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IMC 2024: Speakers
Title card for the 2024 East-West Center International Media Conference: The Future of Facts
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2024 East-West Center International Media Conference
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Imelda Abaño

Program Manager for the Philippines & Pacific Region,
Internews' Earth Journalism Network Philippines
Manila, Philippines

Imelda Abano

Imelda Abaño is an environmental journalist and media trainer who has been covering climate change, biodiversity, wildlife trafficking, water, agriculture and other environmental issues for over 25 years. She has won national and international media awards, including the 2019 Gold prize award at the United Nations Correspondents Association for Climate Reporting, the Ani ng Dangal Awards in 2019 for her contribution to environmental journalism in the Philippines, the Climate Reality's Philippines Climate Change Media Champion in 2018 and 2019. Abaño is the founding President of the Philippine Network of Environmental Journalists, an organization which was established in 2010, with now more than 200 members. Since 2007, she has been covering a series of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations and eventually mentored international journalists to report on climate negotiations. As Internews Earth Journalism Network’s Program Manager for the Philippines and Pacific Region, Abaño has been managing and leading various activities and projects in the Philippines and the Pacific Region to help individual journalists such as environmental reporting, training, mentorship, data journalism, networking, initiating small grants and developing mobile-based reporting guide and other reporting resource tools.

Rihoko Akiyama

Correspondent and Editor, World Business Satellite, TV Tokyo
Tokyo, Japan

Rihoko Akiyama currently serves as correspondent and editor of World Business Satellite, a daily business and economic news program for TV Tokyo. From 2019 to 2021, Rihoko served as the Washington Correspondent and Bureau Chief for TV Tokyo, covering US politics and policy, including the Trump Administration, the Biden Administration, and the Presidential Election of 2020. She has also spent many years covering the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Finance, and the Prime Minister’s Office of Japan. Her recent works include interviewing many current and former cabinet members and officials of the United States and other countries. Prior to joining TV Tokyo in 2008, Rihoko served as a program director for news at NHK, Japan’s public broadcasting service.  

Sharada Balasubramanian

Independent Environmental and Development Journalist
Coimbatore, India

Sharada Balasubramanian

Sharada Balasubramanian is an international award-winning environmental and development journalist. She has published solution-oriented environmental stories on water, agriculture, climate change, wildlife and conservation, energy. Her work has appeared in Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Climate News Network, Deutsche Welle, Dhaka Tribune, Rural 21, and other publications. She has spent over two decades in the media industry. Sharada won the Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust Award for excellence in Environmental Reporting in 2019. She won two Asian Environmental Journalism Awards in 2019 — Environmental Journalist of the Year, and Environmental Story of the Year. She won the Cushrow Irani Prize for Environmental Reporting in 2014. She has been a recipient of fellowships and grants from the Earth Journalism Network, Asia Europe Foundation, United Nations, IUCN, Deutsche Welle, and Oxpeckers grant to investigate wildlife crimes, among others. She has reported from India, Egypt, Bangladesh, and Slovenia.

Secretary Arsenio Balisacan

Minister, National Economic and Development Authority
Mandaluyong, Philippines

Arsenio Balisacan

Dr. Arsenio M. Balisacan is presently a member of the Philippine President’s Cabinet, serving as the government’s chief economic planner and secretary of the National Economic and Development Authority, a post he had previously held from 2012 to 2016. He also served as the inaugural chairperson and chief executive of the Philippine Competition Commission from 2016 to 2022. Before his initial Cabinet appointment in 2012, he was professor and dean of the University of the Philippines School of Economics, director-chief executive of the Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), and undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture. Before joining the University of the Philippines faculty in 1987, he was a research fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, and an economist at the World Bank in Washington, DC. He has authored and co-edited seven books and published, both locally and internationally, close to 100 academic papers and book chapters on various development issues, particularly in the Philippines and East Asia. He is author and co-editor of the upcoming book Designing Competition Policy for Economic Development in Asia. He has advised and consulted with numerous development agencies and multilateral institutions, including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, OECD, ASEAN, and various United Nations agencies. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Hawaiʻi, an MS in Agricultural Economics from the University of the Philippines Los Baños, and a BS in Agriculture from the Mariano Marcos State University.

Charlie Beckett

Professor & Director of JournalismAI Project, London School of Economics
London, United Kingdom

Charlie Beckett

Charlie Beckett is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications. He is the founding director of Polis, the London School of Economics' international journalism think-tank. Professor Beckett is currently leading the Polis Journalism and AI project. He was director of the LSE’s Truth, Trust and Technology Commission that reported on the misinformation crisis in 2018. Before joining the LSE in 2006 he was an award-winning journalist for over 20 years at LWT, BBC and ITN.

Ray Burghardt

President, Pacific Century Institute
New York City, USA

Ray Burghardt is a former US diplomat who served in such roles as ambassador to Vietnam (2001-04), Washington HQ Chair (2006-16) and Taipei Director (1999-2001) of the American Institute in Taiwan, Deputy Chief of Mission for embassies in the Philippines and Korea, and Special Assistant for Latin America to President Reagan. He was also a former member of the East-West Center’s management team. He is currently a consultant for the Institute for Defense Analyses and is involved with nonprofits such as the Indochina Capital Corp. and National Committee on American Foreign Policy. He is the President of Pacific Century Institute, a California-based foundation dedicated to education, policy dialogue and research. He received his bachelor’s degree from Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs. He is a New York City native and resident.

Ruth Cabal

News Anchor, TV5
Mandaluyong City, Philippines

Ruth Cabal

Ruth Cabal is a journalist who has been in the broadcast media for more than two decades. She started as a field reporter producing investigative and special reports for GMA Network and later, as a news anchor for CNN Philippines. Recent works include election coverage specials such as the Vice-Presidential Debate, Senatorial Forum and interviews with presidential and senatorial candidates, as well special reports on the dismal plight of medical frontliners during the COVID-19 crisis, orphans of the Duterte administration's drug war and the government’s anti-corruption efforts. In the past, Cabal had been assigned as a beat reporter covering Malacanang (Presidential), the Senate, and the Commission on Elections. At present, she is with TV5 as an anchor for the network’s daily morning newscast, Frontline sa Umaga, and afternoon news updates, Frontline Express.

She has a master's degree in journalism from the Ateneo de Manila University as a fellow of the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art Studies at the University of the Philippines. She is an alumna of the East-West Center-’s Senior Journalists Seminar program. Cabal is also a part-time lecturer at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines and briefly worked in government as an executive assistant at the Office of the President-Metro Manila Development Authority.

Joan Carling

Executive Director, Indigenous Peoples Rights International
Baguio, Philippines

Joan Carling is an Indigenous activist from the Cordillera region with more than 20 years of experience working on Indigenous peoples’ rights and issues from the grassroots to the international level. She is passionate about and has been at the forefront of advocating for human rights, social justice, sustainable development, the environment, and climate change. She was the General Secretary of the Asia Indigenous People Pact (AIPP) from 2008 to 2016. Ms. Carling was awarded the Champions of the Earth- Lifetime Achievement Award by UN Environment in 2018.

