarah Wagner-McCoy (Anglo-Irish Lit/
UCD) is in the fourth year of her PhD in
English Literature at Harvard University,
where she also serves as a Freshman Proctor.
In June, she married Ryan Ghan, who
completed a Masters in Urban Education at
Harvard and is now teaching middle school
in South Boston.
•Amanda Wetzel recently graduated with
a J.D. from Columbia Law School and a
Master 1 and Master 2 in French law and
private international law from Université
Paris I, Panthéon Sorbonne. Since June,
she has been working on treaties as junior
counsel on the staff of the U.S. Senate
Foreign Relations Committee.
Class of ’04
•Dariush Afshar (Economic Science/UCC)
is pursuing a dual MBA/MA in International
Studies from Wharton and the Lauder
Institute of UPenn in Philadelphia.
•Alexandra Chirinos (Human Rights
Law/Queen’s and NUIG) graduated from
Harvard Law in May and is clerking for
Judge Legrome Davis in the U.S. Court
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia. She and her husband, Allen,
have a daughter, Catalina, who turned one
and is starting to talk in both English and
Spanish. This summer she and her husband
took a trip to Ireland after the bar exam and
spent a week traveling throughout the west
coast and visiting the towns where his family
came from. •Cassie Farrelly (Irish Theater & Film/
Trinity) recently joined the New York City
Department of Education as Special Assistant
to the Chief Financial Officer, the office
providing financial oversight of the City’s
1400 schools. She remains board chairman
of Origin Theatre Company which, in
September, launched the “1st Irish 2008,”
a three-week festival producing the North
American premieres of works by 13 Irish
playwrights at venues across New York City. Plans for the 2009 festival are underway.
•Moira Herbst (International Relations/
UCC) is a journalist at BusinessWeek.
•John Kiess (Comparative Ethnic Conflict)/
Queen’s) is the fourth-year of his PhD in
the Theology and Ethics program at Duke
University. He married Ana Ponce in June.
•Jana Kiser (International Studies/UL) will
take a temporary leave of absence from
her role as executive director of Global
Learning, a nongovernmental organization
that provides innovative educational
programs in Latin America. Supported by
a Stevens Fellowship, Jana will travel to
Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Uganda, Kenya
and Thailand in order to study best-practice
teaching methods in progressive schools,
outdoor educational settings, and refugee
camps. Upon return, she intends to write a
handbook tailored for educators and parents
in underserved communities who would
like to improve children’s learning and life
preparation with minimal material resources. •Robbie Majzner (Health Promotion/
NUIG) is currently in his last year of medical
school at Harvard and is applying for
residency program in pediatrics. He spent
last year living in Jerusalem and hopes to
return to there soon.
•Michael Osofsky (Criminal Justice/
Queen’s) is starting a new job. He is
setting up the Hong Kong office and Asian
operations for Global Hunter Securities, a US
investment bank with offices in New Orleans,
Houston and Newport Beach.
•Simon Rodberg (Anglo-Irish Lit/UCD)
married Alison MacAdam in June. Simon
and Alison, who spent a semester in Dublin
in college, first started dating while Simon
was in Ireland. After completing his fourth
year teaching English at a charter school in
Washington, D.C., Simon is writing a novel
and working as a freelance writer and editor.
Alison is the editor of All Things Considered
at NPR.
•Arsalan Suleman (International Peace
Studies/Trinity) married Binish Hasan in
August. Binish is currently a 3L at NYU.
Arsalan is joining the law firm of Debevoise
& Plimpton in New York as a litigation
associate.
2008
Year in Review
•Jasmin Weaver (Equality Studies/UCD)
continues to live in DC with her husband
Noah Purcell. She is working for the union
coalition, Change to Win, as a Campaign
Legislative Director for a national campaign.
Noah is clerking for Justice David Souter on
the United States Supreme Court.
