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2015 SENIOR JOURNALISTS SEMINAR BRIDGING GAPS IN U.S. RELATIONS WITH THE MUSLIM WORLD August 19 – September 10, 2015 Washington, DC  Nashville, TN  Honolulu, HI  , Malaysia  Lahore & Islamabad, Pakistan

Participant Biographies

Ms. Elena L. ABEN Senior Reporter, The Bulletin, Manila, Philippines

Ms. Elena L. Aben is a senior reporter for The , where she primarily covers defense and military affairs, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, and the U.S. Embassy in Manila. The Manila Bulletin is among the largest in circulation and is considered the Philippines’ of record.

Prior to her present assignment, Ms. Aben covered many beats, among them, police local government units, local courts, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, the Department of Interior and Local Government, and the National Police Commission.

In addition to her journalism responsibilities, Ms. Aben has provided media consultancy services to the Philippine Public Safety College and the Philippine National Police. She has also participated twice in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), first in 2008 on the topic of "Foreign Policy and Journalism" and again in 2012 on the topic of "Regional Security." The IVLP is the U.S. State Department’s premier professional exchange program. Ms. Aben has also travelled to Japan to participate in the Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Foreign Journalists Invitation Program, and she served as a facilitator for a forum organized by the U.S. Embassy in Manila, on citizen participation in democratic society.

Ms. Aben has earned several awards and citations for her reporting, including a plaque of recognition presented by then President Fidel V. Ramos.

Ms. Aben received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of the Philippines in Diliman.

Mr. Rana Tanveer ALI Senior Reporter, The Express Tribune, Lahore, Pakistan

Mr. Rana Tanveer Ali is a senior reporter at The Express Tribune, Lahore, a publishing partner of The International New York Times and the first internationally affiliated newspaper in Pakistan. The Express Tribune’s mission is to defend liberal values and egalitarian traditions, and to uphold those beliefs in writing that is both informative and insightful. As a journalist, Mr. Ali primarily covers issues regarding religiosity, religious diversity, and religious minorities in Pakistan, including Christians, Sikhs, Hindus, Shiites and the most vulnerable group, Ahmadis. In his 10 years of experience as a professional journalist, Mr. Ali has covered the activities of mainstream Muslim fanatic groups and how they affect the lives of religious minorities and other Islamic sects and the activities of extremist religious organizations as well as blasphemy laws and cases under review within the Pakistani court system.

2015SJS is supported by East-West Center, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art and Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute The East-West Center promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the , Asia, and the Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue. Previous to joining The Express Tribune, Mr. Ali worked for The Daily Times, an English language daily owned by former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, who was assassinated for being outspoken against the blasphemy law and its misuse.

In recognition for his work, Chicago University’s Professor Emeritus C. M. Naim dedicated the title of his book, A Killing in Ferozewala, to Mr. Ali, and it included about 12 of his stories which were published in 2013. Mr. Ali is currently completing a book about the state’s political move to exclude Ahmadis by declaring them as non- Muslims.

Mr. Ali graduated with distinction with his master’s degree in mass communications from University of The Punjab, Lahore, with a special emphasis on print media and online journalism. Mr. Ali also completed an Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability Fellowship at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University in The City of New York.

Mr. Abdelrauof ARNAOUT Senior Political Reporter, Al-Ayyam Newspaper, Ramallah, Palestine

Mr. Abdelraouf Arnaout , is a senior political reporter for Al-Ayyam Newspaper, a privately-owned newspaper published from the city of Ramallah, in the West Bank, and distributed all over the Palestinian territories. After the Palestinian Authority was established as the first self-ruling Palestinian body, Mr. Arnaout joined Al-Ayyam Newspaper, where he covers the political aspects of the Palestinian cause, the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, major summits in Wye River and Camp David, and relations between Palestine and the West, including the United States and the European Union.

Mr. Arnaout’s work has allowed him to travel with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to many parts in the world, including Europe, the United States, Central and South America, Asia, and Africa, where he conducted interviews with such world leaders as: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, French Foreign Minister Bernard Koushner, U.N. secretary General Kofi Anan, Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Levni, among others.