Ambassador MaryKay L. Carlson

Ambassador, US Mission to the Philippines
Manila, Philippines

Ambassador MaryKay Loss Carlson was nominated by President Biden on February 4, 2022, as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of the Philippines. She was confirmed by the US Senate on May 5, 2022. Ambassador Carlson is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor. She previously served as the Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’affaires at the US Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Prior to her assignment to Argentina, she served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’affaires in New Delhi, India, and held the position of Principal Deputy Executive Secretary for the Secretary of State in Washington DC. A Foreign Service officer since 1985, she has served on US Diplomatic Missions in China (twice), Ukraine, Hong Kong, Mozambique, Kenya, and the Dominican Republic. Her domestic assignments include Director of the Secretary’s Executive Secretariat Staff and Deputy Director of Korean Affairs. A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Ambassador Carlson received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and International Studies from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. She holds master's degrees from Georgetown University (International Relations) and the National War College (National Security Studies). She is married to retired Foreign Service officer Aubrey Carlson, and they have two daughters.

Khalil A. Cassimally

Head of Audience Insights, The Conversation
Melbourne, Australia

Khalil A Cassimally

Khalil Cassimally works to bring more value to more people in more places with The Conversation’s unique evidence-based journalism. He oversees audience growth, engagement retention and monetization, working with a global team spanning six continents. He has worked on audience development in the news media space for ten years and advocates for more audience-informed approaches in the industry (more recently using LinkedIn to do so). He also writes on a freelance basis, and has bylines in The Guardian, Scientific American, and Nature.com among others.

Zha Daojiong

Professor, Peking University School of International Studies
Beijing, China

Zha Daojiong

Zha Daojiong is a Professor in the School of International Studies and the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD) at Peking University. His area of expertise includes international political economy and China’s international economic relations. He has published extensively on such topics as energy, cross-boundary water management, development aid and public health, and development. He regularly teaches courses on international political economy, China’s international economic relations, and non-traditional security studies. His publications on development aid includes a chapter in Debating China: The US-China Relationship in Ten Conversations, edited by Nina Hachigian and published by Oxford University Press in 2014. Over the past two decades, his study of aid in Chinese foreign policy includes field trips to all Association of Southeast Asian Nations member countries except Brunei and to African countries such as Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania and South Africa. Dr. Zha is a regular participant in Track II dialogues between China and the United States on issues ranging from trade and investment to public health. He also contributes opinion pieces in newspapers including the South China Morning Post. He held visiting research fellowships with the Asia Society in New York (2016), the Isak Yusof Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore (2018), and the Paul Tsai China Center, Yale Law School (2023). Dr. Zha studied at the University of Hawaiʻi and the East-West Center, where he earned a Doctorate in Political Science. Before joining the faculty of Peking University, he taught in the University of Macau, International University of Japan, Miyazaki International College, and Renmin University of China (2003-2007).

Sincha Dimara

News Editor, Inside PNG
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Sincha Dimara

Sincha Dimara has been in the television industry in Papua New Guinea for over 30 years. She started her career as a News Assistant before progressing to News Producer, Chief of Staff, and finally News Manager at Media Niugini Limited. She also has experience in outside broadcast (OB) events. The highlight of her career was being part of the OB team that won the Asia Broadcasting Union Award for Best TV News Coverage on the funeral and burial of the country's founding father, Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare in 2021. Sincha also had a short stint with Channel 9 News Australia in the 90s and is a CNN Fellow, having joined the CNN Journalism Fellowship program in 2011. She has always been passionate about the operations of the newsroom, encouraging and motivating journalists to be the best in their personal and professional careers. She has helped PNG journalists win international awards throughout the years.

In February 2022, while investigating and reporting a series of stories on controversial figure and convicted drug dealer Australian Jamie Pang, Sincha as then Head of News and her entire team of 24 lost their jobs, accused of defying orders by the management of their employer, Media Niugini Limited. The company is a subsidiary of the PNG Government's Telecommunications company, Telikom. Refusing to be silenced, Sincha and her team created an online news service, Inside PNG, and went on to cover the country's general elections the same year.

Kunda Dixit

Founding Editor and Publisher, Nepali Times
Kathmandu, Nepal

Kunda Dixit

Kunda Dixit is former editor and publisher of Nepali Times and author of several books, including Dateline Earth: Journalism as If the Planet Mattered. He is the chair of the Centre for Investigative Journalism Nepal and visiting faculty at New York University Abu Dhabi Campus.

Sylvia Earle

Oceanographer and Founder, Mission Blue
Napa, California, USA

Sylvia Earle is President and Chairman of Mission Blue / The Sylvia Earle Alliance. She is a National Geographic Society Explorer in Residence, and is called Her Deepness by the New Yorker and the New York Times, Living Legend by the Library of Congress, and first Hero for the Planet by Time Magazine. She is an oceanographer, explorer, author and lecturer with experience as a field research scientist, government official, and director for several corporate and non-profit organizations.

Jhesset Thrina Enano

Independent Journalist
Manila, Philippines

Jhesset O. Enano is an independent multimedia journalist and educator from Manila, Philippines. Her current reporting work examines the intersections of climate change and environmental issues with human rights, policy, gender, and culture. Her text and visual work have been published in The Washington Post, National Geographic, Mongabay, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Rappler, and GMA News Online. In 2022, she was a finalist in the Emerging Journalist category of the Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards, where judges lauded her body of journalism work that shed light on the people’s fight for climate justice. Jhesset is also a journalism lecturer at the College of Mass Communication in the University of the Philippines Diliman, where she teaches courses on environmental journalism and news reporting and research.

Brianna Fruean

Climate Activist
Auckland, New Zealand

Brianna Fruean

Brianna Fruean is a climate activist with a passion for environmental advocacy and climate storytelling. Her journey has been centered around addressing climate change, organizing in community and digital storytelling for climate campaigning. At 11 years of age, she became one of the founding members of 350 Samoa and leader of Future Rush, which organize various projects to help combat climate change and promote sustainable development through awareness programs to spread the word around schools and communities in Samoa and the region. As the founder of the Samoan chapter Pacific Climate Warriors, she led campaigns for climate justice on both local and global scales. Being recognized as the 2022 Global Citizen Prize winner Oceania and receiving the Queen's Commonwealth Youth Award fueled Brianna’s determination to continue advocating for the inclusion of young Pacific people on global platforms. Brianna was chosen by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme as their first ever Youth Ambassador in recognition of her achievements to conserve the Pacific environment. She believes in the power of community and collective reshaping of narratives to center people and planet.