Class of ’05
•Monica Bell (Equality Studies/UCD)
will complete her J.D. at Yale in January
2009. She returned to Yale in January
2008 after serving as the South Carolina
Political Director for Senator John Edwards’
presidential campaign. For the six months
following law school, Monica will work in
Washington, DC for the Legal Aid Society of
the District of Columbia and the Half in Ten
campaign, a joint anti-poverty effort between
the Center for American Progress Action
Fund, ACORN, the Leadership Conference
on Civil Rights, and the Coalition on Human
Needs. After taking the bar exam, Monica
will clerk for Judge Cameron McGowan
Currie of the United States District Court for
the District of South Carolina.
L-R: Arsalan, Binish, Alison, Simon,
Noah, and Jasmin
•David Buckley (Comparative Ethnic
Conflict/Queen’s) continues to pursue
his PhD in Government at Georgetown
University, where he is also a Research
Associate with the Berkley Center on Religion
and World Affairs. His research examines the
intersection between religion and politics in
comparative perspective. David lives on the
Georgetown campus with his wife Jessica,
who works in Georgetown’s Department of
Residence Life.
•Michael Gale (Zoology/NUIG) is currently
working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service in Washington, DC as the Special
Assistant for the Office of External Affairs.
Michael also sits on the Board of Directors
for SustainUS, the U.S. Youth Network
for Sustainable Development. In his spare
time, he is involved in a community band,
a volleyball league, and fire dancing while
engaging on green issues in the nation’s
capitol.
•Ryan Hanley (Civil Engineering/Trinity)
Page 25
2008
Year in Review
Paul Musgrave gives Paul Hayes
and Mary Calpin a tour of the
Nixon Library
Smith Lilly and Jessica Sparks
Page 26
has been working as a management
consultant in the Chicago office of Bain &
Company for the last two years. Outside
of the office, he serves as chairman of the
board for the 4K for Cancer, a non-profit
organization he founded, overseeing their
aggressive growth strategy. He is currently
applying for business schools and planning
on returning to school in Fall ‘09. He hopes it
will be in someplace warmer than Chicago.
•Nick Johnson (Drama Studies/Trinity)
completed his PhD on Beckett this October and
is now a full-time lecturer in Drama at Trinity
College Dublin. He has directed five productions
on stage this year, including 100 Minutes 2008
at Project Arts Centre and the award-nominated
play The Common Will in the Dublin Fringe
Festival, both with Painted Filly Theatre (where
he is artistic director). He translated Ernst
Toller’s Masse Mensch and directed a bilingual
production at the Volksbuehne Theatre in Berlin
during the summer.
•Smith Lilley (International Studies/UL)
continues to serve as an officer in the US Air
Force and is now an Assistant Professor of
Aerospace Studies at St. Joseph’s University
in Philadelphia. At St. Joe’s he is a cadre
member for the Air Force Reserve Officer
Training Corps and teaches air power history
and doctrine. Before beginning his current
assignment in August, he spent two years at
McGuire Air Force Base, where he last served
as the executive officer to the commander
of the 305th Maintenance Group, a unit of
over 1,000 personnel responsible for the
sustainment and launch of 55 C-17 and KC10 aircraft. Smith’s wife, Jessica, is a secondyear resident physician at the Children’s
Hospital of Philadelphia.
•Kesav Mohan (International Relations/
DCU) spent Spring 2008 studying in
Australia. He worked for two law firms in
Houston, TX and Milwaukee, WI. He is
in his last semester of law school. He has
traveled to Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden,
and Denmark, and Antarctica. His company
is going to release a new Firefox extension,
the Ca$hback Extension soon. He is currently
looking for venture capital firms interested
in supporting low-capital investment Internet
ideas with built in revenue models.
•Bobby Mulcare (Economic Policy/NUIG)
has lived and worked in New York City
since finishing his Mitchell year, first as an
Analyst at McKinsey & Co. and currently
as an Associate at the private equity firm
New Mountain Capital. At New Mountain,
Bobby is part of a team that invests in and
manages private companies with a total
value of $5 billion. In August, he attended
the Olympics in Beijing (as an observer, not
a competitor), where he cheered on the U.S.
Mens’ Volleyball team to the gold medal.