Mr. Arnaout previously worked at AN-Nahar Daily Newspaper, where he had the opportunity to participate in several journalism workshops and courses inside and out of the Palestinian territories. In 2005, Mr. Arnaout won the prestigious Palestinian Annual Media Award his work.

Born in the old city of Jerusalem, Mr. Arnaout studied at the Colleges des Frères before pursuing his degree in business administration and public relations at Al-Ibrahimieh colleges in East Jerusalem.

Mr. John HUDSON Senior Reporter, Foreign Policy, Washington, DC, USA

Mr. John Hudson is currently a senior reporter at Foreign Policy magazine, where he covers U.S. diplomacy and national security, more specifically the State Department and Washington’s Embassy Row.

Previously, Mr. Hudson blogged and reported on national and international politics for The Atlantic magazine, and over the years, he has dug up resignation-causing FEC documents; unmasked infamous Internet trolls; exposed bizarre photoshopping by government media; and revealed the ins and outs of Washington's foreign policy machine. Most recently, he published a lengthy profile of Victoria Nuland, America’s top diplomat for the crisis in Ukraine. Mr. Hudson has also appeared on CNN, MSNBC, BBC, C-SPAN, Fox News radio and other broadcast outlets.

2 Mr. Hudson owes a lot of his journalism career to a 2008 chance encounter at a lecture given by Lawrence Scott Sheets, NPR’s former Moscow bureau chief and Michigan State University alum. Mr. Hudson asked him for advice on how to become a foreign correspondent and Lawrence Scott Sheets recommended spending the summer in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia writing stories for a local radio station he helped start in Tbilisi. This resulted in a three month stint in the tiny Caucasus nation, which ended on August 8, 2008 -- the day Russian forces blindsided the world and invaded Georgia in a five day war that decimated Tbilisi’s military and killed and wounded hundreds of citizens. Luckily, Mr. Hudson managed to slip across the Georgia-Abkhazia boundary line and return to Tbilisi, where he visited the hospital rooms of injured soldiers and interviewed local citizens and officials living in a state of war. Mr. Hudson collected those accounts for a story published in Salon.com that ran on August 12, the final day of hostilities between Russia and Georgia. This exposure helped put Mr. Hudson on the radar of The Atlantic magazine.

Mr. Hudson received a degree in international relations from Michigan State University.

Mr. Sameer Arshad KHATLANI Chief Copy Editor, of India, New Delhi, India

Mr. Sameer Arshad Khatlani is chief copy editor and a journalist with the national and international news gathering section of , the world’s largest selling English-language daily newspaper and part of India’s biggest media conglomerate. His responsibilities at The Times of India include commissioning, rewriting, and editing stories from across India and the world, focusing on Kashmir, Pakistan and China.

Mr. Khatlani joined the Times of India in April 2007, primarily to edit, rewrite, and commission stories. But his contributions have since gone beyond his designated role. He has covered elections, national disasters, written features and opinion pieces for The Times of India and its sister publications, The Economic Times, India’s highest circulated business daily, and The Times Crest.

Mr. Khatlani started his career as a national affairs reporter for a regional daily and covered key beats such as Parliament, for two years. His primary areas of interest are South Asian minorities, the Kashmir conflict, Pakistan, wider South Asia, Indian politics, human rights, religion, and blogging about contested issues of peace building and conflict resolution.

Mr. Khatlani has also authored two forthcoming books, one of which focuses on the humanity of prolonged conflict in his native Kashmir, a disputed territory between India and Pakistan. The other is a travelogue based on his visit to Lahore, and it explores the strong, thriving commonalities between India and Pakistan, and the city’s rich cultural heritage.

Mr. Khatlani received his master’s degree in history from Delhi’s prestigious Jamia Millia Islamia University, in Delhi, and a degree in journalism from an Institute in India’s national capital. He also worked as a freelance journalist while he was still a student completing his undergraduate studies at the University of Kashmir.