Angsar Graw

Director, Media Programme Asia, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
Singapore

Ansgar Graw is a German journalist and publicist. Since August 2021, he had been director of the Singapore-based Media Programme Asia of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. In Berlin he has observed German domestic and foreign policy over many years. A historian and political scientist by degree (University Hamburg), he was chief political correspondent in Washington DC for the daily newspaper Die Welt and Germany’s biggest quality Sunday paper Welt Am Sonntag from 2009-2017. From 2020 to 2021, Graw was publisher of the debate portal TheEuropean and host of the weekly TV talk format TheEuropeanTV (Berlin.TV). Graw is the author of several books, most recently Die Grünen an der Macht: Eine kritische Bilanz and Trump verrückt(e) die Welt: Was nun? (both Munich 2020).

Tom Grundy

Editor-in-Chief & Founder, Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong

Tom Grundy

Tom Grundy founded Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) in 2015 – an impartial non-profit, independent English-language news source funded by readers, run by journalists and backed by an ethics code. He has a BA in Communications and New Media from Leeds University and an MA in Journalism from the University of Hong Kong. He previously led an NGO advocating for domestic worker rights, and has contributed to the BBC, Deutsche Welle, Al-Jazeera and others. Aside from editing, he is responsible for managing the newsroom and company, including fundraising, recruitment and overseeing HKFP's web presence and ethical guidelines.

Dilrukshi Handunnetti

Co-Founder & Director, Center for Investigative Reporting
Colombo, Sri Lanka

Dilrukshi Handunnetti

Dilrukshi Handunnetti is an international award-winning investigative journalist and a lawyer from Sri Lanka. She has worked extensively across South Asia, both as an on-ground reporter and trainer, dedicating much of her time to working with women journalists in the region. As an investigative journalist, she has broken stories on grand corruption and crime, conflict and communities, and dedicated significant time to report on women, children, health and environment. Her work has appeared in the UK Guardian, New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Humanitarian, Mongabay and many others. A recipient of many prestigious journalism fellowships, she won the covered Wash Media Award in 2014 for reporting on MDGs (Monitoring Category) by the WSSCC and SIWI for her report on school sanitation and the impact on girl children. In 2012, she won Sri Lanka’s topmost journalism award, Journalist of the Year. Dilrukshi works closely with media rights and human rights organizations especially with a gender focus. She is the co-convener of South Asian Women in Media (SAWM) – Sri Lanka Chapter and functions as the executive director of the Colombo-based Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR). In 2022, she was among six journalists honored as 'Journalists of Courage of Impact' by the East-West Center. 

Don Kevin Hapal

Head of Data and Innovation, Rappler
Pasig, Philippines

EWC logo

Don Kevin Hapal is a journalist and Data and Innovation Director for Rappler.com. He graduated from the University of Santo Tomas and started working with Rappler as a Digital Communications Specialist, helping the organization and its partners craft data-driven brand and content strategies, marketing campaigns, and reputation management. He eventually became a journalist covering the migrant sector and the lead for Rappler’s Balikbayan section. He then transitioned to data journalism, focusing on research around technology, disinformation, and propaganda. His work has led to the takedown of disinformation networks and has been published in various publications, including the Pulitzer Center. He also leads Rappler’s AI Cluster and oversees the newsroom’s AI use and guidelines. His team has recently won first place in the AI in Journalism Challenge.

Ann Hartman

Director and Dean, Professional Development and Education Programs, East-West Center
Honolulu, USA

Ann Hartman leads the Center’s Professional Development and Education Programs, which serve to develop and equip leaders across Asia, the Pacific, and the United States. This encompasses short-term leadership, dialogue, and journalism programs, as well as the Center’s graduate student scholarships and residential learning community. The Director/Dean works closely with the President to develop a strategic vision for the program and enhance program resources, and works collaboratively with program teams to design, develop and implement transformative programs that equip leaders to address the regions’ complex challenges. Ms. Hartman came to the East-West Center in 2002. She spent 15 years working on journalism and seminars programs, including as coordinator for the flagship Jefferson Fellowships for journalists, the New Generation Seminar for young political leaders, and the Changing Faces Women’s Leadership Seminar for female entrepreneurs. She designed and led the Pakistan-US Journalists Exchange from 2011-2014, and with Susan Kreifels, initiated the first International Media Conference in Bangkok in 2008. In these roles, she worked and traveled with hundreds of journalists from across the Indo-Pacific region and the United States, tracking issues and trends in the region and the profession. In 2017, Ms. Hartman became Dean of the Education Program, which provides residential fellowships for graduate study at the University of Hawaiʻi, and in 2024, she was promoted to Director and Dean.

Ann Hsieh

Deputy Editor-in-Chief, The Storm Media
Taipei, Taiwan

Ann Hsieh

Ann Hsieh is Deputy Editor-in-Chief at The Storm Media, one of the leading digital news organizations in Taiwan. She has worked for The Storm Media since July 2020 and is responsible for in-depth reports focusing on economic issues, climate change and sustainability. Previously, Ann worked for The China Times (Taiwan) for more than 25 years, where she served as Deputy Editor-in -Chief and Director of the economic news desk. She earned a master's degree in mass communication from Fu Jen Catholic University and was a 2008 East-West Center Jefferson Fellow. 

Karol Ilagan

Faculty Member, University of the Philippines Diliman
2023 Pulitzer Center AI Accountability Fellow
Quezon City, Philippines

Karol Ilagan

Karol Ilagan is a Filipino journalist and a journalism educator. Before joining the University of the Philippines - Diliman, she led investigations and collaborations at the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and a fellow of the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations and AI Accountability Networks. Ilagan is an alumna of the University of Missouri – Columbia.

Ramy Inocencio

Foreign Correspondent, CBS News
London, United Kingdom

Ramy Inocencio

Ramy Inocencio is a CBS News foreign correspondent with 20 years of journalism experience across Asia, the US and now Europe and the Middle East. Currently based in London, he has been deployed several times to Ukraine to cover Russia’s invasion and to Israel to report on the war with Hamas. In 2019, he became CBS News’ first Asian American to serve as the network’s China correspondent based in Beijing while also covering the entire Asia-Pacific. Ramy and his team were the first international journalists to report from Wuhan as the COVID-19 global pandemic broke out in January 2020. He followed the virus’ earliest transmissions to Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan where he was stranded for half a year from international border closures. He also covered the 2019 Hong Kong protests, the suspension of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, North Korean missile launches, and volcanoes in the Philippines and New Zealand. Before CBS News, Ramy was a New York-based anchor and correspondent for Bloomberg Television on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia," business correspondent for CNN International in Hong Kong and deputy editor of Asia-Pacific video operations at the Wall Street Journal, also in Hong Kong. A champion of newsroom diversity, internationalism and volunteerism, Ramy was a US Peace Corps China volunteer from 2000-2002 in Sichuan. He served as national senior vice president for the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) and as global co-lead of Bloomberg's Pan-Asian Community (BPAC). A graduate of the College of William and Mary in Virginia, Ramy is the first-born American son of immigrant parents from the Philippines and Singapore.

Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson

Director of Climate Journalism, Solutions Journalism Network
Apia, Sāmoa & New York, USA

Dr. Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson leads the Solutions Journalism Network’s work on climate solutions journalism. Prior to this role, she was the inaugural Climate Collaborations Editor for the Associated Press where she initiated and designed climate journalism trainings for global south journalists. 

She’s a former writer for The Guardian’s Pacific Project where she was also host of ‘An Impossible Choice’, an award-winning series on the existential nature of the climate crisis in the Pacific. 

She is the first Pacific Islander recipient of the Journalist of Courage and Impact Award at the International Media Conference by the East West Center in 2022 for her work on covering Samoa’s political crisis. Lagipoiva has reported on Samoa and the Pacific islands for over 20 years covering climate change, human rights, and gender issues. She started her career as a journalist for Samoa Observer and later became the youngest Editor of a national newspaper at the age of 25 with Newsline Samoa Newspaper. She has since contributed to Al Jazeera, CNN, AFP, Huffington Post, Radio Australia and the New Zealand Herald. She is currently the editor of The New Atoll. Lagipoiva currently represents the Journalists Association of Samoa on the Gender Council of the International Federation of Journalists. She is a Chieftess from the village of Safua, Savai’i, and is the daughter of High Chief Va’asili’ifiti Moelagi Tiatia.

Susan Kreifels

Journalism Program Manager, East-West Center
Honolulu, USA

Susan Kreifels manages the East-West Center’s journalism fellowships and exchanges and has directed the EWC’s International Media Conference since it began in 2008 . A former journalist for two decades, she covered Asia and the Pacific Islands while based in Manila, Tokyo, Washington DC, Honolulu, and Guam. Kreifels reported for the Honolulu Star- Bulletin, USA TODAY, Dallas Morning News, and Pacific Stars and Stripes and co-hosted a radio talk show on US media for Japan’s NHK public radio. She has received numerous journalism awards and fellowships, including the EWC’s Jefferson Fellowship and the Mary Morgan Hewett Award for Women in Journalism. Kreifels taught Global Communication at the University of Hawai`i and lectured on international journalism issues at both the China School of Journalism in Beijing and as the Copple-Hearst Lecturer at the University of Nebraska School of Journalism. She founded International Women in Communications, Tokyo, and is a founding member of the Asian Journalists Association. She earned an M.A. in education from the University of Nebraska and completed graduate work in Japan studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC.

Alexander Kaufman

Senior Reporter, HuffPost
New York City, USA

Alexander Kaufman

Alexander Kaufman is a writer and award-winning senior reporter at HuffPost, where he covers energy and climate change. He has reported from across Asia on issues such as Taiwan's nuclear phaseout, Mongolia's disastrous turn away from nomadic life, and China's rise as a scientific research superpower. His recent reporting focuses heavily on atomic power, renewables, fossil fuels and the geopolitics of clean-energy supply chains. This year, he was awarded the East-West Center’s inaugural Melvin M.S. Goo Writing Fellowship to pursue stories on China’s nuclear power industry.

Chi Dong Lee

Editor, Yonhap News TV
Seoul, South Korea

Chi Dong Lee

Chi Dong Lee is the host of a weekly TV program on Korean Peninsula issues at Yonhap News TV. He previously served as the Editor of Diplomatic & National Security Affairs Desk and Washington DC correspondent at Yonhap News Agency.

Jean H. Lee

Adjunct Fellow, East-West Center
Co-Host, The Lazarus Heist
Honolulu, USA

Jean H. Lee opened the first and only US news bureau in North Korea as chief of the AP’s Pyongyang bureau. She currently co-hosts the Peabody-nominated Lazarus Heist podcast for the BBC World Service. After covering Europe and Africa as a foreign correspondent, Lee was posted to Seoul as AP bureau chief in 2008. In 2011, she became the first American reporter to join the Pyongyang foreign press corps, and in January 2012, she opened AP’s Pyongyang bureau. From 2008 to 2017, Lee made dozens of extended trips to North Korea, visiting farms, factories, schools, military academies, and homes in the course of her exclusive access across the country. In 2015, she joined the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, as a fellow and later served as director of the Korea program. She arrived at the EWC as a POSCO fellow in 2023 and currently serves as an adjunct fellow. Lee has served as a CNN contributor and provides reporting and commentary to a wide range of media outlets, including the New York Times and BBC. She also appears in the National Geographic series Inside North Korea as well PBS’ Dictator’s Playbook, Netflix’s How to Become a Tyrant, and the documentary Beyond Utopia. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Columbia University in New York.

Swietenia Puspa Lestari

Executive Director, Divers Clean Action
Jakarta, Indonesia

Swietenia Puspa Lestari is a YSEALI Alumni and environmental engineer, who graduated from the Institut Teknologi Bandung (Bandung Institute of Technology). She is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Divers Clean Action (DCA), a youth and community CSO with thousands of volunteers across Indonesia and Southeast Asia. DCA is involved in marine and coastal conservation programs focusing specifically on marine debris research, campaigns, community development, and the CSR/EPR facilitator to achieve circular economy goals to combat marine debris. She is listed among the Top 100 BBC Influential and Inspiring Women 2019, Forbes 30 Under Social Entrepreneur Asia 2020, One Young World Mary Robinson Climate Justice Award 2021, and the World Economic Forum-Global Plastic Action Partnership’s Plastic Action Champions 2021.

Doc Ligot

CEO, CirroLytix
Pasig City, Philippines

Dominic Ligot

Data analyst, researcher, software developer, entrepreneur and technologist. Advocate for data literacy, AI ethics, data ethics and social impact from data. His current work focuses on human rights, public health, food security, political risk and fighting disinformation and infodemics through the use of computational social science, social listening, remote sensing, artificial intelligence and data engineering. Founder of CirroLytix, a social impact AI company, and Data Ethics PH, an online community focused on social issues such as data privacy, data security, AI-driven discrimination, data liabilities, data ownership rights, and data poverty. Three-time global winner of the NASA and ESA International Space Apps Challenges, his team's award-winning dengue surveillance application, AEDES, has been backed by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) and the UNICEF Innovation Fund. Co-designed the master's degree program in applied business analytics for the University of Asia and the Pacific and led the development of the nationwide data science education program Project SPARTA. Co-founded the Analytics Association of the Philippines (AAP) and is a Board of Trustees member of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ). Passionate about using big data and AI to make a positive difference in the world and creating a better future for society as it transitions through the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Irene Jay Liu

Regional Director for Asia & the Pacific, International Fund for Public Interest Media
Singapore

Irene Jay Liu

Irene Jay Liu is a Singapore-based reporter and editor, with extensive experience in print, digital, radio, investigative and data journalism. Liu leads the Google News Lab in the Asia-Pacific region, where she develops partnerships and programs to promote newsroom innovation, counter mis/disinformation and support greater diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the news industry. She was most recently a reporter on the global enterprise team at Thomson Reuters, where she was a 2017 Pulitzer finalist in the national reporting category. She led the development of Reuters' Connected China, an award-winning news app that tracks and visualizes the people and institutions that make up China's power structure, for which she was a 2013 finalist for the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists and received a Reuters Journalist of the Year Award for Storytelling Innovation of the Year. She also teaches courses on data-driven investigative reporting at the University of Hong Kong and digital journalism at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Previously, she was senior reporter and special projects team leader at the South China Morning Post based in Hong Kong. Until January 2010, she was a political writer for the Capitol Bureau of the Albany Times Union, where she wrote for print, was lead blogger for the paper's most-read blog, Capitol Confidential, and was an on-air correspondent for the statewide PBS television program New York Now. She is a contributor to National Public Radio and has been heard on Morning Edition, Weekend All Things Considered, Talk of the Nation, as well as affiliate stations WNYC and KQED. Liu has been an adjunct professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a fellow with the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism.