•Paul Musgrave (Politics/UCD) has left the
Nixon Library in Yorba Linda to become a
Ph.D. student at Georgetown University.
•Cindy Romero (Comparative Ethnic
Conflict/Queen’s) is Assistant Director of the
Program on Transatlantic Relations at the
Atlantic Council of the United States, a DC
based think-tank that promotes constructive
leadership and engagement by the Atlantic
community in meeting the global challenges
of the 21st century. At the Atlantic Council,
Cindy has focused on Georgia and the
Caucasus and provided research assistance
for two publications on Georgia. She will
also collaborate as co-rapporteur for a policy
paper on transatlantic cooperation on Russia.
She recently travelled to Georgia, including
Gori, to witness the aftermath of the August
conflict.
•Brandon Thibodeaux (Peace & Conflict
Studies/UU) is in his final year of law
school. Over the summer he worked for the
Department of Justice-Antitrust Division in
Washington, DC. He recently accepted a
post-graduation clerkship with United States
District Judge Donald Walter of the Western
District of Louisiana. He is excited about
being able to stay in Louisiana. His legal
publication, The Civil Law Commentaries,
will be putting out its first issue.
Class of ’06
•Liza Anderson (Ecumenical Studies/
Trinity) is a second year student in the M.Div.
program at Harvard Divinity School. She
is focusing on monastic studies and staying
busy with Syriac, Greek, and Classical
Armenian. She hopes to become an Anglican
nun.
•Melissa Boteach (Equality Studies/UCD)
is currently pursuing a Master’s of Public
Policy part-time at The George Washington
University. She married Adam Kaplan in
June and is working at the Jewish Council
for Public Affairs (JCPA) in Washington, DC,
where she serves as a Senior Policy Associate
and the coordinator for JCPA’s national antipoverty campaign. In these capacities she
represents the JCPA on Capitol Hill on issues
related to poverty, immigration, hunger,
housing, and health care. She also co-chaired
the national effort, “Fighting Poverty with
Faith” a project endorsed by over 20 national
faith-based organizations and nearly 100
cities across the country, designed to elevate
the issue of poverty in the 2008 elections. •Ben Cote (Peace & Conflict Studies/UU)
married Tami Weerasingha, in Pennsylvania
in August, after they returned from a year in
Sri Lanka. They are both currently in their
first year at Michigan Law School.
•Lily Jeng (Biomedical Engineering/UL)
is in her third year of a Ph.D. program in
Biological Engineering at MIT, where she
is working on articular cartilage tissue
engineering. She has presented her work
at several national conferences, including
the Orthopaedic Research Society and the
Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine
International Society. In her spare time, Lily
serves on the executive committee of the
housing complex she lives in, organizing
social events and advocating for residents’
rights.
•Aaron Rabinowitz (Economic Policy/
NUIG) is currently a doctoral candidate in
Health Policy at Harvard University and just
began his first year at Harvard Law School.
Aaron recently became engaged and will get
married in October 2010. •Brittany Schick (International Security &
Conflict Studies/DCU) is continuing her U.S.
Air Force service in Mons, Belgium, where
she is working in a strategy position for
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe,
the central command of NATO military
forces. She is working on her German and
French as she travels around Europe and
has acquired an addiction to competing in
triathlons.
•Mike Solomon (Music Composition/
Queen’s) is working on a PhD in Music
Composition at the University of Florida. His
principal areas of research are algorithmic
digital sound processing and choral
composition. Mike was invited to be a guest
composer and to present a paper at the
International Computer Music Conference
(ICMC) 2008 held at Queen’s University
Belfast.
2008
Year in Review
•Geoff Swenson (Comparative Ethnic
Conflict/Queen’s) is currently in his third year
at Stanford Law School and a fellow at the
Stanford Center on International Conflict and
Negotiation. He is also currently working
on the Afghanistan Legal Education Project
to help develop the country’s first modern
law school curriculum. He is currently
writing a criminal law textbook for use at
the American University of Kabul. He spent
last summer at the law offices of Simpson
Thatcher and Bartlett in New York and
London.