Ms. Kim LAWTON Managing Editor/Correspondent, Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, Public Broadcasting System, Washington, DC, USA

Ms. Kim Lawton is managing editor and correspondent for the highly-acclaimed national public television program Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, where she oversees news coverage and appears as a regular on-air correspondent. She also provides exclusive content for the program’s award-winning website and social media outlets. Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly is a weekly half-hour television news program aired on about 275 PBS stations across the United States. It is the only mainstream television outlet in the U.S. that focuses on religion. Ms. Lawton was part of the team that launched Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly in 1997.

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While developing Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, Ms. Lawton worked as a freelance journalist, researching and writing news stories and feature articles for , magazines and national news services including Religion News Service and Knight-Ridder’s American News Service. Prior to that, she was a religion editor for the United Press International radio network, developing spot news stories and a weekly religion round-up show and she covered human rights and international religious freedom issues for the independent wire service, News Network International. Over the course of her career, Ms. Lawton has worked on assignment in more than 30 countries.

In addition, Ms. Lawton is a frequent commentator on issues of religion, spirituality and culture, and has appeared on outlets including PBS “NewsHour,” MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. Her articles have appeared in numerous publications including The Times, , The Dallas Morning News and The Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Ms. Lawton has received many awards for her work, including a 2015 Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media (as well as in 2013 and 2011); The 2015 Briner Impact Award honoring excellence and integrity in the media; Wilbur Awards in 2012 and 2010; several “Best Television Reporting” awards from the Religion News Writers Association; and the 2008 Gold Medal in the New York Festival’s TV Broadcasting Awards.

Ms. Lawton holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications with a journalism concentration and a minor in political science from Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania. She also studied journalism at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Mr. Hayman H. MOHAMMED Head of Digital Media, Rudaw Media Network, Erbil, Iraq

Mr. Hayman H. Mohammed (Hemin Lihony) is the head of the digital portal at Rudaw Media Network, the largest Kurdish media network. The portal is a multi-lingual website that publishes the news in five languages within 24 hours. At Rudaw, Mr. Mohammed is responsible for all digital media and for supervising the implementation of plans related to all of the online content. Under Mr. Mohammed’s leadership, Rudaw has become the most viewed website in Iraq. Additionally, Mr. Mohammed is a member of the Rudaw managing board, which is the body responsible for designing and implementing the network’s strategies.

Before joining Rudaw, Mr. Mohammed was the director of Xendan website, which at his time, was the most viewed website in Iraq. He has also taken top positions in other media networks and outlets such as Rozhnama and the -based Institute of War and Peace Reporting. Throughout his career, Mr. Mohammed has appeared on several international and local TV stations as a commentator on international affairs, and he has been quoted by a number of international media outlets such as Financial Times, and , on issues related to Kurdistan region and the Middle East.

In 2011, Mr. Mohammed was selected for the Kurdistan Regional Government delegation led, by Premier Minister to Doha Forum, and in 2012 he participated in The Atlantic Council Conference in .

Mr. Mohammed received a bachelor’s degree in international studies and political science, and a degree in economics, from the American University of Iraq.

Mr. Muamar Orabi NAKHLA General Director/Chief Editor, Wattan Media, Ramallah, Palestine

Mr. Muammar Orabi Nakhla is the general director and editor-in-chief of Wattan Media Organization, an independent, non-profit, and secular media organization established in Ramallah.