Uni Lubis

Editor-in-Chief, IDN Times
Jakarta, Indonesia

Uni Lubis

Veteran Indonesian editor Uni Lubis leads IDN Times' news team on the strategic, business and editorial fronts and has served as the chair of the Indonesia Women Journalist Forum since 2018. She has been editor-in-chief at various news organizations, including ANTV, viva.co.id and as Managing Director of Rappler Indonesia, and has served the maximum of two terms on Indonesia's Press Council. Since her appointment in December 2017, Uni has been growing the IDN Times' news team to provide the country's millennials and Generation Z with credible and trusted news content. Independently-owned IDN Media was founded in 2014 and within three years grew IDN Times into Indonesia's fifth most-visited media site based on Comscore data.

Secretary Enrique A. Manalo

Secretary for Foreign Affairs
Department of Foreign Affairs, Republic of the Philippines
Pasay City, Philippines

Seasoned career diplomat Ambassador Enrique A. Manalo took his oath of office before President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. on 01 July 2022 as the new Secretary for Foreign Affairs. President Marcos appointed Secretary Manalo in view of his long and distinguished career in the Philippine Foreign Service and his vast experience in diplomacy, preferring a career diplomat at the helm of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for the Philippines to effectively advance its interests in the international stage in the face of formidable challenges.

During his more than four decades of service in the DFA, Secretary Manalo was appointed as Undersecretary for Policy twice. In this capacity, he was the principal adviser to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs in matters involving the country’s relations with the international community. As Undersecretary for Policy, Secretary Manalo also served as the Philippines’ Senior Official in the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting, which is the working level mechanism for ASEAN policy formulation and priority-setting. Secretary Manalo is an expert in multilateral diplomacy, having served as the Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York immediately prior to being appointed as Secretary for Foreign Affairs. He was also the Philippine Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva.

He has held other notable positions, including Acting Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Philippine Ambassador to the United Kingdom and Belgium, Assistant Secretary for European Affairs, Minister Counselor and Deputy Permanent Representative in the Philippine Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, and First Secretary and Consul at the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC.

In recognition of his exceptional service to the country, he was awarded the Order of Lakandula with rank of Grand Cross (Bayani) in 2018, the Gawad Mabini with rank of Grand Cross (Dakilang Kamanong) in 2017, and the Order of Sikatuna with the rank of Grand Cross (Datu) in 2010.

Secretary Manalo holds a Master of Arts and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. He is married to Pamela Louise Hunt and has two sons.

Jason Margolis

Climate Science Editor, The Boston Globe
Boston, USA

Jason Margolis is The Boston Globe’s climate science and transportation editor. Prior to joining the Globe, he spent 17 years as a reporter then show editor with the BBC World Service program The World, an international news show produced out of Boston. Jason began covering climate change and energy issues back in 2001 with his first story about the promise of hydrogen-fueled vehicles. More recently, he reported a 32-minute radio story about the impacts of climate change up and down the Mississippi River, looking at problems and solutions from Iowa to Louisiana. He has also covered global economics, including look at US-Chinese trade relations. Jason has been recognized multiple times for his climate reporting by the Society of Environmental Journalists and was awarded a fellowship from the University of Michigan to study climate science and policies, business sustainability, and transportation planning. Jason grew up in California and attended UCLA and the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Aditi Phadnis Mehta

Consulting Editor, Business Standard
New Delhi, India

Aditi Phadnis Mehta

Aditi Phadnis Mehta has been the Political Editor at the Business Standard (BS), India’s best known business newspaper. Since 2000, she has been reporting on the interface between politics and the economy, ranging from the complexities and interest-group pressures during the negotiation of the India-US civil nuclear agreement, to the politics and financing of cricket. Aditi Phadnis Mehta won the Ramnath Goenka award for Excellence in Political Reporting in 2011. She has been a reporter since 1983, and has reported on every general election since 1984, covering more than three dozen provincial elections in India. From 2013, she began travelling abroad, invited by Indian investment banking fund houses to brief investors on politics and the policy landscape in India. She writes a signed column in The Business Standard every fortnight that is widely read and discussed in addition to writing in their news pages. Kotak Books published her first book Of Cabals and Kings, which profiles India’s political personalities. In 2006, she won the Jefferson fellowship to travel to Pakistan where she interviewed Gen Pervez Musharraf, former President of Pakistan, and Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz. Aditi Phadnis Mehta follows developments in the region closely and was South Asia analyst for Teneo Strategy, a US and UK-based consultancy that specializes in political and economic risk analysis, for nearly 10 years and Senior Advisor, Macro Advisory Partners (MAP), a CEO consultancy. She has also written extensively for Oxford Analytica. She earned a BA in history from Delhi University and in addition to Hindi and English, can speak Tamil, Urdu and rudimentary Nepali.

Alan C. Miller

Founder, The News Literacy Project
Washington DC, USA

Alan C. Miller is the founder of the News Literacy Project, the leading provider of news literacy education in the United States. He helped launch the field of news literacy when he started NLP in 2008. NLP’s award-winning resources are being used in all 50 states. After more than 14 years leading the organization, Alan relinquished the CEO role in July 2022 but remains active with NLP. He previously had a distinguished journalism career at The Times Union in Albany, NY, The Record in Hackensack, NJ, and the Los Angeles Times, where he worked for 21 years, primarily as an investigative reporter in the paper’s Washington bureau. He received more than a dozen national reporting honors, including the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for a series on the dangers of the Marine Corps’ Harrier attack jet. His reports on illegal contributions from foreign nationals to the Democratic National Committee in 1996 won the George Polk Award, the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and the Investigative Reporters and Editors Medal. More recently, Alan received the 2022 EWC Distinguished Alumni Award from the East-West Center, the 2022 AARP Purpose Prize, and was named one of the 2020 Washingtonians of the Year. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, Alan earned a master’s degree in political science at the University of Hawaiʻi. He was a student participant at the East-West Center in 1976-1978.