•Richard Waters (Biotechnology/UCC)
is in his second year at Duke University
School of Medicine. He’s now on the wards
and is loving it. He’ll be spending his third
year of medical school in Moshi, Tanzania
at a patient-care and clinical research site,
a collaboration between Duke and the
Tanzanian government. Cycling and enjoying
beautiful NC, he’s also become involved in
and excited about a student organization
called Universities Allied for Essential
Medicines working with universities to
increase access to medicines in developing
countries.
Melissa Boteach and Adam Kaplan
•Markus Weisner (Fire Safety Practice/
Trinity) works as both a firefighter for the
Charlottesville, Viriginia Fire Department
and as a public safety consultant for the
TriData Corporation. Markus finished an
associates’ degree in Paramedic Medicine this
spring, and spent the summer learning how
to sail catamarans in the Outer Banks.
•Carie (Windham) Page (Irish History
and Politics/UU) is talking technology and
pedagogy as the program coordinator for the
EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, a non-profit
association dedicated to advancing higher
education through the use of information
technology. In March, she married Jon Page
in Charleston, SC. They live in Raleigh, NC,
where Jon is an associate copywriter for
MedThink Communications.
Carrie Windham and Jon Page
Page 27
Class of ’07
2008
Year in Review
Matt Haney at the Democratic
Convention
Page 28
•Karly Burke (Biomedical Engineering/NUI
Galway) works at the Whitehead Institute,
where she is studying gene transcription
regulation in erythroid progenitor cells. She has begun studying Korean with the
hope of becoming conversational one day.
She volunteered for the Barack Obama
presidential campaign and is continuing her
involvement in the grassroots movement.
•Kathleen Claussen (International Politics/
Queen’s) is in her second year at Yale Law
School where she co-directs the Forum on
the Practice of International Law and is a
member of Yale’s Supreme Court Clinic. She
spent last summer studying comparative
law in Santiago, Chile and working in the
Appellate Division of the Legal Aid Society in
Washington, DC.
•Adar Cohen (International Peace Studies/
Trinity) is enrolled in the PhD program at
the Irish School of Ecumenics, conducting
most of his research from Chicago, where
he also teaches and mentors at-risk youth
through a partnership between the I Have
a Dream Foundation and Civic Leadership
Foundation. In February, he will participate
in a track two peacebuilding delegation to
Iran, traveling to five cities for discussions
with civil society and religious leaders.
•Kara Cook (Anglo-Irish Literature/UCD)
is in her first year of law school at the
University of California Berkeley. She plans
to study international environmental law
and is currently writing a short article for the
Ecology Law Quarterly about new regulatory
standards in the Clean Air Act. •Matthew Haney (International Human
Rights Law/NUIG/Queens) is in his second
year of law school at Stanford. Since his
return from Ireland, Matt played a leadership
role in President-Elect Obama’s campaign
in California and was selected to serve as an
alternate delegate to the 2008 Democratic
National Convention in Denver.
•Aaron Kurman (Peace & Conflict Studies/
UU) is in his first year at Stanford Law
School. This past summer, he was a head
counselor at Seeds of Peace International
Camp. Last year, he volunteered with Seeds
of Peace and the Jerusalem Policy Forum
while studying in Jerusalem on a Dorot
Fellowship.
•Daniel Preysman (Journalism/DCU) is
in his second year of law school at Harvard
University, splitting his time between courses
and volunteer activities at a local farm, a
community development corporation and an
urban mentoring program.
•Sarah Sexton (Peace & Development/
UL) is in her second year of law school
at University of California, Berkeley.
She enjoyed her summer clerkship at
Insight Center for Community Economic
Development where she focused on taxexemption issues, entity structuring and
worker-cooperative creation. This fall,
in addition to her classes, she was as an
extern at the United States Department of
Agriculture, Office of the General Counsel
working on Rural Development and Farm
Services cases.