4 Mr. Nakhla is a free thinker, an innovator and is mission oriented, and he strongly believes in media as a tool to change societies. He has been working tirelessly to provide a platform through Wattan, for both journalists and the public, to take initiative and speak out, making Wattan a forum for free expression in Palestine. Mr. Nakhla is a frequent participant and speaker in local and international workshops, seminars, and conferences that seek to upgrade the media industry and expand its role in disseminating the values of democracy and human rights. Mr. Nakhla is also a board member of a number of Palestinian civil society organizations

Under the leadership of Mr. Nakhla and with the dedication of a team of around 70 journalists and technical staff, Wattan has become the most popular local TV station. Wattan has received many awards, including but not limited to: “Boazzizi Transparency and Integrity Award,” (2011) from AMAN, Coalition for Integrity and Accountability; the “Media Award” (2012, 2013), from Transparency International/ Palestine Branch; the “Freedom Award” (2012), from Palestinian Prime Minister Office; and the “Reporters for Arab Investigative Journalism Award” (2013), from ARIJ. In April 2015, Wattan was ranked second in the category of visual Media in “The Journalist Friends of Local Government” competition in Ramallah, organized by the Ministry of Local Government in cooperation with the German Development Agency.

Mr. Nakhla received dual master’s degrees in environmental studies and public health and he is currently studying law. He is a recipient of the 2009 Eisenhower Fellowship and a 2004 Responding to Conflict Fellow.

Ms. Ailing QIN, Senior Reporter South Reviews Magazine, Guangzhou Daily News Group, Guangzhou, China

Ms. Ailing Qin is a senior reporter for South Reviews Magazine, the largest news magazine covering politics and economics in China, and a subsidiary of Guangzhou Daily Newsgroup. In her role, Ms. Qin is primarily responsible for covering government policy, social transformation, and economic development in China. Previously, Ms. Qin served as a reporter for Southern Weekly newspaper, and before that, she was a reporter for Oriental Outlook and 21st Century Business Herald.

In addition to her primary responsibilities at South Reviews, Ms. Qin has broadened the magazine’s coverage by conducting research and reporting on the Xinjiang and Muslim issue, and various other under-reported areas of China. In 2013, her article “The Fundamental Change of Xinjiang’s Counter-Terrorism Situation,” an in-depth report on the reemergence of active terrorism in Xinjiang, was named the Best Report of the Guangzhou Daily News Group. Ms. Qin’s other interests include globalization, military reform, and the modernization of the Uyghur people, a subject on which she is currently writing a book.

Ms. Qin received her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Chengdu Institute of Technology.

Ms. Mallika RAO Staff Writer, The Huffington Post, , New York, USA

Ms. Mallika Rao is a reporter for The Huffington Post, where she focuses on the intersection of race and culture. A popular online news site, HuffPost has more than 10 international editions, in languages including Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and soon, Arabic. At HuffPost, Ms. Rao finds herself writing mostly about artists, internet culture, and the cultural roots of linguistic trends, but her favorite stories are simply about ordinary people. Prior to this position, Ms. Rao was an editor of HuffPost’s Culture section. Before that, she freelanced for pop culture sites like RollingStone.com, Jezebel and Entertainment Weekly, contributing both written work and hand drawn cartoons.

In 2015, Ms. Rao won first place in the LA Press Club’s Journalism Awards, an annual national contest, in the category of Best Industry Feature. Her winning story analyzed the accidental racism of the iconic “Simpsons”

5 character Apu, a fictional Indian convenience store owner and TV institution for decades, by spotlighting a growing discontent among Indian-American actors, actresses and comics who feel limited by the association.

Ms. Rao holds a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University, and an undergraduate degree in English from Middlebury College. While in graduate school, she interned with the Religion News Service in Washington D.C., and Business Today, a national magazine based in Delhi, India.

Ms. Chaitali B. ROY Special Correspondent, Arab Times Kuwait and Producer/Editor, Radio Kuwait, Safat, Kuwait/Indian

Ms. Chaitali B. Roy is special correspondent for Arab Times Kuwait, a leading English-language paper that has played a meaningful role in Kuwaiti society and politics for more than four decades. Since joining Arab Times Kuwait, Ms. Roy has contributed regular articles and features on Kuwaiti women, heritage, and Islamic art. She has also worked on issues concerning education, gender discrimination, addiction, censorship and has promoted cultural issues of local and international relevance. Her published articles have also been reprinted in blogs and websites.

