This discussion delves into the byzantine workings of the foreign aid and development apparatus of the United States.
The U.S. Foreign Assistance Act, written in 1961, has not seen major reform for over three decades and the panelists discuss how aid legislation must be reworked for the realities of the present day to bring it in line with broader U.S. interests, especially national security- The University of Minnesota
Bio
John Boozman
John Boozman is an American politician who has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 2001, representing the 3rd District of Arkansas (map). He is currently the sole Republican member of Congress (in either House) from Arkansas.
Boozman was born in Arkansas and was an optometrist and rancher before entering the House. He is married to the former Cathy Marley. The couple has three daughters.
Richard Fontaine
Richard Fontaine is the Legislative Assistant for Senator McCain on Foreign Affairs, and former Associate Director at the National Security Council.
Jim Kolbe
James Thomas "Jim" Kolbe is a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Arizona, serving from 1985 to 2007.
Matthew McLean
Matthew McLean is Vice President, Congressional and Public Affairs, Millennium Challenge Corporation of USA.
Mr. McLean received a received a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University’s College of Engineering and Technology and a master’s degree from George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. He is married with four children.
Andrew S. Natsios
Andrew Natsios was the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)from 2001-2005. USAID is the government agency that administers economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide.
President Bush has also appointed him Special Coordinator for International Disaster Assistance and Special Humanitarian Coor-dinator for the Sudan.
Natsios served previously at USAID, first as director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance from 1989 to 1991 and then as assistant administrator for the Bureau for Food and Humanitar-ian Assistance (now the Bureau for Humanitarian Response) from 1991 to January 1993.
Now Natsios is a professor in the Practice of Diplomacy, Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Raymond Offenheiser
Raymond Offenheiser is president of Oxfam America. Before joining Oxfam America, he served for five years as the Ford Foundation Representative in Bangladesh and, prior to that, in the Andean and Southern Cone regions of South America.
He has also directed programs for the Inter-American Foundation in both Brazil and Colombia, and worked for Save the Children Federation in Mexico. Offenheiser earned his BA degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1971 and holds an MA in development sociology from Cornell University.
Vin Weber
Vin Weber is managing partner of Clark & Weinstock, where he provides strategic advice to institutions with matters before the legislative and executive branches of the federal government and advises clients on issues pertaining to mergers and acquisitions, crisis management, and strategic communications. Weber serves on the board of the Council on Foreign Relations.
A former congressman, Weber represented Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District in the US House of Representatives from 1981 to 1993. He is former chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy and a former member of the US secretary of defense's Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee and the US secretary of state's Advisory Committee on Democracy Promotion. He is a senior fellow at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota and serves as a board member of several private-sector and nonprofit organizations, including the Aspen Institute.
Michael Wilson
Michael Wilson is the Canadian Ambassador to the US. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Wilson attended Upper Canada College, Trinity College at the University of Toronto where he joined the Kappa Alpha Society. He was a Bay Street investment executive when he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons as a Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament in the 1979 general election.
He served as Minister of State for International Trade in the nine-month minority government of Joe Clark. He is a mental health advocate, having lost a son to depression and suicide; he established the Cameron Parker Holcombe Wilson Chair in Depression Studies at the University of Toronto.
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