•Victoria Sprow (Creative Writing/Trinity)
will complete her MFA in Fiction at the Iowa
Writers’ Workshop in May. Her work has
appeared most recently in Fiction Magazine
and The Greensboro Review. She also teaches
undergraduate Literature and Creative
Writing at the University of Iowa.
•John Velasco (International Studies/UL)
recently moved to Washington, DC to pursue
a research position in international relations.
He recently finished a one-year appointment
as a California Executive Fellow in the Office
of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger where
he served as an advisor on education and
border issues. While a fellow, John served
as a principle planner for an international
conference focusing on green technology in
the US-Mexico border region that brought
together local, state, and federal elected
officials. In addition, he worked daily with
the Governor’s Secretary of Education on
the development and implementation of
education policy with a specific focus on 8th
grade algebra. •Sarah Wappett-Kendall (International
Security & Conflict Studies/DCU) was
named the Deloitte Fellow for Emergency
Preparedness and leads a project on
improving the disaster readiness of the
National Capital Region’s nonprofit
organizations. She also researches for
Georgetown’s Center for National Security
and the Law. Sarah is in her second year at
the Georgetown University Law School and
hopes to pursue a career as a government
attorney practicing national security law.
Class of ’08
•Allison Barlow (Meteorology/UCD) was
recently married to Michael Mabrey (also
training to be a Navy pilot) in Florida. She is
currently in primary flight school hoping to
select helicopters.
•Jeff Benedict (Musicology/Maynooth) is a
Second Lieutenant in the Army and is busy
studying for his law exams at the University
of Louisville, where he began law school one
week after returning from Ireland (and three
weeks before finishing his Masters’ thesis
for NUI Maynooth). He’s involved in the
International Law Society and the Christian
Legal Society at school, plays the piano
at church, and maintains a killer workout
schedule. Jeff will receive his promotion to
First Lieutenant the summer after next, and
is subsequently guaranteed a post in the U.S.
Army Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps
upon his graduation from law school.
•Arthur Chan (Contemporary Migration
and Diaspora Studies/UCC) spent June in
Dublin conducting field research for his
thesis, an ethnography of Chinese migrant
entrepreneurs in Ireland. After leaving Cork
at the end of July, he traveled to Phnom
Penh, Cambodia on a Young People For
the American Way grant to produce a
documentary short for A Second Chance,
a non-profit organization created to ease
the transition of Cambodian-American
deportees in the wake of the Patriot Act. He
has since moved to New York City, where
he is currently serving as Assistant Producer
on his first off-Broadway play, “Sleepwalk
With Me,” at the Bleecker Street Theatre.
Comic Mike Birbiglia wrote and performs
the one-man comedy with, among others,
Marc Turtletaub, Peter Saraf (“Little Miss
Sunshine”) and Nathan Lane producing.
Arthur has also begun improv training at the
Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.
•Sarah David (Ethnic Conflict/Queen’s)
spent her year in Belfast working with Public
Achievement, an organization committed to
reinforcing civic engagement with Belfast’s
youth. She completed her dissertation in
Comparative Ethnic Conflict at Queens
University in July and moved to New York
City where she works for the New York
Police Department Counterterrorism Bureau
as an Intelligence Research Analyst.
2008
Year in Review
•Brendan Hayes (Development Studies/
UCD) is currently living in Malawi with his
fiancée Carrie Golitko, where he is working
on an HIV prevention project with a local
family planning organization.
•Sean Healy (International Security and
Conflict Studies/DCU) and his wife Carolyn
are currently stationed at Fort Leonard Wood
Missouri where he is awaiting the start of
the Engineer Captain’s Career Course. In
the meantime he’s advising an Engineer
Mine Dog training unit and taking Arabic
lessons from a Saudi Arabian classmate. He’s
scheduled to remain at Fort Leonard Wood
until he finishes the Career Course and a
Master’s Degree from the Missouri University
of Science and Technology in Engineering
Management next October.
Alison Barlow and Michael Mabrey
at Naval Academy chapel
•Bernadette McFadden (Social Research/
Trinity) recently joined the Institute of
Medicine of the National Academies of
Science as a Research Associate for the Board
of Health Care Services. An excerpt of her
master’s dissertation on the challenges of
ensuring the management of Dublin’s public
spaces is inclusive of persons experiencing
homelessness will soon be published in a
quarterly homeless magazine.