Additionally, Ms. Roy is associated with the state-owned English Channel Radio Kuwait Foreign Service, as a producer and editor. Radio Kuwait has been broadcasting for more than six decades, with the Foreign Service starting English transmission in 1964. Having started off with creating, producing, scripting and executing prime time daily entertainment shows for Radio Kuwait, Ms. Roy transitioned to creating and researching for special shows that explored different aspects of the culture, history and heritage of Kuwait and the Arabian Gulf. All shows executed are translated into Filipino and Urdu for broadcast.

Previously, Ms. Roy worked with HMV – Sa Re Ga Ma, a leading entertainment company in India, exploring their vast catalogue of music to create shows with mass appeal and intellectual content. She was involved in directing and supervising all aspects of the station’s programming, including the development and execution of show content, formatting, music scheduling and RJ training. She also hosted live shows in English and Hindi.

Over the years, Ms. Roy has organized lectures, workshops, exhibitions, demonstrations by artists, designers, social workers, and medical professionals, for embassies, NGOs, and non–profit organizations in Kuwait. She has also coordinated and hosted several musical concerts and awards ceremonies in Kuwait. At present, Ms. Roy is vice president of the Bengali Society, Kuwait, a non–profit cultural organization comprised of Bengali speaking Indians in the country. She is also on the management board of the Delhi Public School, a leading Indian school in Kuwait.

Ms. Roy is also currently working on a book titled Women in Kuwait – Turning Tides, which will be published by Haranand Publications in New Delhi, India.

Chaitali has a master’s degree in English literature from Calcutta University, with a special concentration on drama and critical appreciation, and a bachelor’s degree in English from Loreto College.

Ms. Ethar EL-KATATNEY Senior Producer, AJ+, San Francisco, California, USA/Egyptian

Ms. Ethar El-Katatney is an international-award-winning multimedia journalist and author. She is currently acting executive producer at AJ+ in San Francisco, a global online news community that experiments with storytelling and social media strategies for an American millennial audience. Ms. El-Katatney has previously worked as a staff writer at Egypt Today, the leading current affairs magazine in the Middle East, at its sister magazine Business Today Egypt, as a researcher-reporter for the quarterly journal The Review of Global Affairs, and

6 she has also contributed to Muslimah Media Watch, a website that critiques the representation of Muslim women in the media and popular culture.

Ms. El-Katatney travels all over the world to report and deliver lectures--from Japan, Denmark, and Norway to Qatar, Ghana, and South Africa. She attends conferences and various summer intensive programs promoting interfaith and intercultural dialogue.

Ms. El-Katatney’s book Forty Days and Forty Nights in Yemen was published in the UK in March 2010. She is currently working on her second book, which will be about Islam in China.

In 2011, her op-ed “The Veiled Muslim Bogeygirl,” won the Samir Kassir Freedom of the Press Award. In 2009, her story The Business of Islam won the Economics and Business award in the CNN Multi-Choice African Journalist of the Year award, making her the first Egyptian and Arab to win the prestigious award. In the same year, she was awarded the Anna Lindh Mediterranean Journalist Award by Prince Albert III in Monte Carlo for her story Identity Crisis 101. In 2008, her investigative piece Dangerous Blood, on Hepatitis C in Egypt, was awarded second place in a competition held by the International Center for Journalists in Washington DC. Ms. El-Katatney has been chosen as a Muslim Leader of Tomorrow by the Cordoba Initiative in New York, and as a New Generational Leader in Africa by the African Leadership Network. Forbes previously listed her as one of the best Arabs to follow on twitter, and she is currently ranked by Top100Arabs as the #28 most influential twitter account in Egypt, and #282 across the MENA region.

Born in Saudi Arabia, raised in Egypt, and educated in Western schools, Ms. El-Katatney has an undergraduate business degree, an MBA, and an MA in television and digital journalism from the American University in Cairo.