Art Min

Head of Partnerships, TrueMedia.org
Seattle, USA

Art Min is a seasoned builder and operator with over 30 years of experience leading teams to develop and scale technology products for enterprise and government markets.

Currently, he serves as the Executive Director at Camp.org, the private research and incubator company founded by Garrett Camp, co-founder of Uber. At Camp.org, he leads Partnerships for TrueMedia.org, an AI platform for detecting political deepfakes, and on the Board of Every.org, which supports over 1.2 million nonprofits with free fundraising infrastructure.

Previously, Art led a cross-functional task force to create a digital solutions clearinghouse for the World Health Organization's COVID-19 program.

At Vulcan Inc., he led a team of engineers and scientists to develop mission-driven technology products, including Skylight, a maritime intelligence platform, the Allen Coral Atlas, and EarthRanger, a protected area management tool.

In his executive roles at Dell and Microsoft, Art led teams to incubate cutting-edge technologies such as software-defined storage and cloud platforms.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a specialization in Finance from the University of Florida, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude.

Kalafi Moala

Editor, Talanoa ‘O Tonga
Nuku‘alofa, Tonga

Kalafi Moala is the founder, editor, and current president of Talanoa ‘O Tonga. A fixture in the Pacific journalism community, Kalafi has spent much of his 35-year media career campaigning for press freedom and founding newspapers in the region. He is the author of four books, most recently Tonga: Tale of Two Kingdoms.

Soe Myint

Editor in-Chief and Managing Director, Mizzima
Chiang Mai, Thailand

Soe Myint

Soe Myint is an award-winning Burmese journalist and a business owner who has worked in the media field since 1992 in different capacities including reporting, managing, and training. He co-founded Mizzima (derived from the Pali word for “middle” or “moderate”) in New Delhi, India, in 1998. He is a regular speaker and invited guest at forums on media in Myanmar. He was the 2022 Greeley Peace Scholar at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Soe Myint’s publications include the 2003 release “Burma File: A Question of Democracy”, as well as numerous articles in various periodicals.

Lubna Jerar Naqvi

Gender Coordinator, Trainer, & Media Monitor
International Federation of Journalists
Karachi, Pakistan

Lubna Jerer Naqvi

Lubna Jerar Naqvi is a journalist, social media expert, social media security trainer for journalists, fact checker, gender and harassment trainer, and media trainer. She has worked in print, electronic, and social media. Currently working with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) as gender coordinator, trainer and media monitor. She is also a member of IFJ's Gender Council and recipient of the South Asia Laadli Media & Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2015.

Syed Nazakat

Founder & CEO, DataLEADS
Delhi, India

Syed Nazakat

Syed Nazakat is an award-winning journalist, media entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of DataLEADS, a tech & digital media company that promotes open data and democratization of information at scale. Syed has spearheaded one of the world’s biggest fact-checking, data journalism, open climate change reporting initiatives and media literacy training networks which has resulted in the launch of many fact-checking initiatives, in multiple languages, and has benefited hundreds of institutions and organizations across Asia. He is a founder of Asian Dispatch and a board member of the Global Investigative Journalism Network.

John Nery

Columnist and Editorial Consultant, Rappler
Quezon City, Philippines

John Nery

John Nery, a columnist and editorial consultant at Rappler, has been a journalist for over 25 years. He hosts the weekly program In the Public Square, serves as a lecturer on media and politics at Ateneo de Manila University, and co-convenes the Consortium on Democracy and Disinformation. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Asian Center for Journalism in Manila and a member of the board of directors of the World Justice Project in Washington, DC. He served as a senior editor at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, editor in chief of Inquirer.net, and a member of the executive board of the Asia News Network. He has received both national and international recognition for his work, including a National Book Award in the journalism category and an Award for Excellence from the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) for opinion writing. He was a Jefferson Fellow at the East-West Center in 2005 and a Nieman Fellow in Harvard University in 2011-2012. His book Revolutionary Spirit: Jose Rizal in Southeast Asia was published by ISEAS in Singapore and by the Ateneo de Manila University Press in the Philippines in 2011. Radical: Readings in Rizal and History was published by San Anselmo Press in 2023. A book of reflections on journalism, media, and the press is forthcoming.

Naomi Nix

Tech Reporter, The Washington Post
Washington DC, USA

Naomi Nix is a staff writer for The Washington Post, where she covers Meta and other social media companies. Her work often focuses on how social media platforms influence American democracy, global politics, and users' well-being. Previously, she was a reporter for Bloomberg News, where she covered tech lobbying and social media companies. She regularly discusses her reporting on television, radio, and at conferences. Prior to joining Bloomberg, Naomi was a reporter for The 74, The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ) and The Chicago Tribune. Naomi graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a certificate in African American studies.

Ana Marie Pamintuan

Editor-in-Chief, The Philippine Star
Manila, Philippines

Ana Marie Pamintuan

Ana Marie Pamintuan is the Editor-in-Chief of the English-language daily broadsheet, The Philippine Star. She also writes a column three times a week in the main opinion section of the newspaper. Ms. Pamintuan has been with The Star since it was launched in 1986. She started as a reporter and rose through the ranks, assuming her current post in 2012. Ms. Pamintuan finished her journalism degree with honors at the University of the Philippines, where the College of Mass Communications picked her as Outstanding Alumna for Journalism during UP’s centennial celebration in 2008. She is the recipient of other journalism awards, the latest granted in August 2023 by the Manila Overseas Press Club, the oldest press club in Asia, as Journalist of the Year. In 2018, she began co-hosting The Chiefs, a news and current affairs television talk show. The Chiefs was named the Best Public Affairs Program in 2022 by the Professional Management Association of the Philippines. In August last year, Ms. Pamintuan and her co-hosts were picked by PMAP as Best TV Public Affairs Program Hosts. Beginning February this year, she has appeared regularly on a new TV talk show, Storycon. Ms. Pamintuan has covered various beats from the police and judiciary to local government and national politics. She was a Jefferson Fellow in 2001 at the East-West Center, and a Senior Journalists Seminar fellow in 2011. She has participated in several other journalism fellowships in the United States.

James K. Scott

Board of Governors Chair, East-West Center
Honolulu, USA

EWC logo

Dr. James Kapae‘alii Scott was appointed to the East-West Center Board of Governors by Hawai‘i Governor David Ige in May 2017. A Honolulu-born graduate of Punahou, Stanford, and Harvard, Dr. Scott became Punahou School’s 16th president in 1994 and served through June 2019. In addition to heading the largest coeducational, independent K-12 school on a single campus in the United States, he was actively engaged in leadership roles at the local and national levels, serving as a member of the National Association of Independent Schools Board of Trustees, a director of Hawaiian Electric Industries and a trustee of the Barstow Foundation, among numerous other service positions.  