•Frank McMillan (Political Philosophy/
Queen’s) has stayed on in Belfast and is
currently working for the Participation and
the Practice of Rights Project. He works
with residents and young people across
north Belfast to help them advocate for their
economic and social rights.
•Scot Miller (Environmental Studies/Trinity)
moved to Berlin last summer to begin a
Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship.
He now works for Bundnis 90/die Grüne
(the German Green Party) in the German
Bundestag and will spend next spring at
an environmental consulting and advocacy
firm in Berlin. When he is isn’t running
around the German parliament, Scot likes
to cycle around Berlin, explore the millions
of restaurants and pubs in the city, and visit
Page 29
friends back in Dublin.
2008
Year in Review
•Jimmy Soni (Politics/UCC) continued his
writing and research through the summer,
and finished the Chicago Marathon in
October. In the fall, he started work as
an analyst at McKinsey and Company in
Chicago.
•Erin Stevens began training at Fort
Benning, Georgia. She is currently at the
Military Intelligence Basic Officer Leadership
Course at Fort Huachuca, Arizona and
plans to join the 1st Cavalry Division, Fort
Hood, Texas in February 2009. She married
Lieutenant Michael Long in July, and finished
her dissertation.
•Nate Wright (International Human
Rights Law/NUIG) has taken a position
as Policy Associate at The Center for U.S.
Global Engagement in Washington, DC,
where he worked directly on their Impact
’08 campaign. Impact ’08 worked to
encourage politicians and specifically the
presidential candidates to elevate support for
development assistance and diplomacy.
Erin Stevens and Michael Long
Page 30
ENDOWMENT BENEFACTORS
Garrett
& Maeve
Kelleher
Bernard
& Moira
McNamara
Pat &
Teresa
Mooney
Derek and
Siobhan
Quinlan
ENDOWMENT SUPPORTERS
Joe O’Reilly
John & Cearuil Morrissey
SCHOLARSHIP SPONSORS
THE
GOVERNMENT
OF IRELAND
US
DEPARTMENT
OF STATE
Bureau of Educational
and Cultural Affairs
The NORTHERN
IRELAND
DEPARTMENT FOR
EMPLOYMENT
BD (BECTON,
DICKINSON &
COMPANY)
AND LEARNING
BOMBARDIER
AEROSPACE
(NI)
FOUNDATION
CROSS
ATLANTIC
CAPITAL
PARTNERS
UNIVERSITY Sponsors
Dublin City University / Trinity College Dublin / Queen’s University Belfast
University College Cork / University College Dublin / University of Limerick
University of Ulster / National University of Ireland Galway
National University of Ireland Maynooth
In addition to those listed elsewhere in this newsletter,
we are very grateful to the following for their In-kind support
Abbey Theatre
American Airlines
Arnold & Porter
Brian Barrington
Castletroy Hotel
CDG Solutions
Chester Beatty Library
CIE
Digital Media Forum
Doonbeg Golf Club
Glenstal Abbey
Paul Hayes & Mary Calpin
Hayes Solicitors
The Irish Embassy in Washington
The Irish Times
Gerry McCrory
Merchant Hotel
National Trust
The Northern Ireland Bureau
O’Connor Sheedy
Office of Public Works
The Royal Irish Academy
In addition to those listed elsewhere in this newsletter, the US-Ireland Alliance
wishes to thank the following for their contributions of $1,000 or more:
Cecelia Ahern
Frances Bain
Margaret Fenelon
John Gardiner
Felimy Greene
Senator Edward M. Kennedy
Parallel Films
Peter Smith
Donation in memory of Katherine Brick
The US-Ireland Alliance and the George J. Mitchell Scholars would like to honor the memory of Katherine Brick, who died in February
2008. Her generous and sustained commitment to the George J. Mitchell Scholarship Program reflected her love of Northern Ireland
and the United States, her desire to strengthen the ties between the two countries, and her faith in the future. We deeply appreciate
the continuing support of the Brick family the many contributions made to the Mitchell Scholarship program in honor of Katherine.