Mr. Jawad SUKHANYAR Reporter, The New York Times, Kabul Bureau, Kabul, Afghanistan

Mr. Jawad Sukhanyar has eleven years of experience working as a journalist in Afghanistan and has been a reporter with The New York Times Kabul Bureau for the past four years. The New York Times is the most influential news organization in the United States and plays a major role in setting the news agenda worldwide. Aside from covering a wide range of topics and news, Mr. Sukhanyar’s main concentration and specialty has been working on human rights and women’s rights issues and has also developed a special interest regarding the impact of religion on these issues.

Previously, Mr. Sukhanyar served as interpreter and assistant for Dutch author, Bette Dam, while she was writing a book on President Hamid Karzai, named A Man and His Motorcycle. For the past eleven years, Mr. Sukhanyar has worked as a freelance translator and interpreter with a variety of Western media outlets, including The Financial Times and La Republica.

Mr. Sukhanyar has a master’s degree in political science from Indira Gandhi National Open University in India, for which he submitted a dissertation entitled “The International Community’s Intervention in Afghanistan.” He earned his Bachelor of Arts in political science from Goa University in India. Mr. Sukhanyar has also received other degrees in information technology, web design, and desktop publishing from Manipal Institute of Computer Education.

Ms. Aisha SULTAN Editor and Columnist, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Ms. Aisha Sultan is a nationally syndicated columnist and home and family editor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She primarily writes about families and change. She creates multi-page story spreads with multi-platform design, video and photo elements for the regional metro daily newspaper in Missouri. She also coordinates and produces

7 the home and family coverage, including columns, blogs, feature stories and A1 packages. She is responsible for maximizing social web engagement and reach for each story. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is one of the largest newspapers in the Midwestern United States and its website, stltoday.com, reaches more than 5 million unique users each month.

In addition, Ms. Sultan is a regular radio commentator and frequent guest on CNN. Her work has appeared in more than a hundred print and online publications. Her column runs weekly in more than a dozen news outlets. She speaks nationally at conferences related to parenting, journalism, media literacy and writing.

Prior to becoming a columnist, Ms. Sultan was a breaking news and education beat reporter for nearly a decade, covering national breaking news stories, news features, and investigative pieces. She previously worked at and as a Dow Jones Copy Editing Fund intern.

Ms. Sultan has received numerous journalism awards and honors including: the Asian American Journalists Association national award for Written Excellence for her work in Ferguson, Missouri; the Society for Features Journalism first place in the general commentary portfolio. She was also awarded the Lee President's Award for video innovation; South Asian Journalists Association National Commentary finalist; National Association of Real Estate Editors: Best Feature Story, along with honors from the Missouri, St. Louis and Illinois Press Associations.

In 2011-2012, Ms. Sultan was awarded a Knight Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan, where she did original research on parenting and privacy in the digital age. Ms. Sultan pursued graduate work in social sciences at the University of Chicago. She graduated with her bachelor's degree in sociology and international studies from Trinity University, and studied abroad at the American University in Cairo.

Ms. Seen Hau THAM Head of Content, Kinitv, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Ms. Seen Hau Tham is one of founding members of Kinitv, a subsidiary of Malaysiakini, a multi-awarding- winning media group in Malaysia. Kinitv’s mission is to provide independent, accurate and timely news videos; filling the void left by tightly controlled mainstream media by making sure no newsworthy stories are left unreported. Kinitv is now the fastest growing YouTube news channel in Malaysia and reaches 5 million unique visitors monthly with its news, documentaries, and talk shows, which are reported in English, Malay and Chinese. Ms. Tham currently serves as the head of content at Kinitv and her responsibilities include setting key strategies for achieving the company's mid and long term goals, managing a trilingual video content production team, and establishing content partnerships. She is also the host and producer of several flagship programs on Kinitv, including the “3-minute News Wrap” and “Kinitalk”.

Prior to Kinitv, Ms. Tham worked for the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama), first as a broadcast journalist, then as head of the Mandarin Desk. During her tenure with Bernama TV, Ms. Tham managed an editorial team of more than 10 people who produced bulletins and talk shows. She has extensive broadcasting experience, covering everything from general elections to international events. Ms. Tham was also previously a columnist for Nanyang Daily, one of the most prominent Chinese newspapers in Malaysia.