Under Scott’s leadership, Punahou School achieved notable milestones, and he has been an ardent champion of the public purpose of independent schools, creating a thriving environment for community initiatives. In 2010, Punahou initiated a partnership with several US and China schools to launch the Student Global Leadership Institute, which seeks to build an international cohort of student leaders committed to positive social change. Today, the program hosts 24 schools from ten countries and has inaugurated a middle school strand which includes seven schools from six countries.

Suthad Setboonsarng

Independent Director, Somboon Advance Technology
Former Deputy Secretary General, ASEAN
Bangkok, Thailand

Suthad Setboonsarng

Dr. Suthad Setboonsarng is an economist involved in planning, implementing, and resolving issues on international trade and economic cooperation in ASEAN and East Asia for both the public and private sectors. Currently he serves as an Independent Board Member of Somboon Advance Technology Public Company Limited, a member of the Sub-committee on Public Sector Audit and Performance Assessment, in the Prime Minister’s Office in Thailand and as a Senior Advisor at Grant Thornton Thailand. He was the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Philippines (2022), Board of Director of the Board of Banpu PLC (2014-2022), Chairman of the Audit Committee for the Bank of Thailand (2018-2020), Chairman of the Sub-committee on International Economic Cooperation for the National Reform Council of Thailand (2014-2015), a member of the East Asian Vision Group (2012), a Thailand Trade Representative (2009-2011), a Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (2000-2008), and the Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN Secretariat (1997-2000). Prior to that he was Associate Professor at the Asian Institute of Technology in Pathumthani, Thailand, Research Fellow at the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), Research Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, and a Lecturer of Economics at Thammasat University. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Thammasat University, Thailand, and his Master of Arts degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Hawaiʻi. He completed his PhD in Economics at the University of Hawaiʻi under a scholarship from the East-West Center.

Howie Severino

Editor-at-Large, GMA Integrated News
Quezon City, Philippines

Howie Severino

Howie Severino began as a full-time journalist in 1988. Since 2002, he has been producing documentaries for I-Witness, the longest running journalism program on Philippine television, which airs on GMA-7. He is also an Editor-at-Large for GMA-7, who works closely with its digital news innovation team. He currently serves as the Chair of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. At various points of his career, he has been a newspaper reporter, magazine editor and editor-in-chief of GMA News Online.

Saerom Shim

National Politics Reporter, JoongAng Ilbo
Seoul, South Korea

Saerom Shim

Saerom Shim is currently a journalist for the political desk at Joongang Ilbo, which is one of the top three daily newspapers in South Korea. She started her career at Joongang Ilbo in 2010, after graduating college. For almost 15 years, she has covered various fields such as social affairs (2010-2014), local and global economics (2014-2018), international affairs (2019) and national politics (2020-present). After President Yoon was elected in 2022, she has been covering PPP and the ruling party of South Korea.

Ayisha Siddiqa

Youth Climate Advisor, UN Secretary General
New York City, USA

Ayisha Siddiqa is a Pakistani-American and Tribal Pakistani human rights and land defender serving as a Youth Climate Advisor to the UN Secretary General. She was a TIME "Women of the Year," 2023. Ayisha's work transcends borders, uplifting the rights of marginalized communities and challenging polluters on a global scale. Her multifaceted approach to climate justice, blending activism with art through poetry, adds a unique voice to the environmental movement. Her work embodies the intersection of human rights and environmental stewardship. In 2020, she co-founded Polluters Out, a global youth activist coalition, and helped launch the Fossil Free University, an activism training course. She has directed and led campaign efforts at the international level to help achieve victories such as the Loss and Damage Fund at COP28. Her expertise in lobbying around climate negotiations has earned her recognition as a strategist among national and youth delegations in the UNFCCC. She is currently serving as the project coordinator for the Future Generations Tribunal.

Kamal Siddiqi

Former Director of News, Aaj TV
Karachi, Pakistan

Kamal Siddiqi

Kamal Siddiqi is a Pakistani journalist and media analyst. He was the Director News of Aaj TV, one of Pakistan’s leading news channels, until March 2024. Currently he is working as a Senior Program Officer at the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) focusing on South Asia. Previously he was the Director of the Center for Excellence in Journalism at the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi. He has over twenty-six years of experience in journalism and media training. From 2009 to 2016, he was the launch Editor of The Express Tribune, an English language daily in Pakistan affiliated with the New York Times. In this position, he oversaw three print and one digital edition. He is a Jefferson Fellow (2006) and also participated in the Pakistan-US Journalism Exchange program in 2011. For over five years he was also the President of the East-West Center Alumni Association Karachi chapter. He is a fellow of the Center for Democratic Development and Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Stanford University and a senior non-resident fellow with the Atlantic Council. He holds an MSc Economics with specialization in Media and Communication Studies from the London School of Economics. His current area of research is in the media industry of Pakistan with reference to the role of digital media. He is also interested in media convergence.

Tammy Tabe

Oceania Research Fellow, East-West Center
Honolulu, USA

Tammy Tabe

Dr. Tammy Tabe is an Oceania Research Fellow at the East-West Center. Her work is interdisciplinary and is centered on climate migration and adaptation, cultural anthropology, Indigenous knowledge, ocean resources management and marine protected areas, ecosystem-based adaptation, gender studies, identity and diaspora, Pacific diplomacy, and labor migration in the Pacific Islands. She previously taught and provided supervisory support to graduate students at the Pacific Center for Environment and Sustainable Development (PACE-SD), University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji.

Josefa Tauli

Policy Co-Coordinator, Global Youth Biodiversity Network
Baguio City, Philippines

Josefa Tauli

Josefa Cariño Tauli is an Ibaloi-Kankanaey Igorot Indigenous youth from the Cordillera region in the Philippines. She is Policy Co-Coordinator of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN), which serves as the youth constituency to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. An advocate for meaningful youth participation, human rights, and Indigenous Peoples’ rights and knowledge, she coordinated the engagement of youth delegations to more than ten rounds of multilateral negotiations during the development of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. She is currently one of the seven members of UN Secretary-General's Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change and is also the Advocacy Officer of Partners for Indigenous Knowledge Philippines.

Nainoa Thompson

CEO, Polynesian Voyaging Society
Honolulu, USA

Explorer, environmentalist, master navigator, cultural revivalist, educator, storyteller: Nainoa Thompson has led the rediscovery and revival of the ancient Polynesian art of navigation. Through his voyaging, teaching, and engagement, he has opened a global, multigenerational dialogue on the importance of sustaining ocean resources and maritime heritage. As the first Native Hawaiian in 600 years to practice the ancient Polynesian art of long-distance open-ocean voyaging on a traditional double-hulled canoe without the aid of modern instruments, Nainoa has dedicated his life to exploring the ocean, maintaining the health of the planet, and ensuring that the ancient marine heritage and culture of Polynesia remain vibrant into the future. His work has led to a renewed understanding and revival of traditional voyaging arts lost for centuries. As the leader of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, a non-profit research and educational organization, Thompson has voyaged around the world on the voyaging canoe Hōkūleʻa, whose crews have engaged with thousands of people, including world leaders, to highlight the importance of ocean resources and cultural legacies, and protection of these critical places in the future.