Alumni Donors
Jennifer Lambert
Class of ‘01
Kathleen Long
Ned Augenblick
Michelle Miles
Rebecca Blustein
Kathleen Romig Krepps
Erin Breeze
Julia Rosenbloom
Mikela French
Ben Trachtenberg
Desha Girod
Lisa Yu Ross
Winnie Li
Gabe Paquette
Class of ‘03
Rebecca Reichert Aslakson
Matt Alexander
Laela Sturdy
Hal Frampton
Tom Vitolo
Jeannie Huh
Emily Mark
Class of ‘02
Georgia Miller Mjartan
Peter Frosch
Joanna Pearson
Ehrin (Johnson) Armstrong
Davin Quinn
Dawn Hewett
Seena Perumal Carrington
Bree Hocking
Sarah Wagner McCoy
Matt Huenerfauth
Mark Tosso
Amanda Wetzell
Class of ‘04
Alexandra Chirinos
O’Rourke
Cassie Farrelly
Moira Herbst
John Kiess
Jana Kiser
Robbie Majzner
Michael Osofsky
Simon Rodberg
Arsalan Suleman
Jasmin Weaver
Class of ‘05
Monica Bell
David Buckley
Michael Gale
Ryan Hanley
Nick Johnson
Smith Lilley
Kesav Mohan
Bobby Mulcare
Paul Musgrave
Cindy Romero
Brandon Thibodeaux
Class of ‘06
Liza Anderson
Melissa Boteach
Ben Cote
Lily Jeng
Aaron Rabinowitz
Brittany Schick
Mike Solomon
Geoff Swenson
Richard Waters
Markus Weisner
Carie Windham
Class of ‘07
Karly Burke
Kathleen Claussen
Adar Cohen
Kara Cook
Matthew Haney
Aaron Kurman
Daniel Preysman
Sarah Sexton
Victoria Sprow
John Velasco
Sarah Wappett
Class of ‘08
Allison Barlow
Jeffrey Benedict
Art Chan
Sarah David
Brendan Hayes
Sean Healy
Bernadette McFadden
Frank McMillan
Scott Miller
Jimmy Soni
Erin Stevens
Nate Wright
Class of ‘09
Victoria Moore
BENEFACTOR
The US-Ireland Alliance is
grateful to its Boards
and Sponsors
Honorary Board
Prime Minister Brian Cowen
Senator Susan Collins
Eamon Gilmore, T.D.
CORPORATE SPONSOR
Mary Harney, T.D.
John Hume
Senator Edward M. Kennedy
Enda Kenny, T.D.
Senator George Mitchell
Advisory Board
Brian Barrington
Tom Byrne
Divided Past | Shared Future
Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Belfast Agreement
April 10, 2008
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Laurence Crowley
John Gardiner
OSCAR WILDE: Honoring Irish in Film
Charlie Koones
Gerry McCrory
Tom McEnery
PRESENTING SPONSORS
Sir George Quigley
Jim Sheridan
Ruth Shipsey
Counsel
Jim Fitzpatrick
Richard Hubbard
Arnold & Porter
SPONSOR
Joe O’Malley
Hayes Solicitors
FRIENDS
Space does not allow us
to thank individually each
of the numerous others who
have offered their support
John Dellaverson
David Friendly
Andy Friendly Trust
Lou Pitt
Culture Ireland
Irish Film Board
20th Century Fox
ICM
Peter Benedek
throughout the year.
We could not have done
it without you!
IN-KIND SPONSORS OF THE OSCAR WILDE EVENT
Baileys
Boru Vodka
Burren Perfumery
Bushmills
Food America
GE
Guinness,
Harp
Hot Irishman
La Brea Bakery
Laura Lee Designs
Kerrygold
Lily O’Briens
Oronoco
Palm
River Films
Sterling Vineyards
Sunset Marquis
Tiffany & Co.