She has been a speaker/moderator on journalism issues at the University of Texas, Austin, Royal Malaysia Police Headquarters, Putrajaya, and World Marketing Summit, Putrajaya. In 2009, Ms. Tham was the recipient of Bernama Excellence Award.

Ms. Tham graduated with bachelor’s degree in media studies from Murdoch University in Perth, Australia.

8 Ms. Kimberly WINSTON National Correspondent, Religion News Service, San Francisco, California, USA

Ms. Kimberly Winston is a national correspondent for Religion News Service, a Washington, D.C. wire service that provides religion coverage for more than 100 secular media outlets. At Religions News Service, she has covered the freethought community for RNS — atheists, humanists and other so-called “nones” — and now also covers religion and popular culture. Additionally, Ms. Winston is the editor of ReligionLink, a project of the Religion Newswriters Foundation that provides resources for religion coverage for reporters.

Ms. Winston has been a religion reporter for more than 20 years. Prior to joining RNS and ReligionLink, she worked as a freelancer, contributing religion stories to USA Today, The Washington Post, The Salt Lake City Tribune, the and Newsweek. She has also written about the business of religion books for Publishers Weekly magazine. Her first journalism job was as a general assignment reporter for the The Tri-Valley Herald and The Fremont Argus, both in the San Francisco Bay Area. Ms. Winston is also the author of three books, including Faith Beyond Faith Healing: Find Hope After Shattered Dreams.

Ms. Winston has been the recipient of the 2014 Religion Communicators Council’s award for best feature writing, the 2005 American Academy of Religion’s award for best religion reporting and the 1995 Religion Newswriters Association’s Cassel Award for best religion reporter at a small market newspaper. She has been a Gralla Fellow, studying American Judaism at Brandeis University, and a Knight Fellow in Islam and America at the University of Maryland. Ms. Winston has also spoken about American communities of non-belief at Interfaith Kosovo, an international conference on interfaith understanding.

Kimberly received her master’s degree from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas.

Mr. Kourosh ZIABARI Op-ed Writer, Times and Correspondent, Iran Review, Tehran

Mr. Kourosh Ziabari is an award-winning Iranian journalist and writer. He works with the Iran Review as a staff reporter and correspondent. Iran Review is a major foreign policy news and analysis website based in Tehran. Mr. Ziabari also writes op-eds for Tehran Times, Iran’s leading international daily, and has been a contributor for Global Research, Your Middle East, International Policy Digest and Foreign Policy Journal, among other international publications. Additionally, Mr. Ziabari has been cooperating with Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations as an analyst on Iran affairs. Since late 2014, he has also been the Iran correspondent of Fair Observer, a leading news website published from Washington D.C. and London that covers international relations, politics, culture, economics and the Middle East current affairs. Mr. Ziabari has been interviewed by the BBC World Service, PBS Media Shift and the Voice of Russia Radio as an expert on Iran affairs.

Previously, Mr. Ziabari worked with Daneshmand, Iran’s oldest popular science magazine, and while there, he arranged interviews with about 30 Nobel Prize laureates in physics, chemistry, medicine, economics and peace. Mr. Ziabari has also conducted exclusive, in-depth interviews with several prominent world leaders, politicians and diplomats, including Aleksander Kwasniewski, Massimo D’Alema, Thomas Pickering, Emma Bonino, Jack Straw, Mogens Lykketoft, Jose Ramos-Horta, F. W. de Klerk, Mario Soares, Vicente Fox, and Hans Blix.

Mr. Ziabari is the recipient of three awards in Iran’s National Press Festival, and the national medal of Superior Iranian Youth for his contributions to press and journalism. In June 2015, he was awarded a fellowship by Deutsche Welle / European Youth Press to cover the Global Media Forum 2015 in Bonn, Germany.

Mr. Ziabari earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in English language and literature from the University of Guilan.