Jaemark Tordecilla

2024 Nieman Fellow for Journalism, Harvard University
Former Editor-in-Chief, GMA News Online
Manila, Philippines

Jaemark Tordecilla is currently a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, where he has focused on studying AI, from its use to improve newsroom production processes to navigating the landmines of the nascent technology as it relates to journalism and the media industry. Prior to the fellowship, he spent nearly a decade as editor-in-chief of GMA News Online, the Philippines' top digital news organization.

Nikki Usher

Associate Professor of Communications, University of San Diego
San Diego, USA

Nikki Usher, PhD (they/them) studies the intersection of politics, technology, and media, with a specific focus on platforms, journalism, and democratic backsliding. They are the author of three books: News for the Rich, White, and Blue: How Place and Power Distort American Journalism; Making News at the New York Times; and Interactive Journalism: Hackers, Data, and Code. Dr. Usher is an associate professor at the University of San Diego in the Communication Studies department and a professor on the graduate faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Glenn van Zutphen

Founder & CEO, VanMedia Group
Singapore

Glenn van Zutphen

Glenn van Zutphen (he/him) is a career international journalist, radio host, keynote speaker on communication, and Founder of VanMedia Group Pte Ltd, a worldwide media consultancy. He coaches high-performing journalists and business leaders around the world to be confident, credible, and clear in their communication. He also hosts the Saturday Mornings radio show every week on MoneyFM 89.3, Singapore’s most trusted business news radio station. For more than 30 years as a professional journalist, Glenn has worked in print, radio, television, and online news based in the US, Japan, Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Singapore. As both the Regional News Editor for CNBC Asia/Pacific and Anchor and Producer at CNN International, he covered stories ranging from the Balkan War and Millennium celebrations to the War Against Terror, the 2004 Asian Tsunami, Hong Kong's 1997 Handover, and various global financial meltdowns. An active writer, he co-authored the business marketing book Happy Customers Everywhere (2016) and contributed to The American Journey in Singapore (2017) and the Living in Singapore Reference Guide (2008-2023). Glenn sits on the East-West Center Association Board. He has served on the Boards of AmCham Singapore and the Asian American Journalist Association (Asia). Glenn holds a master’s degree in Digital Media Management from Teesside University (UK)/Hyper Island Singapore and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Southern California.

Suzanne Puanani Vares-Lum

President, East-West Center
Honolulu, USA

Suzanne Puanani Vares-Lum took office as president of the East-West Center in January 2022. She is the first woman and first Native Hawaiian to be chosen for this role. Vares-Lum brings executive leadership and planning experience spanning the past several decades, culminating in five years serving with and advising the most senior officials at US Indo-Pacific Command, where she cultivated and maintained key relationships with nations throughout the Indo-Pacific region. As a retired US Army Major General with 34 years of service, Vares-Lum has held key roles addressing priority national security challenges in the region. After retirement from the military, she formed Vares-Lum Indo-Pacific Consulting, LLC to provide consulting and advising on regional issues. She is a seasoned keynote speaker and advocate on Indo-Pacific issues; leadership and mentorship; and Women, Peace, and Security. She led collaborative initiatives in the Pacific, including Hawaiʻi, Guam, and the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands. As a community leader, Vares-Lum serves on a variety of non-profit boards, including the American Red Cross Pacific Islands Region, Pacific and Asian Affairs Council, and the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research. She is a current member of the US-Japan Council and has also served on committees that promote Hawaiʻi’s economic diversification, workforce development, and community dialogues on issues regarding land and water. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and, Master of Education in teaching from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and her Master of Strategic Studies from the US Army War College. In 2019, she became a National Security Fellow of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. She is also an alumna of the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.

Karishma Vaswani

Asia Politics Columnist and Commentator, Bloomberg
Singapore

Karishma is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster, working across Asia and South Asia for the last two decades, covering some of the biggest stories and interviewing some of the biggest names in the region. She is currently Bloomberg Opinion’s Asia Politics Columnist, thinking, writing, broadcasting, and commenting on geopolitics in Asia with a special focus on the US and China’s relationship, and what the consequences of that vital relationship are for the rest of the world.


Previously she was the BBC’s Chief Asia Presenter, based in Singapore, fronting the BBC’s flagship Asia-focused daily news and business programs.


Some of the high-profile interviews she has conducted in the past include New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Indonesia’s president Joko Widodo, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei, Prime Minister of Tonga Siaosi Sovaleni, and former PM and founding father of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew.

Joeli Veitayaki

Strategic Adviser, Blue Prosperity Fiji
Suva, Fiji

Joeli Veitayaki is the Co–Primary Investigator for Blue Prosperity Fiji, the partnership between the Fiji Government and the Waitt Institute that recently concluded Fiji’s first coral reefs assessment. He co-chairs the Korea-South Pacific Ocean Forum and is a member of the Panel of Experts for the High Level Panel on Sustainable Ocean Economy to support the 14 Heads of States of the High Level Panel. His Lomani (Care for) Gau network promotes sustainable and resilient rural development while the Vunilagi (Horizon) Demonstration Centre illustrates good practices that must be mainstreamed in Gau and other rural areas in Fiji.

Derek Wallbank

Managing Editor for Breaking News, Bloomberg
Singapore

Derek Wallbank is a managing editor at Bloomberg News, based in Singapore, where he oversees breaking news across much of Asia and around the world. He has led Bloomberg's breaking news coverage in Asia hours across some of biggest market-moving moments of the last several years, including the US-China trade war, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Covid-19 pandemic, three Trump-Kim summits, and five G-20s. He's a frequent analyst on Bloomberg TV commenting on geopolitical risk and global politics. Before moving to Asia in 2019, Wallbank ran Bloomberg's Washington breaking news desk, where he managed headline coverage of the Obama and Trump administrations, US elections, and international geopolitical risk. Previously at Bloomberg and MinnPost, he covered Congress, the White House, and campaign politics. Wallbank is a graduate of Michigan State University and holds an MBA from the University of Illinois.

Ambassador Chantale Yok-Min Wong

US Executive Director, Asian Development Bank
Manila, Philippines

Chantale Yok-Min Wong is the United States Executive Director to the Asian Development Bank. Before her appointment, she was the Senior Vice President at Amida Technology Solutions. She was appointed by President Obama to serve as Vice President for Administration and Finance, and Chief Financial Officer at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Prior to MCC, she was the budget director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She has also held leadership positions at the Office of Management and Budget, Departments of Treasury and Interior, and the Environmental Protection Agency. She joined ADB in 1999 as an Environment Specialist and was subsequently appointed by President Bill Clinton as US Alternate Director. She holds a Master in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. She has another Master in Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on water and wastewater management. She earned her undergraduate degree in civil and structural engineering from the University of Hawaiʻi.

2024 East-West Center International Media Conference
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