9 East-West Center Staff:

Liz A. DORN Program Coordinator, Seminars, East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Ms. Liz A. Dorn is a program coordinator for East-West Seminars where she is responsible for conceptualizing, designing and executing various media and leadership programs, including the Senior Journalists Seminar and the US Presidential Election Reporting Seminar amongst others. The purpose of these programs is to promote better public understanding of cultures, issues and trends in the region that encompasses the United States, Asia and the Pacific. Ms. Dorn is also responsible for coordinating the Changing Faces Women’s Leadership Seminar and recently launched the #galswithLEI Forum.

Before moving to Hawaii, Ms. Dorn served as a program associate with the US Asia Pacific Council where she managed Congressional Study Groups on Asian Security, the Asia Pacific Economy and the Pacific Islands as well as the programmatic and fiscal responsibilities associated with the Council’s annual conference. Ms. Dorn has also worked for the former Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Congressman Duncan Hunter as a congressional staffer. In addition, Ms. Dorn spent several years as an accountant both in the tourism sector at Vail Resorts Inc. and in the commercial real estate sector with CB Richard Ellis Inc.

Ms. Dorn co-authored the book chapter, “Changing Faces Women’s Leadership Seminar: A Model for Increasing Asia Pacific Women’s Entrepreneurial Participation,” in the forthcoming academic text Women and Leadership around the World. She is also a former vice chair of communications for a political party in Hawaii and has served as the 2012, 2013 and 2014 chair for the Party’s annual State Convention. She continues to be an active volunteer and assists in disseminating the Party’s message through effective use of the web and social media outlets. Ms. Dorn was the recipient of a University Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs fellowship in 2010. The program included an intensive two-week examination of world religions and their contribution to conflict and conflict resolution.

Ms. Dorn graduated with her master’s in International Pacific Affairs from the University of California at San Diego, with a regional concentration in China. She also holds bachelors’ degrees in both political science and Asian studies as well as a minor in religious studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Ms. Dorn will travel with the 2015 Senior Journalists as the EWC escort.

Susan KREIFELS Media Programs Manager, Seminars, East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Ms. Susan Kreifels assumed the position of Media Programs Manager at the East-West Center on May 2, 2005. She is responsible for all of the Center’s media exchange and fellowship programs. Prior to this, she provided media outreach services at the East-West Center as Assistant to the President (2000-2003) and Media Services Coordinator (2003-2005). She also wrote the East-West Wire, a news service that includes commentary and analysis from the East-West Center on regional issues.

Ms. Kreifels came to the East-West Center from a long and distinguished career in journalism, covering Asia and the Pacific islands while based in Manila, , Washington DC, Honolulu and Guam. She reported for USA TODAY, Dallas Morning News, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Journal of Commerce, Pacific Stars and Stripes and the Pacific Daily News. She also co-hosted a radio talk show on US media for Japan’s NHK public radio.

She has received a number of journalism awards and honors, including: Clarion Award, Women in Communications Inc. (first time national award presented overseas); Pacific and Asian Affairs Council Media Excellence Award; Mary Morgan Hewett Advancement Award; Jefferson Fellowship; and the Freedom Forum Asia Fellowship. Ms. Kreifels has been a speaker/lecturer on international media issues at the Society of

10 Professional Journalists National Convention; China School of Journalism, Beijing; Women in Communications Inc. National Professional Conference; International Philippines Studies Conference; Copple-Hearst Lecturer, University of Nebraska School of Journalism; and the Freedom Forum. She is a founding member of the Asian Journalists Association, a member of the Society of Professional Journalists International Journalism Committee, and founder of International Women in Communications, Tokyo.

Ms. Kreifels is on the journalism faculty of Hawai‘i Pacific University. She is a former secondary teacher in , Australia, and in Omaha, Nebraska. She holds a master’s degree in education, University of Nebraska. She also pursued Japan Studies at The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Ms. Kreifels will facilitate the Honolulu study tour and will co-escort the journalists in Pakistan. She will not travel on the U.S. mainland or Malaysia.

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